documents is wholly denationalized by the influence we have named; on the contrary, the exotic phraseology occasionally employed serves to exhibit to great advantage that primitive, and frequently highly imaginative language, which may be remarked also in our Anglo-Saxon diplomata.
The illustrations of costume supplied by this collection are numerous, and highly valuable for comparative purposes. For example, in the wills of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries fibulæ of silver are frequently mentioned, which, from the value attached to them, seem to have been of large size, and similar to those which have been found in Ireland. As antiquaries are guided in estimating the genuineness of these relics by the character of their form and design, among other data, we may remark that in 1291 a testator bequeathed a fibula of silver fashioned "like a star." Such a form, it is believed, has not hitherto occurred, among the numerous discoveries of these objects which have happened in recent times. There are frequent notices of armour, and the different parts of that defensive habiliment. By an ancient law, every landholder was compelled to keep a good horse worth at least forty marks Swedish, and those arms both for his body and legs by which a "good man" could defend himself. An annual inspection took place yearly before St. Peter's day, and if any one of the rural population aspired to an immunity from the land tax, he had only to present himself to the royal inspectors, who, upon considering his bearing, character, horse and arms, and how far his possessions were adequate to his due support as a man at arms, were empowered to enrol him among the military tenants of the crown[1]. In this law considerable resemblance may be traced to the periodical arrays and musters which prevailed in England to a comparatively recent period. There was this difference, however, between the two, that in Sweden the class holding by military tenure appears to have been more numerous than in England, and hence the mention of armour is more frequent in Swedish than in English wills of contemporary date. The intimate connection maintained with France, to which we have already alluded, prepares the reader for the appearance in these documents of French names applied to parts as well of civil as of military costume. Thus a Swedish landholder bequeaths his war-horse with a "cuparthyr tester" or copper testiere, the covering for the horse's head; and another directs his armour "cum sorcorcio,"' i.e. the surcote to be sold to supply funds for the education of his sons. Hauberks with hoods are frequently mentioned.
For information respecting ecclesiastical ornaments the most valuable wills are those of Magnus, king of Sweden, A.D. 1285, and of Henry bishop of Lincoping; of the last there are two copies; the one being the testamentary disposition which the prelate made at Marseilles, en route to the Holy Land, the other that which he dictated at St. Jean d'Acre: both are dated A.D. 1283. It is worthy of observation that in the latter carpets are expressly mentioned as floor-coverings. He bequeathed to his cathedral church "tres carpitas, scilicet pavimentalia." This will disposes of many
- ↑ Sueciæ regni leges provinciales. Holmiæ, 1672. fol. p. 12.
