The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1902-08-07
CAVALRY OF VARIOUS AGES.
Peculiar Arms and Uniforms of Long
Ago shown I'm Recent London
Tournament

The war has proved the value and
the need of cavalry and now, oppor-
tunely, the military tournament has,
as special feature, a pretty historical
musical ride, which illustrates the de-
yelopment of the British cavalry since
the days of King Edward ILL.,, 525 years
ago, says London paper.
Oddly enough, the earliest British
horsemen did not ride on their horses,
but in armed chariots, as did the
racers, who were their relatives, and
perhaps their ancestors in the region
of what is now Persia.
Much later on, when the horseman
was the chief force in war, he was not
common soldier, but knight, and
then he grew to be so heavily armored
that the battles, where they were not
merely the sieges of castles, were
more or less only jousts between the
knights on the opposing sides. But
after King Edward l., the great skill
acquired by the English archers, who
were common soldiers, put the
knights into the shade. 1t was the
English archers who won the never
dying glory of Crecy and Agincourt.
While the archer was developing INTO
the principal arm of battle, shield
money" was largely doing away with
the knights, who preferred to pay the
tax rather than go on foreign wars in
which they had no personal interest.
The "shield money" tax enabled the
king to provide himself with a paid
army, and Edward Ill. put his arch.
ers upon horseback.
These old mounted archers, the first
real English cavalry, for when their
arrows were spent they could use their
bows as clubs in pursuit of the
enemy, are shown in the Historical
Ride" at the military tournament.
They were strangely dressed COM
pared either with the knights who pre-
coded them or the men who followed.
They wore helmets, relics of their foot
days, useful for pushing their way
through hedges. Their bodies were
merely covered, with a kind of coarse
hop-sacking with a great cross upon
the back, remnant of Templar time s.
Their arms were encased in mail. a
relic of the days of knighthood.
After them, the "Historical Ride
shows how rapidly the cavalry devel-
| oped. Under Edward ", $50 years or
more later, they still wore queer iron
helmets; but they were horsemen's
helmets then, and no longer of serv-
ice for burrowing through the bot
toms of hedges.
1t is interesting, however, to note In
these dresses, all of which have been
accurately reproduced for the tourna-
ment by Mr.. w. Clarkson, of Yelling
ton street, who has been engaged upon
them for many months, how closely
they followed the fashion of the period
| Under James /. the cavalrymen wore
wigs with long hair hanging on tn eir
shoulders. Under Charles they wore
the well-known huge felt hats, bigger
and more jaunty than those of to-day
Still more interesting is it to OBJ
serve in these old costumes the de.
velopment of the ideas of to-day
| One can see in the cavalry of a cen
fury ago the modern idea of mount
ed infantry, for in that day the cav,
/ clry wore a bayonet. One can also
notice that in all these types the
| eman's sword was not, as is the
case to-day, attached to the horse
but was slung TO the rider, and, this
method is to be reintroduced
| But there is one point of develop
ment which is not noticeable. Though
the uniforms become still gayer and
more fantastic, nowhere in the ole
| types of these acknowledgements cen.
turtles is there any sign of the modern
rational uniform OF active service
In fact. until the modern uniform, the
mounted archer Of Edward III seems
to have been the more serviceably
dressed man for his purpose.