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Holkham Picture Bible, 1327-1335AD

Knights in battle, folio 40r


A larger image of English Infantry in battle, lower register, folio 40r, Holkham Picture Bible, 1327-1335AD, British Library MS Add. 47682

f. 40r, Two mounted kings and their knights do battle against one another; below, the commoners fight each other with bucklers, swords, sticks and axes.

Title: Bible (the 'Holkham Bible Picture Book')
Date: c 1327-1335
Content: A biblical picture book with explanatory text of varying length, sometimes in rhyming couplets, in Anglo-Norman French, with some English.
Ownership: Origin; England, S.E. (London?). Provenance; An unknown Dominican friar probably commissioned this work: the first image is of a friar saying to the artist 'Ore feres bien e nettement car mustre serra a riche gent' (Now do it well and thoroughly, for it will be shown to important people); to which the scribe replies 'Si frai voyre, e Deux me doynt vivre, Unkes ne veyses un autretel livre' (So I will, and if God grant me life, you will never see a better book than mine) (f. 1r).
Following a blank page (f. 38v), this final section contains the 'Last Things' which precede the Second Coming (derived from Historia Scholastica, In Evangelia, cxxxiv-cxli).
British Library Manuscript Additional 47682.

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Referenced on p.9, English Medieval Knight 1300-1400 by Christopher Gravett (Author), Graham Turner (Illustrator)
An infantry battle, from the Holkham Picture Bible Book of 1327-1335. One man has a mail coat but most wear a quilted aketon under the tunic, glimpsed at the forearms or hem. Some have mail hoods, others quilted versions, that of the left figure buttoning up at the chin. Leather gauntlets seem to be worn, only one man having plate versions. Small bucklers with metal boss and rim can be seen. (By permission of the British Library MS Add. 47680 (sic), f.40)

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KNIGHTS AND INFANTRY AT THE BATTLE OF BANNOCKBURN (sic)
British Library MS Add. 47682, f. 40
This early fourteenth-century manuscript illumination shows a wide range of both soldiers and arms and armor. At the top, cavalry, wearing mail armor and plate helmets, fight on horseback. Their weapons include swords, axes of various shapes, daggers, and lances. At the top center one cavalry soldier wields a sword called a falchion. The horses are unarmored and are just wearing cloth trappers. In the lower scene the infantry fight with swords, axes, polearms, and bows and arrows. While some of these soldiers wear mail, most are unarmored except for a helmet. The two soldiers to the left of center fight with a small round shield called a buckler. This illustration is from the Holkham Bible Picture Book.
Source: p.270, Medieval Weapons: An Illustrated History of Their Impact by Kelly DeVries & Robert D. Smith (2007)