Arming Carpets
From the twelfth century onwards it was common to spread a carpet on the ground or the floor before arming. Whether this was to look badass or save the knight's tender toes from the cold wet ground probably depended on the knight.
I can't speak to the kind of tapestries which were used in France and its neighbours in the fourteenth century. Karen Larsdatter collects paintings of carpets at http://larsdatter.com/carpets.htm. It seems like there are not many surviving carpets between the Pazyryk graves and the sixteenth century. The German encyclopedia of the middle ages which I checked has no entry except "Teppiche, orientalische, mobile Bodendekoration, sind seit dem frühen MA in Europa sehr begehrt, ..." (so there is no entry for Teppiche, Europäische, although clearly rugs were made in Europe too and maybe a few scraps survive somewhere). The paintings in Guiron le Courtois (BNF NAF 5243) show many patterned textiles spread on floors, beds, and benches (but some may be embroidery or patterned felts or block printing or woven patterns without a pile ...)
One humane solution (ie. one that recognizes human limits, rather than demanding an unachievable perfection) would be looking for the rugs from Iran marketed as “nomad” or “tribal.” Some of the people in the countryside still design and make rugs on a small scale for both their own use and the market, or sell their old camel bags and prayer mats when they are worn. In Isfahan it is easy to get a hand-made, plant-dyed rug in excellent condition measuring 4' by 6' for a few hundred dollars or Euros; I suspect that you can go lower by ordering several, picking a repaired one, or figuring out what the tourists tend to prefer and asking for something else (and the ones which have been used and repaired are probably closer to the local traditions, and further from what they think foreigners want to buy). A rug made in the countryside today won't be exactly the same as one made in the countryside in the fourteenth century, but it might give a reasonable effect, and in most cases creating the right general impression is all we can hope for.
That style of carpet would also make excellent flooring for a living history, reenactment, or have-a-bash camp somewhere which does not get too muddy.
Sources
Chretien de Troyes, W.W. Comfort trans., Erec et Enide Pt. II, lines 2024-2663, c. 1170 Translated http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/erec/erec2.htm Edited https://archive.org/details/erecundenide00chrt
| Original | Translation |
|---|---|
| Et Erec un autre apela, | And Erec summoned another squire |
| 2025 Si li comande a aporter Ses armes por son cors armer. Puis s'an monta an unes loges, Et fist un tapit de Limoges Devant lui a la terre estandre. |
and bade him bring his arms to arm his body withal. Then he went up into a bower, and had a Limoges rug laid out before him on the floor. |
| 2630 Et eil corut les armes prandre, Cui il l'ot comande et dit, Ses aporta sor le tapit. Erec s'assist de l'autre part Dessus l'image d'un liepart, |
Meanwhile, the squire ran to fetch the arms and came back and laid them on the rug. Erec took a seat opposite, on the figure of a leopard |
| 2635 Qui el tapit estoit portreite. Por armer s'atorne et afeite: Premieremant se fist lacier Unes chauces de blanc acier. Apres vest un hauberc tant chier |
which was portrayed on the rug. He prepares and gets ready to put on his arms: first, he had laced on a pair of greaves of polished steel; next, he dons a hauberk, which was so fine |
| 2640 Qu'an n'an pooit maille tranchier. Mout estoit riches li haubers, Que a l'androit ne a l'anvers N'ot tant de fer come une aguille, N'il n'i pooit coillir roille; |
that not a mesh could be cut away from it. This hauberk of his was rich, indeed, for neither inside nor outside of it was there enough iron to make a needle, nor could it gather any rust; |
| 2645 Car toz estoit d'arjant feitiz, De menues mailles tresliz; Et iere ovrez tant sotilmant, Dire vos puis certainnemant, Que nus, qui ja vestu l'eüst, |
for it was all made of worked silver in tiny meshes triple-wove; and it was made with such skill that I can assure you |
| 2650 Plus las ne plus doillanz n'an fust, Que s'il etist sor la chemise Une cote de soie mise. Li serjant et li Chevalier Tuit se pranent a mervellier, |
that no one who had put it on would have been more uncomfortable or sore because of it, than if he had put on a silk jacket over his undershirt. The knights and squires all began to wonder |
| 2655 Por quoi il armer se feisoit; Mes nus demander ne l'osoit. Quant del hauberc l'orent arme, Un hiaume a cercle d'or liste, Plus der reluisant qu'une glace, |
why he was being armed; but no one dared to ask him why. When they had put on his hauberk, a valet laces about his head a helmet fluted with a band of gold, shining brighter than a mirror. |
| 2660 Uns vaslez sor le chief li lace. Puis prant l'espee, si la gaint, Et comande qu'an li amaint Le bai de Gascoingne ansele: |
Then he takes the sword and girds it on, and orders them to bring him saddled his bay steed of Gascony. |
Mart Shearer found another example in the Chanson de Gaydon from the around 1230 (line 5882): "Savari was armed on a carpet."
Glen K. pointed out the carpet in the Old French rule of the Templars from the thirteenth century.
Modus Armandi Milites (circa 1320s): “First the fire is made and the carpet spread ...”
Gawain and the Green Knight; Fytte the Second folio 102v/98v, original here trans W.A. Neilson: "First a carpet of Tolouse (a tulé tapit) was stretched over the floor, and much was the gilt gear that gleamed upon it. The brave man stepped thereon and handled the steel, clad in a doublet of costly Tars, and afterwards a well wrought hood, closed on top and bound within with a glistening white fur."
Endorsements
Since the time of the ancients, everyone knows that advice is more convincing when its backed by signs or pamphlets with unverifiable anecdotes! Here are some for the use of arming carpets.
Not long after an AMERICAN gentleman acquired the use of an arming carpet, he was dressed in a Jeff Wasson harness. Coincidence?
Since a gentleman of CAROLINA acquired an arming carpet, boxes of REAL SIXTEENTH CENTURY ARMOUR have appeared at his door. Coincidence?
The great Boucicault, who later became Marshall of FRANCE, suffered a lamentable defeat at the hands of the pagan TURKS. And what is even more plentiful in a Turkish camp than a French camp? Carpets! Not many years later the Turks suffered a misadventured piteous overthrow at the hands of the lame Timur the king of the PERSIANS. And who has even more marvellous carpets than the Turks?
The merchants of SWEDEN who spread their wares under the sign of Ikea now carry hand-woven rugs from Iran to the fairs of Europe. Ask for Orientteppiche or Oriental Rugs.
As the First Continuation of Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval tells us (around line 950), the noble GAWAIN was armed and spurred upon a swathe of precious samite. And he did arms with Guiromelant the cruel at the Perilous Ford, and from that day forth he faced all the good kind of peril. Coincidence? I say nay.
Some gentlemen and ladies of TORONTO and CHICAGO wished to do arms when the crown plague was stalking the land. They brought their arming carpets, and lo, their camp was not struck by plague, dysentery, or Lombards with some very well armed help asking about money they had borrowed!
Based on a forum thread started on 4 June 2016.
This site is free, but its not costless. Help keep it going with a donation on paypal.me, Patreon, ko-fi or Liberapay.
created and copyrighted on 2024-01-20 by S. Manning ~ last updated 2024-01-20