tonlet
(ˈtʌnlɪt)
[ad. MF. tonnel(l)et short, full skirt, (also) tonlet, dim of tonneau cask (see tonnel, -ell).]
A short skirt of armour; also, each of the overlapping horizontal bands of which this was sometimes made.
| [a 1480 Traictié de la Forme et Devis d'ung Tournoy in Œuvres Complètes du Roi René (1844) II. 11 Le harnoys de corps est come une cuirasse ou comme ung harnoys à pié qu'on appelle tonnellet.] a 1486 in Archaeologia LVII (2nd Ser. VII. 1900) 43 To arme a man... Firste ye muste sette on Sabatones..& þē the breche of mayle And thē tonletis And thē brest And þē vambras [etc.]. 1894 Antiquary Jan. 26/2 Another suit, or rather part of one, of Henry VIII{ddd}is that which has been called the tonlet, or, as in the Tower inventories it is written, the trundlet suit. 1910 Encycl. Brit. II. 587/2 The surcoat being gone we see him armed in breast and back plate, his loins covered by a skirt of ‘tonlets’, as the defence of overlapping horizontal bands comes to be named. 1934 G. C. Stone Gloss. Construction, Decoration & Use of Arms & Armor 622/2 The tonlet suit was used mainly for fighting on foot, but was sometimes used in place of other leg armor when jousting at the barrier. It had wide, bell-shaped skirts of plate which were often solid and elaborately fluted with deep vertical folds... Sometimes it was made of horizontal plates. 1975 Country Life 3 July 45/3 The superb ‘tonlet’ or skirted armour made for King Henry VIII for foot combat in about 1512. 1983 Daily Tel. 18 Oct. 10 (caption) Henry VIII's tonlet armour ready to go on view at the Burlington House Fair. |