The Armour Archive

"Early cavalry spears were probaly identical to the second type of infantry spear, described above, but by 1300 they were already being made with rather longer and more slender points. Shortly after this, special lances with three or more small points were adopted for jousting. These were usually fitted with a hand-guard called a vamplate and a form of stop, called a graper, to prevent the couched spear from being forced back under the arm. From the end of the fourteenth century, this stop, now found also on war spears fitted against a bracket on the breastplate called an arrest or lance-rest. From the fifteenth century onwards, the heavy spear or lance for joust or battle was made thicker before and behind the grip. The lighter lance was, however, retained for the lightly armed horse, such as those of England, of Spain and the march lands of eastern Europe. Particularly in Spain the light lance was frequently thrown like a javelin. Early in the seventeenth century the lance went out of favour in western Europe, to be reintroduced by Marshal Saxe in the middle of the eighteenth century." Vesey Norman, A&A: Pleasures and Treasures, p 114.