Antiq. [In quot. a. 1548 (the source from which the word is derived) the meaning is obscure, and it has been suspected that lamboys is a mistake for some form of JAMBEES or JAMBEAUX.] The name given by mod. antiquaries to: An imitation in steel of the ‘bases’ or skirt, reaching from the waist to the knee; occasionally found in armor of the Tudor period.
If the word meant what Meyrick supposes, there is an anachronism in Hall’s use of it.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. IV., 12. The tasses, the lamboys, the backpece.
1824. Meyrick, Anc. Armour, II. 220. The large puckered plates of steel, which cover each thigh to the knee, and continue behind, except where hollowed out for the saddle. These plates are … in imitation of cloth, and called lamboys.
1834. Planché, Brit. Costume, 225. The lamboys,… a sort of petticoat of steel in imitation of the puckered skirts or petticoat of cloth or velvet worn at this time.
1841. J. Hewitt, Tower, 66. On the edge of the lamboys or skirts are the initials of the royal pair.
1863. Thornbury, True as Steel, I. 132. The spreading lamboys or steel skirts of the period.
