I've seen several pictures of shields with in-cut or holes used to guide the spear while in battle. I'm just wondering what the origin of these shields might be and where they may have been used in battle.
These are specialised jousting shields. They appear in the late 14th century, and were used into the 15th century (and are still used in modern jousting). This is a time when the knightly shield was fading from the battlefield.
A couple of examples from the Met:
These are often called écranché by modern jousters, but this doesn't appear to be a term contemporary to their original use. Froissart calls them "targets for war", as opposed to "shields for peace". By "war", he means jousting with sharp lances, rather than them being intended for the battlefield. Note that in this late 14th century Italian picture:
the lance doesn't have a vamplate (the flared conical hand protector in front of the grip seen on some jousting lances). The cut-out allows the shield to sit in front of the hand, protecting the hand from the opponent's lance. While a gauntlet is worn, a sharp lance point - as these shields were used with - can slip along the lance haft under the gauntlet plates. The shield is a useful addition to the hand protection. The wide tips (coronels) used for "jousts of peace" don't present nearly as much danger - they're not sharp, and they're much wider and won't slip under the gauntlet plates. The concave face stops the sharp point from slipping off the shield - better to keep it where you know it is, rather than risking a hard-to-predict slip off onto some other part of yourself or your horse.
In jousting, the goal is to hold the lance steady, and hit your opponent who is riding on a straight and predictable path. The cut-out restriction movement of the lance is not a problem. In war (that is, on the battlefield rather than for "jousts of war"), freedom of movement of the lance is important - your target might want to move out of the way, and the lance needs to follow. While we don't have video of Medieval lancers in action, this video of early 20th century lancers training gives an idea of the usefulness of moving the lance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhkCCYnBrWE
Shields like this are shown used on foot in the Codex Wallerstein fightbook:
and bucklers made in the shape of these jousting shields (but smaller) are shown in the Gladiatora fightbook:
These appear to be in the context of tournament fighting.
In Chroniques de France ou de St Denis (BL Royal 20 C. VII), we see shields like this used in battle, on horse and on foot:
This suggests that this type of shield might have seen some use in battle (or perhaps the artist drew shields that he/she had seen in tournaments). From the same manuscript, we have some shields with cut off corners:
Unlike cut-out slots, which will restrict the movement of a lance, a cut off corner like these will give freer movement - the corner isn't there to block movement of the lance.
References:
On the tournament targes in the Met: Nickel, Helmut (1995), "The Seven Shields of Behaim: New Evidence", Metropolitan Museum Journal 30, 29-51: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/The_Seven_Shields_of_Behaim_New_Evidence_The_Metropolitan_Museum_Journal_v_30_1995
Froissart on the Tournament at St. Inglevert: https://faculty.nipissingu.ca/muhlberger/FROISSART/INGLEVER.HTM
Gladiatora fightbook: http://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Gladiatoria_(MS_Germ.Quart.16)
Codex Wallerstein: http://wiktenauer.com/wiki/File:Cod.I.6.4%C2%BA.2_082v.jpg
A nice blog post by Will McLean, "The Neologistic Ecranche", which pointed me towards the non-jousting appearances of these shields: http://willscommonplacebook.blogspot.com/2009/03/neologistic-ecranche.html
