Plate armour

[Jessie Phallon]

Gothic armour

[Jessie Phallon]

Plate armour protecting the chest and the lower limbs was used by the ancient Greeks and Romans, but it fell into disuse after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Single plates of metal armour were again used from the late 13th century on, to protect joints and shins, and these were worn over a full chain mail haubergeon. By the end of the 14th century, larger and complete full plates of armour had been developed. During the early 1500s the helmet and neckguard design was reformed to produce the so-called Nürnberg armour, many of them masterpieces of workmanship and design. European leaders in armouring techniques were northern Italians and southern Germans. This led to the styles of Milanese from Milan, and Gothic from the Holy Roman Empire. Eventually, England produced armour in Greenwich which equalled the masters of Europe, and they developed their own unique style. Maximilian style armour immediately followed this, in the early 16th century. Maximilian armour was typically denoted by fluting and decorative etching, as opposed to the plainer finish on 15th century white armour. This era also saw the use of Close helms, as opposed to the 15th century style sallets and barbutes.

Full plate armour was very expensive to produce and remained therefore restricted to the upper strata of society, and lavishly decorated suits of armour remained the fashion with 18th century nobles and generals, long after they had ceased to be militarily useful due to the introduction of rifling in the battlefield. Reduced plate armour, typically consisting of a breastplate, a burgonet, morion or cabasset and gauntlets, however, also became popular among 16th century mercenaries. From the 15th century on, armour specifically designed for jousting (rather than for battle) and parade armour also became popular. Many of the latter were decorated with biblical or mythological motifs.

Armour was not confined to the Middle Ages, and in fact was widely used by all armies until the end of the 17th century, for both foot and mounted troops. The increasing power and availability of firearms and the nature of large, state-supported infantry led to more portions of plate armour being cast off in favor of cheaper, more mobile troops. Leg protection was the first part to go, replaced by tall leather boots. By the early part of the 18th century, only field marshals, commanders and royalty remained in full armour on the battlefield as they were tempting targets for rifle fire. However, cavalry units continued to use front and back plates, and either helmets or "secrets", a steel protection they wore under a floppy hat. Other armour was also being hidden under decorative uniforms. The cavalry armour of Napoleon, and the French, German, and British empires (heavy cavalry known as cuirassiers) were actively used through the 19th century right up to the first year of World War I, when French cuirassiers went to meet the enemy in armour outside of Paris.

Plate armour briefly re-appeared during World War II on some Soviet Guard (elite) infantry units, who wore steel breastplates. In the Korean War, body armour was re-introduced for U.S. foot soldiers, more so in the Vietnam, and the U.S. soldiers in Iraq now always wear light-weight Kevlar helmets and armour vests, the latter often augmented with more-or-less rigid ceramic plate inserts. The U.S. Air Force used flak jackets as a form of plate armour. The 1970s introduction of Aramid (Kevlar or Twaron) body armour brought sheet metal (especially titanium) trauma plates back into fashion as a form of rifle-grade add-on to flexible vests.

[Jessie Phallon]

An actor in modern made plate armour patterned after the medieval original

[Jessie Phallon]

Plate armour could have consisted of a helmet, a gorget (or bevor), pauldrons (or spaulders), couters, vambraces, gauntlets, a cuirass (back and breastplate) with a fauld, tassets and a culet, a chain mail skirt, cuisses, poleyns, greaves, and sabatons. While it looks heavy, a full plate armour set could be as light as only 20 kg (45 pounds) if well made of tempered steel. This is less than the weight of modern combat gear of an infantry soldier, and the weight is better distributed. The weight was so well spread over the body that a fit man could run, or jump into his saddle. Modern re-enactment activity has proven it is even possible to swim in armour.[citation needed] It is possible for a fit and trained man in armour to run after and catch an unarmoured archer. The notion it was necessary to lift a fully armed knight onto his horse with the help of pulleys is a myth originating in Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.[citation needed] Even knights in enormously heavy jousting armour were not winched onto their horses. This type of "sporting" armour was meant only for ceremonial lancing matches and the design had to be extremely thick to prevent severe accidents, such as the one causing the death of King Henry II of France.

[Jessie Phallon]

15th century depiction of a melee. A breast plate is pierced by a sword. Note that, as with all art, the veracity of this image might be questionable.

[Jessie Phallon]

Plate armour is virtually sword-proof. It also protects the wearer well against spear or pike thrusts and provides decent defense against blunt trauma. The evolution of plate armour also triggered developments in the design of offensive weapons. While this armour was effective against cuts or blows, their weak points could be exploited by long tapered swords or other weapons designed for the purpose, such as poleaxes and halberds. The effect of arrows and bolts is still a point of contention in regards to plate armour. Some argue that longbows and/or crossbows could regularly pierce plate armour and some contend that they could do so only rarely. The various flutings on the armour are not only decorations, but they reinforce the plate against bending under blunt impact and can cause any strike by a thrusting weapon that grazes the armour, rather than hit squarely, to glance off the surface of the plate and be less likely to slide into a more vulnerable joint. In armoured techniques taught in the German school of swordsmanship, the attacker concentrates on these "weak spots", resulting in a fighting style very different from unarmoured sword-fighting. Because of that weakness, most warriors wore a mail shirt (haubergeon or hauberk) beneath their plate armour (or coat-of-plates). Later, full mail shirts were replaced with mail patches, called goussets, sewn onto a gambeson or arming jacket. Further protection for plate armour was the use of small round plates called besagews that covered the armpit area and couters and poleyns with "wings" to protect the inside of the joint. The evolution of the 14th century plate armour also triggered the development of various polearms. They were designed to deliver a strong impact and concentrate energy on a small area and cause damage through the plate. Maces and the hammer-heads of pollaxes (poleaxes) were used to inflict blunt trauma through armour.

[Jessie Phallon]

Components of medieval armour

Following is a table that concisely identifies various pieces of medieval armour, mostly plate but some mail, arranged by the part of body that is protected and roughly by date. No attempt has been made to identify fastening components or various appendages such as lancerests or plumeholders or clothing such as tabards or surcoats which were often worn over a harness.

There are a variety of alternative names and spellings (such as cowter/couter or bassinet/bascinet/basinet or besagew/besague) which often reflect a word introduced from the French. Generally, the English spelling has been preferred (including mail instead of the lately used maille or the inauthentic term chainmail).

[Jessie Phallon]

Great helm

The great helm of the High Middle Ages arose in the late 12th century in the context of the crusades and remained in use until the 14th century. They were used by knights and heavy infantry in most European armies.

In its simplest form, the great helm was a flat-topped cylinder of steel that completely covered the head and had only very small openings for the eyes and mouth. Later designs gained more of a curved design, particularly on the top, to deflect or lessen the impact of blows.

The style is sometimes referred to as a 'crusader helmet', but also as a 'pot helm', and a later variant with a more conical top is known as a 'sugarloaf helm'. In Spanish they are yelmo de Zaragoza, referring to Saragossa where they were introduced for the first time in the Iberian peninsula.

Although the great helm offered greater protection than previous helmets such as the nasal helm and spangenhelm, it limited the wearer's vision and was heavy and uncomfortable, so was generally put on only just before engaging. A knight might wear the close-fitting steel skull cap known as a cervelliere, or its later development the bascinet normally, and the great helm over this.

This bascinet evolved from its early skull cap form to supersede the great helm for combat, generally with a hinged faceplate.

[Jessie Phallon]

Later great helms had a peaked, deflective, design.

The Great Helm was often blackened, lacquered or painted, and frequently bore decorations such as:

•   Ventilation decoration (crosses and symbols)
•   Visor (horizontal and vertical "cross") decorations
•   Attached decorations, such as crowns, feathers, metal wings (found on helmets belonging to Teutonic Knights).

[Jessie Phallon]

Great Helms
This page shows some of the results a quick browse through my personal archives and the internet came up with. The first part shows some existing examples dating from the 1250's to the 1320's. Then follow some examples from miniatures. And finally a few specific jousting helms dating from even later.

http://home.scarlet.be/~klauwaer/helm/

The two helms in the line drawings seem to be very similar and that's because they ARE the same. The scans are from Nicolle's "Arms and Armour of the Crusading Era". He apparently confused two different sources for the same thing. Number 451is a drawing of a mirror image. As you can see the helm has a flat top, riveted to the skull part. It has all steel added oculars without ornament (like fleur de lis shape or similar). I have found no immediate example of this helm in contemporary art. Now in Altes Zeughaus, Berlin

[Jessie Phallon]

This is one of the the Madeln helms (look further down for number 2). It should date from about the same time as the Dargen helm. The shape is similar, but the ocular design is quite different. No added ocular here. Now in Schweizerisches Landesmuseum, Zürich.

[Jessie Phallon]

This helm is now probably in a private collection.

[Jessie Phallon]

The seal of count Guy of Dampierre of Flanders. Dates from about 1275-1280ish. It shows this type of helm, or maybe even the style of the two next ones.

[Jessie Phallon]

A supposedly shortened helm. I personally don't think it was. Now in the National Museum of Castle Saint Angelo in Rome. Look at the next one.

[Jessie Phallon]

Very same appearance as the previous one. Possibly from the same workshop? This helmet was presented in an auction in Germany in 2002. Present location unknown. Probably in private collection?