Protection from Harm
by Bob Brooke

Medieval Armor
Soldiers again used single plates of metal armor, which they wore over a mail hauberk, from the late 13th century on, to protect joints and shins.. Over time, the number of plate components of medieval armor increased, protecting further parts of the body, and in protecting those of a cavalryman's horse. Armorers developed skills in articulating the individual plates for parts of the body that needed to be flexible, and in fitting armor to the individual wearer like a tailor. The cost of a full suit of high quality fitted armor, as opposed to less expensive munition armor was very high, so only wealthy aristocrats seriously committed to either soldiering or jousting could afford it. The rest of an army wore inconsistent mixtures of pieces, with mail playing an important role.

By about 1420, complete suits of plate armor had been developed in Europe. A full suit of plate armor would have consisted of a helmet, a gorget, spaulders, pauldrons with gardbraces to cover the armpits as was seen in French armor, or besagews or rondels, mostly used in Gothic armor, covered the armpit area and couters and poleyns with "wings" protected the inside of the joint. rerebraces, vambraces, gauntlets, a cuirass, or breastplate and backplate, with a fauld, tassets and a culet, a mail skirt, cuisses, poleyns, greaves, and sabatons.

The very fullest sets, known as garnitures, more often made for jousting than war, included pieces of exchange, alternate pieces suiting different purposes, so that the suit could be configured for a range of different uses, for example fighting on foot or on horse. By the Late Middle Ages even infantry could afford to wear several pieces of plate armor.

A complete suit of plate armor made from well-tempered steel weighed around 33 to 55 pounds. The wearer could jump, run and otherwise move freely, with the armor’s weight spread evenly over the body. To accomplish this, armorers articulated the armor so that it covered a soldier’s entire body.

The movement of armorers helped to diffuse armor styles around Europe. A royal workshop near London that had imported Italian, Flemish and German craftsmen, produced Renaissance Greenwich armor, though it soon developed its own unique style.

Virtually invulnerable to sword slashes, plate armor also protected the wearer against spear or pike thrusts and provided a good defense against blunt trauma. While this armor was effective against cuts or blows, long tapered swords, pollaxes and halberds could penetrate its weak spots.

Warriors used maces, war hammers, and the hammer-heads of pollaxes to inflict blunt trauma through the enemy’s armor. Strong blows to the head could result in concussion even if the armor hadn’t been penetrated.

Fluted plate was not only decorative, but also reinforced the plate against bending under slashing or blunt impact. This offsets against the tendency for flutes to catch piercing blows. In armored techniques taught in the German school of swordsmanship, the attacker concentrates on these "weak spots", resulting in a fighting style very different from unarmored sword-fighting.

Renaissance Armor
German so-called Maximilian armor of the early 16th century was a style that employed heavy fluting and some decorative etching, as opposed to the plainer finish on 15th-century white armor. During the same period, armorers reformed the helmet and neckguard design to produce the so-called Nürnberg armor, many masterpieces of workmanship and design.

As firearms became better and more common on the battlefield, the utility of full armor gradually declined. Full suits of armor became restricted to those made for jousting. The decoration of fine armor greatly increased during this time, as armorers began using a range of techniques. This greatly increased the cost. They also produced elaborately decorated plate armor for royalty and the very wealthy.

Highly decorated armor has often been referred to as parade armor, a somewhat misleading term as such armor might have also been worn on active military campaigns. King Henry II of France, had his armor, made in 1555, covered with meticulous embossing, which had been subjected to blueing, silvering and gilding.

Such work required armorers to either collaborate with artists or have artistic skill of their own. Other artists such as Hans Holbein the Younger also produced designs for armor. The Milanese armorer Filippo Negroli was the most famous modeler of figurative relief decoration on armor during the Renaissance.

Jousting Armor
Unlike actual warfare, jousting was a favorite sport of 15th and 16th-century nobles throughout Europe. The medieval joust has its origins in the military tactics of heavy cavalry during the High Middle Ages. And because it had less to do with direct warfare, participating knights could use specialized armor and equipment.

Specialized jousting armor was heavier and could weigh as much as 50 kg; Since it was never intended to be used in combat, it didn’t need to permit free movement. However, it was limited to the maximum weight that could be carried by a warhorse of the time.

Compared to the standard joust, the Rennen was a type of joust with lighter contact. Here, the aim was to hit the opponent's shield. Maxmillian, who wanted a return to a more agile form of joust compared to the heavily armored "full contact" Stechen joust, developed the specialized Rennzeug, In the Rennzeug, the shield was attached to the armor with a mechanism of springs and would detach itself upon contact.

The development of powerful firearms made all but the finest and heaviest armor obsolete. Leg protection was the first part to go, replaced by tall leather boots. By the beginning of the 18th century, only field marshals, commanders and royalty remained in full armor on the battlefield. It remained fashionable for monarchs to be portrayed in armor up to and including the first half of the 18th century.


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