Armor of the Medieval Knight

Armor of the Medieval Knight

Mail

At the beginning of the medieval period armor was based around a coat composed of interlocking iron rings known as mail.

Approximately 35,000 - 40,000 rings were required to construct an coat of mail which had short sleeves

Mail excelled as a defense against edged weapon attacks and early missiles where the increased surface area provided by the network of metal rings was sufficient armor. Hand-held spears or weapons such as the war hammer which relied on blunt trauma were good ways to thwart the defense mail offered. High-powered missile weapons like the longbow and crossbow were also effective against mail.

Hauberk

The basic piece was the hauberk, a shirt-like coat of mail designed to protect the torso and provide limited protection to the arms.

a warrior was equipped with a long, knee-length hauberk composed of interlinked rings, slit front and back to facilitate riding and worn over a padded undergarment.

The term is usually used to describe a shirt reaching at least to mid-thigh and including sleeves. It sometimes incorporated a hood, or coif.

The Bayeux Tapestry illustrates Norman soldiers wearing a knee-length version of the hauberk, with three-quarter length sleeves and a split from hem to crotch.

Coif

The coif, a cap of mail, may have been part of the hauberk, or a separate piece entirely.

Leggings

Additionally, mail leggings called chausses provided protection for the legs.

Mail leggings were mentioned as early as the Lex ribuaria and so found at least some use around the sixth century.

Weight

a mailshirt would probably have weighed about 25 to 40 pounds, which could not be regarded as excessively heavy, and not likely to restrict freedom of movement.

Distribution of that weight is of high importance.

Proper weight distribution will ease the burden on the armor-clad warrior and make him a deadlier asset on the battlefield.

The weight was mostly borne upon the shoulders, and was not, as is the case with the plate armor, distributed over the limbs and body of the wearer.

Mail had major issues with weight distribution: much of the weight falls upon the shoulders, though a belt can take up some of the weight. A belt around the waist allowed the transfer of some of the weight

A knight in mail could do cartwheels, mount a horse unaided regardless of the weight of the armor. Moreover, warriors wearing armor were trained to deal with the weight and encumbrance from a very young age.

Having this weight pressing on your shoulders day in and day out, battle and skirmish and ambush, can be tremendously fatiguing.

It is also possible to assist the comfort and usefulness of mail by varying the size of the metal rings: smaller rings at the edges make it fit more snugly to the body.

And if you’re not wearing a gambeson underneath, the chafing can be horrendous.

What Lies Beneath

A key fact about armor is that it isn’t just the outer layer that matters. The inner layers can make a considerable difference.

Most armors work best when supplemented by a layer that complements the main defense.

Beneath the metal fortress of chainmail or plate armor is a padded suit such as a gambeson, a quilted garment which prevented the chain mail from bruising the body under the impact of a blow.

These padded garments were often made by sewing fleeces, raw wool or layers of woolen cloth between two layers of linen, felt or leather.

Gambesons were probably very thick and could offer very good protection against the impact of weapons.

Construction

Mail of the period was made by cutting thin strips of iron from a piece of sheet, or drawing iron wire through a draw-plate, and winding this around a cylindrical former. It was then cut off with a chisel to form the links. The links would then be compressed so that the ends overlapped.

Half of the links were then welded shut in the forge. the other half had the ends of each link were flattened and then had holes punched in them. As the mailshirt was assembled a punched ring was linked to four of the welded rings,a rivet was put through the holes to close the link. Alternatively, the whole shirt could have been made entirely made with rivetted rings. Finally the whole mailshirt was likely to have been 'oil tempered' to make it stronger and give some degree of rust-proofing.

Weaknesses of mail

Chainmail has some weaknesses, particularly against bludgeoning force, especially to the joints. While chainmail provides some bludgeoning resistance for the torso due to the need of any such blow to “pick up” the armor draping below the point of impact, a powerful enough swing from any weapon can still break bones.

Piercing attacks—specially-designed arrows, crossbow bolts and lances—can break links and penetrate if they are forceful enough.

Leather Armor

Leather armor was one of the most widespread and most used types of armor. Aside from being cheap to make, it provides significant slashing and bludgeoning defense while offering great mobility. Leather can be hardened, and shaped into various forms during the tanning process.

Plate Armor

Plate armor eventually took over as the champion of Medieval protection, but it has seen action since the time of Ancient Greece and Rome.

A full suit of plate armor covers head to toe, leaving almost no area exposed.

Which might make it surprising in that it weighs only 45-65 pounds.

Some plate armor intended exclusively for jousting is heavier, weighing in at as much as 90 pounds, with some pieces several millimeters thick; this armor would never be worn in the field.

Plate was often used in conjunction with pieces of chainmail, to protect the weak spots left vulnerable from the absence of the plate. Early combinations saw full chain suit supplemented by pieces of plate over the most vulnerable areas

Plate isn’t invincible—no armor is—and neither were the knights that wore it. Knights still died to arrows and blunt trauma, while weapons such as the halberd were designed specifically to be effective against plate.

Anything that could exploit and take advantage of areas left exposed by the joints in the armor was a significant threat. Despite all this, plate armor proved to be a walking fortress on the medieval battlefield.