Plate Armor (Edited from Wikipedia)

SUMMARY

Plate armor is a historical type of personal body armor made from iron or steel plates, culminating in the iconic suit of armor entirely encasing the wearer. While there are early predecessors, full plate armor developed in Europe during the Late Middle Ages, especially in the context of the Hundred Years' War, from the coat of plates worn over mail suits during the 13th century.

In Europe, plate armor reached its peak in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The full suit of armor is thus a feature of the very end of the Middle Ages and of the Renaissance period. Its popular association with the "medieval knight" is due to the specialized jousting armor which developed in the 16th century.

Full suits of Gothic plate armor were worn on the battlefields of the Burgundian and Italian Wars. The most heavily armored troops of the period were heavy cavalry such as the gendarmes and early cuirassiers, but the infantry troops of the Swiss mercenaries and the landsknechts also took to wearing lighter suits of "three quarters" munition armor, leaving the lower legs unprotected.

The use of plate armor declined in the 17th century, but it remained common both among the nobility and for the cuirassiers throughout the European wars of religion. After 1650, plate armor was mostly reduced to the simple breastplate (cuirass) worn by cuirassiers. This was due to the development of the flintlock musket, which could penetrate armor at a considerable distance. For infantry, the breastplate gained renewed importance with the development of shrapnel in the late Napoleonic wars. The use of steel plates sewn into flak jackets dates to World War II, replaced by more modern materials such as fibre-reinforced plastic since the 1950s.

HISTORY

By about 1420, complete suits of plate armor had been developed. A full suit of plate armor would have consisted of many different components. 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.

A complete suit of plate armor made from well-tempered steel would weigh around 33- 55 pounds. The wearer remained highly agile and could jump, run and otherwise move freely as the weight of the armor was spread evenly throughout the body. The armor was articulated and covered a man's entire body completely from neck to toe. In the 15th and 16th centuries, large bodies of men-at-arms numbering thousands or even more than ten thousand men (as many as 60% of an army) were fighting on foot wearing full plate next to archers and crossbowmen. This was commonly seen in the Western European armies especially of France and England during the Hundred Years War, the Wars of the Roses or the Italian Wars.

European leaders in armoring techniques were northern Italians, especially from Milan, and southern Germans, who had somewhat different styles. But styles were diffused around Europe, often by the movement of armorers; the Renaissance Greenwich armor was made by a royal workshop near London that had imported Italian, Flemish and

2 (mostly) German craftsmen, though it soon developed its own unique style. Ottoman Turkey also made wide use of plate armor but incorporated large amounts of mail into their armor, which was widely used by shock troops.

Renaissance

German so-called Maximilian armor of the early 16th century is a style using heavy fluting and some decorative etching, as opposed to the plainer finish on 15th-century white armor. The shapes include influence from Italian styles. This era also saw the use of closed helms. During the early 16th century the helmet and neckguard design was reformed to produce the so-called Nürnberg armor, many of them masterpieces of workmanship and design.

As firearms became better and more common on the battlefield the utility of full armor gradually declined, and full suits became restricted to those made for jousting (see below) which continued to develop. The decoration of fine armor greatly increased in the period, using a whole range of techniques, and further greatly increasing the cost. Elaborately decorated plate armor for royalty and the very wealthy was being produced. Highly decorated armor is often called parade armor, a somewhat misleading term as such armor might well be worn on active military service. Steel plate armor for Henry II of France made in 1555 is covered with meticulous embossing, which has been subjected to blueing, silvering and gilding.

Such work required armorers to either collaborate with artists or have artistic skill of their own; another alternative was to take designs from ornament prints and other prints, as was often done.

A partial exception to the declining protection offered by armor came in the Age of Discovery as Europeans encountered the natives of parts of the world still without firearms. The Spanish Conquistadors found armor extremely practical and (for both horses and men) intimidating to the Amerindians, and in the early North American Colonial period some pieces of armor, especially breastplates and helmets, continued to be worn.

Plate armor was virtually invulnerable to sword slashes. It also protected the wearer well against spear or pike thrusts and provided decent defense against blunt trauma.

The evolution of plate armor also triggered developments in the design of offensive weapons. While this armor 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 pollaxes and halberds. The effect of arrows and bolts is still a point of contention in

3 regards to plate armor. The evolution of the 14th-century plate armor 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, war hammers and the hammer-heads of pollaxes (poleaxes) were used to inflict blunt trauma through armor.

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. Because of this weakness most warriors wore a mail shirt beneath their plate armor (or coat-of-plates). Later, full mail shirts were replaced with mail patches sewn onto an arming jacket. Further protection for plate armor was the use of small round plates that covered the armpit area and with "wings" to protect the inside of the joint.

Early Modern Period

Plate armor was widely used by most armies until the end of the 17th century for both foot and mounted troops such as the cuirassiers, dragoons, demi-lancers and Polish hussars. The infantry armor of the 16th century developed into three-quarters armor by 1600.

Full plate armor was expensive to produce and remained therefore restricted to the upper strata of society; lavishly decorated suits of armor remained the fashion with 18th-century nobles and generals long after they had ceased to be militarily useful on the battlefield due to the advent of inexpensive muskets.

The development of powerful rifled firearms made all but the finest and heaviest armor obsolete. The increasing power and availability of firearms and the nature of large, state- supported infantry led to more portions of plate armor 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 beginning of the 18th century, only field marshals, commanders and royalty remained in full armor on the battlefield, more as a sign of rank than for practical considerations. It remained fashionable for monarchs to be portrayed in armor during the first half of the 18th century (late Baroque period), but even this tradition became obsolete. Thus, a portrait of Frederick the Great in 1739 still shows him in armor, while a later painting showing him as a commander in the Seven Years' War (1760s) depicts him without armor.

4 Body armor remained in use with cuirassiers throughout the 19th century and into the early phase of World War I. The cuirass represents the final stage of the tradition of plate armor descended from the late medieval period. Meanwhile, makeshift steel armor against shrapnel and early forms of ballistic vests began to be developed from the mid 19th century.

JOUSTING

Specialized jousting armor produced in the late 15th to 16th century was heavier, and could weigh as much as 50 kg (110 pounds), as it was not intended for free combat, it did not need to permit free movement, the only limiting factor being the maximum weight that could be carried by a warhorse of the period.

The medieval joust has its origins in the military tactics of heavy cavalry during the High Middle Ages. These became obsolete during the 14th century, and since the 15th century, jousting had become a sport without direct relevance to warfare. During the 1490s, emperor Maximilian I invested a lot of effort into perfecting the sport, for which he received his nickname of "The Last Knight".

Rennen and Stechen were two sportive forms of the joust developed during the 15th century and practiced throughout the 16th century. Armor for one of the forms in particular developed into extremely heavy armor which completely inhibited the movement of the rider, in its latest forms resembling an armor-shaped cabin integrated into the horse armor more than a functional suit of armor.

Such forms of sportive equipment during the final phase of the joust in 16th-century Germany gave rise to modern misconceptions about the heaviness or clumsiness of "medieval armor", as notably popularized by Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court . The extremely heavy helmets are explained by the fact that the aim was to detach the crest of the opponent's helmet, resulting in frequent full impact of the lance to the helmet.

CHAIN MAIL

Mail is a type of armor consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. It was typically an extremely prized commodity, as it was expensive and time-consuming to produce and could mean the difference between life and death in a battle. Mail from dead combatants was frequently looted and was used by the new owner or sold for a lucrative price. As time went on and infrastructure improved, it

5 came to be used by more soldiers. Eventually with the rise of the lanced cavalry charge, impact warfare, and high-powered crossbows, mail came to be used as a secondary armor to plate for the mounted nobility.

By the 14th century, plate armor was commonly used to supplement mail. Eventually mail was supplanted by plate for the most part, as it provided greater protection against windlass crossbows, bludgeoning weapons, and lance charges. However, mail was still widely used by many soldiers as well as brigandines and padded jacks. These three types of armor made up the bulk of the equipment used by soldiers, with mail being the most expensive. It was sometimes more expensive than plate armor. Mail typically persisted longer in less technologically advanced areas such as Eastern Europe but was in use everywhere into the 16th century.

Mail armor provided an effective defense against slashing blows by edged weapons and penetration by thrusting and piercing weapons; in fact, a study conducted at the Royal Armories at Leeds concluded that "it is almost impossible to penetrate using any conventional medieval weapon."

Generally speaking, mail's resistance to weapons is determined by four factors: linkage type (riveted, butted, or welded), material used (iron versus bronze or steel), weave density (a tighter weave needs a thinner weapon to surpass), and ring thickness. Mail, if a warrior could afford it, provided a significant advantage to a warrior when combined with competent fighting techniques. When the mail was not riveted, a well-placed thrust from a spear or thin sword could penetrate, and a pollaxe or halberd blow could break through the armor. Some evidence indicates that during armored combat, the intention was to actually get around the armor rather than through it—according to a study of skeletons found in Visby, Sweden, a majority of the skeletons showed wounds on less well protected legs.

The flexibility of mail meant that a blow would often injure the wearer, potentially causing serious bruising or fractures, and it was a poor defense against head trauma. Mail-clad warriors typically wore separate rigid helms over their mail coifs for head protection. Likewise, blunt weapons such as maces and warhammers could harm the wearer by their impact without penetrating the armor; usually a soft armor, was worn under the hauberk. Medieval surgeons were very well capable of setting and caring for bone fractures resulting from blunt weapons. With the poor understanding of hygiene however, cuts that could get infected were much more of a problem. Thus mail armor proved to be sufficient protection in most situations.