What was plate armor made of

The joints at the arms and legs of full plate army were designed to be flexible allowing for a reasonable amount of movement. Skilled craftsmen made plate armor and knights would choose different parts of medieval plate armor that fitted together well and fitted their particular build. Very wealthy Knights could select high quality armor that was specially made for them, and there was also a demand for fashionable plate armor.

Wealthy Knights could also have highly decorated and engraved plate armor and it would also be a good decision to make the design of the helmet look as fearsome as possible.

There were many options available during the medieval period for plate armor as long as you had the money available. This was a part of plate armor that protected the thigh area, there was also an obvious need to create armor for the bend in the knee and a guard or poleyn was added to the Cruisse that allowed flexibility in this area.

This plate armor part was designed to protect the hand as it was one of the most vulnerable parts of a knights body, however knights needed flexibility in finger joints to be able to grasp their heavy weapons, therefore six or seven tiny plates covered the finger and were added to the Gaunlet and multiple plates were also added around the wrist area to allow good movement of the wrists.

The foot was also very vulnerable part of a knights body as medieval weapons could easily crush the fragile bones of the Foot.

The Sabaton was made using a series of multiple plates joined together that offered some flexibility in the foot area whilst also protecting it completely. Sabatons were basically metal shoes and usually ended in a point, again there was some fashion element to the designs and wealthy medieval knights would customize the design to keep up with the late. Look at the splendid detail and workmanship on this medieval Italian plate armor. Detailed image of a German knights shoulder and arm plate armour.

For example, soft armor made of silk was tried on a small scale based on Japanese designs, but this material did not last well under the harsh environmental conditions. Malcolm C. He thought that many wounds he was treating could have been prevented by some kind of light armor. In he was awarded the Legion of Merit for developing the flak vest. Unfortunately, flak jackets proved to be too bulky for wear within the confines of the RAF's standard bomber aircraft , the Avro Lancaster.

Japanese iron helmet and armour with gilt bronze decoration, Kofun period, 5th century. Tokyo National Museum. The first plate armour was that of bronze, being worn by elite soldiers in Greek armies in particular. Bronze, whilst easier to work with, was much less commonly available requiring copper and tin, which are almost never found in close proximity. Iron was, however, adequate enough for the task, eventually becoming more popular because of its strength as well as its far greater availability to be used in the advanced militaries of Europe and the Middle East.

Gradually methods of making steel were perfected and steel replaced iron in most capacities except munition armour. Steel was continually being made stronger and thicker to protect from bullets but eventually the needed protection was too heavy and expensive for most troops. In the 20th century titanium and super-hardened "ballistic steel" came to be used for trauma plates.

Eventually ceramic plates made from aluminium oxide and silicon carbide were introduced as well. Military Wiki Explore. Popular pages. Project maintenance. Register Don't have an account? Plate armour. Edit source History Talk 0. Further information: Lorica segmentata , Manica armguard , and Coat of plates. Further information: Gothic plate armour. Further information: Maximilian armour and Gendarme historical.

Further information: munition armour and Almain rivet. Stechzeug ; note that the parts protecting the lower body and the legs were incorporated as part of the horse armour not shown. Armour designed for the Kolbenturnier , dated to the s. The Kolbenturnier was a late form of the tournament , unlike the joust played with two teams using wooden clubs Kolben to hit opponents' helmet crests. Main article: Japanese armour. Retrieved 23 February Martin's Press. ISBN Middle Ages: Armor.

Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved November 26, The Wars of the Roses. Osprey Publishing. Cavalry: The History of Mounted Warfare. Brassey's Book of Body Armor. Potomac Books, Incorporated. Russell Robinson, Courier Dover Publications, , page Types of flack jackets used by the U. Armour types. Ceramic plate Doron Plate. Banded mail. Category:Medieval armour Category:Personal armour.

Categories Pages with broken file links All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from November Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia Medieval armour Early Modern armour Personal armour Western plate armour Add category. Cancel Save. Universal Conquest Wiki. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Plate armour. While its early form was rather cuplike, it remained under direct influence of civilian costume, and later examples are somewhat more pointed upward.

It was, however, not typically worn with armor for use on horseback; first, because it would get in the way, and second, because the armored front bow of the war saddle usually offered enough protection for the groin area.

Thus the codpiece is usually found on armor used for fighting on foot, both in war and tournament, and, although of some protective value, it has always been as much an element of fashion as one of defense. One of the most enduring and popular images of a medieval warrior is that of a Viking , made immediately recognizable by his helmet adorned with a pair of horns. There is, however, little evidence to suggest that Vikings ever used horns as decoration for their helmets.

The earliest use of a pair of stylized horns as a crest appears to be the small group of helmets surviving from the Celtic Bronze Age, particularly in Scandinavia and the area of modern-day France, Germany, and Austria. These crests were embossed out of bronze, and could take the shape of two horns or of a flattened triangular profile, sometimes both. These helmets probably date to the twelfth or eleventh century B. Two thousand years later, from about onward, pairs of horns again became popular throughout Europe and remained one of the most widely used heraldic crests on helmets for battle and tournament alike during the later Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

It is easy to see that neither of these periods coincides with the period usually associated with the Scandinavian raids of the late eighth to the late eleventh century.

Helmets used by Viking warriors were usually of conical or hemispherical shape, sometimes made from a single piece of metal, sometimes constructed of segments held together by connecting metal lames Spangenhelme. A number of them appear to have been fitted with a face defense. The latter could be in the form of a simple metal bar extending over the nose nasal , or a faceplate comprising a nasal with additional protection for the eyes and upper cheekbones made of plate, or finally, a full protection of the entire face and neck made of mail.

Generally speaking, the above statement is correct as long as it is stressed that it was the ever-increasing efficiency of firearms, not firearms as such, that led to an eventual decline of plate armor on the battlefield.

Since the first firearms appear to have been in use in Europe as early as the third decade of the fourteenth century , and the gradual decline of armor is not noticed before the second half of the seventeenth century, firearms and plate armor coexisted for more than years. During the sixteenth century, attempts had been made to render armor bulletproof, either by hardening the steel or, more commonly, by thickening the armor or adding separate reinforcing pieces on top of the normal field armor.

Finally, it should be noted that armor as such has never become entirely obsolete. Moreover, even body defenses have lived on in the shape of the experimental breastplates of the American Civil War, the breastplates of airplane gunners during World War II, and the bulletproof vests worn today. Medical and anthropological research demonstrates that the average height of men and women has gradually increased over the centuries, a process that, for reasons of progressively better diet and public health, has accelerated during the past years or so.

The majority of surviving armors from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries appear to confirm these findings. However, when trying to affirm such generalizations from armor, a number of factors need to be carefully considered.

First, is the armor complete and homogeneous i. Moreover, then as now, other general factors have to be taken into account, such as differences in average body height between northern and southern Europeans for example, or the simple fact that there have always been people who were exceptionally tall or short when compared to their average contemporary. Among the famous exceptions are royal examples such as Francis I, king of France r.

Neither armor is complete, and the sizes of the former owners are necessarily broad estimates, yet the differences in size and stature are remarkable: while the owner of the first armor was probably around 6 feet 4 inches ca. As most people were expected to be right-handed, most strikes or thrusts were anticipated to come from the left, thus hopefully glancing off the armor, across the overlap, toward the right.

Although this theory is persuasive, not enough continuous evidence exists to support the notion that modern-day male clothing was directly influenced by such armor. In fact, although the defensive theory may in general be true for medieval and Renaissance armor, a number of genuine helmets and body armor overlap the other way round right over left.

As with the wearing of armor, not everyone who carried a sword was a knight. The custom, or even the right, to wear a sword varied according to time, place, and changing regulations. Throughout medieval Europe, swords were the chief weapon of knights and mounted men-at-arms. In times of peace, however, generally speaking only noblemen were allowed to carry a sword in public. An exception to this rule was granted to travelers citizens, merchants, even pilgrims due to the inherent dangers of travel by land and sea.

Within the walls of most medieval cities, however, the carrying of swords was generally prohibited for everyone—sometimes even nobility—at least during times of peace. Standardized measures for the trade, usually attached prominently to medieval churches or city halls, often also included examples of the permissible length of daggers or swords that could be carried inside city walls without fear of penalty.

It is undoubtedly due to such regulations that the sword was transformed into an exclusive symbol of both the warrior class and knightly status. Yet, due to social changes and newly evolved fighting techniques during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it became gradually acceptable for civilians and noblemen alike to carry the lighter and thinner successor of the sword, the rapier, as an everyday weapon for self-defense in public.

Indeed, until the early nineteenth century, rapiers and smallswords became an indispensable dress accessory for the European gentleman. The reasons for these allegations are easily explained. Due to the rarity of genuine specimens, few people have ever handled a medieval or Renaissance sword. Furthermore, practically all of these swords—with rare exceptions—are in excavated condition.

Their corroded appearance today, which can easily give the impression of crudity, can be compared to that of a burnt-out car, having lost all signs of its former glory and sophistication. The majority of genuine medieval and Renaissance swords tell a different story. Whereas a single-handed sword on average weighed 2—4 lbs. With the length of the blade skillfully counterbalanced by the weight of the pommel, these swords were light, sophisticated, and sometimes beautifully decorated.

As illustrated by documents and works of art, such a sword, in the hands of a skilled warrior, could be used with terrible efficiency, capable of severing limbs and even cutting through armor. Swords as well as some daggers, whether European, Islamic , or Asian , often have one or more grooves extending down one or both sides or faces of the blade. Consequently, such grooves should correctly be referred to as either a groove or a fuller, or by another appropriate technical term. On a number of European edged weapons, such as swords, rapiers, and daggers as well as some staff weapons, these grooves show elaborately cut and pierced perforations.

Similar perforations can be found on Indian and Near Eastern edged weapons. First, the perforations resulted in a loss of material and accordingly served to make the blade lighter. If further proof is wanted, one only need point to the fact that the majority of these perforations are usually found near the hilt grip and guard of the weapon and not closer to the blade, as one would expect were the weapon to carry poison.

Breiding, Dirk H. Visiting The Met? Mail Shirt Bechler. Parrying Dagger. Misconceptions and Questions Relating to Armor 1.