Arms and Armor of the Knights

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Arms and Armor of  
The Knights


Knights, Armor, Weapons, Horses 

•Chain Mail was a very common choice of defense in medieval times
•Chain Mail is a type of armor or jewelry that has small metal rings linked together to form a mesh.
•Chain Mail was most often used on the more powerful knights and not as much found on a peasant fighter or farmer because of it’s value
•In Medieval times it was a highly affective defense to the known weapons
•It helped prevent stab wounds, but instead would deliver bruises or could fracture bones.
•Chain Mails flexibility morphed agility with strength, to allow the holder to be very successful in combat
•It was almost only used on humans, but could be occasionally found on the neck of a horse
•Leather armor was most often used on horses for minor protection against spears and daggers
•Leather armor could also be found on other war animals such as elephants
•Piece by piece over the course of the middle ages small plates or disks of steel were added in the most vulnerable places, such as the chest and stomach
•Eventually the elbows and eve3n the underarm were capped with a steel platting
•A small skill cap evolved into a bigger and really true helmet, which was called the bascinet, as it was lengthened downward to protect the back of the neck and the sides of the head
•The most common headpiece  or helmet of the era was the Armet which was developed in Italy in the 15th century
•The typical Armet consited of four pieces: the skull, the two hinged cheek pieces which lock at the front and the visor
•It grew very popular in the 15th and 16th centuries when knights from Europe wore plate armor into battle
•Another common piece of medieval armor was the Barbute whcih was a visor less war helmet of the fifteenth century and was also designed in Italy
•The most common head piece of the 14th and early 15th centuries was the bascinet
•The original bascinet had no visors and was worn underneath larger “great helms”
•The great helm was often discarded during hand to hand combat because it impaired breathing and vision by a significant amount
•After the bascinet became more popular and important in a world of war it developed mall nasals to protect the nose and part of the face after the great helm was discarded
•After the bascinet evolved over the years it developed an appearance of a mussel or a beak and an often removable visor for the fighters preference and environment and was present during the Hundred Years’ War 
•Another advantage of taking off the great helm earlier in a battle was comfort, the pig faced snout of the Bascinet was quite comfortable given the armor of choice 
•One of the most used form of body armor was a cloth garment, usually leather or canvas which has small medal engravings and was mostly used for minor protection of the torso and would deliver a major speed advantage because it was very light 
•A common source of protection for the arms was the Couter, originally it was just a piece of curved medal but was eventually broken into separate parts to compliment the different joints of the arm 
•The source of protection for the feet and shin was usually the Sabaton 
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•My Best Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbute









•In medieval times they had a variety of weapons used including:
Axes
-Battle-axe
-Danish axe
                -Doloire
                -Francisca
                -Mattock
                -Pole-axe (used in battle and foot combat, and used to strike the                 opponents head, poll meaning head, they also used the solid hammer head could concuss people even if they were wearing armor)

•The medieval axe was one of the most fearsome weapon of the medieval age
• It had a variety of different uses in the axe
•- An axe usually had the long curved blade at the top
•It often had a point or a tip at the top of the ax just above the curved blade for concussion damage
•Most of the time it was used, it would be used as a close range weapon
•Most axes had  some kind of tool at the bottom to puncture or to pierce
•They did have an axe called the throwing axe which was lighter than a battle axe and had to be a very well balanced weapon


Daggers and knives

                -Baselard
                -Cinquedea
                -Dirk
                -Ear Dagger
                -Großes Messer 
                -Machete
                -Mercygiver
                -Poniard
                -Rondel
                -Scramasax
                -Seax
                -Stiletto
                -Sword breaker
•Daggers were used more in the 14th century by knights
•The rondel dagger was the typical knights and it was carried in a decocted leather sheath
•In general, a dagger is a double edged blade that is used for stabbing or thrusting 
•They often fulfill the role of a secondary defense weapon in close combat.
•They were antically made out of flint, bones, ivory
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•Daggers and knives were first used in the Bronze Age which was in 1000B.C. 
•Historically, knives and daggers were always considered secondary or even tertiary weapons.


Swords

                -Arming sword
                -Broadsword
                -Claymore
                -Cutlass 
                -Falchion
                -Flamberge
                -Foil (fencing)
                -Longsword
                -Rapier
                -Sabre
                -Spatha
                -Shortsword
                -Two-handed sword  
•Of all the weapons used during the medieval times, the sword is the most religious and important.
• It was by no means the most often used of the hand weapons used in battle.
•This was mainly due to the expense of attaining and maintaining a sword. 
•Medieval swords were mainly used by medieval knights. 
•The infantry would primarily make use of polearms, this weapon being held by some to have been of far more use than a sword in expert hands, but if the polearm formation broke down or a polearm itself was broken, it was the sword, which was relied on for close quarters combat.

Bows and Arrows:

                -Longbow 
                -Short bow
                -Flat bow 
                -Composite bow
                -Crossbow 


•The Longbow was usually made of a slice of yew wood around the hight of the archer himself
•The longbow was usually used for long range shooting
•The person who uses the bow is called the archer
•These bows needed to pull at least 80 pounds and many others were far more powerful
•Arrows from longbows could fly 1000 feet (300 meters) which meant that an enormous amount of arrows could be dropped on an advancing enemy




Medieval Horse Armor 
•Horse armor called Barding (also spelled bard or barb). 
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•The most costly and important type of horse for knights was the “destrier” or war horse. They were about the size of a modern heavy hunter. 
•By the 13th century knights usually had at least two war horses, a courser was a swift hunting horse, a travel horse; called a palfrey that was well-bred, easy-paced, 
• Fachno in Milan.
•Some others are on display at the Wallace Collection in London, and the Royal Armories in Leeds. 
•Since horses were so important and expensive knights wanted to take good care of them.
•It was considered not chivalrous to injure an opponent’s horse since it was a valuable trophy to be captured, instead of something to destroy and you would be disqualified in a tournament for it. 
• However in battle horses were easy targets for archers who wanted to beat the knight on top, this tactic was effective for the English at the Battle of Crécy in the fourteenth century where archers shot horses so the French knights were forced to dismount so heavy infantry could kill them. 
•Because of this around the 12th or 13th century the first trappings were introduced as protection from such missiles such as arrows and rocks. 
•They were first made of fabric, then hard-boiled leather, then later mail, as men’s armor progressed. Only the richest knights could afford to buy steel plates as armor. 
•If a knight had enough money for any part of armor they would choose the most important part of the outfit- a head piece. The head piece that protected the face was called a Champron. Sometimes this included hinged cheek plates or- in decorative ones a rondel with a small spike in the center of the forehead. 

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•Champrons originated in ancient Greece but only began to be used by knights in the 12th century. The same basic design was used until the 17th century although later ones often had engraved decoration as they were used more and more for show. 
•It extended from the horse’s ears to its muzzle with flanges to cover the eyes. In an open champron however the eyes had no protection. In jousting tournaments hinged extensions were attached to cover the jowls. 
•The Crinet or Criniere protected the neck. In full barding this was two sets of segmented lames that pivoted on loose rings, one set covered the mane and the other covered the crest of the neck, connecting the Peytal and the Champron.
• Light barding used only the upper lames, three straps held the Crinet in place around the horse’s neck and sometimes chain mail was fixed to the Crinet and wrapped around the neck for extra protection. 
• It is thought that thin metal was used for these plates.
•Peytral for the chest of the horse sometimes stretched as far back as the saddle.
•Flanchards were used to protect the flanks; it was attached to the side of the saddle, then around the front and rear of the horse and back to the saddle again. They appear from the examples found to have been metal plates riveted to leather or in some cases cuirboille armor, which is boiled or treated leather that is sealed with beeswax or something close. 
•They sometimes had openings in the Flanchards for spur use by the rider.
•The hind quarters were protected by the Croupiere added in the 15th century. It could be made from any combination of leather, chain, or plate. 
•In the 15th century when armor became more of a showy thing at tournaments they used caparisons.
•Caparisons were cloth covers that sometimes covered the entire horse from nose to tail and extended to the ground. From paintings it is hard to tell however how much is actually supported underneath with metal. Textile covers may also be referred to as barding. 
•Another commonly used piece of horse armor was on the reins, metal plates riveted to them or chain mail linked around them kept them from being cut in the thick of battle. 

Sources:
-http://www.ruble-enterprises.com/horse.htm 
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barding
-http://www.answers.com/topic/list-of-medieval-weapons
-http://www.medievalplus.com/weapons/swords.html 
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbute
-www.hunter-ed.com 

Good Websites & Books: http://www.knightsandarmor.com
http://www.medieval-castle-siege-weapons.com/index.html
http://www.realarmorofgod.com/medieval-era.html
Medieval warfare - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/


Eyewitness Books By Christopher Gravett: Knight 
Published by Alfred A Knopf, Inc


Medieval Horse Armor
 
•Flanchards were used to protect the flanks; it was attached to the side of the saddle, then around the front and rear of the horse and back to the saddle again. They appear from the examples found to have been metal plates riveted to leather or in some cases cuirboille armor, which is boiled or treated leather that is sealed with beeswax or something close.
•They sometimes had openings in the Flanchards for spur use by the rider.
•The hind quarters were protected by the Croupiere added in the 15th century. It could be made from any combination of leather, chain, or plate. 
•In the 15th century when armor became more of a showy thing at tournaments they used caparisons.
•Caparisons were cloth covers that sometimes covered the entire horse from nose to tail and extended to the ground. From paintings it is hard to tell however how much is actually supported underneath with metal. Textile covers may also be referred to as barding. 
•Another commonly used piece of horse armor was on the reins, metal plates riveted to them or chain mail linked around them kept them from being cut in the thick of battle.