Most retro or adventure games tend to categorize armour as Light, Medium, and Heavy. And it's almost always leather, chain, or plate mail with a spattering of nonsense such as studded leather or banded mail or splint mail.
In the real world, armour can usually be divided based on its construction into three groups:
- Soft armour, that is quilted fabric and leather that has not been subjected to any hardening process.
- Mail, that is a defense of interlinked metal rings.
- Plate, of metal, cuir-bouili (leather hardened by soaking in heated wax), whalebone, or horn. This group can be subdivided according to whether it is composed of:
- large plates articulated only where necessary for the movement of body and limbs.
- smaller plates riveted or sewn to fabric to produce a completely flexible defense (the so-called coat-of-plates construction).
- small plates joined together by a complex system of lacing (the so-called lamellar construction).
What follows is an armchair look at some classic armor throughout European history. While there are a plethora of other armour types in the world to take inspiration from (which still largely conform to the above constructions), I think the following will help with the types of armor you see in the standard Vanilla Fantasy setting with knights and dragons and castles and such.
After all, when was the last time you had a brigandine or a coat-of-plates in your game? And if you did have a brigandine did you make it worse than so-called 'chainmail' hmmmm?
1000-1300: The Age of Mail
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| Art from the Maciejowski Bible |
Indeed, the equipment and appearance of twelfth- and early thirteenth-century knights and men-at-arms from England would have differed little from those of their French, German, or Italian counterparts. - Dirk H. Breiding
Quilted armours were certainly in use by the second half of the 12th century. The terms pourpoint, aketon, and gambeson are used as very loose and likely interchangeable terms. While it is difficult to determine exactly, it seems likely that:
- Pourpoint was a general term covering any type of quilted defense.
- Aketon was a plain quilted coat usually worn under armour.
- Gambesons are made of silk or rich material, decorated, and usually worn as independent defenses or surcoats.
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| Arms and armour straight from the Bayeux Tapestry. |
Concerning mail, such armour would comprise a mail shirt with attached hood and gauntlets, as well as mail leggings (chausses). On top of these a long flowing tunic (surcoat) could be worn, which was often girded with a belt, while a helmet (usually a so-called pot helm or barbiere, or a war hat) provided additional protection for the head. In all but the helmet, this appearance closely mirrored the civilian costume worn throughout Europe at the time. It is during the later part of the thirteenth century that regional differences in armour, especially the defenses for the arms and legs, begin to appear in France, England, Italy, and the Holy Roman Empire.
1300-1400: The Introduction of Plate
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| Graham Turner. Note the coat-of-plates construction. |
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| Graham Turner. Note the brigandine construction w/ arming cords. Chaining your weapons to you makes a good deal of sense for the average adventurer I'd say! |
In terms of the technical development of European armour, the fourteenth century is often referred to as the “age of experimentation.” Mail armour was being reinforced with a range of additional defenses of varying shapes and construction for different parts of the body, ultimately leading to the development of the complete suit of plate armour in the following century. - Cluade Blair
A cloth or leather garment lined with metal plates, often worn between the surcoat and hauberk, was the most widely used type of body-defense throughout the 14th century. Often called the coat-of-plates, it was known as pair of plates, hauberk of plates, cote à plates, or simply plates.
From the last decade of the 13th century, references to it become increasingly common until after c. 1320 there is hardly any inventory, account, or will that does not include one or more examples.
By c. 1330 plate defenses had been devised for all the main parts of the body and were in general, if not universal use.
To summarize the arming of the 'up-to-date' knight of c. 1330:
"The knight, having donned a close-fitting shirt, short breeches, and hose, proceeded first to the arming of his legs with mail chausses, gamboised cuisses with poleyns attached, schynbalds or greaves, sabatons and spurs. After these he donned his aketon, his hauberk or haubergeon with the vambraces and besagews attached to the sleeves, and his coat of plates. A surcoat or gambeson was then put over everything followed by a narrow waistbelt and the sword-belt, which usually hung very slackly round the hips. Finally, but probably not until action was imminent, the gauntlets and the bascinet with its aventail were put on." - Claude Blair
The coat of plates in the form of a surcoat reinforced with vertical plates remained in use until well into the third quarter of the 14th century.
A development from the coat of plates that remained in general use until the 17th century was the brigandine. After c. 1397, 'brigandines' are found with increasing frequency in the texts of most European countries.
1400-1500: The Great Period
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| Illustration from a 15th-century manuscript showing horsemen wearing bascinets with the rounded visor used from c. 1410. |
"At the beginning of this period, by about 1420, the development of full plate armour—a defense enclosing almost the entire body with a system of steel plates articulated by rivets and leather straps—was complete." - Claude Blair
Indeed, the century following the first emergence of the completely developed white armour in the second decade of the of 15th century saw the full flowering of the armourer's art.
Since the larger surfaces afforded by plate armour now allowed for an entire harness and its elements to be more individually shaped and decorated than armour of previous periods, such characteristics gave rise to distinctive styles and fashions of certain nationalities.
By far the largest manufacturers of armour were Italy and Germany, and the respective tastes and styles disseminating from the armour-making centers of southern Germany and northern Italy dominantly influenced the styles and fashions of most other regions throughout western Europe.
All countries continued to use mail, both as a supplement to plate and as a separate defense. From the second quarter of the 15th century it became less common for a complete haubergeon to be worn under the armour. Instead, pieces of mail were attached by points to the arming-doublet to protect those places not covered by plate.
The brigandine was widely used by all classes throughout the 15th and 16th centuries.
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| Helmet (Basinet) with Detachable Visor, ca. 1420-30.
One of the most widely used head defenses of the fourteenth century, the bascinet went out of general fashion soon after 1400. |
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| Visored Bascinet, ca. 1450. German. |
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| Italian "white armour" from 1450 that stands out due to its full body steel plating and plating over the joints. |
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| Gothic Armour, late 15th century. |
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| Graham Turner. Armour of a condottiere, late 15th century. |
1500-1600: A Brief Look At The Sixteenth Century
"Even now the armoured horseman was not displaced immediately and he was to maintain a considerable measure of his former importance until the second half of the 16th century. Indeed, to the armourer the Italian Wars must have appeared as a completely unmixed blessing for theybrought about a greatly increased demand for completed armours of fine quality accompanied by an even greater demaned for munition armours. For the first time [...] the armourers began to produce light harnesses specially designed for use by the infantry and light and medium cavalry. If then the first half of the 16th century was the last period in which full armour was worn in the field as a matter of course it was by no means the least productive [...]" - Claude Blair
There is an abundance of armour from this period that survive for study and appreciation, the most relevant I can think of for adventure games being the cheap, mass-produced munition armors so common in this period. I'll let some pictures and examples do the talking here.
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| Horse Armor Made for Johann Ernst, Duke of Saxony-Coburg (1521–1553), dated 1548. Kunz Lochner. German. |
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| Closed Burgonet, ca. 1525-30. Attributed to Kolman Helmschmid. German.
This helmet combines features common to burgonets, notably the projecting peak and falling buffe, with close-helmet construction, in which all elements of the face defense pivot together at the sides of the bowl. Closed burgonets in the fluted style are particularly rare. This finely made example is etched in the manner of Daniel Hopfer (1471–1536) of Augsburg and may have been made by Kolman Helmschmid, the leading armorer of his generation, with whom Hopfer seems to have been associated. |
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Maximillian Armor, ca. 1520 and later. German, Nuremburg.
At the turn of the sixteenth century, German armorers abandoned the slender lines of the late Gothic style and adopted the fuller, more rounded forms favored in Italy. In the new style, the shallow parallel channels that covered almost the entire armor were not only decorative but actually strengthened the metal. This is often referred to as "Maximilian style" because it was introduced during the time of Emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519). Fluted armor appears to have been a specialty of Nuremberg.
On this armor the two-piece construction of the breastplate and its pierced decoration, while standard on German Gothic armors, is highly unusual for this period. The waistplates and tassets (upper thigh defenses) are of a later date. The breastplate is stamped with the maker's mark: in a shield, a half lion or a bear above the letters L.B.
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| Brigandine, ca. 1540-50. Italian. |
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| Brigandine, ca. 1540-50. Italian. |
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| Elements of a Light-Cavalry Armor, ca. 1505-10. Christian Schreiner the Younger. Austrian. |
1600-1700: A Brief Look At The Seventeenth Century
The age of the Chonk. Not too many of my games approach this type of period with European-inspired arms and armour so mainly just some cool pictures.
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| Cuirassiers battle during the Thirty Years War. |
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| A Man in Armor from Harvard Art Museums |
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| Three-quarter Armor, 17th century. German. |
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| Cuirassier Armor, ca. 1610-30. Italian, Milan, or Brescia.
The construction and build of this armor are typical of a cuirassier’s harness, a type developed toward the end of the sixteenth century in response to the growing use and efficiency of firearms. The advent of firearms caused armorers to increase the thickness and weight of plates and to supplement them with separate reinforcing plates. Before an armor of this type was finished, it was fired at with a pistol or musket to test its effectiveness against bullets, and the bullet dents were left as a guarantee of the strength and quality of its steel. This particular armor retains two reinforces with such dents, a rarely encountered plate for the back of the helmet bowl, and a plackard for the breastplate; it formerly possessed a third plate for the front of the visor. Weighing more than eighty-six pounds, it is one of the heaviest field armors known.
Although generally conforming to the construction of cuirassier harnesses worn throughout Europe about 1600 to 1640, this example is more characteristic of northern Italian (Milan or Brescia) workmanship. The armor’s weight, its reinforcing plates, and the deep “proof marks” provide a vivid reminder of the constant struggle to adapt armor to changes in tactics and weaponry as well as fashion. |
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| Infantry Armor, ca. 1600. German, Nuremgerg
The armorers of Nuremberg were famous for their ability to produce large quantities of plate armor relatively quickly. In the second half of the sixteenth century, they specialized in making high-quality infantry armors with simple but bold decoration in the form of bright bands that contrast with the black-painted surfaces. This late example is typical of these armors for its open-faced helmet (burgonet) and plates covering only the upper half of the arms, the torso, and the legs from the hips to the knees. The blackened surfaces presumably rendered the armor less susceptible to rust, so that it required little maintenance. |
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| Half Armor, ca. 1610-20. Attributed to Martin Schneider the Younder. German.
Although made in Nuremberg, this cavalryman’s armor is an unusual mix of different regional styles. The helmet is based on an eastern European type known as the Zischägge, which was inspired by Turkish examples. The pauldrons (shoulder defenses) with their overlapping, fanlike plates are of a type associated with Swiss armors of the period.
The armor is stamped with the Nuremberg mark and an armorer’s mark—a shield containing the letters MSI above a pair of shears—that has been attributed to Martin Schneider the Younger.
Despite its relative plainness, the armor is very well made. It would have been worn by a cavalryman equipped with a sword, a pair of pistols, and possibly a carbine (a short form of musket). |
Conclusion, Sources & Links
In conclusion, more brigandines in games. And put some respect on them!
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I disagree
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