Armor II- (Western) Plate Armor

This is a follow-up to the Armor Basics post in which I will discuss some of the peculiarities of plate armor.

The advantage of plate armor is that it distributes the energy of a blow over a wide area. Effectively mitigating harm. Plate armor can be made from a variety of materials, and some materials are better than others. But as a general rule, it takes a well-delivered blow from a specialized weapon to break or penetrate plate armor. (or a gun)
 Plate armor is also rather relatively light. I know most rules sets completely ignore this, but the truth  is that it is lighter to cover an area with a single plate than with many overlapping scales or platelets.

The challenge of plate armor is configuring and designing it. Plates are necessarily rigid, so the pieces must be arranged in such a way that they cover the wearer, but do not bind or clash with each other. As armor developed, it was discovered that there are very specific ways to manage this.

But before we can discuss this, we need some terminology for anatomy of armor.

Many of these terms are accepted as specialized or formal terms for armor bits in English. But they are simply French for that part of the body; gorget or cuisse for instance. So be careful when googling "cuisses" at work.

 

Articulation of Joints

One challenge of building plate armor is how to cover the joints of the body. Long straightaways such as the rib-cage or the shins were easy enough to figure out. But it took a couple centuries to figure out the best ways to articulate armor for shoulders and elbows.

 

Armorers have a few general options for covering joints:

They could leave them bare. This is a good  option for propmakers or artists for whom the notion of armor is more important than the function of armor.

 

But it is not much more difficult to shroud the joint by creating a flaring extension from a straightaway piece.

Take for instance these bazubands by Torvadr's Leatherworks. Bazubands are a bracer with a cup-like extension to protect the elbow. They are of Near-Eastern origin. These particular Bazubands have very pronounced shrouds in order to conform to armor standards for SCA combat.


The next option is to buckle some sort of cup-like piece over the joint. Such a cup is called a poleyn when on the knee, a couter on the elbow or a pauldron on the shoulder. "copps" is a generic term used for rigid elbow or knee coverings.

Such simple copps can be buckled around the joint, strapped to an adjacent bracer or greave or pointed onto an underlayer of maille or padding.

The most advanced option however, is to attach the copp to the straightaway piece with a series of overlapping lames: (la-may) curved plates riveted together in such a way as to allow for a hinging action, while enclosing the gap between the pieces they are bridging. 

 

 

The saddle is armored as well to protect the inside of the midsection and leg

 

Above is a detail from a suit of armor from the late 1500s. I had the opportunity to view it in person recently at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City. There were two complete suits- one thought to be specifically for a horseman and another more adaptable to fighting on foot.

 

Here is the horseman:

 

 

Notice the rich etchings and brass ornamentation on the armor. Not only was this a technically advanced suit, but it was made to be richly ostentatious.

 

Next to the Horseman is the footman. His armor is also richly decorated, but not quite so much as the horseman. Your humble author stands nearby for size comparison, as close as he may without getting into trouble.

Now this is what gets me: I am a small man, yet these suits seem to be just about my size. They say that people were generally smaller back in the day. But I thought this only applied to the underclasses whose diets may have been rather poor. Presumably, if someone can afford armor like this, they can afford the food to grow to their genetic potential. Also, if someone cares to invest in such gear, they are enough of an athletic specimen to put it to good use. 

What gives? Did Western society simply start breeding for size after the Renaissance? Perhaps it was a matter of medical care. Even the nobility would have been subject to diseases which may have generally stunted growth.

 

 

 

How do they know the footman is a footman?

Even the footman's armor has a lance-rest attached to the breastplate. It is believed that this was a later addition. But his hands and feet hint that he was not originally planning to do his fighting on horseback.

While the horseman has fully articulated sabatons to armor his feet, the footman has a maille covering and a steel toe. This maille was made of flattened links of rather small diameter. They did not appear to be riveted. But the narrowness of the weave would lend it a good deal of strength. These links are not going to bust easily.

The footman's armor also features mitten gauntlets, which would offer better protection than the horseman's gauntlets. The horseman's gauntlests have overlapping scales covering the fingers. This suggests that he was planning on using a two-handed weapon, rather than a lance and shield, both of which would effectively protect the hand.

 

The Helms

Both of these knights have very similar styles of helmet. Helms of this type are called an armet. Armets are distinguished by how they fit closely to the head, even around the chin and neck. such helms are not simply slipped on over the head, but have side-plates which hinge down and lock into place. I'm not sure this is a great idea for most applications, since I can feature situations where you'd want to get your helmet off quickly. Both helms have a ridge running over the top. This shape strengthens the helmet overall.  I am particularly impressed by how these helmets hide the face and eyes of the wearer. It creates an intimidating, mysterious effect.  when a person wears such a helmet, it is like they are making the statement that they have left the realm of normal human discourse. 

 

Gorget

French for "throat," a gorget is simply a rigid piece of armor for protecting the neck. The Armets which these knights are wearing have integrated gorgets.  In the footman's configuration, this upper gorget floats over a lower gorget which rests on the breastplate. It might seem excessive to have two gorgets, but these armors are adapted for jousting, where such precautions are reasonable. The horsesman's armet reduces to his neck, and its rim covers the top of his main gorget, which is elaborately articulated. 

This metal was not thick.

On close examination, it was only what we would call 16-18 gauge (0.065 to 0.05 inches thick) Naturally, making it much thicker would make it overly heavy to wear, and difficult to work. Now, a piece of thin steel laid out flat is easily punctured, even if it is very good steel. But what lent this plate its protective power was its clever shaping. A curved surface has more structural integrity than a flat one. The armor is also ridged to increase the structural strength and to create angles which deflected most blows. It was a good trick to get a solid blow on well-made armor.

 

The footman's pauldron and spaulders: The pauldron curves widely and shrouds the armpit and shoulder-blades, even when the shoulder is raised or extended. It has an opening out the side from which the spaulders depend. This allow the arm to be lifted.  You may see here how rather thin is the metal.

The Horseman's shoulder and arm defense. The configuration here is very similar. In both suits, the pauldrons are asymmetrical- with the left being larger than the right. This is a concession to jousting, where the upper left torso is the target area.

The Cuirass
Or breastplate- this is the central element of most armors. It has to be shaped rather conservatively in order to not interfere with movement. It can really only extend down to the level of the wearer's navel, or else it binds against the hips. Across the chest, it can only be about as wide as will cover the wearer's nipples. extending any wider will prevent full rotation of the shoulder. A good pauldron will cover this gap. Similarly, it cannot ride too high or it will choke the wearer.


Here is another cuirass at the Nelson Atkins- not so fancy or prominently displayed. But astoundingly considerate of practicality.
The ridges across the breast strengthen the piece. Around the neck it flares out to accompany a gorget or maille collar.
Around the front of the shoulder is another articulated plate to accommodate the movement of the shoulder. The flared collar and shoulder-plate suggest to me that this was not meant to be worn with a lot of  other pieces like pauldrons or gorgets.

The breastplate cinches in around the waist, then flares out The wide articulated plates which depend from this flaring are called faulds- literally, the skirt. The plates which depend from the fauld to cover the thigh are called tassets.

The footman is wearing a peascod-style breastplate. peascod style is defined by the protrusion over the navel. This protrusions creates a sort of conical surface which helps to deflect incoming blows. The peascod protrudes away from the belly to prevent binding when bending forward.  It also flares out, but eliminates the fauld and transitions directly into the tassets.

Meanwhile, a century earlier:
We can see some differences of style in this depiction of St. George, the Dragonslayer.

 



 

I particularly like his hair.

 

Here is a detail of the body and arms:

 

We have a lot of similarities: Neatly articulated knees and elbows, articulated fingers in the gauntlet.

Notably absent are the elaborate pauldrons and spaulders which the horseman and footman sport. It seems that such elaborate, large pauldrons hadn't been developed yet. Spaulders and shoulder-copps  had been developed. But St. George is wearing a rather common configuration: a maille coif with besegews. Besegews are the disc-like pieces which protect the front of the shoulder joint. Since they are pointed directly to the inside of the shoulder, they don't interfere with movement.

St. George's breastplate follows similar principles: cinched in the waist, with dependent fauld and tassets, ridges to strengthen and create deflecting angles. But rather than being one piece it appears to be several articulated or riveted plates. The torso armor seems to be based on a placard which covers the lower ribs. The upper plates which cover the upper chest are overlapped by this placard. This seems to have been a common style in the late 1400s. I would guess the reason for making a breastplate out of multiple pieces would have been limitations of the metallurgical technology, it was not yet possible to temper a plate large enough to make a one-piece breastplate with.
Elsewhere, where plate area is not an issue, St. George's armor is essentially the same as that of a century later.

In context:
A full suit of plate would weigh 40 to 60 pounds, including the underlayers of maille or gambeson.
It would have been nearly inaccessible to any but nobility and professional warriors. Armor was a status symbol and would have been an attention grabber. The skills to make it would have been extremely valuable and rare. Stainless steel had not been invented, so metal armors would have required diligent care to keep in good condition. It was suitable to wear in combat, and not much else. So forget about going on a cross-country hike whilst wearing you jousting set.
A high AC is good, but remember that it will costs more than just the upfront cost in GP.