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ARMS AND ARMORS

1/28/2020 0 Comments

14th century Hourglass gauntlet

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A mordern reproduction hourglass gauntlet.

Introduction

In melee combat, it is the hands that ensure the knight on the offensive. If the hands are injured, it leaves the knight at the mercy of the enemy regardless to the quality of the breastplates or helmet. Thus, some form of hand protection is important.

Nevertheless, it was a dilemma for armorers. Any type of hand defense needed to have adequate protection without interfering the use of the hand in wielding weapon. 

Until the 12th century, there was virtually no hand armor. Afterwards, mail (chain mail) was used to create hand armor. In the transitional period of the 14th century, hourglass gauntlet was the dominant form of hand armor.
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There was no hand protection before the 12th century.

Early Form of hand protection: Mail

In the 11th century, knight wore a hauberk (knee-length mail shirt) and a gambeson (aketon, doublet) underneath to protect his arm up to the fore arms, according to the Bayeux Tapestry. The protection to the hand,  which was not mentioned in any literature in this period, was exceptionally rare.  A knights had to relied mainly on shield and weapon's guard to protect his hands. Some observations suggest he might wore leather or padded cloth gloves for defense as these had existed few centuries in Europe.
 
In the late 12th century, mail mittens rose to popularity as the sleeves of the hauberk extended from the elbow until it protect the entire hands. All of the fingers are in a single pouch with a separate compartment for the thumb. The padded cloth or leather palm was slitted, allowing the wearer to removed the mitten without removing the hauberk. 

Mail offered excellent protection against stab and slash weapon. And because of its flexibility, mail mitten did not hinder fighting capability much. 
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Mail mitten on soldiers' hands. The Death of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. Late 12th century.
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Mittens could be taken off without removing the hauberk. 19th century sketch of the brass of Sir Robbert De Septvans (14th century)
In late 13th century, mail mittens became an independent piece of armor called mail gauntlets. In the Effigy of William de Valance, mail gauntlets separated from the hauberk. They protected individual finger; and by giving the wearers the full movement of the wrist, they increased precision and control of weapon. The sketch of the 14th century mail mitten in an effigy in Church of Schutz show the similarity of the mail mitten to our modern glove. It also suggests that knight wore a pair of leather gloves underneath or sometime above mail gauntlets. 
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Effigy of William de Valence, 1298. 19th century sketch.
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Sketch of Mail mitten of the 14th century, based on an effigy of a knight in the Church of Schutz, Alsace

Hour-Glass Gauntlets

In the period of transition in the 14th century, the introduction of plate armors encouraged a new improvement in gauntlets that would remain in the mainstream for the next 100 years. Plate gauntlets were masterfully crafted in such a way that even fit the wearers' hands perfectly down to individual fingers. These new gauntlet were known as hourglass gauntlet because of its hour-glass shape.

There are two variants of the hourglass gauntlets: the demi-gauntlet and the fingered gauntlet

The demi-gauntlet type is the lighter type of the two. It protects from the wrist to the back of the palm. A mail gauntlet or padded glove is used to the protects the palm and fingers. ​
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​The fingered-gauntlet is the most sophisticated gauntlet of its time. It protects the wrist and the entire back of the hand with many steel plates. These plates are carefully measured to perfectly fit individual fingers without restricting their movement in combat. A glove made of leather or padded cloth attached to the inside of fingered-gauntlet by rivets.

The shift from mail gauntlets to hourglass gauntlets was mainly due to better protection. The main advantage of plate armor over mail armor is that its hardness provide much better protection against crush attack. The hourglass gauntlet can reduce and deflect heavy blows from blunt weapons while the flexible mail gauntlet is much vulnerable against them.


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Italian demi-hourglass gauntlet (1371-1399). Royal Armories.
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A pair of fingered hourglass gauntlet. Effigy of Edward the Black Prince. 1376
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1/18/2020 1 Comment

The Bascinet in the 14th century

Introduction: the bascinet

The bascinet was a type of revolutionary knight helmet during the transitional period. It was introduced in Italy in  the first quarter of the 14th century and remain very popular across Europe for the next 200 years. 

The word "bascinet" was derrived from the ancient French word "baycin" - a water basin/bowl. The term was original applicable to any helmet that had hemispherical shape, for example the skullcap Cervelliere. However, bascinet refered to a specific type of helmet that directly evolved from it.

Despite its evolution from a simple and plain Cervelliere, the bascinets developed into one of the most sophisticating European helmets, providing flexible and excellent head protection to the wearers . 

The purpose of this post is to examine the three development in regard to the bascinet
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Soldiers wearing different types of visor-less bascinet. The Silver San Jacopo in the Cathedral of San Zeno, Pistoia, 1376.
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Illustration of soldiers wearing visored bascinets in late 14th century. Batlle of Mons-en Pévèle 1304 from the Chroniques de France ou de St Denis. dated 1398

Bascinet Origin: The Cervelliere

The origin of the bascinet is the  hemispherical steel cap called Cervelliere. It was introduced in the late 12th century to provide protection from the tophead to the forehead of the European soldiers. 

Soldiers either wore it alone or under or over a mail coif. In the 13th century, it became a common practice for knight to wear a Cervelliere under a great helm.
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Overtime, the Cervelliere extended to the neck of the wearer, becoming the first bascinet. 

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The 12th century Cervelliere. The State Hermitage Museum
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Illustration of a soldier wearing a cervelliere underneath a mail coif. The Maciejowski Bible. 1240s.
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Modern illustration of a 13th century knight of Templar's head protection: a cervelliere underneath a mail coif and underneath a greathelm.

1st Development: the Extension to the neck

When the Cervelliere began to extend downward to the neck of the wearer, it became known as the bascinet.
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The earliest surviving bascinet is currently located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (the MET). It was created around the first quarter of the 14th century. Knight stopped wearing this helmet underneath the mail coif. Instead, he wore it over the mail coif as  demonstrated in the effigy of Sir Robert du Bois.

The early bascinet did not have an aventail attached or a visor to protect the wearer's face in comparison to later bascinets.
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It is interesting to note that a series of small holes in the lower part of the 1325 bascinet were not meant to be attached with an aventail (Camail). They are places where the bascinet and the padded lining joint together by sewing. 

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Early Bascinet 1325. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Bascinet over the mail coif.Effigy Sir Robert du Bois Effigy in Fersfield Church Norfolk. 1311.
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The small holes keep the bascinet in position with the padded lining inside.
Overtime, the shape of the bascinet changed significantly in shape and coverage.

The bascinet appearance changed from hemispherical into conical, egged-shaped. It was more pointy, making a direct weapon hit to the head much more difficult due to deflection. 

It covered most the wearer face, down to the chin. The only part it did not cover is the face, allowing the wearer to see better in hand-to-hand combat. 
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Pointy, egg-shaped Italian Bascinet. 1325-50. The MET.
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The visor-less bascinet covers the entire head of the wearer, but not the face area. ca 1350-1400. The MET.

2nd development: Aventails

As the quality of steel in European improved in the transitional period, the mail coif became obsolete. Instead of wearing a bascinet over a mail coif, which was much heavier, knights chose to wear a bascinet with an aventail (camail) attached.
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An aventail is a piece of riveted mail that help provide protection to the wearer neck and upper shoulder. Eventually, the aventail was replaced by a plate armor called gorget in later centuries. Subjects related to the gorget will be discussed in detail in the future posts. 

The effigy of Sir Hugh Despenser created around 1349 is the example of a bascinet with a aventail. There is a clear line on the helmet that was used to attach the aventail to the helmet. 
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A bascinet with an aventail. Effigy of Sir Hugh Despenser, ca 1349.

3rd Development: Face protection

To appreciate the introduction of visored bascinet, it is important to understand the role of helmets in battle. 
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For knights in Europe, there were a need to balance between face protection and field of view in combat. When charging enemies from a far, it was critical to maximize face protection against arrows and powerful thrusts from opponent knight's lances. The great helm in 12th century was designed for such purpose with maximum coverage of the knight's entire head in exchange for very narrow field of vision. 

When engaging in a prolonged hand-to-hand combat, visibility was much more important. A knight who had a tunnel vision would fail to see and counter enemy blows from multiple angles. Before visor was introduced to the bascinet, it was common practice for a knight to wear a great helm over a bascinet when charging the enemy and to remove the helm when in melee.
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A great helm is wore over a bretache bascinet. Viaarmorari
1. The Bretache Bascinet:

The bretache is a nasal guard that attaches to the bascinet. Early bretache was made from riveted mail that connects to a aventail. It evolved to a piece of plate armor as in the illustration of from the monument of Ulrich Land Schaden. Some European knights wore a greathelm over this type of bascinet.
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Effigy of Ulrich Land Schaden 1369.
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Bascinet with a movable nasal plate (left a sketch of Ulrich Land Schaden) and how it cover the nose area (right, modern sketch).
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Modern reproduction of a bretache bascinet. Armstreet.com
2. Visored Bascinet:
The most advanced bascinet type in 14th century was the hounskull (pig-faced) bascinet. Many historical bascinets of this type were well preserved. 

There were two types of visored bascinet depending on how the visor attaches to the helmet. In the Klappvisor, visor was hinged at a single pivot in the center of the brow of the helmet skull.  The double-pivot type the visor was attached to two pivots – one on each side of the helmet. Other than that, there were no significant differences between them. 

The visor was pointy in the nose area, so it could deflect incoming projectiles and weapon blows to the wearer's face. When in hand-to-hand combat, the visor could be lifted or even detached to provide the knight extra needed vision.

It was because of the introduction of the visor, the practice of wearing a great helm over the bascinet was ceased to exist. Knights favored the light-weighted hounskull bascinet in battle while the great helm and its successors stayed in jousting tournaments.

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German Klappvisor Bascinet, ca. 1420–30. The MET
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The double-pivots Bascinet 1371-1399. Royal Armories.

Successors of the Bascinet

The bascinet continued its development in the next centuries into the great bascinet and eventually be replaced by the more advanced armets. The discussion about the great bascinet and armet will be discussed in future posts. 
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Great Bascinet (1510). Royal Armouries
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Armet (1531). The Met.
1 Comment

12/30/2019 0 Comments

The strength of plate armor against arrows in the 14th-15th century

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Introduction

The battle of Agincourt 1415 implanted the idea that it were the skillful English longbowmen that defeated the numerous well-armed French knights. We are led to believe that the longbow was a marvelous technological advance of this period that they could shoot powerful arrows that pierce through plate armor.
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Battle of Agincourt 1415
Sometimes history is not what it really is, but what we want it to be. We understand past events in accordance to what we wish to be. We d over-zealously defend aspects that fit our beliefs and downplay other important aspects.

While the longbow was the subject of popular myths and legends, the importance of the newly addition of plate armors was largely underappreciated. A few decades before the battle, the first plate armors were created to strengthen vulnerable body areas that were already protected by mail (chainmail, maille). Afterwards, it became very popular among European Knights due to its effectiveness even though this significant event was largely ignored by history enthusiasts. 


In 2019, Tod Todeschini gathered a group of world class in their fields of expertise, armour, arrows, shooting and historical context to debunk the myth of the longbows. It is proven that plate armor was very capable of protecting the wearer against the powerful longbow.
The original video can be find here

Set up the experiment

Breastplate:

- The 0.5% carbon steel breastplate was made based on Churburg-Style Armor.
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- It had the thickness of 2.5 mm in the central area, but gradually decreasing to 1.5 mm on the sides.
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- It had the V-shaped pieces to prevent arrows and weaponry from skating to the wearer's neck. 
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- Beneath the breastplate is a layer of riveted maille  and a piece of arming doublet. These layers of protection reflects what knights wore in battle. 
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Armor from The Churburg Castle Armory
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The breastplate. Dr Tobias Capwell (on the right) and armorer Kevin Legg (on the left)
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Breastplate on top. Riveted maille in between. Arming doublet at the bottom.
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Multiple layer of fabric in the arming doublet.
The Longbow and Arrows:
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- The bow that was used for the experiment is a 160lbs (73Kg) mountain yew English Longbow.

- The distance of shooting is 25 m, and 10 m. At 10 m, the arrow delivered the maximum impact on the target, but archers either kept a longer distance or switched to hand-to-hand weapons when the enemy reached this distance.

- The types of armor-piercing arrow were used in subsequent order: (1) wrought iron unhardened arrow, (2) wrought iron case-hardened arrow, and (3) modern steel case-hardened arrow. 

- The longbow and arrow shafts were based on archaeological evidence from the Mary Rose wreckage. The arrowhead was modeled after the surviving arrowhead located in the Museum of London.
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Archer Joe Gibbs and his longbows
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Arrowhead with socket and square point -London Museum type 9. ID: 7568, L 74mm; socket ext DM 10 mm, WT 24.06g. Digital image copyright Museum of London
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Armor-piercing arrowheads. The shafts were black poplar (Populus Nigra) and ash (Fraxinus Excelsior).
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Fletchings were swan, bound with silk into a beeswax, kidney fat and copper verdigris compound.

Observations and results

Experiment 1: Wrought arrow, not hardened, 25 m
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Observation: with the exception of the first arrow, none of the arrows ran through the armor.
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- The first arrow hit the low edge of the breastplate then skated to the mail area that was not protected by the plate. The first arrow pieced through the maille and the gamberson underneath.

- The second and third arrow hit the plate hard, then were defected out the the breast plate
Experiment 2: Wrought iron arrow, case-hardened 25m
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Observation: None of the wrought iron case-hardened arrow penetrated the breastplate.

- The first arrow hit the breastplate hard to the point that the arrowhead was broken.

- The second arrow was deflected by the breastplate
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- The final arrow hit the breastplate the hardest and was knocked back. There was a clear visible big dent on the plate.

Experiment 3: Arrow to the Jupon over the breastplate
French Knight in the period often wear a piece of fabric over the breastplate, called jupon. The jupon significantly altered the projectile of the arrow
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Observation: No arrow pierced through the breastplate. The jupon captured all the arrowheads

- The first arrow hit the center of the breastplate, but did not go through the plate. The arrow was held in place by the jupon

​- The second and third hit the center hard enough to break the arrowheads. In both case, both the arrow shafts were knocked back, leaving the arrowhead in the jupon.  
Experiment 4: Modern Steel case-hardened Arrow head, Distance 10 m (best chance for penetrating breast plate)
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Observation: Not even the modern steel case-hardened arrow could punch through the armor. But it did leave the biggest dent on the breastplate.

Conclusion:

European plate armors in the late 14th and early 15th century were too tough for arrows to pierce through. Even the modern steel case-hardened arrow was ineffective against the plate.

Armor piercing arrows could wound and kill a knight in armor when hitting areas that are not protected by plates. A wrought iron unhardened arrow did pierce through both the maille and the gamberson and hit the gel (represented a human body) behind. 

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A wrought iron unhardened arrow pierced through both the maille and the gamberson.
Credits:
Dr Tobias Capwell - Arms and Armour Curator, The Wallace Collection
Joe Gibbs - Archer and bowyer
https://www.facebook.com/Hillbillybows/
Will Sherman - Fletcher –
http://www.medievalarrows.co.uk
Kevin Legg - Armourer -
http://www.plessisarmouries.co.uk
Chrissi Carnie - Fabric armour –
http://www.thesempster.co.uk
​Tod Todeschini - Host -
http://www.todsworkshop.com http://www.todcutler.com
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12/17/2019 0 Comments

Churburg-Style Armor (14th Century)

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Steel-mastery- Churburg armor set
In the 11th to 13th century, mail (maille or chainmail) armors were the dominant armors in Western Europe.  Knights, Nobles and even kings wore mail in battles as mail armors were very effective against sharp weapons.
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Mail armor in the Crusader Bible. 13th century.
New developments in the 14th century ends the popularity of mail. Mail no longer provided sufficient protection for the wearer. Thus armorers of this period began the transition to plate armor as pieces of plate were used to reinforce in the most vulnerable area of mail armor. 
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Helmet, breastplate, arm armors and gauntlets in Churburg-style.
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Full-plate armor in the 16th century. Nuremberg, Germany.
Compared to mail, these reinforced plates provided much needed protection against all type of weapons, including blunt weapons.  Still, plates did not cover the entire body of the wearer yet, so mail was used to cover these areas. 

Armorers in Northern Italy were in the lead as they produced the most quality plate armors. These armors were so popular that many knights from England, France, Germany and Spain purchased them. 
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The armory of Churburg Castle still preserves a large number of armor pieces in this period. Thus historians often use the term Churburg-Style armor (Churburg Armor for short) for Italian armors made in this period 
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Armor of Ulrich IV von Matsch. Castle Churburg Armory.
The visored bascinet helmet (bascinet for short) was the helmet of choice in the Churburg armor and it remained a solid choice for knights over the next 150 years. Its design helped deflect weapons and projectile attack to the wearer's face and neck. (Click here to know more about the bascinet)
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The "houndskull" visor protected the knight's face by deflecting unexpected and fast moving projectiles like arrows and lances. When fighting in close combat, it was more advantageous for the knight lifted the visor to see things better.

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A bascinet and its unattached visor
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A bascinet with a lifted visor and aventail.
Riveted aventail which attached to the bascinet to provide the protection to the neck and shoulder of the knight. ​In later period, the aventails was also replaced by plate gorgets.
Around 1350s, breastplate was introduced to strengthen the torso area. Compared to later centuries, breastplates in this period did not covered the entire torso. The breastplate had a large central plate riveted together with some small plates warping around the side to the back of the wearer. Leather straps were used to to keep the breastplate in place.  Sometimes, a V-shaped metal piece was riveted to the central plate to stop thrusting weapon sliding to the wearer neck. 

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A modern reproduction of the Central Plate of the 14th century armor with the V-shaped throat protection.
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Smaller plates riveted together and leather straps.
As time passed, plates armor eventually cover the other part of the body, such as arms, hands, and legs. This armor below was restored in 1920 which individual elements (dated in the early 15th century) discovered in the ruins of Venetian fortress on the island of Eubora. The armor is kept in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ​
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