A mail coif is a type of armour which covered the head. A mail coif is a flexible hood of chain mail that extended to cover the throat, neck, and the top part of the shoulders. They were popular with European fighting men of the Middle Ages.
A mail coif is a type of armour which covered the head. A mail coif is a flexible hood of chain mail that extended to cover the throat, neck, and the top part of the shoulders. They were popular with European fighting men of the Middle Ages.
The coif dates from the 10th century, and is a close-fitting cap that covers the top, back, and sides of the head. It was usually made from white linen and tied under the chin. They were everyday wear for lower-class men and women from the 12th to 15th centuries. [1]
Mail originated with the Celts in the 5th century BC. [2] [ page needed ] After the destruction of the Thracians by the Roman Empire, mail came back into fashion as the most common form of battlefield armour much later, during the Middle Ages among European mounted and foot soldiers until the 13th century. [3]
The most common pattern of linking the rings together is the 4-to-1 pattern, where each ring is linked with four others. Historically, the rings composing a piece of mail would be riveted closed to reduce the chance of the rings splitting open when subjected to an attack. In the beginning, European mail was made of alternating rows of round riveted rings and solid rings. By the 14th century, European mail makers stopped using solid rings and mail was made from wedge riveted rings only with no solid rings. [4]
Contrary to depiction in most media, the mail coif was never placed directly on the skull, but onto a thick shock-absorbing padding made from leather, textile, hair, etc. Increased thermal insulation led to faster overheating of the wearer, which was of major concern for armoured combat.
By the late 15th century, the aventail had replaced the mail coif completely. An aventail is a curtain of mail that is attached to the skull of a helmet. The mail extends to cover the throat, neck, and shoulders.
For the word mail, there are a variety of alternative spellings. This is a common English word introduced by the French. Generally, the English spelling has been preferred, which is mail, instead of the lately used maille or the inauthentic term chainmail.
Chain mail is the name of a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. It was in common military use between the 3rd century BC and the 16th century AD in Europe, while continued to be used in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East as late as the 17th century. A coat of this armour is often called a hauberk or sometimes a byrnie.
A hauberk or byrnie is a shirt of mail. The term is usually used to describe a shirt reaching at least to mid-thigh and including sleeves. Haubergeon generally refers to the quilted undergarment used with a hauberk, but the terms are sometimes used interchangeably.
Plate armour is a historical type of personal body armour made from bronze, iron, or steel plates, culminating in the iconic suit of armour entirely encasing the wearer. Full plate steel armour developed in Europe during the Late Middle Ages, especially in the context of the Hundred Years' War, from the coat of plates worn over mail suits during the 14th century.
The sallet was a combat helmet that replaced the bascinet in Italy, western and northern Europe and Hungary during the mid-15th century. In Italy, France and England the armet helmet was also popular, but in Germany the sallet became almost universal.
The bascinet – also bassinet, basinet, or bazineto – was a Medieval European open-faced combat helmet. It evolved from a type of iron or steel skullcap, but had a more pointed apex to the skull, and it extended downwards at the rear and sides to afford protection for the neck. A mail curtain was usually attached to the lower edge of the helmet to protect the throat, neck and shoulders. A visor was often employed from c. 1330 to protect the exposed face. Early in the fifteenth century, the camail began to be replaced by a plate metal gorget, giving rise to the so-called "great bascinet".
An aventail or camail is a flexible curtain of mail attached to the skull of a helmet that extends to cover at least the neck, but often also the throat and shoulders. Part or all of the face, with spaces to allow vision, could also be covered. Some featured a ventail which could be folded over the bottom face and vice versa, much in the same manner as a visor.
A gorget, from the French gorge meaning throat, was a band of linen wrapped around a woman's neck and head in the medieval period or the lower part of a simple chaperon hood. The term later described a steel or leather collar to protect the throat, a set of pieces of plate armour, or a single piece of plate armour hanging from the neck and covering the throat and chest. Later, particularly from the 18th century, the gorget became primarily ornamental, serving as a symbolic accessory on military uniforms, a use which has survived in some armies.
The armet is a type of combat helmet which was developed in the 15th century. It was extensively used in Italy, France, England, the Low Countries and Spain. It was distinguished by being the first helmet of its era to completely enclose the head while being compact and light enough to move with the wearer. Its use was essentially restricted to the fully armoured man-at-arms.
A brigandine is a form of body armour from the Middle Ages. It is a garment typically made of heavy cloth, canvas, or leather, lined internally with small oblong steel plates riveted to the fabric, sometimes with a second layer of fabric on the inside.
A kettle hat, also known as a war hat, is a type of helmet made of iron or steel in the shape of a brimmed hat. There are many design variations. The only common element is a wide brim that afforded extra protection to the wearer. It gained its common English language name from its resemblance to a metal cooking pot. The kettle hat was common all over Medieval Europe. It was called Eisenhut in German and chapel de fer in French.
The lorica hamata is a type of mail armor used by soldiers for over 600 years from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. Lorica hamata comes from the Latin hamatus (hooked) from hamus which means "hook", as the rings hook into one another.
Scale armour is an early form of armour consisting of many individual small armour scales (plates) of various shapes attached to each other and to a backing of cloth or leather in overlapping rows. Scale armour was worn by warriors of many different cultures as well as their horses. The material used to make the scales varied and included bronze, iron, steel, rawhide, leather, cuir bouilli, seeds, horn, or pangolin scales. The variations are primarily the result of material availability.
Chinese armour was predominantly lamellar from the Warring States period onward, prior to which animal parts such as rhinoceros hide, rawhide, and turtle shells were used for protection. Lamellar armour was supplemented by scale armour since the Warring States period or earlier. Partial plate armour was popular from the Eastern and Southern dynasties (420–589), and mail and mountain pattern armour from the Tang dynasty (618–907). Chain mail had been known since the Han dynasty, but did not see widespread production or battlefield use, and may have seen as "exotic foreign armor" used as a display of wealth for wealthier officers and soldiers. During the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), brigandine began to supplant lamellar armour and was used to a great degree into the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). By the 19th century most Qing armour, which was of the brigandine type, were purely ceremonial, having kept the outer studs for aesthetic purposes, and omitted the protective metal plates.
A coif is a close fitting cap worn by both men and women that covers the top, back, and sides of the head.
The great helm or heaume, also called pot helm, bucket helm and barrel helm, is a helmet of the High Middle Ages which arose in the late twelfth century in the context of the Crusades and remained in use until the fourteenth century. The barreled style was used by knights in most West European armies between about 1220 to 1350 AD and evolved into the frog-mouth helm to be primarily used during jousting contests.
The nasal helmet was a type of combat helmet characterised by the possession of a projecting bar covering the nose and thus protecting the centre of the face; it was of Western European origins and was used from the late 9th century to at least c. 1250.
The lorica plumata also known the lorica hamata squamatque was a set of Roman armor. The name lorica plumata translates to feathered cuirass. It was named for its a feathered appearance due to the feather-like scales called plumes attached to oval shaped rings.
Scholars agree that Japanese armour first appeared in the 4th century, with the discovery of the cuirass and basic helmets in graves. During the Heian period (794-1185), the unique Japanese samurai armour ō-yoroi and dō-maru appeared. The Japanese cuirass evolved into the more familiar style of body armour worn by the samurai known as the dou or dō, with the use of leather straps (nerigawa), and lacquer for weatherproofing. Leather and/or iron scales were also used to construct samurai armours, with leather and eventually silk lace used to connect the individual scales (kozane) of these cuirasses.
Kusari gusoku (鎖具足) is the Japanese term for mail armour. Kusari is a type of armour used by the samurai class and their retainers in feudal Japan. When the word kusari is used in conjunction with an armoured item it usually means that the kusari makes up the majority of the armour defence.
A standard, also called a pizaine, was a collar of mail often worn with plate armour.
| Head |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Face | ||
| Neck | ||
| Torso | ||
| Arms | ||
| Legs | ||
| Pieces | ||