The Company Ecorcheur Medieval Society

Armour - The Hollywood Myth
A brief introduction to real harness by Simon Britton

e've all seen it in the movies. A knight, after being winched onto his horse, falls in battle and cannot get up. Or, the knight waddles around the battlefield like a comedy penguin, hardly able to stand.

Thankfully, Hollywood is gradually catching up with what re-enactors, historians and students of European martial arts have known for years. Many recent films have been more sympathetic to the reality of how armour moves (even if some of it is still of dubious authenticity!) However, at many of our shows, people are still amazed that people fought and marched in harness. What they seem to forget is the practical nature of Medieval society - that if it didn't work, they wouldn't have used it.

This is a brief introduction to armour for those not familiar with it, and aims to dispel many of the myths that still surround the wearing of armour in the late 15th century.

What Happens If You Fall Over?

ontrary to popular belief, "field harness" (the full plate armour worn on the battlefield by noblemen, officers and professional soldiers) is very flexible and wearable. Although weighing somewhere around 90lbs (about 6½ stone, or 40kg) for a full "suit" or harness, the armour of the late 15th century was beautifully engineered to move with the body. A modern soldier would be expected to wear an equivalent weight on his shoulders in his backpack alone - wheras a suit of armour is pointed (laced) onto the body via a strong arming jack (you will be familiar with wearing a lighter version of the jack, the jacket). This spreads the weight and allows much better freedom of movement.

A fit man can easily get up, run around, vault onto his horse and even turn a somersault in full harness. Indeed, movement is restricted and the wearer would tire quicker, but there's a few other points to remember:

Owners of full harness were the upper classes of medieval society: Nobles, officers and professionals. They would have had the best diet, and plenty of time to train. Nobles especially were expected to train in the martial arts from childhood, and would naturally become adept at the skills needed to wear armour. They would also have developed the right muscle groups and stamina required.

To give you an idea of the level of skill of the medieval armourer, when NASA were developing their first space-suits, they examined Henry VIII's tournament harness for ways to make their suits stronger!

A "Frog-Mouth" jousting helmet:
Completely impractical for the battlefield - the wearer must tilt his head forwards to see.

Jousting Harness
Made for Emperor Maximillian
German, c. 1480
Note the seamless nature of the bevor (neck) and cuisse (thigh) for protection at the sacrifice of mobility.

What not to wear to war.

any of the myths we're discussing here have come about from casual study of surviving harness. Many of the best suits of field harness were re-used when they became redundant or damaged: Steel was moderately expensive and the thin, high quality steel plate in a harness would have been converted, recycled and adapted into a host of other things over the centuries.

Many of the surviving examples are actually made for the joust or tournament. These "sport" harnesses could be up to an inch thick in places and designed purely to protect the rider or foot-combatant. These examples have largely survived as centrepiece displays in grand houses and castles, and have given the generally accepted view that armour was impractically heavy. Jousts were the "extreme sport" of their day, and the idea was not necessarily to kill your opponents but to have fun. These tournament armours were ridiculously heavy, and often a knight would need to be winched onto his horse by servants, or in the case of foot tourneys have heavy extra plates screwed or clipped on. But at sporting events like a joust, you would naturally have your household staff with you, and plenty of time to get ready, unlike in the heat of battle. The "suits" couldn't be more different to those used "for real".

Participating in a joust can be likened to Formula 1 Racing: You have equipment impractical for daily use, which costs an absolute fortune, and a huge pit crew to help you run it. You may even be able to get sponsorship!

In the field.

eturning to field harness, we know that the steel used in it's construction was suprisingly thin. Most surviving armour falls between approximately 0.5mm and 2mm thick (0.02" - 0.07"). Thicker armour tended to be placed in critical locations, such as helmet reinforcement or shoulder protection. The master armourers manufacturing harness for the upper echelons developed ways of putting strength into the metal without increasing weight. Clever folds, ridges, embossing and fluting were all used to make the armour stronger with the thin gauge of metal.

There were no fixed rules or uniformity to harness, but amongst the many styles, two distinct schools of manufacture are easily spotted:

"Milanese" harness was generally robust, rounded and plain. The armourers of Milan (then an important and independent City State) manufactured their armour with reinforcing plates over strategic areas. Various plates could be attached and removed with split-pins or bolts to allow the user to "customise" the harness and adjust the ratio between protection and weight. This style of harness was at the heavier end of the scale, relying on it's smooth, rounded contours to add strength and deflect blows.

"Gothic" harness tended to be of lighter construction and gained it's strength from the flutes and folds of the design. For example, if you take a piece of paper, and try to stand a tin can on the edge, it will obviously collapse. Take the same piece of paper and fold it into a zig-zag pattern, it will happily support the weight of the can:

This principal lies behind the strengthening of Gothic style harnesses.


Milanese Harness: Note the smooth lines and the reinforcing plates on the elbow & shoulder.	Gothic Harness: The fluting and folds can clearly be seen.

Armoured Knights:
A formidable force on the field.

Medieval Billmen in combat:
Note the linen padded jack on the soldier in the centre.
You can also see a variety of simple helmets.

Working Classes.

ven ordinary professional soldiers had reasonable quality plate defences. Their armour was generally of a lower quality than their betters, but offered practical protection in the heat of battle. This "munition plate" was not made-to-measure, but mass-produced in the workshop and delivered by the barrel-load. Helmets, gauntlets and varying types of cuirass (body protection) were popular amongst the soldiery. The better sort of professional, veteran soldier may even have amassed enough armour to make a fairly decent attempt at three-quarter harness. Lowly rank-and-file soldiers would have a helmet at the very least, and probably gauntlets or a plackart (stomach protection).

Not all armour of this class was metal. Very often, soldiers would wear a thick, padded jack. These soldiers jacks could consist of anything up to about 36 layers of heavy linen, or be stuffed with soft wool or even straw. These padded garments were very effective, cheap and easily maintained... they were also warm in winter! A contemporary writer remarked upon the softness of English jacks - all the better to absorb the impact of a blow.

Not all of the armour was provided by a soldier's employer, and much of it would be obtained by the idividual: Either by trade, or simply stripped off dead colleagues or enemies in the aftermath of a battle.

Chain Mail?

"Chain Mail" is another favourite misconception heard by us re-enactors. The term "Chain Mail" is a fairly recent one, probably Victorian - certainly nobody in the 15th century would have used this expression. It is simply known as "Mail" (various spellings thereof), from the Medieval French for "net" or "mesh". The "network" of interlocking rings provides fantastic protection from slashing weapons, but does little to protect from thrusts, arrows or impact. It is still used in our period, but is not as popular as it was a hundred years previously.

The manufacturing process of steel was one of the important factors in the use of mail - large plates of the kind necessary for full harness were difficult to make in the early days of armour, and more coverage could be acheived for simpler processes with steel wire. As the technology improved, the lighter and stronger plate steel began to replace mail (yes - suprisingly, mail is much heavier than plate).

For the contemporary soldier, mail may be worn as additional protection under a jack (popular amongst archers), but rarely as a primary defence. Pieces of mail may also be used to make a "standard" (collar), "coif" (hood) or "mantle" (shoulder protection). For the better harnesses, mail also provides flexible protection in the gussets of the armpit or elbow, or around the groin in the form of mail "boxer shorts" or skirts.

Some poorer soldiers may still be wearing mail shirts handed down through their family.

An Early Knight wearing a mail hauberk.

Shields began to become less important as armour became more advanced.

Early Plate Armour:
Late C14th - Early C15th
Small amounts of simple plate are starting to come into use.

Hopefully this article has offered an insight into the realities of armour. There are plenty of other sources offering more scholarly studies, but the most common misconceptions (certainly from my perspective, from interacting with the public) should now be amended.

© Simon Britton, December 2004.