European chain mail of the "epoch of chain mail"
How good it is when in a historical movie the actors wear real chain mail from rings, and various other features of the military costume of those years are taken into account. Frame from the movie "Ivanhoe" (1952)
Let's hang idle chain mail
Under the shade of the native hut.
He said - and the oars rustled;
And leaving fear behind
To the bay of the fatherland dear
We flew in with pride.
"Ruslan and Lyudmila", A. S. Pushkin
Under the shade of the native hut.
He said - and the oars rustled;
And leaving fear behind
To the bay of the fatherland dear
We flew in with pride.
"Ruslan and Lyudmila", A. S. Pushkin
stories about weapons. Middle Ages. We continue our story about medieval armor and weapons, and today we will talk about chain mail. It seems that a lot has been said about this type of metal armor, but not everyone has seen miniatures from medieval manuscripts, which show warriors dressed in chain mail. Meanwhile, there are a lot of such miniatures, which, first of all, indicates that protective clothing was very common in the Middle Ages. That is why medieval artists painted in it not only their contemporaries, but also biblical characters, such as David and Goliath, known for their martial arts according to the text from the Bible.
David in the armor of Saul before the fight with Goliath! "The Maciejowski Bible", 1244-1254 Paris, France. Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum, New York
And she also tells us a number of details of this significant battle, in which dexterity and skill defeated brute physical strength. Although, before letting David go to battle with the mighty Philistine, the first king of Israel, Saul, nevertheless tried to dress David in his own chain mail and put a bronze helmet on the young man's head. So to speak, in order to at least equalize his chances in the battle with the mighty Goliath. By the way, Goliath from Gat was not alone in the fight. Along with him was a shield-bearer who carried his shield in front of him - it was so big and heavy.
And this is how David takes off his chain mail. Please note that the artist very accurately depicted how to do this, from which it follows that this man knew the military affairs of that time very well and was by no means a reclusive monk who knew about the war only from stories. "The Maciejowski Bible", 1244-1254 Paris, France. Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum, New York
But just before the battle, David took off his chain mail and helmet, explaining that he was not used to such clothes. And he went out against Goliath with a sling, five stones and a shepherd's staff, and hitting his opponent with a stone on the forehead, cut off his head with his sword and brought it to his camp as a trophy.
Since the Bible describes all this in great detail, it was very easy to illustrate such a text. David should have been dressed as a shepherd, there were no options, and with regard to Goliath everything is very clear - a bronze or copper helmet on his head, as well as chain mail and copper knee pads. That's just for some reason miniaturists in different periods of time depicted this duel every time in different ways!
Here is the earliest depiction of David and Goliath in a French manuscript from 700-799, stored in the municipal library of the French city of Boulogne-sur-Mer. Goliath is clearly wearing something similar to chain mail. It’s just that the artist didn’t draw its too small links…
And now let's remember that not only in the Bible there are references to chain mail (although there are only two of them!). Archaeological finds also confirm our knowledge that it was used in the Roman army of the Ancient World. But even after 476, chain mail was not forgotten in Europe, although in the Golden Psalter of the Swiss monastery of St. Gallen, 890-900. the warriors are depicted not at all in chain mail, but in scaly armor.
Miniature from the Golden Psalter, 800-900. Library of St. Gallen Monastery. Saul wears scaly armor
On a miniature from the Stuttgart Psalter, 801-850, stored in the State Library of Württemberg, in the city of Stuttgart, Goliath is dressed as a typical Frankish warrior: he is wearing a Carolingian helmet, scaly armor (“brunia”), a round shield with a characteristic umbon and an equally characteristic sword
Judging by the miniatures, scaly armor in Europe in the Early Middle Ages dominated, since, apparently, it was easier to make scales from metal and then sew them onto leather or fabric than to make a lot of wire of the same diameter, cut it into rings, connect them all and rivet, and besides, turn it into a shirt. But then, in connection with the improvement of tools, chain mail armor in Europe spread very widely. So the period from 1066 to 1250, historians even began to call the "epoch of chain mail."
This armor was laborious to manufacture, and therefore expensive. So, in 1080 in France, chain mail (called a gobert) cost 100 sous - which was twice, or even five times more than the cost of a horse. On the other hand, the whole set of weapons of the knight as a whole was very simple. Even a hundred years later, namely in 1181, to be a knight in England, one had to have a helmet, chain mail, a shield, as well as a spear and a sword and ... that's it. An ordinary warrior had enough lighter chain mail (goberjon) with short sleeves, an iron helmet and a spear. The city militias were content with a quilted caftan - a gambeson, which the knights served as a chain mail robe, an iron helmet and a spear.
A popular biblical couple - David and Goliath, we also meet on the pages of the Worms Bible from Frankenhal, Germany, dated 1148. British Library, London. Goliath is dressed here in exactly the same armor as the Norman horsemen on the "canvas from Bayeux." That is, although many years have passed, the knights did not see much point in changing their weapons at that time in Germany
"The killing of infants by order of King Herod." Here we see a warrior in chain mail stockings, which in England were called "hozen". They came into use sometime around 1150 and were fastened at the waist under a mail shirt. An earlier form of chausses was a chain mail strip that ran along the leg in front and was tied on it with straps at the back, and the later one was already real stockings made of chain mail weaving sewn onto a fabric lining. Ludwig der Heilige Psalter, dated 1190 Leiden University Library
For chain mail, wire was needed, so it was precisely its production at that time that was put on stream and became truly massive. To get it, a hot metal rod was pulled through conical holes on an iron plate, winding the finished wire onto a drum. Since the diameter of the hole was reduced with each such broach, the diameter of the resulting wire also became smaller and smaller.
Page from a manuscript with a drawing inserted into the text from the Psychomachy, 1120 St. Albans, British Library, London. It happens that the pages of manuscripts turn yellow from time to time, and their miniatures seem plain to us. But that doesn't make them any less valuable. For example, judging by the picture, just at the time of writing this book in Europe, it became fashionable to wear chain mail with the floors of underarmoured clothing released from under it, and up to the ankles!
The Garden of Delights is an illustrated compilation of the sights of its time. Compiled 70 years later than the previous manuscript (1195) by abbess Gerrada of Landsberg, abbess of the Hohenburg monastery. Until the 1803th century, this manuscript was kept in the monastery, then it ended up in the Strasbourg Library (1818). It was first published in 1870, but during the Franco-Prussian War (1195) it burned down along with the library. Today, its copy is known, which belongs to the private Alsatian library of Crédit Mutuel. The appearance of the warriors depicted in her miniatures (including the warrior in this miniature) exactly corresponds to the era of writing this vault: a domed high helmet, a shield that covers almost the entire body, chain mail armor, including chain mail bands for legs with ties at the back - that's right, " flexible metal statues "looked like warriors of the knightly class in XNUMX
Then the wire was wound on a metal rod (“winder”) like a spring and cut along. So we got rings of the same diameter. Then they were inserted into a steel bar with a hole, also shaped like a cone. From this, the rings decreased in diameter, and their ends overlapped one another. To connect them firmly, the rings were placed in a “flattener” - also a plate with a hole where a cylindrical stamp was inserted, and their ends, overlapping one another, were flattened with hammer blows. The holes for the rivet were made with a powerful lever "piercer", since it was very difficult to drill them. Every second ring could first be heated on fire, rivets inserted into the holes, and all this was again connected by forging. The rest of the rings were riveted “cold” already during the assembly process. Although a feature of the earliest chain mail was that all the rings in them were connected with rivets during assembly.
The technology for making chain mail was very simple, so it has not changed for centuries! So sit yourself and connect the ring with the ring, and then knock the chain mail on the table so that the mail weave straightens. Monotonous and tedious work, from which the right hand was very tired. Miniature from the manuscript "The house book of Mendel I", 1425 Germany. Nuremberg City Library
Usually one ring was connected to four others. Such weaving was the most common. Double chain mail is a combination of one or two rings already with eight rings, that is, their number doubled. Such chain mail was very heavy, although very reliable. The number of rings in the chain mail of the Middle Ages could reach 20 thousand, and the weight could be 9-13 kg. True, in England chain mail is known, which has survived to this day, the weight of which is 24 kg! In the East, other weaving methods were also used, for example, “1 + 6”.
Mail master A. Davydov, made by him on the basis of fragments found in the Zolotarevsky settlement near Penza. The outer diameter of the rings is 12,5 mm, the inner diameter is 8,5 mm, the thickness of the rings is 1,2 mm. In total, it took 23 rings. Weight 300 kg. All rings are connected with riveting. Photo of the author of the article
On the territory of the Zolotarevsky settlement in the Penza region, a sample of chain mail was found in 1237, where, most likely, in the autumn of that year, a fierce battle took place between local residents and the troops of Batu Khan, who were marching on Rus'. It was possible to find out that each ring of this chain mail, firstly, was slightly flattened, and secondly, on its flat side there was a semicircular "stiffening rib". The chain mail was restored by Andrey Davydov, one of the Penza craftsmen, and it is a real monument to the masters of that distant era. After all, the level of technology at that time was much lower than the modern one, and that equipment for the manufacture of such chain mail, which today can be easily made on various machines, was then entirely made by hand.
What was worn in battle under chain mail? Undoubtedly, it was something solid and dense. Although the miniatures from the same “Macievsky Bible” clearly show that under the chain mail the soldiers depicted on it have nothing but an ordinary shirt! "The Maciejowski Bible", 1244-1254 Paris, France. Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum, New York
At first, the sleeves of chain mail did not reach the brush. Therefore, the warriors wore leather mittens or gloves. But somewhere at the end of the 1250th century, most likely as a result of campaigns to the East, chain mail was supplemented with a hood and long sleeves with mittens with one thumb. In the middle of the palm, each such mitten had a cut that allowed the hand to be released from it at any time, which was a very convenient invention. Then, around XNUMX, chain mail gloves with separate fingers appeared, however, the knights did not abandon the earlier version either, since the option with separately woven fingers was more expensive. Chainmail stockings-chausses at the same time also began to be worn everywhere.
In the Maciejowski Bible, one can see many images of chain mail, in which mittens with one finger are one with the sleeves. But here's what's interesting: the only clothing underneath in all cases is a shirt with sleeves up to the wrist. It can be assumed that some kind of lining could have been on the chain mail itself, but it is almost impossible to prove this assumption today. Fragment of a miniature from the Maciejowski Bible, 1244-1254. Paris, France. Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum, New York
On the other hand, we are well aware of the names of the protective clothing worn with chain mail at that time. This is primarily gambeson and aketon, although it is difficult to say how they differed. It is possible that these terms were already used arbitrarily and were interchangeable in meaning.
In general, a warrior of a knightly rank began to look much brighter and more colorful over time, but the color of the metal in his figure, as before, prevailed. Under his metal robe, the knight wore a breeze - linen knickers to the knees, and a long shirt, also to the knees, if possible silk or at least linen. Cloth stockings were pulled over the legs, and on top of them were lined chain mail chausses. Under the chain mail, most likely, they put on a caftan made of thick woolen fabric and a gambeson made of leather or coarse linen. The head was necessarily covered with a quilted cap, since the chain mail hood was never simply put on the head.
This is how a typical Western European knight of the first quarter of the 1220th century could look like. Illustration from the Bamberg Psalter, 1230-XNUMX. Germany, Bamberg State Library
That is, it was a figure "chained in steel" and dressed from head to toe in chain mail overalls with a hood and chain mail stockings that played the role of pants. "Armor" had either the color of the metal (if the chain mail was polished), or ... rust, if its owner fell into the rain, and he had no opportunity to clean himself.
To be continued ...
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