The middle of VII - IX centuries. Viking in Wendel helmet. They were used mainly in Northern Europe by the Normans, the Germans, and others, although they were often met in other parts of Europe. Very often it has a half mask covering the upper part of the face. Later evolved into a Norman helmet. Armor: short mail without a chainmail hood, worn over a shirt. The shield is round, flat, of medium size, with a large umbon - a metal convex hemisphere overlay in the center, typical of Northern Europe of this period. On the shields used gyuzh - belt for wearing a shield during a hike on the neck or shoulder. Naturally, horned helmets did not exist at that time.
X - the beginning of the XIII centuries. A knight in a Norman helmet with rondash. Open Norman helmet conical or egg-shaped. Usually,
The nose plate is attached to the front - a metal nasal plate. It was widely distributed throughout Europe, both in the western and in the eastern part. Armor: long mail to the knees, with full or incomplete sleeves (to the elbows) length, with coif - a mail hood, separate or representing a single unit with the mail. In the latter case, the hauberk was called "hoberk". Front and back at the chainmail cuts on the hem for more convenient movement (and more comfortable to sit in the saddle). From the end of the 9th to the beginning of the 10th centuries. under the chain mail, the knights begin to wear a gambeson — long, ready-made clothes, filled with wool or tow, to such an extent as to absorb shocks on the mail. Moreover, in the gambesons, the arrows were perfectly stuck. Often used as a separate armor poorer compared with the knights of the infantry, especially the archers.
Tapestry from Bayeux. Created in 1070-s. It is clearly seen that the archers of the Normans (left) do not have any armor at all.
Often, to protect the legs, Shossas — chain mail stockings — were worn. From the X century. rondash appears - a large Western European shield of the knights of the early Middle Ages, and often infantry - for example, the Anglo-Saxon housker. Could have a different shape, usually round or oval, curved and with a umbon. Among the knights, rhondas almost always have a pointed lower part - the knights covered the left leg with it. Produced in various versions in Europe in the X — XIII centuries.
Attack of the knights in Norman helmets. This is exactly what the crusaders looked like who captured Jerusalem in 1099
XII - early XIII centuries. Knight in solid Norman helmet in surcot. Nanosnik is no longer attached, and forged with the helmet. They began to wear a surcoat over the chain mail - a long and spacious cape of different styles: with sleeves of different lengths and without, one-color or with a pattern. The fashion started from the first Crusade, when the knights saw similar cloaks among the Arabs. Like a hauberk, had front and back cuts on the hem. The functions of the raincoat: protection against overheating of the chain mail in the sun, protecting it from rain and dirt. The rich knights in order to improve the protection could wear double mail, and in addition to the noseband, attach a half mask that covers the upper part of the face.
Archer with a long bow. XI — XIV centuries.
End of XII - XIII centuries. Knight in a closed room. Early Pothelms were without face protection, they could have a nanodera. Gradually, the defense increased until the helmet completely covered the face. Late pothelm is the first helmet in Europe with a visor (visor) that completely covers the face. By the middle of the XIII century. evolved into topfelm - a pot or large helmet. The armor does not change significantly: the same long mail with a hood. Muffers appear - chainmail gauntlets woven to the hawker. But they did not receive wide distribution, leather gloves were popular among knights. Surco increases slightly in volume, in the largest version becoming a cape - clothing, worn over the armor, without sleeves, which depicted the owner's coat of arms.
King of England Edward I Long-Legged (1239-1307) in open coat and coat of arms
First half of the 13th century Knight in Topfhelme with tarzhe. Topfhelm - knight's helmet, which appeared in the late XII - early XIII century. Used exclusively by knights. The shape can be cylindrical, barrel-shaped or in the shape of a truncated cone, fully protects the head. Topfhelm was put on over the chainmail hood, under which, in turn, a felt comforter was put on, to soften the blows to the head. Armor: long mail, sometimes double, with a hood. In the thirteenth century appears as a mass phenomenon, chain mail-brigantine armor, providing more protection than just chain mail. Brigantine - the armor of metal plates, riveted on cloth or quilted linen basis. The early armored armor armor was a breastplate or waistcoat worn over the chain mail. Shields of knights, due to improvement by the middle of the XIII century. the protective qualities of the armor and the appearance of fully closed helmets, are significantly reduced in size, turning into tarzh. Tarje is a type of wedge-shaped shield, without umbon, actually a cut-off version of drop-shaped rhondas. Now the knights no longer hide their faces behind shields.
Brigantine
The second half of the XIII - the beginning of the XIV centuries. Knight in topfhelme in surcot with ilettami. A specific feature of topfhelms is a very bad review, so they were used, as a rule, only in a spear mistake. Topfhelm is bad for hand-to-hand combat due to disgusting visibility. Therefore, the knights, if it came to hand-to-hand, threw him. And so that the expensive helmet was not lost during the battle, it was attached to the back with a special chain or belt. After that, the knight remained in a chain mail hood with a felt comforter under him, which was a weak defense against the powerful blows of a heavy medieval sword. Therefore, very soon, the knights began to wear a spherical helmet under the tophelhelm — a cerveler or hirnhaube, which is a small hemispherical helmet that fits the head tightly, similar to a helmet. The tserveler has no face protection elements, only very rare tselvelery have nose pads. In this case, so that the topfhelm sat on the head more closely and did not move to the sides, a felt roller was worn under it over the tserveler.
Cherveler XIV century.
More topfhelm to the head is not attached, and rested on the shoulders. Naturally, the poor knights dispensed with the tscheveller. Ailetta - shoulder rectangular plates, similar to shoulder straps, covered with heraldic symbols. Used in Western Europe in the XIII - early XIV centuries. as primitive shoulder pads. There is a hypothesis that epaulettes originated from the ailet.
Since the end of the XIII - the beginning of the XIV centuries. Tournament nashlemnye decorations - various heraldic figures (Kleynods), which were made of leather or wood and were attached to the helmet, became widespread. The Germans are widespread various types of horns. In the end, the topfhelms completely fell out of use in the war, remaining purely tournament helmets for a spear mistake.
The first half of the XIV - the beginning of the XV centuries. Knight in bascinet with avantyle. In the first half of the XIV century. to replace topfhelm comes bascinet - a spheroconical helmet with a pointed top, to which the advent is woven - a mail cloak framing the helmet along the bottom edge and covering the neck, shoulders, neck and sides of the head. The bascinet was worn not only by knights, but also by foot soldiers. There are a huge number of varieties of basquettes, both in the form of a helmet and in the type of attachment, they took a wide variety of species, with a padded bag and without it. The simplest, and therefore the most common visor for bascinet, were relatively flat valve valves - in fact, a face mask. At the same time, a variety of baszenets with a visor Hundzgugel appears - the ugliest helmet in the European stories, however very common. Obviously, security at that time was more important than appearance.
Bascinet with visor hundsgugel. Late 14th century
Later, from the beginning of the 15th century, the bazineta began to be supplied with a platinum neck protection instead of a chain mail aventyle. Armor at this time is also developing along the path of enhanced protection: chain armor with boosterin reinforcement is still used, but already with larger plates holding a punch better. Separate elements of plate armor began to appear: first plastrons or plakarts covering the abdomen and breastplates, and then plate cuirass. Although due to its high cost, the plate cuirass at the beginning of the XV century. were available to few knights. Also in large numbers appear: bracers - part of the armor protecting hands from elbow to hand, as well as developed elbow pads, greaves and kneecaps. In the second half of the XIV century. A gambeson comes to replace the gambeson - a quilted padded jacket with sleeves that looks like a gambeson, only not so thick and long. It was made from several layers of fabric, quilted with vertical or rhombic seams. Additionally, no stuffed. The sleeves were made separately and tied to the shoulders of the aketone. With the development of lamellar armor, which did not require such thick podshozhnikov, like chain mail, in the first half of the XV century. The aketon gradually supplanted the gambeson from the knights, although it remained popular among the infantry until the end of the 15th century, primarily because of its cheapness. In addition, the richer knights could use a doublet or puruen - in fact the same aketon, but with enhanced protection from chain mail inserts.
This period, the end of the XIV - the beginning of the XV centuries, is characterized by a huge variety of combinations of armor: mail, mail and brigantine, composite of chain mail or brigantine base with plate breastplates, spine or cuirass, and even tire and brigantine armor, not to mention all kinds of braces , elbow pads, knee pads and greaves, as well as closed and open helmets with a variety of visors. Shields of small sizes (tarzhe) are still used by knights.
Pillaging the city. France. Miniature beginning of the XV century.
By the middle of the 14th century, following the new fashion that had spread throughout Western Europe to shorten outerwear, Surco too was greatly shortened and transformed into Zhupon or Tabar, which performed the same function. The bascinet has gradually evolved into a grand bascinet - a closed helmet, rounded, with neck protection and a hemispherical visor with numerous openings. Out of use at the end of the XV century.
The first half and the end of the XV century. Knight in the Salad. All further development of the armor goes along the path of enhancing protection. It is the XV century. can be called the century of plate armor, when they become somewhat more accessible and, as a result, appear in large numbers among the knights and to a lesser extent among the infantry.
Crossbowman with pavez. Mid-second half of the 15th century
With the development of blacksmithing, the plate armor design was being improved more and more, and the armors themselves changed according to the armor style, but the plate armor of Western Europe always had the best defensive qualities. By the middle of the XV century. the hands and feet of most of the knights were already fully protected by plate armor, the body by a cuirass with a plate skirt fastened to the lower edge of the cuirass. Also in mass order, instead of leather appear plate gloves. Replaced aventyla comes gorzhe - plate protection of the neck and upper chest. It could be combined both with a helmet and a cuirass.
In the second half of the XV century. Arme appears - a new type of knight’s helmet of the 15th — 16th centuries, with double visor and neck protection. In the design of the helmet, the spherical dome has a rigid back and a movable face and neck protection at the front and sides, over which the visually attached to the dome is lowered. Thanks to this design, the arm gives excellent protection in both a spear strike and in hand-to-hand combat. Arme is the highest stage of helmet evolution in Europe.
Arme. Mid XVI century.
But he was very expensive and therefore available only to rich knights. Most of the knights from the second half of the XV century. wore all kinds of salads - a type of helmet that extended and covered the neck from behind. Salads were widely used, along with caps - the simplest helmets, and in the infantry.
Infantryman in the caps and cuirass. First half of the 15th century
For knights, forged salads were specially forged with full face protection (the fields in the front and from the sides were forged vertical and actually became part of the dome) and neck, for which the helmet was supplemented with a buvier — protection for the clavicles, neck and lower face.
Knight in caps and bouvier. The middle - the second half of the XV century.
In the XV century. there is a gradual abandonment of shields as such (due to the massive appearance of plate armor). Shields in the XV century. turned into bucklers - small round fist shields, necessarily steel and with umbon. Appeared as a replacement for knightly targer for foot combat, where they were used to parry strikes and strike blows with umbon or edge on the enemy's face.
Buckler Diameter 39,5, see the beginning of the XVI century.
Late XV - XVI centuries. Knight in full plate armor. XVI century. historians refer not to the Middle Ages, but to the early New Age. Therefore, full plate armor - a phenomenon in a greater degree of the New time, and not the Middle Ages, although it appeared in the first half of the XV century. in Milan, famous as the center of production of the best armor in Europe. In addition, full plate armor was always very expensive, and therefore was only available to the most well-off part of the knighthood. Full plate armor, covering the whole body with steel plates, and the head with a closed helmet - the culmination of the development of European armor. Halfdrones appear - plate shoulder pads provide protection for the shoulder, upper arm, and shoulder blades with steel plates at the expense of its rather large size. Also, to strengthen the protection of the plate skirt began to attach the TASSET - thigh covers.
In the same period, bard - plate horse armor appears. Consisted of the following elements: shanfrien - protection of the muzzle, kritnet - protection of the neck, peytral - protection of the chest, krupper - protection of the croup and flanchard - protection of the sides.
Full armor for a knight and a horse. Nuremberg. The weight (total) of the rider's armor is 26,39 kg. Weight (total) of horse's armor - 28,47 kg. 1532-1536
In the late XV - early XVI centuries. two mutually opposite processes occur: if the armor of the cavalry is becoming more and more strengthened, the infantry, on the contrary, becomes more and more exposed. During this period, the famous Landsknechts appeared - German mercenaries who served under Maximilian I (1486-1519) and his grandson Charles V (1519-1556), who left at best only the cuirass with the tassets for themselves.
Landsknecht. The end of the XV - the first half of the XVI centuries.
Landsknechts. Engraving beginning of the XVI century.