Arms Armor Of The Medieval Knight: An Illustr...
The field of arms and armor is beset with romantic legends, gory myths, and widely held misconceptions. Their origins usually are to be found in a lack of knowledge of, and experience with, genuine objects and their historical background. Most of them are utter nonsense, devoid of any historical base.
Arms Armor of the Medieval Knight: An Illustr...
Accordingly, not every piece of armor was once worn by a knight, nor can every person depicted in an artwork wearing armor be identified as a knight. A person in armor should more correctly be referred to as a man-at-arms or man in armor.
This idea may stem from the fact that much of the armor on exhibition in institutions like the Metropolitan Museum represents equipment of especially high quality, while much of the plainer arms and armor of the common man and lower nobility has been either relegated to storerooms or lost over the centuries.
As outlined above, most armor is neither so heavy nor inflexible as to immobilize the wearer. Most men-at-arms would have been able to simply put one foot in a stirrup and mount their horse without assistance. A stool or perhaps the help of a squire would have made the process even speedier; a crane, however, was absolutely unnecessary.
Generally speaking, the above statement is correct as long as it is stressed that it was the ever-increasing efficiency of firearms, not firearms as such, that led to an eventual decline of plate armor on the battlefield. Since the first firearms appear to have been in use in Europe as early as the third decade of the fourteenth century, and the gradual decline of armor is not noticed before the second half of the seventeenth century, firearms and plate armor coexisted for more than 300 years. During the sixteenth century, attempts had been made to render armor bulletproof, either by hardening the steel or, more commonly, by thickening the armor or adding separate reinforcing pieces on top of the normal field armor.
Although this theory is persuasive, not enough continuous evidence exists to support the notion that modern-day male clothing was directly influenced by such armor. In fact, although the defensive theory may in general be true for medieval and Renaissance armor, a number of genuine helmets and body armor overlap the other way round (right over left).
The Met collection of arms and armor is a modern one, formed through the activities and interests of curators, trustees, private collectors, and donors over the past 125 years. The collection comprises approximately fourteen thousand objects, of which more than five thousand are European, two thousand are from the Near East, and four thousand from the Far East. It is one of the most comprehensive and encyclopedic collections of its kind.
More recently, The Met's collection became significantly stronger in key areas thanks to prominent collectors' gifts and promised gifts of exceptional objects in honor of the Museum's 150th Anniversary, and most notably the generous and transformative promised gift from Ronald S. Lauder of his unrivaled private collection of European arms and armor.
The strength of the department's collection lies in its diversity, depth, and quality. The section of European arms and armor is perhaps the best known. While European armor dating before about 1500 is very rare, the department possesses a selection of important examples from the 14th and 15th centuries, including a group of helmets and pieces of armor found in the ruins of a Venetian fortress at Chalcis, on the Greek island of Euboea, which document several distinctive and otherwise unknown forms of armor worn in the eastern Mediterranean before 1470, when Chalcis fell to the Turks. From the 16th century there are numerous examples of sumptuously decorated armor and weapons, including items made for the Electors of Saxony and their bodyguard troops; a select group of English armors made in the Royal Workshops at Greenwich, founded by Henry VIII; and a personal armor made for Henry II, King of France. French firearms of the 17th to 19th centuries are also a strength of the collection, with five guns from the personal collection of King Louis XIII, lavishly decorated firearms from Napoleonic period, and arms made for the industrial exhibitions of the mid- to late 19th century that are masterpieces of original design and traditional craftsmanship.
Helmutt is WAM's mascot, and his job is to help introduce children and families to the Museum's collection of art and arms and armor. Click here to learn more about Helmutt and where to find him!
English medieval knights wore metal armour of iron or steel to protect themselves from archers and the long swords of opponents. From the 9th century CE, chain mail suits gave protection and freedom of movement until solid plate armour became more common in the 14th century CE. A crested helmet, shield with a striking coat of arms, and a liveried horse completed a costly outfit which was designed to both protect and intimidate. Such was the mesmerising effect of a fully suited-up knight that armour continued to be worn despite the arrival of gunpowder weapons and remained a favourite costume of the nobility when posing for their oil painting portraits well into the modern era.
Armour pieces have survived from the medieval period, and besides these, historians rely on descriptions in contemporary texts, illustrations, and the stone tombs of knights which were frequently topped by a life-size carving of the deceased (effigy) in full battledress. Knights had to provide their own armour, but sometimes a sovereign or baron under which they served did give them either a whole or a piece of armour. There are records, too, of sovereigns replacing armour damaged in battle. The cash-strapped knight could also hire a suit of armour or, at a push, win a suit by defeating an opponent either at a medieval tournament or in battle itself. Armour had to be regularly cared for, and it was usually the duty of a knight's squire to clean and polish it. Chain mail was cleaned by swirling the armour around a barrel full of sand and vinegar; squires must have been as relieved to see the advent of smooth plate armour as the blacksmiths who had spent untold hours of tedium forging tiny metal rings into a coat of chain mail. Armour lasted well into the age of firearms from the 15th century CE and was even tested against bullets fired at close range but the age of the knight was by then nearly over, soon to be replaced by the cheaper-to-equip soldier who needed far less skill in firing guns and canons.
By the end of the High Medieval era, two factors began to drive experimentation with new forms of medieval armor: the increasing insufficiency of chainmail, and the development of sophisticated iron production processes. The high medieval era birthed some of the most powerful weaponry seen on the battlefield to date. Crossbows that could fire heavy piercing bolts, war-hammers with pick points, and couched lances wielded by riders with firm stirrups all proved an existential threat: these weapons could pierce, burst, and split chainmail.
By the end of the 14th century, medieval plate armor was being produced on a large scale for the first time since the Roman Empire. The fact that plate armor re-emerged in this period tells us a lot about the degree of interconnected trade networks that were required for the production of this kind of armor; it required the significant division of labor and a much greater degree of urbanization, as well as strong and stable states which could guarantee trade over long distances.
Much of what we think of as medieval armor was invented right at the end of the Late Medieval era when aristocrats constructed their heritage on the tournament field in suits of armor that were spectacular, but wildly impractical for actual military use. Some examples of plate armor from the 16th-century show attempts at bullet-proofing, with extra layers and interchangeable extra-thick plates, but these were ultimately futile. By the middle of the 17th-century, plate armor was mostly entirely ceremonial, with all light troops having discarded plate armor almost entirely, and with breastplates retained only amid a handful of light cavalry units. The age of medieval armor was at an end. 041b061a72
