The Armour Archive

chef de chambre

Niall Mor wrote:If you look at effigies of the period, there are quite a few studded and splinted cuisses, though I don't remember offhand where they are local to. Check out effigiesandbrasses.com and do some research there.

Not for the 1470's-1490's.

chef de chambre

One of the islands off Newfoundland had a thought to be early 16th century basque fishing boat found in an underwater archaeological site.

chef de chambre

The only route that could be followed by boats of the pre-late Medieval era, across the North Atlantic, would be the Northen Route Leif Erickson took. A curracale isn't likely to have survived any kind of severe weather in a North Atlantic crossing. Prince Madocs ships would not have been capable of...

chef de chambre

Awesome work!

chef de chambre

So, what is you take? That 1000 knights equals 1000 harnesses? The problem when reading about medieval documents is that often they didn't give a shit about "lesser people". If you read period chronicles, you have the perception that a bunch of guys performed incredible deeds.. this is tr...

chef de chambre

There are easily a thousand extant documents from the 14th century, for every extant piece of armour. This mean very little, because documents are to be cared,kept,stored and conserved by their own nature, while armour was a tool, to be made,sold,bought,used and then discarded when no more servicea...

chef de chambre

I wasn't suggesting 100,000 cap-a-pie harnesses in use at one time. I was refering to the ammount of arm defenses probably made throughout the 14th century. Of course not eveyone would have had a full harness, though your average man-at-arms after 1350 probably had some sort of plate armour on the ...

chef de chambre

... snip The history books have been rewritten many times. It wasn't too long ago that we thought people 500 years ago were generally stupid, lumbering oafs, who swing swords like giant clubs, who couldn't get up if they fall, and who had to be lifted on horses with cranes. We know that's clearly n...

chef de chambre

Hi Norman,

Yes, my focus was on the Mamluk helmets, and also on any extant Mamluk harness, 14th - early 16th century.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

chef de chambre

There was a pair fished out of a cave in the South of France, as I recollect, which were heavily corroded. No leather or fabric remained, but the moles for the stiotching the cover survived. They could have been velvet covered, for all I know, or leather. I think the pair is in the Royal Armouries r...

chef de chambre

Thanks Russ and Ziad, I do appreciate the help. I've unfortunately got the ones in the link you posted to Ziad, and thanks very much regarding the translation as well, as I am as ignorant of Arabic as ancient Greek, although I think the writing looks cool. I guess I am hoping for something like ther...

chef de chambre

Nobody knows?

chef de chambre

Perhaps it would help if I narrowed my specifications a little, I am looking for Mamaluk harness. I also have Robinson's 'Oriental Armour', 'The Arms and Armour of Islam' (going from memory, I don't have the title in front of me), and Arms and Armour from Iraq.

chef de chambre

What publications have published the widest number of extant pieces, late 14th-16th century?

chef de chambre

You are seeing things incorrectly. The Kings sleeve is visible where it ought be, and just beyond the 'buckler' (and have you ever seen a gilded buckler, not to mention 14th century bucklers are neither thast small, nor all metal by the limited evidence we have), is the vambrace in the correct posit...

chef de chambre

The image he posted has a gilded rondel for the wing of the kings couter. Note that it is actually gilded, and matches his crown in this. Perspective was always a problem for a Medieval artist, especially in the 14th century (it didn't really exist), and we need to bear this in mind when examining d...

chef de chambre

I would think it would be heraldricly confusing, at best, and might be seen as being assumptive of arms. I can't think of a similar historical example of reversing the colour of ones charge and a field.

chef de chambre

There is evidence for armourers in England, who produce helmets, coats of plates, mail, gauntlets, and some plate limbs in 14th century England. What we don't have evidence of is actual plateners, producing cap a pie harness, all made to go topgether, complete, and producing harness of such quality...

chef de chambre

Hi Mac, OK, perhaps we can say "there seems to be X.Y.Z points in English sculptural evidence. It is a big leap to go from there to state that these salient points are therefore limited to England , and not her next door neighbors when we lack the evidence to compare. I myself am uncomforable w...

chef de chambre

Yes, I've seen them in manuscipt illsutrations. That one was late 14th century, though it'd be hard to determine exactly when they came into use. OK, This I would like to see. Can you provide a link to a single picture, or a manuscript citation? In more than 20 years of serious study, I have yet to...

chef de chambre

So what do you all think of jackchains good no good? Bad for SCA legal not legal. how much historical information is there on them is there art? Just some information would be fantastic! They appear in multiple sources, primarily Flemish. They are visible in a 15th century tapestry depicting the Si...

chef de chambre

My point being that we have about 1 French effigy for every dozen extant English example. There is a reason it is a tall order, with or without the website in question. What we have beyond is a smattering of 18th century French drawings of effigies, of questionable accuracy. I will also point out ev...

chef de chambre

I don't think a distinctly English fashion in harness exists as early as the mid 14th century, although one develops in the 15th century. Bob, I think we can make a pretty good case for an English style by third quarter of the 14th C. As I see it, its characteristics are.... -- upper cannons of the...

chef de chambre

Jonathan Atkin wrote:aren't they building a new castle in france with period tools and such?

Yes, and it is rather far along.

chef de chambre

I don't think a distinctly English fashion in harness exists as early as the mid 14th century, although one develops in the 15th century. Bob, I think we can make a pretty good case for an English style by third quarter of the 14th C. As I see it, its characteristics are.... -- upper cannons of the...

chef de chambre

He imported foreign masters (experts) because the English industry wasn't as good as the continental industry. After all, there is no need to have a The Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers if there are no armourers. Perhaps we are having a misundertanding of definition. There is evidence f...

chef de chambre

OK, to elaborate a little on the point I am trying to make. What makes you think there was some large-scale English platener industry in the 14th century, when we have little to no evidence of such a thing? In example, the rather famous duel in the reign of Richard II, slightly later than this effi...

chef de chambre

Mac,
In this case, the poster is like unto nails across glass or a chalkboard with his posting history, and I find it hard enough to respond to him at all.

chef de chambre

Chef, you should know you can't use 1,2 or 4 arms as representive of an entire century, in which hundreds of thousands of arms were likely made. Especially when none of the surviving arms are English. Do you know of any surviving arms of the style seen on the effigy? 14th century effigies depict ma...

chef de chambre

I've been "worried" about those rivets since 1979. Sometimes I think they must be about forearm turners, and other times I think that they are not. Against the idea of their being for turners is the fact that there is only one distal lame. This would be unusual, but not unprecedented, as ...

chef de chambre

Chef, what am I seeing? There is no extant evidence for 14th century English armour. Surviving arms from other times/places are completely irrelevent. You can't use 15th century Italian armour to make assumptions about 14th century English, they were totally diffirent. I'm afraid you are seeing thi...

chef de chambre

I think you are seeing things, completely contrary to the extant evidence we have.

chef de chambre

Bob, I think that is likely the key to military archery in this case. It is likely they were not killing the majority of enemy soldiers, probably far from it but how many men need be taken down, dead or wounded before the bulk of troops decide proceeding forward is not worth it or they need to chan...

chef de chambre

Just to add, dense archery was probably most effective in making well armoured people want to stop fighting, to turn away, rather than killing most of them outright. I can agree with what you are saying regarding percentage likelyhood penetration of arrows which actually strike their target - square...

chef de chambre

Cliff, Most arrow wounds, as any bow hunter will tell you, kill the target by bleeding them out. Even shooting at an unarmoured animal as a target, for a medium to larger sized animal, in the range of human sized, very few arrows are one-shot stops, dropping the animal then and there. It is highly p...

Re: Late 1400s English or Burgundy, alternatives to plate le

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Re: Irish in North America before Spanish

Re: My wifes Bayoux work

Re: Black Prince armour had rotating vambraces on sliding ri

Re: Black Prince armour had rotating vambraces on sliding ri

Re: Black Prince armour had rotating vambraces on sliding ri

Re: Black Prince armour had rotating vambraces on sliding ri

Re: Chipacs (Norman? Eastern European posters?)

Re: Leather covered bell gauntlets

Re: Chipacs (Norman? Eastern European posters?)

Re: Chipacs (Norman? Eastern European posters?)

Re: Chipacs (Norman? Eastern European posters?)

Chipacs (Norman? Eastern European posters?)

Re: Are Finger Bucklers Documentable?

Re: Are Finger Bucklers Documentable?

Re: A question on heraldic display (14th C)

Re: Black Prince armour had rotating vambraces on sliding ri

Re: Black Prince armour had rotating vambraces on sliding ri

Re: Are Finger Bucklers Documentable?

Re: Jackchains!

Re: Black Prince armour had rotating vambraces on sliding ri

Re: Black Prince armour had rotating vambraces on sliding ri

Re: Restoration progress for Castle Maselov in Czech Republi

Re: Black Prince armour had rotating vambraces on sliding ri

Re: Black Prince armour had rotating vambraces on sliding ri

Re: Black Prince armour had rotating vambraces on sliding ri

Re: Black Prince armour had rotating vambraces on sliding ri

Re: Black Prince armour had rotating vambraces on sliding ri

Re: Black Prince armour had rotating vambraces on sliding ri

Re: Black Prince armour had rotating vambraces on sliding ri

Re: Black Prince armour had rotating vambraces on sliding ri

Re: English Military Structure in the late 15th Century

Re: English Military Structure in the late 15th Century

Re: English Military Structure in the late 15th Century