What are these dudes wearing?

[Russ Mitchell]

Hi there.

Am wondering if anybody has an idea what the King Lajos [Edit: Ladislas, what was I thinking?] and the dude in the visored sugarloaf are wearing. My first guess would be an armored surcoat, but there's no rivet marks, and the "I'm wearing a daisy" aventail thing is a bit on the odd side.

Any ideas? Armored surcoat? Insanely padded fabric defense? The daisy thing -- maybe a gamboised clavain?

[Milan H]

do you have a link to a larger image?

[Russ Mitchell]

I have my own photos, but Google "improved" its service, and now I can't make links like I used to be able to. Let me see what I can do.

EDIT: ah, I have to reinstall picasa, apparently. Here you go:

[Arrakis]

Padded helm liner with padded mantle attached. Maxim makes something like it.

[Russ Mitchell]

Thanks, Arrakis - I hadn't guessed that b/c of the difference between the two helm setups and the king's face-hugging hood... but there's nothing to say that the helm liner has to have been padded all the way down the head and neck -- bad assumption on my part.

[Arrakis]

Wouldn't hurt to have the coif of maille match the edges of the padded liner; should help with blow absorption in the case of an impact to the neck. The neck-hugging nature of the maille is probably an artistic artefact, unless the maille is thonged shut in the back; else how do you get it on over your head?

[Russ Mitchell]

Ah, that. It's quite common for mail coifs to be set up like that in Central Europe, thonged closed and fitting very closely.