1/2 armour and besagues

woodwose · Post by **woodwose** » Fri Jun 15, 2001 1:23 am

I think half armour is the right term but I'll give a quick description as best I can.. knee length tassets, sort of a globos breastplate... anyways, I've seen a few pictures of this style of armour and I'm wondering why some have besagues (the roundels hanging in front of the underarms) and some did not. was it just personal preferance of the armourer or the person using the armour? or did they just stop using them after a while... or were they only used for cavalry or infantry harnesses during this time? I'm just wondering if I should put them on my armor when I get to that part.

also, was it common practice to just pull off and toss away parts of armor that you didn't like? I have a pic of a woodcut that has a guy with one arm harness, and most of the suits of this type don't have cod pieces but have the hole where they attached...
thanks,
matthew

Alexi · Post by **Alexi** » Fri Jun 15, 2001 7:42 am

With half armour you usualy only see besweges whith spaulders not paulders i.e. no big plate covering the arm pit so a beswage is used. I have seen this alot on hussar armour of the late 16th and early 17th century. Often times with half armour you have what appears to be 2 sets of tassets, the under pair are basicaly legs made up of lames that end with a dished knee on top of that are a pair of tassets that go to the normal mid thigh, and are usualy articulated. When the buff coat came in to use it was common practice to wear the buff over the leggs then the breast plate and tassets so it would go legs buff tassets, giving a rather interesting look. To confuse matters more there are many suit produced for Sweeden durring the 30 years war that had exchangable tassets and leggs something about changing when fighting on foot and mounted, but far more oft tassets and legs were just discarded. As to the one arm harness How late was the picture? starting in the early 17th century up to the restoration you will often see calvery with a gauntlet with intagrel vembrace on the left hand that goes up to the elbow, and spaulders or pauldrens comming right down to the elbow. This gauntlet was only worn on the left hand to protect the hand holding the reigns from being cut and loosing controll of the hourse. With late period half armour their was often not a cod peice but a slightly dished disk that would hang in front of the naughty bitts
and I have also seen quite afew that seem to be missing them the hole that is left however looks like it is shaped to fit a saddle.

I hope this all make sense I'm not quite awake yet. And as to the spelling damn spell check is not working and I can't spell to save my life.

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Duc Kjosua · Post by **Duc Kjosua** » Fri Jun 15, 2001 8:23 am

Could anyone tell me exactly what the difference is between a rondell and a besegew? I have seen the name interchanged alot, and sometimes they will only use one name. Is there a certain difference in them?

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ToolGoon · Post by **ToolGoon** » Fri Jun 15, 2001 8:26 am

If I am correct in this, a besagew is a round-shaped piece of armour that protects the armpit. A rondel is any round-shaped piece of armour, i.e a rondel pointed to the elbow (with a wingless cop), etc. I think the real difference is that one is specific terminology (besagew - armpit) while the other is general (rondel - round piece).

Ben the Tool Goon

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Alexi · Post by **Alexi** » Fri Jun 15, 2001 9:03 am

rondels can also be found on polearms and knives, basicaly a round guard.