Question on the Armour of Charles VI - 1380

[James B.]

Master Cad has some great photos of the armour of Charles VI on his web site. Included is an image of brigandine body armor (picture below). If that brigandine actually from the 14th century (labeled 1360) or is it mislabeled? Anyone have some scholarly information?

Also is there a book wit the break down of the plates out there, either a drawing or photos of the inside?

Master Cad's Chartres armor page: http://www.mallet-argent.com/chartres.html



Thanks

[lorenzo2]

Its been a while since I read the Beeston Castle Jack of Plates article by Ian Eaves but I am pretty sure he refers to this piece as 15th cent. In any case, as you suspected it has wrongly been displayed with earlier pieces of armor.

[Klaus the Red]

Yah, definitely 15th (or even 16th) century brig. James, Cad's photos are from the catalog of the Chartres treasury, in French, which I picked up when I was there in 2004. I'll check the ISBN no. at home this evening and post it for you.

Klaus

[Tailoress]

James, I'm sending you an email at the account you have listed here on the AA.

[chef de chambre]

I would say first decade of the 16th century, although it might date from the very end of the 1490's. 15th century brigandines have fewer rows of plates.

[Gaston de Clermont]

But aren't those arms and gauntlets 14th century? Did they just throw together whatever they had laying around?

[Henry of Bexley]

Looks like it. Also, notice the massive differences between the right and left arms. The left cop and vambrace look... wrong. They don't seem to have a whole ton of compound curves- maybe they are reproductions?

The floating cops just look SCA to me. To my untrained eye they look like they were meant for steel articulation. But on that I could be wrong.

[Klaus the Red]

The left arm is NOT armor, nor is the left leg- they are just leather mockups. The arm design is perfectly authentic to the 14th century and probably worked with leather strap articulation on the inside. And yes, obviously, the brigandine does not match the arm, leg, or gauntlets. These pieces and the helmet, camail, hauberk and arming coat are all associated, but where they got the brigandine and why the people in charge of this collection continue to display it so wrongly with the 14th century elements is beyond me.

[Cet]

why the people in charge of this collection continue to display it so wrongly with the 14th century elements is beyond me.

It's a cumpulsion associated with stuff made from red velvet- ask the guys at the MET[/quote]

[Klaus the Red]

Yes, but this is ORIGINAL red velvet and should be treated with greater respect than Bashfordstein's Monster.