Brigandine with a lance rest?

[Shrek]

Hi,
I have seen the below image or a lance rest equipped brigandine (from Handbuch der Waffenkunde by Wendelin Boeheim as it turns out) floating around the internet for a long while but never bothered to track it down because I figured this thing could not possibly be real since any attempt to actually use the lance rest for it's intended purpose would surely rip the brigandine apart. Recently, however, I came across the below photo and discovered that not only was this thing for real, it originally came with a matching peaked/brimmed celata/sallet. Originally this kit belonged to one Jakob von Ems, a Landsknecht Oberst who was shot while assaulting Spanish field fortifications at Ravenna in 1512 at the head of 5000 Landsknechts in French service who had defied Maximilian I's famous recall order. These were apparently the same bunch of Quislings that were later wiped out by Frundsberg's loyalist Landsknechts at Pavia in 1525 (surprisingly, even in the 16th century, patriotism sometimes won out over mercenary greed). At some point this helmet/brigandine found their way into the Royal Austrian Historic Arms collection. Does anybody know where this helmet and brigandine are located now? Hopefully they were not burned up during a WWII air raid ...

[Sean M]

Kristjan, its published in:

Paul Post, “Ein Panzerfragment aus der frühzeit der Brigandine,” Zeitschrift für historische Waffen- und Kostümkunde XVI - Neue Folge 7 (1944), pp. 225-239 (Abb. 16a)

Christa Angermann and Martina Poyer, "Konservatorische Bestandaufnahme der Brigantinen im Kunsthistorischen Museum in Wien / Le brigantine del Kunsthistorisches Museum di Vienna: un inventario per la loro conservazione." In Konrad Spindler and Harald Stadler (eds.), Das Brigantinen-Symposium auf Schloss Tyrol, Nearchos Sonderheft 9 (Landesmuseum Schloss Tirol: Meran, 2004) pp. 148-153 (KHM Wien A 190)

Like most of the good stuff in the KHM, it was in Schloss Ambras, was carried to Vienna for 'safety' when Napoleon was about to occupy Tirol, and never got returned.

[clifford rogers]

From Michael Harbinson, "The lance in the fifteenth century: how French cavalry overcame the English defensive system in the latter part of the Hundred Years War," in JMMH 17: "The arrêt de cuirasse could also be attached to one of the lames of a brigandine, which was especially enlarged to accommodate it; but this version was less robust. Sometimes the arrêt de cuirasse was fitted to a section of plate called a placard which was worn on the chest above the brigandine. This was the version used by coustilliers and although a weaker solution, the freedom of lighter armor was retained." Citing: Buttin, “La lance et l’arrêt de cuirasse,” pp.102-5. And: "The arrêt de cuirasse could easily be warped or broken and those fitted to a brigandine were particularly prone to rupture. When such events occurred, the violence of the impact could cause fractures and dislocations to the right arm and shoulder; and even if the rider escaped injury, with the arrêt damaged the lance was no longer serviceable." Note: Buttin, “La lance et l’arrêt de cuirasse,” pp.118-9. Jean d’Auton, Chroniques de Louis XII ed. R. De Maulde La Clavière, 4 vols. Société de l’Histoire de France (Paris, 1893), 3.173, where a blow is given with such force that the lance breaks near the handgrip, the arrêt is ruptured and both man and horse are overturned into a heap.

[Mac]

I figured this thing could not possibly be real since any attempt to actually use the lance rest for it's intended purpose would surely rip the brigandine apart.

I would not be so quick to assume that something was inherently wrong with the idea of a lance rest on a brigandine with breast plates. We have at least two more extant examples beyond the one in the original post. Neither retain their rests, but the one has staples for a removable rest, and the other has (plugged) holes where a rest used to be attached.






Mac

[Sean M]

Art and documents from about 1430 to 1490 from Northern France and the Low Countries show quite a few armours whose cuirass is a mix of white and brigandine construction. I feel like these are not very well understood today because plate is clearly the better choice in modern economies (and for jousting) and because the few modern brigandine-makers usually focus on ones of small plates. Because steel is cheap and labour is expensive, and because we can't just send a servant to town to recover a brigandine, a breastplate which will last for decades is much cheaper and more convenient for us than a brigandine or covered pair of plates which will start to look shabby after a season or two of fighting.

Eg. Albert Way, “Inventory of the Armoury in the Castle of Amboise, in the reign of Louis XII.” Archaeological Journal 26 (1869) p. 272

Unes vieilles brigandines longues, couvertez d'un viel drap d'or rouge, le haut fait en façon de cuirasse, et le bas en lemmes d'assier, et ung bort de sade, ferme à boucle au coste gauche

"An old long pair of brigandines, covered with an old red cloth of gold, the upper part made in the fashion of a cuirass, and the lower part of lames of steel, and a border of sade, closed with a buckle on the left shoulder."