The Armour Archive

The group I am with does 13th to 16th century reenactment. my question is i'm not sure about what part of this period i want to do. what types of armour are covered in this period and where can i find good period pictures? thanks

I'll say it; WAY to big a span, what geographic area?, as stated you're looking at just about every type of armour ever devised, please be more specific.


Alail/Scott

Chain, leather, full plate, partial plate. I think that just about covers the options.

Don't forget cloth armours such as jacks.

I can't recommend enough Gerry Embleton and John Howe's 'The Mediaeval Soldier', I constantly tout this publication here on this list!
The period covered is 15th C. (the grand period of full plate) and depicts everything from common soldiers to better equipped officers, a must in my opinion.

Hit the library! That is a huge span and one that requires a bit of reading and looking to understand all of the changes taking place.

ok, sorry that was sort of a dumb question it would be europe, i am i am most interested in the first century of that time period. i'm not sure how far back this covers, i think it covers the late end of the crusades i'm not sure what else though. and europeans use scale armour at that point in time?

Crusades started with the turn of the 12th century... first century was Jesus' time -- Roman gear and stuff contemporary with that.

With the 13th century we saw the rise of the barrel helm. The 14th saw the hundred years it took to make the changeover from mail to complete harness of plate. The 15th was the first flowering of the cap-à-pie white harness, and the apotheosis of the "Gothic" style. With the beginning of the 16th century, the "Maximilian" came in, and as the century advanced, armours became more flexibly articulated and somewhat heavier as armourers began trying to cope with the increasing threat of the hand gonne. With the 17th century, visual elegance gave way to engineering functionality as armours of proof became the state of the art, as well as helmets developing some of their most useful features -- like bills to shade the eyes. With the 17th century came the discarding of armor, not so much because it couldn't bounce a lead ball, as because it could. Diminishing returns had arrived, and it was time to rethink the approach to war gear, in an environment befogged with powder smoke.

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"The Minstrel Boy to the war is gone..."

thanks! that was just what i was looking for.