Coat of plates or scale?

[J. Padgett]

Hi everyone. This is my first post here. I have a question about a drawing of some armor in a book I own simply titled Armor. It is by Petr Klucina, and is one of those slim, large format, discount volumes with a lot of pictures that book stores seem to always have stacked on tables near the register.

Anyway the picture in question is of an 11th century Norman cavalryman or knight. His armor is identified as a "long tunic with a hood covered by closely connected metal plates", but I've never seen anything like it in other books, or anywhere online. I think it is a very interesting form of armor, but is it a genuine historical type?

[Ernst]

One reason those books are on the discount tables is the great profit to be made by using nineteenth century, non-copyrighted images. The drawing looks to come from a Victorian era interpretation of a Norman from the Bayeaux Tapestry. Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick and others invented a great variety of armor types to cover the variety of artistic techniques shown in various sources. I wouldn't trust the description or the illustration.

[J. Padgett]

Thanks for the reply. I figured that might be the case. Considering the amount of artistic license taken to depict armor in some contemporary sources I guess it is no great surprise phantom armors were created. It is not as if maille is particularly easy to depict when your medium is a tapestry, or woodcut.

[Endre Fodstad]

The source, I believe is the Irish chronicle "the conquest of Ireland" by Giraldus Cambrensis where he mentions something about the norwegians being armoured in "the danish fashion" with "metal plates". Many translations of the text are, as so often when scholars translate technical terms, rather wooly.

EDIT:
Ah, there it is:
"laminis ferreis arte consutis", or iron plates skillfully sewn together. The reference year is 1171, from the Expugnatia Hibernica describing the norwegian and men of the isles, i.e. the norwegian possesions west and north of England, attacking on Dublin that year, led by one Hasculf, "who had been king of Dublin".

[J. Padgett]

So Endre, do you think that means there is more to this coat of plates than a misinterpretation of art? I can't imagine anyone describing maille as plates sewn together, and coats of plates of the transitional, or Wisby varieties came much later. Perhaps laminis ferreis arte consutis refers to scale armor?

[James B.]

Hello J. Padgett, welcome to the archive.

As you said the Bayeaux Tapestry is not as clear an art peice as say a Ven der Wayden painting, it's hard to tell what they are depicting. Best thing to do is look at the armor surrounding that era and take an educated guess at what is worn. In that case maille seems to be the way to go.

[Endre Fodstad]

So Endre, do you think that means there is more to this coat of plates than a misinterpretation of art? I can't imagine anyone describing maille as plates sewn together, and coats of plates of the transitional, or Wisby varieties came much later. Perhaps laminis ferreis arte consutis refers to scale armor?

That would be the natural thing to assume, I think. Since the Baldisol tapestry recently got an earlier redating (60% likelihood of 12th century rather than 13th century, take that Nicolle you rotten primitivist), and the knight depicted is wearing armour that could be interpreted as scale (although it is likely not, see the Bayeux argument), one could argue (not too strongly) that norwegians or islemen (practically the same thing in 1171) used both maille (it is also mentioned in the same source, along with round shields) and scale armour.

[J. Padgett]

Thanks for the welcome, James.

So it looks like maille is the way to go if you're after historical accuracy. Scale is debatable, but a long coat of small plates is relegated to the realm of fantasy. Kinda like the maille in this picture: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20272&item=6509200628&rd=1

Thanks for all the information, gentlemen.