Chain Mail

Ever since the first caveman picked up a stone and threw it at his neighbor, mankind has dreamed of being invulnerable.  The history of arms and armor is the record of an endless competition between armorers striving to make impenetrable armor and weaponsmiths attempting to devise ever more effective weapons.  The history of armor is divided into two periods: the age of mail and the age of plate.  Mail armor is a garment—like a very long shirt—made of small, interlinked rings of steel. In Roman Polanski’s film version of Macbeth, many of the soldiers, including Macbeth and Banquo, wear some chain mail in and after the battles in Act I (but in Act 5 Macbeth anachronistically dons plate armor over his chain mail, perhaps to show his elevated status as king and to suggest his presumed invulnerability). Mail was very flexible and a lot more comfortable than later plate armor. Each piece was “woven” to fit the shape and size of the body part it was designed to protect.

Mail for the torso, head, legs and hands was made separately. It was usually worn over a quilted undergarment that protected the skin from chafing and also functioned as a kind of shock absorber.  Because mail was very expensive, only warriors, usually of noble birth, could afford to wear it.  At the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, the price of a mail shirt was 12 soldi—roughly the cost of a horse. A master craftsman needed six months to forge and link together a quarter million rings. [Notice the mail armor that both the Normans and Saxons wear in the Bayeux Tapestry scenes in NEXUS.]

Mail could stop low-velocity missile weapons like arrows and spear thrusts.  It also provided protection against the sword cut, though it gave only limited defense against crushing blows from weapons like the mace or the battle-ax (used by the Saxons at Hastings; see NEXUS p. 22). Therefore, the medieval knight needed to supplement his defense with a metal helmet and a shield.  At first, shields, usually held in the left hand, were either circular or oval, but by the year 1000 the shield was lengthened with a pronounced lower point to protect the left knee of the mounted knight (again, see the Bayeux plate on p. 22 in NEXUS).

About 1200, a long tunic called a surcoat was introduced; it was worn over the mail to keep it from rusting in the rain and to reflect rather than absorb sunlight (the steel links got quite hot under direct sunlight).  The surcoat also enabled knights to display their heraldic arms on their person (you couldn’t embroider images of unicorns, lions and fleur-de-lys on steel mail) so they could be identified on the battlefield.  [Heraldry was introduced during the Crusades to identify the multi-national forces of Christendom; see “Heraldry” supplement in The Lion in Winter & the Middle Ages volume of NEXUS.

Plate Armor

Eventually, the increasing effectiveness of the longbow, the arrows of which could punch through chain mail, exposed the weakness of this type of armor.  But it was the crossbow that brought about the decline of mail.  Improvements to the spanning mechanism of the crossbow enabled it to fire bolts at three to four times the velocity of the longbow, thus  rendering mail armor useless.  [See “Physics of the Crossbow” in The Lion in Winter and the Middle Ages volume of NEXUS.]  The solution was to devise a deflective surface that crossbow bolts would glance off with little or no damage, in other words, plate armor.

The 14th century brought great changes in the physical appearance of the armored knight.  Overlapping plates of steel were developed to replace mail.  Around 1350 “knights in shining armor” made their first appearance in Europe.  The image of the gleaming knight on a white horse has been legendary ever since.  Although elements of plate armor existed in the 13th century—poleyns to encase knees and greaves to protect the calves, both of which were especially vulnerable during battle on horseback—now armorers strove to provide full body protection with steel plates.  First, they added small plates to cover the limbs, then larger ones to protect the torso, and, around 1400, they were able to encase the entire body in steel.  By the time of Joan of Arc (around 1420), mail was either completely covered with or replaced by plate armor.

Encasing the entire body in steel took great skill.  The armorer had to shape the plates so that knights could move about freely.  If movement was restricted, so was fighting ability.  Armor plates were ingeniously pivoted to each other by sliding rivets (rivets that move in slots) at the sides.  The plates were made to overlap slightly; within the concealed areas, the rivets secured the plates to unseen leather straps.  The exterior rivets you see on armor were either sliding rivets or simply ornamental.  Exterior and concealed hinges were also essential accessories for attaching movable parts.  Tubular arm canons were attached to the armor suit by means of tongue-and-groove construction.

Around 1350, a scientific approach was adopted in the fashioning of armor plate. Instead of making steel thicker (and therefore heavier) to prevent penetration, angular plates were constructed to deflect crossbow bolts or sword thrusts (see example below).  It wasn’t possible to stop a crossbow bolt, which could penetrate steel, but the bolts could be redirected.  The breastplate was given a sharp vertical ridge down the center and helmets were given a conical shape to deflect downward blows to the head.  With the introduction of plate armor, shields became unnecessary baggage and soon went out of use.

MEDIEVAL ARMOR & THE AGE OF KNIGHTS—by Stephen Fliegel, Curator of Medieval Art, Cleveland Museum of Art. © NEXUS, 1998.

QUESTIONS:

1. What’s the difference between chain mail and plate armor? Which allows more flexibility and quicker movement?
2. What type of armor would Macbeth have worn? Do some research and find out the kind of armor worn by the Vikings (Norsemen) that Macbeth fights at the beginning of the play.
3. What was worn directly under chainmail?
4. What type of armor is worn by the soldiers in the Bayeux Tapestry?
5. How expensive was chain mail?
6. Chain mail was effective against what types of weapons? Give examples of weaponry that chain mail was ineffective against.
7. Why did the warriors in the Bayeux Tapestry need to use long shields?
8. Why do the Bayeux Tapestry soldiers wear helmets on top of their chain mail hoods?
9. What is the purpose of a surcoat?
10. What weapon(s) made chain mail obsolete? Explain.
11. In what way(s) was plate armor superior to chain mail?
12. When was plate armor developed?
13. How was plate armor made flexible?
14. Why is plate armor angular?
15. Why don’t knights who wear plate armor carry shields?

EXTRA CREDIT: What kind of armor did Richard the Lionhearted wear?  What kind of armor did Joan of Arc wear?

NEXUS – PALLAS COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

© 2019 All Rights Reserved