One way to make cheap armour was to get metal plates and sew them onto a heavily padded tunic. By the 11th century nobles and soldiers were wearing chain or link mail. This armour protected them from sword, arrow or spear thrusts. One benefit of this armour was that it could move with their bodies. Hoods were also made for the head which were known as 'coifs'. Under the chain mail, soldiers wore padding to protect them from the rubbing of the links against the skin or to stop the mail being forced into their skin by a sword thrust.
Plate armour was very popular in medieval times in Europe. The armour covered the whole body in the form of plates which were either strapped onto the body or were strapped or hinged together. The plate armour was made to fit exactly and although it weighed quite a bit it was so well balanced that a knight could walk around in it in reasonable comfort. Some parts of the armour which were most susceptible to sword blows were specially angled so the sword blade would slide off without doing any harm to the body.
Here you can see the differences in armour worn in the Middle ages. The figure on the left is of a warrior in the 11th century with a chain mail hauberk covering his body. The central figure is of a soldier in the 14th century who wore armour protecting his arms and legs while still giving him movement. The last figure on the right is of a knight in the 16th century wearing full plate armour covering his whole body.
Since plate armour was very expensive to make, the armour was usually highly decorated and was enamelled with colours like red, green, black or blue.
Finally, even though plate armour could protect most of the body, chain mail was used to protect those parts left exposed.
As well as plate armour being made, there was armour made for the knight's horse which was ridden into combat. You could tell how wealthy a knight or noble was by how much armour he and his horse wore and how decorated it was.
If you would like to find out more about the various types of armour click on the links below.
For further information on these and other weapons and Armour described here in these web pages, see my bibliography page.
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