Until now, we mainly talked about the combat properties of knightly medieval armor and only casually talked about their artistic decoration. Now is the time to pay attention to their aesthetics and, above all, to their color. For example, knightly armor was called "white" if it was armor made of pieces of polished steel, which made it look "white" from a distance. The chivalry of Europe went to this type of armor for a very long time, but their appearance marked a real revolution in military affairs. But the main reason that brought them to life was, first of all, the absence of a horse archery tradition.
The easiest way to trim Gothic armor was to decorate the edges of each piece with strips of slotted copper or brass. Such scalloped stripes were quite simple to make, weighed a little, but gave the armor an elegant and elegant look.
That is why the knights did not need high mobility in the region of the neck and shoulder girdle, which is why they had protection, not mobility, in the foreground. But in the East, where the bow was always the main weapon of the rider, chain mail armor and helmets with an open face continued to be made for a very long time. Moreover, this weapon was very different from the new armor of the warriors of Western Europe.
Armor of a 16th century Turkish horseman from the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul. As you can see, his armament differed from the Western European one only in that it gave him the ability to shoot from a bow. It was convenient to decorate the small plates with tapping.
K. Blair, a well-known British historian and weapons expert, called the time from 1410 to 1500 "a great period in the history of knightly defensive weapons", as he believed that, although the armor of a very high quality was also produced by the armourers later, nevertheless, never again in their products did they combine such a high skill with an understanding of the material itself, with which they now mainly worked. Ornaments in armor of this era played a secondary role, and the main attention of the craftsmen paid to the perfection of their form, as a result of which people in this armor were justly called “sculptures of steel”. Later, on the contrary, the decoration went beyond measure.
Well, it all started with the fact that in the 11th century gunsmiths learned to forge helmets from metal sheet. Prior to this, helmets were segmental, although in the East this technique has been skillfully used for many centuries. To do this, a sheet of iron of the required thickness in the form of a disk was red-hot and cupped with hammer blows, and only then was it processed clean with a hammer, chisel and files. Later, helmets began to be stamped altogether, which increased their strength, reduced the cost of production and made it possible to achieve uniformity. Already in the 16th century, skullcap masters reached such a level of perfection that by the end of this century, or rather by 1580, they could forge from one sheet of metal not only the parietal part of the helmet, but also a crest up to 12 cm high, which this is a fantastic result for manual work. Also, at the beginning of the 11th century, Italian blacksmiths learned how to make round chased shields-rondashi from a single sheet of metal, only this speaks not so much about their skill, but about the fact that at that time the size of the processed iron products did not matter much. In any case, it is known that in the XII century the city of Pavia was famous for the production of one-piece forged helmets.
A siege helmet covered with engraved ornaments. Italy, approx. 1625. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
In this regard, such English historians as David Edge and John Padock concluded that in this way, by the middle of the 15th century, two centers (and two different schools) were formed that produce all-metal armor: the first - in northern Italy, in Milan, and the second - in the north of Germany, in Augsburg. Of course, there were many different local industries that focused on one or another of these centers, and copied popular designs.
Tombstone brass plate (breaststroke) of William Bagot and his wife Margaret. Church of st. John, Baginton, Warwickshire, 1407. As you can see, the deceased is wearing typically knightly armor of the "transition period" - there are plate details, but the torso is covered by a short heraldic jupon, so you cannot see what is underneath. But the chainmail aventail on the helmet is clearly visible.
Such a famous British historian as D. Nicole, in his work "The French Army in the Hundred Years War", cited an excerpt from the essay of an unknown author of the book "Military Costumes of the French in 1446", which gives the following description of the equipment of those years. “First of all,… preparing for battle, we put on full white armor. In short, they consisted of a cuirass, shoulder pads, large bracers, leg armor, combat gloves, a salade with a visor and a small chin that covered only the chin. Each warrior was armed with a spear and a long light sword, a sharp dagger hanging to the left of the saddle, and a mace."
A typical knight in gothic armor. 1480 - 1490 Ingoldstadt, Germany, Bavarian War Museum.
It's funny, but in England at that time they did not feel at all their inferiority from the fact that they did not make their armor. The absence of their production, one might say, was simply noticed, since both the noblest of the British lords and the small nobility - the gentry then ordered their armor on the continent. For example, the effigy of Sir Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, dating back to 1453, shows him in Italian armor of the most recent model.
Chainmail fabric made of flat riveted rings.
Chain-mail fabric made of flat perforated and round riveted rings.
Since the early Middle Ages, chain mail has occupied a very important place among armourers. Although chain mail was still worn by Roman legionaries, the production of this type of armor in Western Europe, in fact, was created anew. At that time, rings for chain mail were made of forged, flattened wire, the rings of which were connected by cold riveting. In later chain mails of the 14th and 15th centuries, one of the rings was already soldered, and the other was riveted, and on this basis they are distinguished. Later, all the rings were only riveted. The historian Vendalen Beheim, for example, points out that drawn wire was not used to make rings even in the 16th century. Well, in the 1570s, chain mail was already completely ceased to be used, and this once highly respected craft disappeared forever with it. That is, it has not completely disappeared, but the former mass character is gone forever.
Chainmail fabric made of round riveted rings with a diameter of 7 mm.
Chain-mail fabric made of flat riveted blued rings.
Since we are talking about the "colors" of the armor, it should be noted that the chain mail shone "like ice", that is, they also had the appearance of "white metal", but not everywhere. In the East, it was customary to weave copper rings into them and thus create whimsical patterns in chain mail. It is difficult to say how much this reduced their strength, but it was so, and such chain mails have survived to our time and were also known in Russia, where they mentioned "chain mail pansyri with a copper valance." Chain mail made of blued rings were also known.
And it was precisely the rejection of chain mail that gave rise to the search for more perfect forms of protective armor, which came in the first half of the fifteenth century. It all started again with the improvement of head protection, that is, with helmets. A helmet appeared, called salle, sallet or salade (which is more usual for the Russian-speaking spelling), which was especially popular among German gunsmiths.
Sarcophagus with the funerary effigy of the Spanish knight Don Alvaro de Cabrero the Younger from the Church of Santa Maria de Belpuig de Las Avellanas in Lleida, Catalonia. The knight's neck is protected by a standing metal collar-collar, and his legs are already protected by armor. It is also obvious that metal plates are riveted under his clothes, which give out the heads of the rivets. Unfortunately, he does not have a helmet on his head, and it is not known what he looked like. Mid-14th century
D. Edge and D. Paddock name the year - 1407, when he appeared, and not just anywhere, but in Italy, where the Selata was called. And only then through France, Burgundy, he reached Germany by 1420, then to England, and then became very popular in Europe everywhere.
Typical German sallet: weight 1950; weight of bevor-prelichnik 850 g. Both items are remakes: price of sallet is $ 1550, bevor is $ 680.
German helmets had an elongated tail-shaped head; among the French and Italians, they more resembled a bell in their shape. And again, both of them did not have any decorations. Their main "decoration" was the polished steel itself. It was only around 1490 that the so-called "black lard" became known with a forehead, which protruded forward at an acute angle. It was called black because of its color (for some reason they began to be painted black, or was it bluing?), Although such helmets were very often covered with just colored fabrics. How the “colored helmet” was visually combined with the shiny “white armor”, history is silent. But "fashionistas" who wore "such" existed. Moreover, this type of helmets was also used by equestrian warriors of ignoble origin, for example, horse archers used by the French, and not too rich and noble "knights of one shield", and even … infantry at arms.
The simplest Italian salle, 1450 - 1470 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA.
This is exactly the "black sallet", moreover, knightly, with a rising visor. Germany or Austria, 1505-1510 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA.
Another "black sallet", about. 1490 - 1500 The so-called "sallet from Ulm", moreover, it is not at all black, and it is not clear how it was combined with "white armor". Southern Germany, Historical Museum, Vienna.
The story of the bascinet helmet or "Bundhugel" ("dog helmet") is very funny. At first it was just a cheap comforter that looked like a tophelm bucket. Then he began to stretch up and at the same time fall on the neck and temples.
Bascinet and visor to it, possibly France, approx. 1390 - 1400 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA.
Bascinet of the XIV century, remake. 1.6mm steel. Royal Arsenal in Leeds, England.
For comparison, a Germanic bascinet from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Everything is simple, functional and no decorations!
It remained to attach a visor to it, which in the end was done in the same XIV century. Moreover, the visor was not only lifted, but also removed from it entirely. For its characteristic shape, the helmet was named "dog's face", primarily in Germany. It was very functional and came at a time when the armor was still not decorated in any way. Therefore, its main decoration was polishing, although, according to the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz "The Crusaders", the German knights attached the magnificent sultans of peacock feathers to these helmets.
A still from the film "The Crusaders". As you can see, the knights' helmets look like real ones, but otherwise it's pure fantasy! The Poles were too lazy to sew "caps" and also knit chain mail headgear and aventail. And besides, the plastic is immediately visible! Cuirass and helmets - typical painted polystyrene!
In the 2005 film Jeanne d'Arc directed by Luc Besson, the armor is basically what it should be, and the helmets are worn on the head with comforters.
By the way, in this 1960 film you can see that the knights' armor is reproduced externally and reliably, but very primitive. And the most amazing thing is that the knights in it wear helmets on their heads without a chain mail hood and aventail, loose over the shoulders. But, judging by the effigies, the latter could even be worn with solid-forged "white armor" just in 1410, and … one can imagine how vulnerable such protection was for the "all-metal knight". That is why, by the way, the same bascinet soon turned into a “big bascinet”, which differed from the usual only in that with a “dog's face” instead of a chain mail aventail had a collar made of metal plates, which was attached with belts to the cuirass!
"Big Bascinet" from the Army Museum in Paris. OK. 1400 - 1420
The most perfect in this regard was the Arme helmet, which also appeared at about the same time, and which had a lifting visor and … a very complex system of connecting all its parts into a single whole. But these helmets were just already decorated with chasing and often looked like anything, just not the helmet itself, and the shape in this case has only an indirect relation to the "color".
Exceptionally lavish armor of George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland (1558 - 1605). You can't even name all the finishing technologies here! Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Another thing is that very soon it became not fashionable to walk in purely metal armor and, apparently, even indecent - a situation that was repeated with respect to the whole-chain armor of the 12th century, which wrapped around the figure of a warrior like a glove. But now both armor and, in particular, helmets began to be covered with expensive fabrics, often embroidered with gold threads and even decorated with precious stones.
(To be continued)
