Knights and armor. At the beginning of the 15th century, the armor intended for tournament spear fights was completely modified. Concern for increasing the safety of the knights who fought in the tournament, and the constant desire for its entertainment, led to the emergence of especially heavy, special armor, which minimized the possibility of serious injury. The spear fights themselves began to be called Geshtech (from German stechen - to stab). Accordingly, the armor for such a duel began to be called "shtekhtsoig". It is clear that in different European countries, the armor had their own local differences. However, there were only two armor of this type: the German shtechzeug and the Italian one.
This luxurious set of Ferdinand I for the rider and his horse could be used both in battle and in a tournament. Since the cost of battle and tournament armor in the 16th century simply began to go off scale, plate headsets became fashionable, the details of which could be changed and thus have several armor at your disposal at once with significant cost savings. Nevertheless, the cost of such a headset was extremely high, and not surprisingly. After all, its parts were corrugated, and corrugated armor is more laborious to manufacture. Their edges were trimmed with gold on a blue background, depicting curls, trophies, fabulous animals and figures of people in the late style of the Augsburg master Daniel Hopfer. Reliable attribution of this armor to Ferdinand I and the master of Kohlmann Helmschmid was carried out with the help of the Thun Codex, lost in 1945, which contained preliminary sketches relating to the orders of the Habsburgs for the Helmschmids workshops. The armor is on display in the hall №3. Owned by Emperor Ferdinand I (1503-1564), son of Philip of Habsburg. Manufacturer: Coleman Helmschmid (1471-1532, Augsburg), as evidenced by his mark. Materials and manufacturing technologies: corrugated wrought iron, gold, brass, leather.
The classic German shtechzeug consisted of several parts. First of all, a new helmet was invented for him, which received a peculiar name "toad's head". Outwardly, it somewhat resembled old helmet-pots, its lower part also covered the face from neck to eyes, the back of the head and neck, but the parietal part was flattened, and the front part was strongly extended forward. The viewing slit was designed in such a way that in order to look through it, the knight had to tilt his head forward. As soon as it was raised, this gap became inaccessible to any weapon, including the spearhead, and it was on this particular feature that all its protective properties were based. Attacking the enemy, the rider tilted his head, but immediately before the blow, having properly aimed the spear, he raised it and then the enemy spear, even if it hit the helmet, could not do the slightest harm to its owner. There were paired holes on both the crown and both sides of the helmet; some served for attaching the helmet decoration, others for the leather straps that tightened the helmet underneath.
The cuirass of this armor was short. The left side of the cuirass was convex, and the right side, where the spear hook was located, was flat. By the way, this hook, which appeared precisely on this armor, became simply necessary, because the spear has now greatly gained in weight and it has become almost impossible to hold it with one hand. The helmet was attached to the chest with three screws or with a special clip. On the back, a helmet with a cuirass was connected by a vertically located helmet bolt, which created a very strong and rigid structure. On the breast of the cuirass on the right side there was a massive hook for the spear, and on the back there was also a bracket for fixing the back of the spear. On the left side of the cuirass, two holes are visible, which sometimes replaced a massive ring. All this was needed to fasten a hemp rope, with the help of which a tarch shield was tied to the left side of the chest. The tarch was usually wooden and covered with leather and … bone plates. Its width was about 40 cm, its length was about 35 cm. Before the fight, such a tarch was covered with a cloth of the same color and pattern with a horse blanket. The legs were protected by lamellar legguards that reached the knees. The lower part of the cuirass rested on the saddle and thus supported the entire weight of this armor.
And here is another curious "armor": the Grandguard of the tournament headset of King Francis I (that is, an additional overhead armor that easily turned a regular battle armor into a tournament one!). In 1539, a tournament armor set, along with a spear shield (vamplet), was ordered by Emperor Ferdinand I for the French king Francis I as a gift. Master Jörg Seusenhofer personally traveled to Paris to measure the king. The design of the armor was carried out by several craftsmen at once, as evidenced by some eclecticism of its patterns. In 1540, the work was completed, but the gift itself was not presented due to deteriorating relations. As a result, the armor ended up in Vienna, from where in 1805 Napoleon took them to Paris, where most of them remained (Museum of Art, inv. Number G 117). In Vienna, there is a Grangarda and a Vamplet. Such armor was intended for group combat on horseback, the purpose of which was to knock the enemy out of the saddle with a heavy blunt spear. At the same time, horses galloping towards each other were separated by a barrier called a pallium. As for the reasons for the donation, they are connected with the fact that the King of France Francis I at this time four times fought with Emperor Charles V for domination in Italy. He was captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 and released only in connection with the Peace of Madrid in 1526. In a short period of peace between 1538-1542. between the Habsburgs and Francis I and this armor was created. The deteriorating relationship prevented the delivery of the gift to the French king. Manufacturers: Jörg Seusenhofer (1528 - 1580, Innsbruck), Degen Pyrger (etching) (1537 - 1558, Innsbruck). Material and technology: wrought iron, the so-called white armor with an etched gilded pattern.
It should be noted that, as a rule, a pleated skirt made of fabric was worn on shtekhtsoig, decorated with luxurious embroidery and beautiful folds that fell to the hips. The spear shaft was made of soft wood, and had a standard length of 370 cm and a diameter of about 9 cm. The tip was crown, and consisted of a short sleeve with three or four not too long, but sharp teeth. A protective disk was put on the spear, which was fastened with screws to an iron ring on the spear shaft.
Spurs, although not shown here, had the same design for all types of tournaments. They were made of iron, although the outside of them happened to be covered with brass. Their length reached 20 cm. At the end there was a rotating sprocket. Spurs of this shape allowed the rider to control the horse during the tournament. The saddle had high, metal-bound bows, which gave good protection to the rider even without any armor.
Typical shtechzeug, circa 1483/1484 owned by Archduke Sigmund of Tyrol, son of Emperor Frederick IV (1427 - 1496). A heavy shtekhzog, weighing about 40-45 kg, consisted of carefully thought-out pieces of equipment that were firmly connected to each other, so that a person trapped inside such armor was almost completely protected from possible damage. The goal of the duel was to hit a thick wooden shield with leather upholstery, tied on the chest of the knight on the left with a spear. The creator of this armor was Kaspar Rieder - one of the many Tyrolean armorsmen who worked in the suburbs of the city of Innsbruck. In 1472, he and three other craftsmen, he carried out an order for the manufacture of armor for the king of Naples. The high appreciation of his work by Emperor Maximilian I was expressed in the fact that, in addition to the usual payment for work, he received an honorary dress from him as a gift.
The Italian shtekhzeug was also intended for a javelin tournament called "Roman". It differed from the German in details. First, his helmet was attached to the breastplate and back with screws. Moreover, on the front wall of the helmet there was a plate with holes - a fastener. Well, the helmet itself had a wide rectangular door on the right - a kind of ventilation window. Secondly, the side of the cuirass on the right was convex, not flat, that is, the cuirass had an asymmetrical shape. Thirdly, in front, it was covered with a thin damask cloth, on which heraldic emblems were embroidered. There was a tarch ring on the left side of the cuirass. On the right side, on the belt, there was a leather glass covered with fabric, into which a spear was inserted before entering the lists. Moreover, it was much lighter than the copies that were used in the German tournament. For this reason, there was no rear bracket for the spear shaft on the armor.
The French shtechzeug was almost identical to the Italian, but the English, although it was called shteyzeug, had more similarities with the battle and tournament armor of the 14th century than with the real German armor of the 15th - 16th centuries. The reason was that in England the renewal of knightly tournament equipment was very slow.
P. S. The author and the site administration would like to express their heartfelt gratitude to the curators of the chamber, Ilse Jung and Florian Kugler, for the opportunity to use photographic materials of the Vienna Armory.
