Medieval & Renaissance Europe

The cruci practice shape symbolized Christ's death, the thickening symbolized the world (and the king for whom the knight fought), the two edges and point stood for the third types of service--protecting the Church, fighting for the king, and protecting the gross people.

Until 1350 commit was the gross form of armor. Interlinked rings of marque formed garments offering great flexibleness and considerable protection. A custom-designed suit of mail fit from each one(prenominal) part of an individual's body and could take six months to make. Mail was purposeless over an aketon and under a surcoat, and knights also wore other pieces of mail or plate covering head, arms, and legs.

As the longbow became a common artillery it do mail obsolete. By the fifteenth coulomb suits were constructed entirely of plate steel. Since mobility was essential armorers needed to shape each limb carefully for fit, and attach the various pieces by rivets that slid in slots. Plates were overlapped and joined on the interior by riveted leather straps. tumid ridges down the center of breastplates and conically shaped helmets warded off crossbow bolts and blade blows. The careful design and modulation of form became an admired aesthetic element, as can be seen in fifteenth-century armor made at Augsburg by Lorenz Helmschmid. Forms were slender and streamlined and featured pointed elements at sabatons, elbows, and shoulders resembling Gothic architecture. This armor was not

3. "Knight in Residence." The Development of Armor.

The second class of weapon was the hafted weapon (staff weapon or pole arms), edged weapons attach to wooden hafts by socketing, riveting or nailing. The lance was the alone hafted weapon use by mounted knights, all others were used by infantry.

It was common by the mid-1300s for knights to carry daggers--often part of a set with the sword. Swordsmiths were valued craftsmen whose secrets were carefully guarded since the key to reservation the strongest swords was wonted(prenominal)ly found by trial and error. The production of steel swords, for example, probably occurred by accident when iron was exposed to the lignite fire.

Since the process was little understood the smith would simply need to try to reproduce the conditions under which he produced his best work.

conelike helmets were replaced by cylindrical helms that covered the head except for nerve center and air holes. Tops were flat but rounded shapes were by and by found to direct blows away from the head. Kite-shaped shields of wood and leather were beautify with emblems that were the source of heraldry. Swords had long, straight, broad, double-edged, slightly pointed blades for thrusting and cutting. Mail (1050 to 1300) weighed about 30 pounds and was extremely expensive--and very valuable booty.

Tournaments began around 1100 as raising for knights and by 1200 they were sporting events in which knights displayed their skills. They offered dazzling spectacles and by the fourteenth century were usually combined with other earthly concern entertainments--feasts, pageants, music--that took on chivalrous themes. There were several forms of jousting, but the usual goal was to break lances and unseat one's opponent. One of the most common jousts was tilting, named for the low barrier that ran the length of the field, between opponents. Jousting knights had to protect their heads peculiarly well and as helmets became larger and more concealing knights' classifiable mark
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