A little about Knights and Tournaments.

A Little About Knights and Tournaments

Part 2.

In the 12th century, the top of these helmets began to bend forward or "swell," acquiring an egg-like shape. These changes led to an increase in the helmet's volume, which provided a greater protective effect since the walls of the helmet no longer rested directly against the head. It was then that helmets acquired nasal guards—iron half-masks. This was not accidental, because the shield changed from almond-shaped to triangular and no longer protected the face. And the face had to be protected: a "hauberk" did not save one from a sword strike. Skulls wearing chainmail hoods were excavated on Gotland, split by terrible transverse blows.
And this described complex of armor is called heavy, making the knight clumsy—unlike the warriors of Rus and the East. Yet it weighed on average no more than the protective set of weapons in Eastern Europe and Asia. While western chainmail had sleeves and a hood and was supplemented by stockings, in Rus and the East it was often supplemented or replaced by heavier lamellar or scale armor, which was rarely used in the West. Their shields were similarly almond-shaped, and their helmets, close in form to "Norman" ones, were equipped with iron masks in the 12th-13th centuries.
In the 13th century, a process of significant change in knightly armor began. First of all, it affected the helmet. The top of the egg-shaped helmet became flat, the nape lowered, and the iron nasal guard increased downward and sideways—the helmet took on the appearance of an iron bucket with slits for the eyes and holes for breathing. Due to its shape, it was called "great helm" (pot-shaped); blows do not slide off such a helmet, but any direct strike no longer reaches the target, as this "bucket" was worn over a special cap with a thick soft roll-rim, which in turn was worn over a chainmail hood. Thus, such a helmet did not come anywhere close to touching the surface of the head, and its faceplate from eyes to chin was often equipped with an additional layer of metal.
From the mid-13th century, or slightly earlier, armor of the "brigandine" type began to spread in Europe—a cuirass where iron plates are fastened from the inside to a soft fabric or leather base. Whether the appearance and spread of the "brigandine" in the West was the result of local traditions or borrowings from Rus or the East is a question that remains unresolved. But the times demanded it—and this armor appeared. With the appearance of such reinforced armor, the need for a huge shield vanished—the wooden triangle, now without an umbo, began to cover the body of the mounted fighter from neck to hips. Accordingly, its weight decreased, making it possible to fence with the shield and place it in the path of enemy strikes. To reduce fatigue in the arm holding it, the shield was hung around the neck on a special strap: if it was not needed or the warrior fought with both hands, the shield was thrown behind the back.
From the 13th century, not only the knight himself but also his warhorse received reinforced protection. Woven or felt caparisons, covering the entire body of the horse, appeared as early as the 12th century and protected it from rain and heat. Now, however, the caparison became chainmail. And the horse's head was protected by an iron mask that left only the eyes and mouth open.
The very idea of armoring a horse came to Europe from the East—from Muslim countries or from the Tataro-Mongols—through the mediation of Rus. But the forms into which Western European horse armor was cast were local.
It should be said that the equipment of the horse and the methods of controlling it changed and improved just as other means of combat did. The charging strike of a lance and the associated danger of being knocked out of the saddle required an extremely secure seat, which led in the 12th century to the creation of a chair-saddle with a very high, rigid rear bow that encircled the rider's waist, against which he leaned back, bracing the soles of his extended legs in stirrups. A high front bow protected the knight's belly. Strictness in controlling the horse necessitated the existence of a special curb bit and sharp conical spurs. From the late 12th to early 13th centuries, the curb bit became more complex and stricter, which reduced the need for great severity with spurs but increased the requirement for finer control of the horse. Then "softer" spurs with a star-shaped wheel began to spread throughout Europe.
As we can see, all changes in armor from the 11th-13th centuries occurred according to the internal laws of defensive armament itself—one part was reinforced at the expense of another, although a general increase in the weight of protective gear is observed in the 13th century.
The reinforcement of armor in the 13th century happened because it was during this time that the shape of the sword began to change. In the 11th-12th centuries, it maintained the traditions of the end of the first millennium—it was not very long, quite wide, and generally had a rounded end, meaning it was adapted exclusively for a hacking blow. But in the 13th century, swords became longer and pointed at the end, becoming heavier. With them, one could now not only hack through chainmail but also pierce it. Four other types of weapons forced the reinforcement of chainmail with lamellar armor: the mace, the crossbow, the falchion, and the halberd. The mace—a metal spiked polyhedron—as well as the six-flanged mace, were greatly loved in the 11th-13th centuries by cleric-warriors. Since the church forbade its servants from shedding blood, but the princes of the church had to fight for their interests just as laypeople did, the mace proved most convenient: a blow against soft chainmail caused such bruising that the victim, with internal bleeding or broken bones, often departed for a better world.
At the same time, the crossbow—a stationary bow, a machine of enormous power that pierced chainmail fabric like cloth—was rapidly developing and spreading. The falchion—a huge heavy cleaver that appeared in the early 14th century and was liked by knights—easily hacked through chainmail, while the halberd known from the same time—a combination of spear, axe, and hook mounted on a shaft—in the hands of Swiss peasant infantry split and pierced not only chainmail but also helmets. All these noted trends in offensive weaponry continued to develop rapidly in subsequent centuries, which led to the corresponding development of armor made of large iron plates.
During this period, the raising visor, invented a century earlier, became widespread. Great experimental work was carried out on the development of protection for the warrior's torso.
Armored vests were invented, whose leather was lined with large rectangular plates. And finally, on the main path of development of the Western European knightly cuirass appeared armor consisting of a solid breastplate with a skirt of horizontal steel strips (in the 14th century, the breastplate was almost always stubbornly covered with fabric or a short caftan was worn over it, so that it was not visible), vambraces and greaves consisting of parts that repeated the anatomical division of human limbs, as well as iron gauntlets. It remained only to connect all parts of this armor together. The second half of the 14th century was spent on this. At that time, the "pot-shaped" helmet for combat conditions was replaced by the "bascinet"—a small helmet pointed at the top with a low nape, protected in front by a movable visor with a strongly protruding central part, which is why it was called a "hound's skull." A long chainmail aventail covering the neck and shoulders was attached to the "bascinet," and finally, in the 15th century, full armor appeared, where the construction of large solid steel plates repeated the structure of the human body. It was this armor that later authors of historical studies and novels mocked, moving it back by centuries. And they mocked it in vain. It turned out that armor of this type possessed magnificent combat qualities; it was not only very strong but also convenient.
Such armor weighed about 25 kilograms. (Note that armor sets from Eastern Europe and Asia weighed nearly as much.) But this weight was evenly distributed across the entire body. All movable parts were assembled from narrow plates riveted to straps, so the armor did not restrict movement at all. Nowadays during film shoots, athletes and artists wear authentic armor. A trained person can easily work in armor 8 hours a day, walk, ride, mount the saddle themselves, and get up from the ground. And as for knights getting tired in their armor—do modern hockey players not get tired in their battles?
Armor of the 15th century, called "Gothic" due to the pointed shapes of its parts, was replaced in the early 16th century by "Maximilian" armor, in which the entire surface of the plating was covered with fluting that lightened the weight of the armor.
In connection with the reinforcement of armor, the role of the knightly sword declined slightly, but the lance continued to serve faithfully; if it did not pierce, it knocked the opponent out of the saddle. By the 16th century, it turned into a thick three-meter pole with a small point. Such a heavy pike, possessing terrible piercing power, could no longer be held with one hand. Therefore, it was supported by a steel rest screwed to the chest of the breastplate.
And yet, armor in which one could neither stand nor turn did exist. These were the tournament armors of the 16th century. Tournaments, lavishly staged games where the prizes were the armor and horse of the defeated opponent, have been known since the 11th century. Until the end of the 15th century, knights at tournaments fought mainly with blunt weapons and in ordinary combat armor. But in the 16th century, rules became stricter; they began to fight with sharp weapons. The desire to die in a game was even less than in battle, and tournament armor became "specialized." For foot combat, armor was made completely closed and required special sophistication from masters in inventing additional movable joints. A set for group combat—wall against wall—differed from combat gear only in that the left part of the chest, shoulder, and chin—the places where a lance strike was directed—were protected by an additional, complex-shaped thick iron plate screwed to the breastplate. On the other hand, armor for mounted jousting weighed up to 85 kilograms. It covered only the head and torso of the rider but had a thickness of about one centimeter and was almost immobile—since one only needed to strike with the lance. The knight was dressed in it by being placed on a log raised above the ground, as he could not mount a horse from the ground, and the fighter could endure it for only a very short time. The tournament lance looked like a real log, with a steel disk attached at the grip—protection for the right hand and the right side of the chest. The tournament horse was also dressed in especially thick armor, and on top of the steel breastplate, a thick leather roll stuffed with something soft was placed. The knight sat in a huge saddle, the rear bow of which was supported by steel rods, and the front bow was so wide, high, and extended downward that, reinforced with steel, it reliably protected the rider's legs. And all this apparatus was covered with the richest heraldic mantles and caparisons; heraldic figures made of wood towered on the helmets, and lances were wrapped in ribbons.
Armor and swords—witnesses, and by no means silent ones, of an entire era in the development of military affairs, blacksmithing, and decorative art, witnesses of glory and shame—now stand quietly in museums and halls, while the bones of their owners smolder on battlefields under majestic tombstones. And though we know not only of the height of knightly spirit but also of the baseness of feudal warriors, they still appear to us as described by the author of the "Song of Roland":
…Steel spurs are worn upon their feet,
White chainmail is light yet strong,
Visors lowered on bright helmets,
Swords in golden trim at their belts,
Shields suspended around their necks,
And sharp lances held in their hands.



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