Introduction
The armor of a knight (or man-at-arms) evolved significantly throughout the Middle Ages. In this blog, we offer a glimpse into the equipment of a Gothic knight in the late fifteenth century to help you choose your own composition.
The late Middle Ages were marked by major wars across Europe: the Hundred Years' War between England and France spanned from 1337 to 1453, and the Italian city-states were constantly in conflict. Wars were also fought in the Low Countries, where the Hook and Cod Wars raged during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This series of civil wars between two factions in the Dutch government began in the mid-fourteenth century but only ended in 1490. The two main factions, the Hooks and Cods, to which the conflict owes its name, had allies outside the Low Countries who were often drawn into their wars. For example, the Cods were aligned with the Burgundian and Austrian Habsburg dynasties, while the Hooks supported the French Dauphin. As a result, the military equipment used was highly diverse, and various characteristic armor styles were seen throughout this series of conflicts.
Armor Developments
In the fifteenth century, distinct regional differences in plate armor design emerged. The Gothic style developed within the Holy Roman Empire, characterized by ribbed armor with elaborate decorations and pointed shapes. This style was heavily influenced by Burgundian fashion, which was highly popular in Central and Western Europe.
Armor in the late fifteenth century covered the entire body, with only a few areas still needing protection with chainmail. Gothic armor was tightly fitted to the body, allowing the wearer a great deal of mobility. This style of armor was significantly lighter than Milanese (Italian) armor, which often featured large, rounded shapes and was worn over a full chainmail suit, sometimes even with an additional mail skirt.
The sallet was the iconic helmet of the Gothic style. Developed in Italy in the early fifteenth century to replace the bascinet, it quickly became popular throughout Europe. The sallet was worn by both knights and common soldiers, with or without a visor. This helmet covered the back of the head but left the chin and neck exposed from the front. Therefore, the sallet was typically worn with a bevor to protect these areas. In the late fifteenth century, knights could choose between gauntlets with individual finger protection or 'mitten gauntlets,' often depending on personal preference.
Composition Roderick
The year is 1483. Roderick is a Dutch knight fighting in the Siege of Utrecht, a part of the later stages of the Hook and Cod Wars. He is loyal to Archduke Maximilian of Austria, who would later become Emperor. As a knight, Roderick doesn’t hold strong opinions about the factions involved in the conflict but views fighting as a heroic distraction from the constant political power struggles surrounding him.
Clothing
When Roderick isn't wearing his armor, he dresses in a black shirt, mi-parti trousers, and a cap, along with ankle boots. In situations where he needs to be ready to don his armor, he wears his arming doublet.
Jacket
In the late Middle Ages, short, form-fitting garments became increasingly popular. Roderick wears a light black jacket that falls somewhere between a shirt and a doublet in terms of style and fit.
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/leonhardt-jacket-black.html
Trousers
In the late fifteenth century, men commonly wore trousers, and hose (chausses) had largely fallen out of fashion. Roderick wears trousers with a codpiece, and underneath, he wears his braies, a medieval undergarment. Many garments from this period featured a half-and-half color pattern, known as mi-parti. The trousers Roderick wears follow this style.
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/mi-parti-pants-gustav-black-red.html
Braies
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/trousers-gisbert.html
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/braies-philippe-natural.html
Hat
This type of hat was worn by the nobility and wealthy bourgeoisie during the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance.
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/renaissance-hat-lorenz-black-gray.html
Arming Doublet
In the fifteenth century, fashion transitioned from long, flowing robes to shorter, form-fitting clothing. Men began wearing doublets, which ended around the hips, emphasizing the chest and waist. As a result, full-length trousers also started to become more fashionable.
A gambeson provides a layer of padded protection under chainmail and plate armor, but it was worn on its own by poorer soldiers. Due to advancements in armor, thick gambesons became unnecessary for knights, who began wearing a thinner, lighter padded variant that also conformed to the fashion of the day, known as the arming doublet. Armor components could be attached to this close-fitting version of the gambeson, allowing them to fit well to the body.
In Italy, the arming doublet was even worn as a regular garment by civilians and non-military nobility to give off a warrior-like appearance, similar to how combat boots or clothing with camouflage patterns are worn in our present day.
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/15th-century-acketon.html
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/15th-century-doublet-red.html
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/15th-century-black-arming-doublet-canvas-cotton.html
Ankle boots
In the fifteenth century, men wore pointed shoes. Over time, the fashion trend was to make these shoes increasingly longer and more pointed. However, on the battlefield, the design followed function, and the pointedness of the shoes was much more modest to prevent soldiers from tripping during combat.
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/medieval-ankle-boots.html
Armor
Roderick is wearing a sallet with a bevor, a mail shirt, a breastplate or cuirass, arm armor with pauldrons, leg armor, and gauntlets with individual finger protection.
TIP: Throughout the Middle Ages, knights had squires or other attendants to help them put on their armor; plate armor was almost never designed to be donned by the wearer alone. We recommend asking someone to assist you with fitting, dressing, and adjusting your armor.
Click here to read how you put on armor.
Mail shirt
The haubergeon, a mail shirt with short sleeves, became increasingly popular in the fifteenth century due to advancements in arm armor. Italian knights continued to use full mail hauberks until the end of the fifteenth century, while in the Holy Roman Empire, mail was divided into voiders and mail skirts to save weight. Roderick wears a set of voiders and a mail skirt attached to his arming doublet under his cuirass, and a full mail hauberk when he only wears a breastplate. Whether you choose to wear a haubergeon or attach pieces of mail to your arming doublet depends on the rest of your armor composition and the region your armor is based on.
Voiders
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/flat-ring-chainmail-half-haubergeon-joined-sleeves.html
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/flat-ring-chainmail-paired-full-sleeves-riveted-an.html
Mail skirt
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/chain-mail-skirt-mixed-rings-6-mm.html
Hauberk(full mail shirt with halflong sleeves)
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/halflong-hauberk-mixed-flat-rings-wedge-rivets-8m.html
TIP: You can customize your mail shirt to fit your size by removing rings, but a simple way is to tie the sleeves at the elbows with leather cords.
Breastplate or cuirass
There are several ways to protect the chest. One can choose to protect only the front with a breastplate or to wear a full cuirass. Not every man-at-arms could afford a full cuirass or found it necessary. Infantrymen often only wore a breastplate to save weight, as back protection was less important when fighting in formation. Cavalry preferred a cuirass with a backplate, but this wasn't always necessary when fighting on foot.
Roderick can choose to wear a breastplate to protect his torso. This one is made in the Gothic style and is designed to be paired with a bevor or gorget to cover the throat.
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/15th-century-breastplate.html
Roderick can also choose to wear a full cuirass, consisting of both a breastplate and a backplate. During this period, cuirasses often included "tassets," small pieces of armor that hung over the upper thighs to provide additional protection.
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/german-chest-and-back-plate-1460-1500.html
Helmet and bevor
In the Gothic style, the sallet helmet was almost exclusively worn. This was often paired with a bevor to protect the chin and neck. There are many possible combinations for Roderick's equipment, so here are a few options:
Bevor
The bevor protects the neck and chin when it is not included with the helmet. This piece of armor was popular among both common soldiers and men-at-arms because it was easy to combine with various open helmets, as well as partially closed helmets like the sallet.
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/open-bevor.html
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/gothic-bevor-1450-1500.html
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/gorget-with-bevor-1480-1500.html
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/french-gorget.html
Sallet
The sallet was a helmet worn either with or without a visor. It featured integrated neck protection at the back while remaining open at the front. This design allowed the helmet to be worn on its own or paired with a bevor or gorget. In the fifteenth-century Gothic style of the Holy Roman Empire, the sallet was almost exclusively worn by common soldiers, knights, and even the emperor.
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/swiss-sallet-1490-1500.html
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/burgundian-sallet.html
Arm and shoulder armor
The arm armor
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/german-pauldrons-1460-1500.html
Armored gloves or mitten style gauntlets
In the late fifteenth century, there were two types of armored gloves as part of a suit of armor: gauntlets with individual finger protection or mitten-style gauntlets. The first offered more freedom of movement, while the latter provided better protection for the hand. It is up to you to choose which type of armored glove you use in your composition.
Gauntlets with individual finger protection.
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/german-gauntlets-1450-1500.html
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/courtly-gauntlets-5968117.html
Mitten style gauntlets
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/late-medieval-gothic-gauntlets.html
Leg armor
The leg armor that Roderick wears consists of upper and lower leg protection in the Gothic style. It is fastened to his arming doublet with laces and aiguillettes.
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/ribbed-cuisses-1460-1500.html
In the fifteenth century, foot armor, known as sabatons, was also worn. This made walking for long periods in armor much more difficult, so it was often used only by cavalry. Whether or not you choose to wear sabatons is a matter of personal preference.
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/15th-century-sabatons.html
Armor belt
Often, an arming doublet or other gambeson was equipped with points for attaching lower body armor, but this was not always the case. To secure leg armor and mail skirts to the body, an armor belt was frequently worn.
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/medieval-armor-belt-black.html
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/medieval-armor-belt-natural.html
Weapons
Roderick wields a poleaxe and a longsword as his weapons.
Poleaxe
As his primary weapon, Roderick uses a poleaxe. The poleaxe was a type of pole weapon used by heavily armored knights and men-at-arms. It resembled the halberd but was often shorter and featured a war hammer on the head of the weapon, whereas the halberd typically had a hook designed to pull people off their horses or trip them. The hammer made the poleaxe more suitable for combat against other heavily armored opponents.
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/pole-axe-1475.html
Longsword
Due to advancements in armor, knights and men-at-arms began using two-handed swords in the fourteenth century instead of a sword and shield. These longswords could be used for cutting and thrusting, but they also had greater reach and could be wielded with more force than one-handed swords. In the fifteenth century, as plate armor evolved into full suits of armor, the design of longswords changed to make them more effective against armored opponents.
The longsword that Roderick uses is an example of this development. It has a very thin blade designed to penetrate the weak points of plate armor. According to the widely used classification system by British historian Michael Oakeshott, it can be categorized as a type XVIIIb.
https://www.celticwebmerchant.co.uk/oakeshott-type-xviiib-sword.html
The perfect armor
Contrary to popular belief, armor was not designed to make the wearer completely invulnerable. Armor was always a compromise between mobility and protection. This compromise is clearly seen in the difference between battlefield armor and tournament armor (all our armors are battlefield armors). In tournaments, much stronger but less mobile armor was worn to protect the wearer as fully as possible against the impact of a lance. This was feasible because tournaments were meant to be spectacles, not life-or-death struggles. On the battlefield, mobility was far more important, so battlefield armor offered less protection but was lighter and allowed the wearer much more freedom of movement.
Throughout history, armor was worn by individuals who were fully trained and specialized in the warfare of their time. These individuals often made choices between protection and mobility that came down to function and personal preference. For example, many foot soldiers wore less protection on their lower legs because it was more comfortable for marching, whereas cavalry were often more fully armored. Knights sometimes chose to protect their hands with mitten-style gauntlets, where the fingers could not move, but sometimes opted for gauntlets with individual finger protection. Consider what is important to you and adjust your armor components and configuration according to your own preferences.
On medieval battlefields, only the aristocracy wore fully custom-made armor. The rest of the armies wore armor that was assembled from various pieces or inherited from previous owners. These soldiers adapted these collected pieces of armor to fit them and often decorated them by painting religious symbols and the heraldry of their lord onto the pieces. The armor components we sell are not custom-made, but they are adjustable. As an armor owner, you will regularly be working to adjust the armor to your measurements so that it fits as comfortably as possible. You can do this by extending straps, adding straps, stretching arm and leg pieces, and adding laces.
For more information on modifying mail and armor, check out our knowledge base.