How was armor made in medieval times?
Scale armour made from small overlapping pieces of iron attached to a cloth or leather backing like fish scales were worn but were rare amongst European knights. A variation was 'penny plate' armour which was made up of small disks held together by rivets through the centre of each piece
What was a knight's main weapon?
sword
How did weapons change in the Middle Ages?
The sword, symbol of the chivalric code and his noble status, was above all the knight's most important weapon. With a heavy blade one metre in length, a 'great sword' had to be held with both hands and was remarkably stable in design from the 11th to 15th century CE
As defense mechanisms improved weapons were also improved. Curtain walls, moats, portcullises, towers and drawbridges improved the castle's defense. Castles were used for military purposes and defended troops, nobles and kings. Curtain were the first line of defense for a castle.
Why did knights stop wearing armor?
Armour cuirasses and helmets were still used in the 17th century, but plate armour largely disappeared from infantry use in the 18th century because of its cost, its lowered effectiveness against contemporary weapons, and its weight.
European warriors of the early Middle Ages used both indigenous forms of military equipment and arms and armor derived from late Roman types. One of the most widely used types of helmet was the Spangenhelm. Body armor was usually either a short-sleeved mail shirt (byrnie), made up of interlocking iron rings, or a garment of overlapping scales of iron, bronze, or horn. Shields were oval or round and made of light, tough wood covered with leather. Metallic mountings lined the rims. A hole in the center of each shield was bridged by a hand grip inside and a shield boss outside. Weapons were the spear, sword, ax, and the bow and arrow.
At the height of the Middle Ages, Saint Anselm (ca. 1033–1109) listed the equipment of a knight: his war horse (which by the thirteenth century was protected by mail and fabric), bridle, saddle, spurs, hauberk (a long-sleeved mail shirt, sometimes with a hood, or coif), helmet, shield, lance, and sword. Toward the end of the twelfth century, a new flat-topped type of helmet with side plates, which hid the face of a knight, became popular. To distinguish friend from foe, the knight’s triangular shield was painted with identifying symbols. By 1200, mail for the legs, called chausses, was commonly worn by mounted warriors. Later, boiled leather or steel pieces protected the knees (kneecops), while small squares of the same hard materials covered the vulnerable shoulder joints (ailettes).
By the fourteenth century, the improved crossbow was able to pierce shields and mail armor. To counter this, knights first wore a poncho-like coat with small rectangular plates riveted to it, while articulated plate armor was developed for the legs, arms, and hands. The small, square, convex shield of the time (the targe) was eventually relegated to use in tournaments, since improved body armor made it unnecessary. A new form of helmet joined the all-encompassing great helm and the wide-brimmed chapel-de-fer (war hat). This was the more streamlined, close-fitting bascinet, with a curtain of mail (camail) from chin to shoulders, which frequently had a movable visor. By the late 1300s, solid breastplates first appeared to protect the chest as part of the short, tight-fitting coat of plates called a brigandine, while smaller plates covered the abdomen, hips, and back.
Within a few years, by about 1420, full head-to-toe plate armor was in use, completing the image of the knight in shining armor.
