Looks like some Peeping Toms got a little more than they were bargaining for.
Either that or it's raining men!
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Either that or it's raining men!
France has never really been cool with women stepping outside of the domestic role, especially back then. They didn't give women the right to vote until the 1950's, after all.
Jack chains! Extra protection for arms at a budget! The gambeson itself already gives decent protection, but the chains sewn on the sleeves offer some more cut resistance - not at all bad deal.
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Speaking of armor, I noticed that for quite some time among amateur history nerds that are significant bias against leather armor. Some even claim that such armor are pure fiction by fantasy authors, and couldn't ever exist for real. It seems that root cause was that this people find out that gambesons, rather uncommon in fantasy, was actually popular in middle ages. Thuse they come to the conclusion that gambeson was unfairly mistreated
, and that it should be greatly superior to leather armor. As "proof" often used pair of videos with tests of padded cloth and hard leather respectively, in which testers shoots respective pieces of armor with longbow. Except padded clothe was shot from much longer range. (BTW, double layer of hardened leather almost stopped upper strength longbow shot from point blank). Here are better test (near the end of the video).
Point is, not only such armor was pretty common in Asia, it actually was mentioned in medieval european sources . Viking sagas mentioned saami deer hide armor that some vikings preferred over chainmail. Brabançons, 12/13th century mercenary company was said to use leather armor. In fact, "a knight and his armor" by Ewart Oakeshott has entire chapter on this subject.
Some genuine medieval exampless!
And later, starting from 16th century leather completely replaced padded armor in light category (except in russia, due to poverty of the region)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buff_coat
While after 17thc most armies almost stopped use armor, various belts, like cross-belts on the chest, boots and gauntlets, made from thick hard leather, provided some protection in melee. There was also hard leather helmets, reinforcer with metal "decorations". All of this was used until late 19thc. No wonder early fantasy authors used such armor so often.
Some genuine medieval exampless!
And later, starting from 16th century leather completely replaced padded armor in light category (except in russia, due to poverty of the region)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buff_coat
While after 17thc most armies almost stopped use armor, various belts, like cross-belts on the chest, boots and gauntlets, made from thick hard leather, provided some protection in melee. There was also hard leather helmets, reinforcer with metal "decorations". All of this was used until late 19thc. No wonder early fantasy authors used such armor so often.
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Oh, another example i forget. Hard leather armor of mexican dragoon, 18th century.
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Oh, another find, leather greaves from WW1, for protection from shell fragments:
And this are from WW2, italian:
Not bad for "useless" leather armor
And this are from WW2, italian:
Not bad for "useless" leather armor
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Youd have to find the chronicle the image is from to understand the context of why women are displayed wearing arms there. The first image being amazons shows its not all of them are contemporary women
This are interesting topic. While in (christian) medieval Europe there wasn't many female combatants (but there was a few), female knights appear occasionally in medieval literature, so such idea wasn't entirely alien to people at the time. More importantly, in this rare cases when woman end up fighting, there usually wasn't any fuss at all.
I could even end up a bragging point in the family chronicles about how they rescued the battle through their decisive action at an important moment.
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Another thing about armor and myths. This story started when early historians in 19th century mis-reconstructed brigandine armor..
They assumed that rivets, that hold steel plate inside soft layers, was actually main point of this armor by itself. That how fantasy studded armor was invented. Recently, while many people point out this mistake, it became popular to claim that such thing as studded armor are entirely unrealistic and nothing like that could ever exist. However...
Indian "chilta hazar masha" (coat of a thousand nails):
Multi layer cloth armor reinforced with many tiny studs, which increase slashing resistance.
There is also wersions with additional larger studs
Of course this early historians was familiar with such designs - many of them served as officers in eastern colonies. Besides, indian armor and weapon was very popular among collectors at the time.
Meanwhile, Europe had similar designs, specifically hussar uniform (some other forces, like napoleonic marines, adopted similar design)
Multiple rows of big metal buttons, often on both shirt and jacket, with enough density to stop saber slash. Similar elements sometimes appeared on other parts of uniform, like sleeves and pants.
So yea, while it's highly unlikely that real medieval Europe had anything like that, something like "studded leather" definitely could be functional armor.
They assumed that rivets, that hold steel plate inside soft layers, was actually main point of this armor by itself. That how fantasy studded armor was invented. Recently, while many people point out this mistake, it became popular to claim that such thing as studded armor are entirely unrealistic and nothing like that could ever exist. However...
Indian "chilta hazar masha" (coat of a thousand nails):
Multi layer cloth armor reinforced with many tiny studs, which increase slashing resistance.
There is also wersions with additional larger studs
Of course this early historians was familiar with such designs - many of them served as officers in eastern colonies. Besides, indian armor and weapon was very popular among collectors at the time.
Meanwhile, Europe had similar designs, specifically hussar uniform (some other forces, like napoleonic marines, adopted similar design)
Multiple rows of big metal buttons, often on both shirt and jacket, with enough density to stop saber slash. Similar elements sometimes appeared on other parts of uniform, like sleeves and pants.
So yea, while it's highly unlikely that real medieval Europe had anything like that, something like "studded leather" definitely could be functional armor.
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Another example (which i planned to include last time but has forgotten yet again
) similar to "studded leather" was "aprons" of roman legionaries
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I'm thinking, maybe i should put this armor trivia in a separate thread? Few people read to the end of such long threads...
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I do. I love seeing these threads!
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Dad: Look at the little scoundrels! They're having so much fun!
Mom: It's always fun; until someone loses an eye...
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