Armor Avant style (1420-1460)

The armour of a knight (or man-at-arms) looked different throughout the Middle Ages. In this blog, we provide a glimpse into the equipment of an Italian man-at-arms in the mid-fifteenth century to help you choose your own composition.

The Hundred Years' War between England and France would continue until 1453. Periods of war were interrupted by short peace, which both countries needed to rebuild themselves after intensive fighting. In Italy, a series of long-lasting conflicts was also brewing. The rise of major rivals like Venice and Genoa had created a sort of cold war between two major alliances in Northern Italy in the late fourteenth century. This would erupt into a hot war in 1423, in the form of the Lombard Wars between the Republic of Venice and the Duchy of Milan. These wars would divide Northern Italy into several major power blocks, emerging from the patchwork of individual city-states of previous centuries. The arms race between the alliances involved led to the development of the characteristic ‘Milanese’ plate armor and the Avant armour.

In the course of the fifteenth century, clear regional differences emerged in the forms of plate armor. The North Italian (Milanese) style, which emphasized large, rounded shapes, is reflected in the Avant-Harness from the castle of Churburg in Northern Italy.

The bascinet was adopted by the armet in the mid-fifteenth century in France, Italy, and England. This helmet had a complex folding construction to better fit the head. The early armet had a bevor that was fastened over the helmet to provide extra protection for the neck. The armet remained exclusively available to the aristocracy, but the sallet, another helmet that had replaced the bascinet, was worn by both common soldiers and knights. In the Holy Roman Empire, the sallet was almost exclusively used as part of the Gothic style.

The arm harness underwent significant developments during this period. Pauldrons became more robust to protect the collarbones, and in the Milanese style, shoulder plates were often asymmetrical. The elbow was covered with a plate that fully enclosed it, yet still allowed for sufficient freedom of movement. Gauntlets evolved into a mitten-like form where the fingers could not move individually, but a hybrid form with individual finger protection was still often used

The year is 1440. The Milanese knight Giorgio fights in the Lombard Wars under the mercenary general Niccolò Piccinino. The army is on its way to the Tuscan town of Anghiari, where a Venetian-Florentine alliance awaits the Milanese army. Giorgio disagrees with the poor discipline of the mercenaries marching with him: they seem to him more focused on their pay than on a victory, which he sees as an example of the sad state of military troops in his time.

When Giorgio is not wearing his armor, he follows the fashion of the early fifteenth century. He wears his arming doublet, a mi-parti trousers, pointed shoes and a chaperon as headgear. On his belt, he carries a bag and his sword, a symbol of his military status that he likes to display on the streets of Milan. He wants his outfit to convey a warrior-like character, even without armour.

The chaperon was a medieval garment originally intended as a hood to protect the head from rain and cold. In the fourteenth century, it became fashionable among the nobility and bourgeoisie to wear the chaperon as a kind of turban by turning it inside out.

In the fifteenth century, fashion shifted from long, flowing garments to short, tight-fitting clothing. Men began wearing doublets, which ended around the hips and emphasized the chest and waist. As a result, full trousers also started to become more fashionable.

An gambeson provides a layer of padded protection under mail and plate armor, but was worn on its own by poor soldiers. Due to developments in armour, thick gambesons became unnecessary for knights, and they began wearing a thinner, lighter padded variant that also matched the fashion of the day, the so-called arming doublet. To this tight-fitting variant of the gambeson, armour components could be attached that 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 a warrior-like appearance, similar to wearing combat boots or clothing with camouflage print today. Giorgio likes to project this and wears his arming doublet in everyday life as well.

In the fifteenth century, there was a gradual transition from wearing chausses to the full trousers. Giorgio wears a mi-parti trousers with a flap. Underneath, he wears his braies, a medieval undergarment.

Chausses were long stockings, which were attached to the undergarment and usually worn under long robes. It is a personal choice to wear chausses or a trousers, but chausses had already fallen strongly out of fashion during this period.

People from all walks of life attached pouches and other everyday items to their belt.  When composing your outfit, consider what you would find important to carry in your daily life as a knight, such as your cutlery but also your sword.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, men wore pointed shoes. Over time, the fashion trend was to make these increasingly longer and more pointed. On the battlefield, form followed function, and the pointedness of the shoes was much more modest, so that one would not trip over them during a battle.

Although Giorgio himself does not wear a chainmail shirt, it was commonly worn by many knights during this time. The haubergeon, the chainmail shirt with short sleeves, became increasingly used in the fifteenth century due to developments in arm armor. Italian knights would continue to use full chainmail until the end of the fifteenth century, while in the Holy Roman Empire, the chainmail shirt was split into voiders and chainmail skirts to save weight.

Giorgio's armour consists of a cuirass, armet, arm and pauldrons, mittens, and a full leg harness.

Giorgio wears a cuirass that protects his entire torso. Unlike earlier breastplates such as those of the Churburg armour, the lower abdomen and hips are protected with articulating steel plates. These can also be detached from the cuirass.

Giorgio wears a closed helmet, known in this period as the armet. The helmet features a hinged construction that fits closely to the head when closed with the assistance of a squire.

During this time, open helmets were also often worn to provide the wearer with a better field of vision and to aid in giving commands. This was especially done when the threat from the enemy was not very imminent. It was often also a matter of personal preference whether a knight wore an open helmet or one with a visor. In Italy, the Sallet and Barbute were popular forms of open helmets at this time. The Barbute was based on helmets from ancient Greece, a period that saw renewed interest due to the rise of the Renaissance in the early fifteenth century. You can choose what type of helmet you use in your composition. Here are examples of open helmets from this time period:

Giorgio uses newly developed mittens to protect his hands. Underneath, he wears separate leather gloves. Other knights of this period continued to prefer gauntlets with individual finger protection. It is up to you to choose which of these forms of gauntlet you use in your composition.

Giorgio wears large shoulder plates and a tight-fitting arm harness. The shoulder plates also protect his collarbone and are large enough that he does not need a besagews to protect his armpits. The arm harness have a large plate to fully protect the elbow and provide freedom of movement. Both are fastened to his arming doublet with laces.

The leg armor that Giorgio wears consists of upper and lower leg protection. It is attached to his arming doublet using laces with aiglets.

In the fifteenth century, armor for the feet, known as sabatons, was also worn. This made walking for long periods in armour much heavier, so it was often used only by cavalry. Whether or not you choose to wear sabatons is a matter of personal preference.

Often an arming doublet or other gambeson was equipped with points to attach armor for the lower body, but this was not always the case. Therefore, a armor belt was often worn to attach leg pieces and mail shirts to the body.

Due to armor developments, the shield was no longer used by knights and men-at-arms in the fifteenth century. Knights often chose to use two-handed swords, maces, war hammers as a secondary weapon. However, one-handed swords were still used by both common soldiers and men-at-arms. These were easy to carry and would develop better hand protection over the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as seen in ‘sideswords’ (early rapiers), making them more popular as civilian weapons. Pole weapons remained the primary weapons on the battlefield for those fighting both mounted and on foot.

It is entirely up to you which of these weapons becomes part of your early fifteenth-century knightly equipment. Here are some examples:

Contrary to what many people think, armor was not intended to make the wearer completely invulnerable. Armor was always a compromise between mobility and protection. This compromise can be clearly seen in the difference between war armor and tournament armor (all our armors are war armors). During tournaments, much stronger but less mobile armor was worn to protect the wearer as fully as possible from the impact of a lance. This was possible because tournaments were not intended as a spectacle and not as a life-or-death struggle. On the battlefield, mobility was much more important, resulting in war armors offering less protection but being lighter and allowing the wearer to move much more freely.

Armors were historically worn by people fully trained and specialized in waging war during the period in which they lived. It can be seen that these individuals made many choices between protection and mobility, often based on function and personal preference. For example, many foot soldiers wore less protection on their lower legs because it was more comfortable for marching, but cavalry was often more fully armored. Knights sometimes chose to protect their hands with mittens in which the fingers could not move, but sometimes with gauntlets with individual fingers. Consider what is important to you and adjust your armour components and composition to your own preference.

On medieval battlefields, only the aristocracy wore fully custom-made armors. The rest of the armies wore armors that were collected or inherited from previous wearers. These soldiers adapted these assembled pieces of armor to their own measurements and decorated them by painting religious symbols and the heraldry of their ruler on them. The armor components we sell are not custom-made, but they are adjustable. As an owner of an armor, you are regularly engaged in adjusting the armor to your measurements to ensure it fits as comfortably as possible. You can do this by lengthening straps, adding straps, stretching arm and leg pieces, and adding laces.