Full Plate Armor

Plate armor, is the armor just about everyone in the world has some knowledge about. Wide-eyed 6th grade students, listening intently to the teacher, describing knights parading around killing dragons and saving maidens. Numerous video games featuring glorious metal armors protecting the body of the hero. Both of these pay homage to plate armor. What most people don't know, is that plate was invented long before kings and dukes were protecting their lands with legions of knights.

The first evidence of plate was discovered during the excavation of the city of Mycenae. Mycenae was hardly a new city, paying homage to history before the Romans and even the Greeks. The first suit of armor was in good condition and although heavy was quite advanced in quality. Because of the craftsmanship of the armor it's doubtful it's the first suit of plate created, but rather the first one we were lucky enough to find. The next appearance of plate would come with the conquests of the Greeks.

The Greeks are the next people we see making use of true plate. The Greeks favored bronze breastplates usually bearing muscled embossing. The breastplates were two pieces, one for the chest and one for the back. The Greeks were also known to wear shin guards and wrist guards made of solid pieces of bronze. It's not surprising that the next time we see plate armor is during the next great empire.

The Romans favored a type of plate that used wide pieces of iron fashioned together to look like modern day house siding. To say the Romans were successful in their conquests would be an understatement, and it's likely their armor played a large part in the Roman domination. Obviously other factors played into the forging of the Roman empire but through history you rarely see people with leather or similar armor, dominating people with plate or even chain mail armor.

After the fall of the Roman empire plate fell out of disuse for a number of reasons; cost, availability of materials, and availability of craftsmen. When men finally started to emerge from the dark ages, people again began to develop powerful plate armors. By the 14th century, the golden age of plate armor had begun and full suits of it were being produced all over Europe. An ancient suit of plate consisted of several pieces; Helmet (head), gorget or bevor (neck), pauldrons or spaulders (shoulders), couter (elbows), vambraces (wrists), gauntlets (hands), breastplate or cuirass (chest), culet, fauld, tasset (all protect the waist and stomach area), cuisses (thighs), poleyns (kneecaps), greaves (shins), and sabatons (feet). In addition to all of these individual pieces of protection most plate armor was fluted so it was nigh impossible to get a direct hit on it.

After the Middle ages full suits of plate fell into disuse and was mostly regulated to tournaments or generals. Slowly more and more of the armor was dropped as guns came into play and more mobility was desired on the battlefield. Leg and arm protection were the first to go. Eventually helmets, breastplates and sometimes gauntlets were all that was worn. This continued almost until modern times with Napoleon's cavalry called cuirassiers, who generally wore a metal breastplate and helmet.

There are some misconceptions about ancient plate. Although the armor was heavy (45-60lbs) its far from the descriptions of knights being winched onto their horses or floundering on the ground if they're knocked off. Modern day reproductions show the armor is very well distributed and the knights could have sprinted, fought in hand-to-hand, and even swam in needed. Modern day soldiers are required to carry 90lbs or more of gear into battle so 45-60lbs seems like a meager amount. Overall plate armor was very powerful and shows up often in history. Its no wonder the knights of yore were so feared and revered.

Illustrated by Cyrus "killacaravagio" Hunter

Plate Armor is an instant hit with bored peasents.