Erminespot

How’s your kit these days, Sire…Filed Under: Fighting

There’s often a question as to, “what should my kit look like?” I know that fully encased arm rigs are acceptable for the 14th Century, but so aren’t mail chauces. Should I wear one with the other?

The nice folks over at A Commonplace Book linked to a nifty article by Doug Strong. He did a statistical analysis of 250 effigies in England, and broke down their armor into bar graphs per decade. Thus, I can look at the 1380’s and see that while my arm rig, gauntlets, and breastplate are great, my lack of real greaves and sabatons are woefully anachronistic. (Good thing I play in the SCA, right?)

It’s also interesting to see these graphs in relation to the 100 Years War. When you consider the Battles of Crecy and Poitiers, in 1337 and 1356 respectively, you see a bunch of different styles of armor quickly getting drilled down to one major one and a few examples of a runner up. In most cases, by the 1360’s, armor has standardized to a single type. However, you don’t see huge changes in the 1420’s after Agincourt in 1415.

Tags: 1380, armor