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This 15th-century battle scene shows the powerfully built horses used in warfare. From The Battle of San Romano by Paolo Uccello.. During the Decline of the Roman Empire and the Early Middle Ages, much of the quality breeding stock developed during the classical period was lost due to uncontrolled breeding and had to be built up again over the following centuries. [1]
A museum display of a sixteenth-century knight with an armoured horse Chinese Song dynasty lamellar horse barding as illustrated on Wujing Zongyao. Barding (also spelled bard or barb) is body armour for war horses. The practice of armoring horses was first extensively developed in antiquity in the eastern kingdoms of Parthia and Pahlava.
The horse was, therefore, a major item of expenditure in the equipment of a man-at-arms. It has been calculated that a French gendarme's horse in the mid-15th century cost the equivalent of six months' wages. [17] The cost of horses meant that the professional soldier might not wish to risk his expensive asset in combat.
Developed in antiquity but became common in the 14th century with the reintroduction of plate armour, later sometimes two pieces overlapping for top and bottom. Whether of one piece or two, breastplate is sometimes used to literally describe the section that covers the breast. Plackart: Extra layer of plate armour initially covering the belly.
As depicted, the body hugging scale armour (especially covering the horses' legs) is entirely impractical and must reflect artistic licence based on an oral description. In the period following this war the Romans established the first of their own regular units of cataphracts, they were most likely equipped like the Sarmatians.
The use of steel plates sewn into flak jackets dates to World War II, and was replaced by more modern materials such as fibre-reinforced plastic, since the mid-20th century. Mail armour is a layer of protective clothing worn most commonly from the 9th to the 13th century, though it would continue to be worn under plate armour until the 15th ...
High Gothic armour was worn during the later 15th century, a transitional type called Schott-Sonnenberg style was current during c. 1500 to 1515, and Maximilian armour proper during 1515 to 1525. [1] Towards the late 16th century, so-called half-armour ( Halbharnisch ) would become increasingly common, eventually diminished itself into the ...
The quality of the metal used in armour deteriorated as armies became bigger and armour was made thicker, necessitating breeding of larger cavalry horses. If during the 14–15th centuries armour seldom weighed more than 15 kg, then by the late 16th century it weighed 25 kg. [14]