Armour of the English Knight: 1430-1445
Source: Armour of the English Knight
Helmet: Great bascinet skull tending to be less pointed and more rounded. The outer front neck plate starting to be subtly shaped to the chin and throat. Cuirass: Two-part design generally adopted by 1430. Plackart generally attached to the upper breastplate by means of a central strap and side-straps, although the side-straps become less common after 1440. The same essential construction appears to be employed in the rear. Waist lame and skirts worn as a separate assembly from the upper and lower breast- and backplates, allowing waist pivoting and rotation. The skirt itself reaches its greatest length, reaching almost beyond the mid-thigh, with no mail visible below it. Tassets introduced as narrow, oblong plates strapped to the front and sides of the lowermost lame of the skirt. Shoulder Defences: Spaudlers worn with ovoid or heater-shaped besagews, now often fluted and slightly concave in form. The spaudlers beginning to be extended at the back to increase protection and maintain overlap with the backplate when in motion. Usually designed to extend up to the sides of the neck, underlapping the base of the great bascinet. Vambraces: Remain symmetrical with fully-enclosed upper and lower cannons, largely unchanged from the previous decade apart from the design of the wing, which is starting to be sculpted more deeply into the bend of the elbow. Gauntlets: Usually now a more advanced form of the fingered hourglass design, having a pointed cuff and articulated wrist. Leg armour: Demi-cuisses disappearing, poleyn wing now beginning to be shaped into the back of the knee. Fully enclosed cuisses and greaves hinged on the outer faces and closed with either straps or loose- pin clasps on the inner faces. Sabatons: Overplates now discarded in favour of a simpler construction of straight-edged lames of roughly equal width. At this time some sabatons appear to have had articulated plates running up the ankle and under the front of the greave.
