Armet - a close-fitted, visored helmet that appears to have originated in Italy sometime before 1450 and remained in use through 15th and 16th centuries. The armet was lighter and more protective than the bascinet it surplanted and made use of a new innovation of hinged cheek pieces.
Barbute - another Italian helmet design of the mid-15th century, the barbute or barbuta was a close-fitting helmet that came in a variety of open, and close-faced forms.
It’s most famous design, had a “Y” or “T” shaped slot in the face to provide vision and ventilation, and was clearly modeled on ancient Classical Greek helmets.
The bascinet was initially open-faced, but as it supplanted the helm as the primary defense, a variety of hinged visors were developed.
Brigandine - A type of coat-of-plates (see below) with hundreds of small, overlapping plates, providing great mobility at a slight cost in protection.
The definition is a convenient one to use but the reader should be aware that the ancients were not so pedantic about such definitions and used the term indifferently.
Coat-armour - An overgarment of the late Middle Ages, particularly popular in tournament, that showed the wearer’s heraldry, or that of his lord.
Coat-of-Plates - Steel, bone, or hardened leather plates riveted or sewn inside a leather or heavy fabric covering, to provide a flexible form of plate armour.
Gambeson - sometimes used to refer to the aketon, the gambeson more commonly in the period referred to a quilted and decorated coat-armour of the late 14th century, worn over the breastplate, or alone.
Great Helm - the first helmet in the Middle Ages to encompass the entire head, usually made of four or five iron plats riveted together, and worn over a mail coif, and sometimes a small steel skull-cap.
Great helms first appeared in the last decade of the 12th century, and became wide-spread in the 13th and early 14th centuries.
They remained the dominant form of tournament helmet into the Renaissance, becoming progressively heavier and more massive.
Although there is a clear distinction between the hauberk and haubergeon, as noted above, in early writings the two terms were used interchangably.
Lammellar - believed to have originated in Asia, a semi-rigid form of armour consisting of short metal plates pierced, overlapped, and laced together.
Lammellar was used from Antiquity until the 20th century, but outside of Eastern Europe (and to a lesser extent, Scandinavia and Sicily) it was known, but never popular, in the West.
Mail was flexible, and when properly belted, reasonably comfortable, but was insufficient protection against thrusts or concussive force, unless worn with heavy padding underneath.
In the mid-13th century, the first additional plate defenses were added at the shin, elbows, and kness, but before the Hundred Years War (c.1338 - 1453) the knight was still essentially armoured in mail.
By the end of the 14th century, mail was a primary body defence only for poor knights and common soldiers, but it continued to be used as skirts and armpit protection - areas that plates could not protect, throughout the period.
Shield - a defensive devise that came in a variety of shapes and sizes, made of leather-covered wood or metal, and hung from the arm by a series of straps, or gripped by a handle.
Tabard - a simple garment, similar to a surcoat, slit down the sides, with the front and back held togther by ties which could be drawn tight or left loose.
Tabards were used in tournaments to display the knights’ heraldry in the late 15th century, and survive today as the elaborate garments worn by officers of the English College of Heralds on ceremonial occassions.
