Knightly Mail Armor Equipment

Timeline

1. 1171–1173France and the Rhineland · FranceAt this time, Western European heavy cavalry commonly wore knee-length, long-sleeved hauberks, with the collar or an integrated or separate hood (coif); the labor-intensive weaving of iron rings meant that full mail was largely limited to knights and wealthy warriors, while lower infantry mostly wore only leather armor or none at all.
2. c. 1175–1177Germany and Central Europe · GermanyIconographic sources such as the Hortus Deliciarum (composed around 1180–85, reflecting fashions of the preceding decades) show that full-sleeved mail gloves (mitons) and back-laced mail chausses became common in the mid-to-late 12th century; laces at the wrists and knees also helped distribute the weight of the mail.
3. 1178–1180Kingdom of Jerusalem and Western Europe · Kingdom of JerusalemKnights wore padded garments of cotton, linen, or wool beneath the mail to cushion blunt impacts and chafing, and the surcoat came into increasing use; in battles such as Montgisard in 1177, Frankish knights withstood Muslim cavalry charges in their mail systems, demonstrating effective protection against cutting and thrusting weapons but also exposing limitations against heavy crossbows and blunt strikes.