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Coat of Plates Armor

Type Object Region Europe Time 1180–1190

The coat of plates used by European knights and heavy infantry in the 1180s involved sewing or riveting small iron or steel plates onto a mail shirt …

Timeline

  1. 1181–1185Paris · FranceNobles and knights of France and England added iron plates sewn onto their mail coats to strengthen chest and abdomen protection; records of blacksmith guilds and armories show that the coat of plates had become one of the standard items of equipment for heavy cavalry.
  2. 1186–1190Acre · Kingdom of JerusalemOn the eve of the Third Crusade, crusader and mercenary infantry stationed in the Levant widely adopted the coat of plates to counter Muslim arrows and scimitars, prompting fine technical adjustments to plate layout and weight balance.

Sources