A coat of plates is a type of armour for the torso that consists of multiple overlapping metal plates. These plates are riveted on the inside to a jacket made of fabric or leather. This type of armour belongs to the period of transitional armour: the time when people switched from chainmail shirt to hard metal plates. A coat of plates was usually worn as part of a knight's full equipment.
The armour appeared in Europe around 1180–1220, became commonly used from the 1250s, and by the 1290s it was extremely popular. Around 1350, even foot soldiers wore it, such as the Visby militia.
After approximately 1340, the plates on the chest were joined together to form the first true breastplate, causing the coat of plates to gradually disappear. After 1370, the breastplate covered the entire torso down to the navel and below.
Different types of coat of plates continued to exist in the form of the brigandine and the later jack of plates, right into the late 16th century.
How the coat of plates is constructed
The number of metal plates could vary greatly: from 8 to as many as 600, depending on the size. The plates overlap each other, so the torso remains completely protected, even during movement or combat.
The coat of plates resembles other types of armour such as lamellar armour, scale armour and the brigandine, but the key difference is that in a coat of plates, the plates are always on the inside.
A brigandine looks similar, but usually has much smaller plates. Sometimes the difference is hard to see.
Researchers such as Mathias Goll argue that this type of armour is actually a form of segmented armour (multiple parts that together form one flexible whole), and in particular the category:
"segmented armour for the torso – front and back".
Examples: Saint Maurice and Visby
A well-known early example is the armour of Saint Maurice from around 1250. Goll thinks the dating might possibly need to be later, toward the early 14th century.
He describes that the back plates probably consisted of vertical strips underneath leather or fabric, held in place with horizontal rows of rivets.
One of the most important sources for studying coats of plates are the mass graves from the Battle of Visby (1361).
There, many harnesses were found with between 8 and 600 plates.
In total, 24 different models of coats of plates were discovered. Some were older types that resembled a kind of armoured surcoat (a tunic with plates on the inside).
Early forms: surcoats with plates
Early coats of plates sometimes had long pieces of fabric that hung down front and back, as with the armour of Saint Maurice.
It is thought that these were actually surcoats with metal plates on the inside.
It is unclear whether those plates overlapped, but much resembled a coat of plates.
Yet most surviving examples from the 14th and 15th centuries show that the plates did overlap. Examples without overlapping exist, but are rare.
Development through warfare and cavalry
This armour became popular because knights needed better protection against spears and lance attacks during mounted combat.
An ordinary chainmail shirt with a padded jacket (gambeson) often did not provide enough protection for that.
The coat of plates offered protection against high-speed lance attacks, through a combination of the soft gambeson, tough chainmail shirt and plate armour, the coat of plates.
Early mentions in sources
The earliest evidence of metal chest reinforcements comes from Guillaume le Breton.
He describes that Richard I wore an iron plate ("ferro fabricata patena") in 1188 during a joust. It sat under the chainmail shirt, making it invisible.
Other sources from around 1220 also mention such an iron plate "for the front of the chest", worn under the armour.
This explains why such harnesses are hardly ever visible in old drawings or sculptures before the end of the 13th century.
Medieval spread
Around the middle of the 13th century, this type of armour appears in art from Germany.
German knights wore coats of plates in the battles of Benevento (1266) and Tagliacozzo (1268). They were almost invulnerable to French sword attacks, until the French discovered that their armpits were poorly protected.
Scandinavian sources mention the armour from around 1250 as Briost Bjorg ("chest protection"), and say it had to reach from the nipple line to the belt (roughly to the navel).
In other sources it is called plata and was only permitted for the highest ranks.
In Barcelona, coats of plates were made from 1257, and in 1308 King James II ordered them for himself and his sons, covered with richly coloured fabric.
Transition to plate armour
As time went on, segmented armour was replaced by larger, better-shaped plates.
But segmented armour remained popular because it was lighter, more flexible, cheaper and required less craftsmanship.
In 1295, almost all French knights wore a coat of plates together with their chainmail shirt.
A merchant brought more than 5,000 coats of plates to Bruges that same year to sell.
In 1316, the armour of the captured Welsh nobleman Llywelyn Bren was described as "buckram armour", a type of coat of plates.
By the second half of the 14th century, the armour was cheap enough for ordinary soldiers, such as the militia of Gotland and Paris.
Sources:
- Archaeological Find (Absolute Top Source): The mass graves of the Battle of Visby (1361, Gotland, Sweden). More than 20 unique Coats of Plates have been found here in the ground.
