A cuirass (pronounced roughly kwi-rás or kuu-rás) is a piece of armour that protects the torso. It consists of one or more pieces of metal or another hard material.
The word probably comes from the original material it was made from: leather. It comes from the Old French word cuirace and the Latin coriacea.
The term cuirass usually refers to both the breastplate and the backplate. A breastplate protects only the front; a cuirass protects both the front and back of the wearer.
Antiquity: Greeks and Romans
In Ancient Greece and Roman times, the male body was heavily idealized. This was visible in the so-called muscled armour, musculata, which looked like a muscular chest. Sometimes it was decorated with symbolic figures or images. Famous examples can be seen in statues of Emperor Augustus.
Armours from antiquity were often made of bronze or other hard materials such as leather. It wasn't until the 14th century that medieval technology was advanced enough to make similar armour pieces.
14th century: the cuirass becomes common
In the second half of the 14th century, the cuirass was increasingly worn together with armour for the arms and legs. By the end of the century, soldiers from the aristocratic ranks of society wore a steel plate cuirass over their chainmail shirt. Gradually the chainmail shirt disappeared and only chainmail supplements were worn at the neck (mail standard), armpits (voiders) and a mail skirt (gousset) at the thighs.
A famous example from this time is the armour of the Black Prince (died in 1376). His clothing was bulbous at the front, indicating that a cuirass was worn under his richly decorated garments.
Length of the cuirass: to about the navel
The 14th-century cuirass did not rest on the hips but approximately at the level of the navel. This allowed the wearer to move better. An armour that reached to the hips would make it impossible to bend forward, backward or sideways, which was necessary for proper movement when on horseback.
The rest of the belly was then protected by chainmail or by a fauld (a kind of metal strips under the cuirass).
15th century: changes in style and form
At the beginning of the 15th century, the armour was sometimes worn under a short overgarment, the tabard. Meanwhile, small metal plates (besagews) were added on shoulders and other vulnerable spots where there were otherwise openings in the armour.
Around the middle of the 15th century, the breastplate was split into two parts: an upper piece and a lower piece that slid over each other for better mobility. In the second half of the same century, the cuirass was sometimes replaced by a brigandine.
Around 1550: the goose belly cuirass
From about 1550, the breastplate acquired a vertical ridge in the middle (the tapul). Later this was moved downward and the breastplate took on a shape that resembled a goose belly. This became known as a goose belly cuirass.
17th century: soldiers on foot and on horseback
Foot soldiers wore lighter cuirasses (with breast and backplate). Cavalry wore heavier cuirasses and sometimes only breast cuirasses. This type of armour lasted longer than almost any other piece of armour. In some modern armies, mounted units even continued to wear cuirasses as a tribute to the age of chivalry.
19th–20th century
British, French, German and Russian heavy cavalry wore cuirasses during parades, right up until World War I.
At the beginning of that war, the French cavalry even wore their cuirasses in combat, though often covered with canvas to make them less visible and better protected against rain.
Other countries stopped using cuirasses in battle before World War I.
After the Battle of Waterloo (1815), old cuirasses from the Tower of London were reused for ceremonial duties by British units.
In Prussia too, elite troops wore richly decorated leather cuirasses during parades.
The Swiss Guard of the Vatican still wear cuirasses at their oath-taking ceremonies, at Christmas and Easter.
Plackart
A plackart is a part of medieval and renaissance armour. It originally covered the lower part of the torso, so the area just below the chest to around the navel and slightly below. Originally, the cuirass and plackart consisted of two separate pieces of plate armour, which gave extra flexibility when riding.
The plackart later became an additional metal plate that reinforced the lower part of the breastplate. The plackart was particularly worn in the 15th century.
Sometimes the plackart had a shiny metal finish, while the upper part of the cuirass was covered with fabric, often velvet. This created a striking colour difference between the upper and lower parts.
The plackart ended at the natural waistline (approximately around the navel). At the bottom of the plackart were metal lamellae, a kind of metal skirt. These were called faulds and protected the hips and groin.
Originally, the plackart only protected the lower belly and was attached to the breastplate, which protected the upper part of the torso. The plackart could sometimes be fastened with hinged rivets, so it could move when the wearer moved. Other plackarts were fixed as one solid plate without movement.
Later, especially in Italian armour, the plackart became increasingly larger, until it almost covered the entire front of the breastplate, practically the whole upper body down to the navel.
This type was then used by cuirassiers and other heavily armoured cavalry during the late 16th and 17th centuries, as extra protection against firearms.
Plackarts in the German-Gothic style often had grooves or ridges as decoration (fluting). These straight lines were not only beautiful but also made the armour stronger and helped deflect sword blows more easily. The point where the plackart met the upper plate was often richly decorated.
Faulds (metal 'skirt' under the breastplate)
Faulds are pieces of plate armour under the breastplate that protect the waist, hips and the area around the navel and lower belly. They emerged in Western Europe around 1370.
Faulds consist of horizontal, overlapping metal lamellae. These strips can bend with the wearer and form a kind of metal skirt at the front.
When faulds were worn together with a cuirass, there was often a similar piece at the back: a culet, so that the front and back together formed a metal skirt around the hips. For cavalry, the culet often consisted of fewer strokes, because too much metal was cumbersome while riding.
Faulds could be attached directly to the lower edge of the breastplate, but they could also be worn as a separate piece where the breastplate fit neatly over them.
The length varied, but most faulds for the battlefield ended above the knees.
At the bottom of the faulds, tassets were often hung: plates that protected the upper legs.
From the 16th century onwards, faulds and tassets were sometimes made so they almost formed one whole. For special tournaments there was a much larger metal skirt, the tonlet.
In the 17th century, faulds and tassets often disappeared entirely from the armour, or only large tassets remained that hung directly from the breastplate, so without faulds in between. These were ideal for protecting the upper legs of pikemen.
