Body armor

“ As a matter of fact armor is not as heavy as one might think. A good military suit weighs no more than the pack carried by a modern soldier, sixty pounds or less, and is a great deal more comfortable to carry. The pack hangs from the shoulders, but a good suit of armor, carefully made (as all good armor had to be made) to fit the individual body of the wearer, has its weight distributed over the entire body. The helmet rests partly on the head and partly on the shoulders. ”

“ As this age gave way before gunpowder and the Church, as men discovered the uselessness of heavy armor, battle-axe, cross-bow, and lance, and as they were taught the doctrine of the necessity of body-mortification in order to perfection of soul, there prevailed a total disregard of the physical conditions necessary to our well-being. ”

“ Armor. Defensive arms for the body; any clothing or covering worn to protect one’s person in battle. In English statutes, armor is used for the whole apparatus of war, including offensive as well as defensive arms. The statutes of armor directed what arms every man should provide. Armor has also been extensively used in England in plating important fortifications as those of Portsmouth, and also in Germany for the forts along the frontier. ”

“ Mail armor continued in general use till about the year 1300, when it was gradually supplanted by plate armor, or suits consisting of pieces or plates of solid iron, adapted to the different parts of the body. ”

“ Rise up smiling, and walk with me. Rise up in the armor of thy body and what shall pass shall make thee unafraid. Walk among the yellow hills, for they belong to thee. Walk upon grass and let thy feet descend into soft soil; in the end when all has failed thee the soil shall comfort thee, the soil shall receive thee and in thy dark bed thou shalt find such peace as is thy portion.
In thine armor, hear my voice. In thine armor, hear. Whatsoever thou doest, thy friend and thy brother and thy woman shall betray thee. Whatsoever thou dost plant, the weeds and the seasons shall spite thee. ”

“ Now, if you give a man a jab in the knuckles, or if you run your blade delicately up his arm from the wrist to the elbow, this is what happens. The man involuntarily yells out, and as involuntarily drops his sword on the flags. If you prick a man on the knuckle-bone, he will leave go his sword before he has time to think, it being an action entirely unconscious on his part, just like winking your eye or drawing your breath; yet I have seen men run through the body who kept sword in hand and made a beautiful lunge with it even as they staggered across the threshold of death's door. ”

“ The development of the chest, the muscular strength of the limbs, the fulness of life in the whole figure, are forcibly expressed, but without exaggeration. The muscles do not stand out like ropes around a fleshless torso; there is athletic strength, the perfection of trained manhood, but no gauntness or unsightliness; sound elastic flesh clothes sinews powerful as steel. The hand which holds the sword has closed on it with the rigidity of death. The passage from life to death is portrayed with great fidelity. ”

“ Nature created him with a sword on his nose: so he was properly equipped with a suitable weapon from the start. His thick, hairless skin lies on his massive body in huge folds like plate armour, and looks like a coat of mail. When dried, the skin is used for shields and other implements of warfare. ”

“ Therefore it is that man, wounded, bleeding, burdened, staggering, fumbles at the buckles that bind the weight of his armor on his back, longing to cast it off, and wondering if they that take the sword must after all perish by the sword. ”

“ All others are excluded, lest, entering, they annoy the peaceful citizens, and stir up strife and discord.”
“But this warrior’s armor was unlike anything I have ever seen. Of what metal is it composed?”
“It is made of several different metals; the helmet [161] of a mixture of two metals, called Truth and Honesty; the breastplate is also of two metals, Patience and Constancy; the sword, of the Hatred of all that is base and evil; and the shield, of the Hope of admission to our land; for this—to gain entrance here—is considered the highest privilege that can be granted to any mortal. ”

“ The armourer was a short, broad-shouldered man, with massive, muscular arms that ill matched a pair of short, thin legs, which, as if unequal to bear the weight of his body, had assumed a bow-like appearance ”

“ Certain experiments have recently been made with the metallic armor worn seven hundred years ago, by which it is found that any man, of ordinary height and muscular development, can carry the armor and wield the weapons of an age supposed to be greatly our superior in strength. ”

“ That I had not heard, but the weight of iron and his own body was all curiously pressed upon one forearm, and the pain of it set him groaning like a wounded bull. The strangest thing of all was that this arm was free. ”

“ If the shaft or wooden part of a weapon be broken off, he directs us to apply to the head an impellent instrument with a concave extremity, so as to adapt itself to the form of the body which is to be extracted. When the weapon is poisoned, he recommends us, if possible, to cut out the flesh around it. When a weapon lodges in the breast, belly, bladder, or side, and can be felt with a probe, he directs us to cut cautiously upon it, taking care not to wound a vein or nerve. ”

“ Let us turn back to the armor of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, and consider some of the questions which naturally arise in our minds as we contemplate these relics of the past. In the first place, was it practical? How could men possibly wear such a mass of metal upon their bodies and engage in long military campaigns, interspersed with violent battles? Isn’t it true that an armored man, once fallen, could not get up again until he was hoisted with a derrick? ”

“ Why, you must know that my sword may almost be regarded as part of my own body. I have heard that certain men seem to have warnings given them by feeling something the matter with their legs, or by a throbbing of their temples. With me, it is my sword that warns me. ”

“ If I choose to make my body a sheath for his sword, I will make his body a sheath for mine, while my hand holds tight against my breast the hilt of his weapon, to keep in my own spirit till I see his fled. ”

“ Fourth:—Every soldier must wear good armor, well quilted, a neck guard, head piece, leggings and shield, for defence from javelins, stones and darts of our enemy. Fifth:—No man should gamble for horses or arms. ”

“ When a weapon passes through a limb, or attaches one part of the body to another, he directs us to cut off the part which projects, and then extraction may easily be accomplished. If fastened in a bone, he advises us to turn it round so as to loosen it ”

“ So the one excuse for a complete protection of the body vanished, and from the crowd of ancient armour-cracking weapons, mace, hammer, flail, and such like, the sword rose paramount. More lightly clad, the horseman could ride swifter, move his limbs with greater freedom. ”

“ But the accepted symbol of man as a fighting creature has always been the sword, and the sword, perhaps more than any other item of man’s warlike panoply, has experienced the full range of his artistic and technical initiative. Space does not here permit a discussion of the innumerable types of swords; only a brief resumé of the general development can be given. This is supplemented by a display of some typical forms along one side wall of the armor gallery.
Fig. 27. A mace or one-handed club, made of steel carved and gilded. A beautiful implement for smashing heads! ”

“ If thou rid’st hard he cannot get away, and run thy spear in under his gorget so as not to spoil his armor—’tis worth, at least, a hundred shillings!”
I never moved a muscle, did not even deign to look down at that cruel churl. ”

“ The helmet of war appeared to complete the perfection of defensive harness; for the lance broke hurtless on the plate of steel, the arrow and quarrel glanced away, and it is only in romance that we read of swords cutting through a solid front of iron, or piercing both plate and mail, as some bolder spirits say. ”

“ Spear-throwing trained the eye and made the arm deft in executing the eye’s direction.
It conferred upon the body other peculiar benefits; the organs [Pg 36] of respiration were stimulated; the chest was strengthened and enlarged; the right arm was strengthened; in order to throw the spear effectively the athlete must maintain a graceful poise and have command of his entire body; to do so with a weight held aloft, strengthened the lower limbs, made their muscles more facile, and the step more sure. ”

“ The sword forged by supernatural smiths, the terrific helmet, the heavenly shield, are dreams of every warlike nation, either endowing the Deity with the symbols of protection or wrath or of might, or carrying on the tradition of some weapon which, either its own intrinsic superiority or the prowess of its owner, had made an object of enthusiasm or of terror. ”

“ The armour is simply made to fit the breast, body, arms, and legs; the thighs being protected by a modification of the tuilles in the form of a succession of overlapping plates (tassets or cuisses) which reach from the corslet to the knee.
Arquebusier.
The civil war of the Great Rebellion offers a tempting theme, but we must limit ourselves to the notice that few, except great noblemen when acting as military leaders, ever wore anything like a complete suit of armour. A beautiful suit, inlaid with gold, which belonged to Charles I., is in the Tower armoury. ”

“ He was equipped in a wonderful solidity of armour, with a hard, carven helmet on his head, a splendid red-bossed shield swinging on his shoulder, a wide-grooved, straight sword clashing along his thigh. ”

“ In an age when missiles were much in use; javelins, arrows, and the stones of the mangona and of the slinger; the soldier would naturally employ his first care to the arming of his head. Consequently we find in the monuments of this period that, even when the body appears to have no defensive covering, the head is carefully protected by the helmet. ”

“ The short swinging arm is hung by strong iron staples to the end of a stout staff, about six feet in length, and is braced up in iron bands, which bristle with projecting points, the better to make an impression on an enemy's skull. Truly a formidable weapon! Try the weight. The arm must be strong that would wield it with effect; and mighty must have been the motive that sent whole ranks armed therewith rushing to the onslaught as to a threshing-floor. ”

“ A tall, stout serving-man, clad in a half suit of ribbed armour, wearing that kind of close helmet which was then called a coursing-hat, and carrying over his shoulder a mighty two-handed wall-sword, nearly as long as himself, followed close at his heels, running as if for his life. ”

“ Without rifle, sword, or any other weapon, I succeeded in clambering up a part of the breach, and came near to a chevaux-de-frise, consisting of a piece of heavy timber studded with sword-blades, turning on an axis: but just before reaching it I received a stroke on the breast, whether from a grenade or a stone, or by the butt-end of a musket, I cannot say, but down I rolled senseless, and drenched with water and human gore. ”

“ All have thick necks and bodies protected by regular transverse rows of long, horny plates or shields, which are elevated in the center into keel-shaped ridges, forming an armor that is quite bullet-proof. ”

“ The survival of the fittest held good of defensive armour until that very fitness was found to be a source rather of weakness than of strength, owing to changed conditions of warfare; and then the mighty defences of steel, impervious to sword, lance, and arrow, passed away, to remain only as adjuncts of Parade and Pageant, or as examples in museums of a lost art in warfare and military history. ”

“ The other four were men-at-arms, clad all in suits of armor, but less completely than their lord; thus they had steel shirts only, with stout buff breeches and heavy boots to guard their lower limbs, and iron scull caps only, without the hood, upon their heads, and leather gauntlets upon their hands ”

“ The body should be inclined forwards rather than backwards. In this somewhat crouching attitude the upper part of the body, that is to say the chest, by its advanced position with the sword arm held in front, acts as a kind of natural rampart or shield to cover the lower part, where a wound is almost certain to prove mortal. ”

“ In Scale Armour, flat plates of metal, horn, or bone are sewn to a linen or leathern vest in such a way that the scales overlap each other, and so tend to throw off the blow of a weapon. One great advantage of this armour is its lightness and flexibility, the former quality allowing of more prolonged exertion than could be possible with the heavy plate armour, and the latter rendering that exertion less fatiguing to the limbs.{124}
A glance at the preceding illustration will show how the scale armour of the human warrior has been anticipated by Nature. ”

“ So the hope of conquering every adversary and surmounting every difficulty, through the blood of the Lamb, is as a helmet that protects the head; an impenetrable one, that the blow of the battle-axe cannot cleave. ”

“ These instances clearly show, that apparent strength is often nothing more than a judicious application of the mechanical powers to the human frame; and from the catastrophe attending the two latter may be deduced the anatomical 388fact, that the sinews of the arms possess a greater power of resistance than the largest bones of the body. ”

“ Nor may any man altogether conceive of the entire fury of that encounter, for, because of the violence of the blows which the one delivered upon the other, whole cantels of armor were hewn from their bodies and many deep and grievous wounds were given and received, so that the armor of each was altogether stained with red because of the blood that flowed down upon it. ”

“ Again, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, a higher point of development was reached—armor was constructed of vast quantities of small rings intersecting one with another, so as to form a connected garment. ”