Page 122 - (DK) Smithsinian - Military History: The Definitive Visual Guide to the Objects of Warfare

120 EUROPEAN INFANTRY Spike ▼ SPANISH

WDER 1500–1680 ARMOR AND WEAPONS TERCIO ARMOR

Date c.1570
Peacetime armies hardly existed prior to the 16th century:
Origin Italy
professional troops were either bodyguards or employed for
Material Iron, leather
garrison duties. However, during wartime troops were
Italy, and especially Milan, made
recruited and mercenaries hired. Permanent infantry units,
munition armor of this type
in large quantities. This cuirass
such as the Spanish tercio (see p.117), were established in the
was worn with full arms and an
early 16th century. They were drilled in battlefield tactics and
open helmet such as the morion
with a pike or gun and a sword.
AND GUNPO trained in the effective use of their weapons. Such forces, together Blade Back fluke MORION shown. The tercios were armed
with the increased availability of handguns, challenged the supremacy
of the fully armored knights. Manufacturers in Italy, Germany,
and the Low Countries increased their production of swords, staff
weapons, handguns, and armor, transporting them all over Europe
Gorget
to equip these new military units.
Movable
gussets at
armholes
▶ HALBERD
PIKES Date c.1500 1 Langet
Origin Germany
1
Weight 4 ⁄2lb (2.01kg)
Length (Head) 16 ⁄4in
Rivet-holes (41.2cm)
where visor The halberd was a versatile
was attached weapon—the blade was used
SALLET for cutting, its spike for
thrusting, and the back fluke
Breastplate for pulling men off horseback.
The langets protected the
shaft from being cut.

Embossing
on breast
plate and
Couter tassets (thigh
guards)

Skirt or fauld

Splints
Elongated, plated guards
protected the hands

▲ ALMAIN RIVET In 1512, King Henry VIII ordered 2,000 of these
(MUNITION ARMOR) simple armors from a merchant in Florence. The
arm defenses, called “splints,” consisted of gutter-
Date c.1520
shaped plates attached to a dished couter over the
Origin Italy elbow. The plates and the couter were joined by
Material Iron, leather leather on the inside. Instead of gauntlets, a series
of laminations covered the hands.