During the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), brigandine began to supplant lamellar armour and was used to a great degree into the Qing dynasty (1644–1912.). By the 19th century most Qing armour, which was of the brigandine type, were purely ceremonial, having kept the outer studs for aesthetic purposes, and omitted the protective metal plates.
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Brigandine from Handbuch der Waffenkunde (Handbook of Weaponry), Wendelin Boeheim, 1890. A brigandine is a form of body armour from the Middle Ages. It is a garment typically made of heavy cloth, canvas or leather, lined internally with small oblong steel plates riveted to the fabric, sometimes with a second layer of fabric on the inside.
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Brigandine armour (dingjia (Chinese: 釘甲; Pinyin: Dīng jiǎ)) was introduced during the Ming era and consisted of riveted plates covered with fabric.
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Different forms of the coat of plates, known as the brigandine and jack of plates, remained in use until the late 16th century.
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Inside view of an Italian brigandine (c1470). A brigandine was commonly worn over a gambeson and mail shirt and it was not long before this form of protection was commonly used by soldiers ranging in rank from archers to knights. It was most commonly used by men-at-arms. These wore brigandines, along with plate armour arm and leg protection, as well as a helmet.
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The form of the brigandine is essentially the same as the civilian doublet, though it is commonly sleeveless. However, depictions of brigandines with sleeves are known. The small armour plates were sometimes riveted between two layers of stout cloth, or just to an outer layer. Unlike armour for the torso made from large plates, the brigandine was flexible, with a degree of movement between each of the overlapping plates.
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Kikko armor was made for every class of samurai or soldier, high or low. George Cameron StoneGeorge Cameron Stones, "A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor: in All Countries and in All Times" p.150 referred to kikko as "brigandine" when he said "in Japan brigandines were often used". He further described this "brigandine" as "small hexagons", "the plates [being] of steel or hard leather", and that "occasionally they covered the whole body".
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Arms and Armour of the Medieval Knight. Saturn Books, London, 1996. This is untrue. Originally the term "brigand" referred to a foot soldier, and a brigandine was simply a type of armour worn by a foot soldier.
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Even with the gambeson and the mail shirt, a wearer was not as well-protected as when wearing a complete harness of plate armour, but the brigandine was less expensive and also gave the soldier a greater degree of mobility and flexibility. A brigandine was also simple enough in design for a soldier to make and repair his own armour without needing the services of an armourer. A common myth is that brigandines were so-named because they were a popular choice of protection for bandits and outlaws.Edge and Paddock.
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Jack of plate, English, c1580-90 A similar type of armour was the jack of plate, commonly referred to simply as a "jack" (although this could also refer to any outer garment). This type of armour was used by common medieval European soldiers and the rebel peasants known as Jacquerie. Jack of plate, English or Scottish, c1590 Like the brigandine, the jack was made of small iron plates between layers of felt and canvas. The main difference is in the method of construction: a brigandine uses rivets to secure the plates, whereas the plates in a jack are sewn in place.
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Kikko is the Japanese form of brigandine. Kikko are hexagonal plates made from iron or hardened leather and sewn to cloth. These plates were either hidden by a layer of cloth or left exposed. Kikko were used only relatively recently, during the 16th century.
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Sarnecki, Nicolle, p.23. Defensive armament - armour – at first included the gambeson, then developed into the brigandine and scale armour, followed by hauberk, and then mail with some plate elements, such as breastplates and brassards, and finally panoply, which by the end of 16th century gained its perfect form, protecting the whole of a knight's body, and sometimes his horse.
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The landlords armed themselves and armed their people at their own expense. The main weapon of this militia cavalry, from the end of the 15th to the beginning of the 17th century, was the composite bow. After the Time of Troubles, firearms became common, including wheellock pistols and arquebuses. Armour included the brigandine, mail and plate and mirror armour, while poor noblemen and combat slaves only had padded protection.
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Some had large "mirror" plates or "shields" attached to the outside. Some descriptions also mention cotton wool padding.Fedor Solntsev's "Ancients of the Russian State" (1849-53) contain descriptions of both body armours and helmets ("hats") padded with cotton wool and reinforced with small iron plates, which are fixed by small "nails" (rivets). There were also brigandine helmets called "kuyak hats" that used the same principle of construction as the body armour.
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Francesco Crispi The ships were then accompanied by the British Royal Navy which consisted of HMS Hannibal followed by the gunboats Argus and Intrepid under the command of Admiral Rodney Mundy. They landed at Marsala, on the westernmost point of Sicily, on 11 May. With British ships present in the harbour thus deterred the Bourbon ships from interfering.These were: Stromboli (steam corvette), Valoroso (brigandine), Partenope (sail frigate) and the armed steamer Capri.
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19th-century artist's interpretation (likely erroneous) of the kuyak armour In Muscovy, there was a type of armour known as the ', believed to have Mongolian originsFedor Solntsev's "Ancients of the Russian State" (1849-53) directly calls the a "Mongolian cotton fiber body armour". and analogous to Central Asian,L. Bobrov and Y. Hudyakov in their "Late Medieval Central Asian Warrior's Protective Gear" directly refer to Central Asian brigandine armours as "kuyaks". Indian and Chinese brigandines.
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As early as the late 13th century, Edward I decreed that all his men-at-arms should be mounted on equus coopertus, that is armoured, or barded, horses.Church and Harvey (1994), p. 39. Horse armour was not at that time always made of metal, with leather and quilted fabric armour also in use. Metal horse armours were made from mail or brigandine, with plate reserved for the head in the form of a chamfron.
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The plates number anywhere from eight or ten to the hundreds depending on their size. The plates overlap, usually enough to guarantee full coverage even when moving around and fighting. The coat of plates is similar to several other armours such as lamellar, scale and brigandine. Unlike scale armour which has plates on the outside or splint armour in which plates can be inside or outside, a coat of plates has the plates on the inside of the foundation garment.
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The rest of the body was generally protected by means of a large shield. Examples of armies equipping their troops in this fashion were the Aztecs (13th to 15th century CE).Fagan 2004, In East Asia many types of armour were commonly used at different times by various cultures, including scale armour, lamellar armour, laminar armour, plated mail, mail, plate armour and brigandine. Around the dynastic Tang, Song, and early Ming Period, cuirasses and plates (mingguangjia) were also used, with more elaborate versions for officers in war.
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Rick Swan reviewed Arms and Equipment Guide for Dragon magazine #192 (April 1993). He suggested this book "has the answers" for "AD&D; game players baffled by the differences between chain mail and brigandine armor, and who don't know a bardiche from a barbell". He said that the designers "probe the mysteries of the Player's Handbook equipment lists in lavish detail. Practical applications complement the colorful descriptions, making this particularly useful for players who want to know exactly how weaponblack or stirrups affect the game".
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Scutosaurus was a massively built reptile, with bony armor, and a number of spikes decorating its skull. Despite its relatively small size, Scutosaurus was heavy, and its short legs meant that it could not move at speed for long periods of time, which made it vulnerable to attack by large predators. To defend itself Scutosaurus had a thick skeleton covered with powerful muscles, especially in the neck region. Underneath the skin were rows of hard, bony plates (scutes) that acted like a form of brigandine armor.
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The first flak jackets consisted of manganese steel plates sewn into a waistcoat made of ballistic nylon (a material engineered by the DuPont company); therefore, flak jackets functioned as an evolved form of plate armour or brigandine. The first flak jacket weighed 22 pounds. During the Korean and Vietnam wars, the flak jacket was changed and the manganese steel plates were replaced by other materials. The U.S. Army's vests (Body Armor, Fragmentation Protective, Vest M69) weighed under eight pounds and were made of several layers of ballistic nylon.
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According to the Chronicle of Michael Brigandine (1760), Princess Olga of Kiev founded Vitebsk (also recorded as Dbesk, Vidbesk, Videbsk, Vitepesk, or Vicibesk) in 974. Other versions give 947 or 914. Academician Boris Rybakov and historian Leonid Alekseyev have come to the conclusion, based on the chronicles, that Princess Olga of Kiev could have established Vitebsk in 947. Leonid Alekseyev suggested that the chroniclers, when transferring the date from the account of the Byzantine era (since the creation of the world) to a new era, obtained the year 947, later mistakenly written in copying manuscripts as 974.
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Mail was introduced to China when its allies in Central Asia paid tribute to the Tang Emperor in 718 by giving him a coat of "link armour" assumed to be mail. China first encountered the armour in 384 when its allies in the nation of Kuchi arrived wearing "armour similar to chains". Once in China, mail was imported but was not produced widely. Due to its flexibility, comfort, and rarity, it was typically the armour of high-ranking guards and those who could afford the exotic import (to show off their social status) rather than the armour of the rank and file, who used more common brigandine, scale, and lamellar types.
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Padded cuisses made in a similar way to a gambeson were commonly worn by knights in the 12th and 13th centuries, usually over chausses, and may have had poleyns directly attached to them. Whilst continental armours typically had cuisses that did not protect the back of the thigh, English cuisses were typically entirely encapsulating, due to the English preference for foot combat over the mounted cavalry charges favoured by continental armies. Cuisses could also be made of brigandine or splinted leather, but beginning around 1340 they were typically made from steel plate armour. From 1370 onward they were made from a single plate of iron or steel.
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Fighting against much larger forces as China and Japan, Koreans favored mobility and ranged tactics which limited the reliance upon vastly armored units despite a strong inclusion of melee training. Korean armor during the Korean Three Kingdoms Period consisted of two major styles: a lamellar armor sharing the style of Chinese armor at the time and the armor of the steppe hordes, and plate armor, found in the Gaya Confederation and its vicinity. The lamellae were often of hard materials such as bronze, iron, bone, or stiffened leather; plates were always of iron, steel or bronze. During later periods, Korean armor also included forms of brigandine, chain mail, and scale armor.
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A full metallic armour set was composed of a helmet bearing much resemblance with regards to European kettle hats with attached neck defences of mail or lamellae, a body armour reaching down to the thighs or knees, and a set of shoulder guards which protected the upper arm as well. In the late dynasty, brigandine became the primary Korean metallic armour and often reached below the knees when worn, and the helmet assumed a conical shape. The rest did not change much as the dynasty did not experience any war after the Manchu invasions. In the mid-19th century, however, there was an attempt to develop anti-ballistic armor called Myeonje baegab.
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Confusion arises because of the wide variety of terms by which similar armors are known. Banded mail has been described as "a form of mail reinforced with bands of leather", as "overlapping horizontal strips of laminated metal sewn over a backing of normal chain mail and soft leather backing" and as "many thin sheets of metal are hammered or riveted together". The last description more closely fits splinted armor, which consists of long metal splints connected by mail/leather used for arm and leg protection. The final description of metal plates riveted to a sub-strate describe a coat of plates or brigandine, all of which consist of metal plates riveted to a leather or cloth fronting.
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It is generally distinguished from a brigandine by having larger plates, though there may be no distinction in some examples. In his 2013 PhD thesis, Mathias Goll suggests that this kind of armour made from several segments held together via leather or fabric only should be described as “segmented-armour”, in this case in the subtype "torso- front-and-back-segmented".Goll, Matthias 2013, Iron Documents Interdisciplinary studies on the technology of late medieval European plate armour production between 1350 and 1500, PhD Heidelberg, p. 42. Goll suggests a later dating of the saint Maurice statue in Magdebourg, possibly moving its production from the second half of the 13th century to the first half of the 14th century.
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A rather unique weapon used in India is the Baghnakh which is similar to a knuckle duster and was used to slit the opponent's throat or belly. Armor in India can be found dating back to 500 BC and Vedic literature; there are several different types: leather and fabric, scale, brigandine, lamellar, mail, plate, and a combination of mail and plate. In Arms and Armour: Traditional Weapons of India it is read that the wrastrana, a breastplate, has been in use since prehistoric times though the most popular is the char-aina meaning four mirrors is a coat of mail overlaid with four elaborately designed plates. The helmets consisted of a sliding nose guard with a piece of chainmail hanging from it designed to protect the neck and shoulders.
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It is suggested that during a period of rule under the Mongol Empire, Korea (then under the late Goryeo Dynasty) began to see a number of changes to its military, some of which endured through the Joseon era that followed the end of the Goryeo Dynasty in 1392. Japanese paintings of Korean/Mongol warriors during the two Mongol invasions of Japan (1274 and 1281 AD) show Mongol forces made largely of Korean and Chinese conscripts with shields and Mongol-style armor elements. The shields do not appear to have lasted as an influence, but examples of Joseon-era Korean armor often show adoptive influences from the Mongol period. After the rise of the Joseon Dynasty, Korean combat armor saw change once from mainly using chainmail, plated mail and lamellar to mostly brigandine.
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Qing military uniform, made to look like earlier Dingjia armour A type of armour very similar in design to brigandine, known as dingjia (Chinese: 釘甲; Pinyin: Dīng jiǎ), was used in medieval China. It consisted of rectangular metal plates riveted between the fabric layers with the rivet heads visible on the outside. Russian orientalist and weapon expert Mikhail Gorelik states that it was invented in the 8th century as parade armour for the Emperor's guards by reinforcing a thick cloth robe with overlapping iron plates, but did not come into wide use until the 13th century, when it became widespread in the Mongol Empire under the name of ' ("robe which is as strong as iron"). He also argues that Eastern European and, supposedly, Western European brigandines originate from this armour.
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By the second half of the 14th century, the coat of plates became affordable enough to be worn by soldiers of lesser status, like the Gotland's militiamen or the urban militia of Paris. After being replaced by plate armour amongst the elite, similar garments could still be found in the 15th century, as the brigandine. The Portuguese 'Regimento dos Coudéis' from 1418 states that the most basic body armor accessible for a non-gentle soldier was, indeed, such armor. Monteiro, João Gouveia, 1998, To the aquantiados on 32 marcs of silver, it was just demanded horse, while those of 24 marcs and up had to had crossbows spanned with goat's foot lever, a hundread bolts and yet, as defensive arms, coat-of-plates, bascinet with camail or bascinet of baveira, p. 49.
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