A Medieval Knight’s Wardrobe
...weather and usually stopped at the ankle. Another instance of the lack of importance of a knight’s wardrobe would be that all classes of society wore tunics. There were not many varieties or styles of tunics but they were knee-length, long-sleeved, wool garments worn overtop a linen undershirt. The layer that tops the tunic is a gambeson. A gambeson is worn in battle beneath a knight’s armor. This article of clothing was added to the knights wardrobe to prevent weapons from penetrating a knights chest through the links in the top layer of mail. Some lower ranked knights, usually foot-soldiers, would wear a gambeson as their only form of armor in battle. A higher ranked knight would have many items of armor to complete his entire battle outfit. “Protecting oneself in battle has always been a concern for any soldier and knights were no exception” (Source 1). When in battle a knight was required to tote around quite a bit of weight. The armor a knight wore consisted of tens of thousands of interlocking rings that were woven painstakingly by hand (Source 1). The main piece of mail for a knight was his hauberk. A hauberk covers the midsection of a man and would be considered to be of the same use as a bullet-proof vest would be today. A non-metal form of armor that is just as imperative as metal, is a pair of cuisses. Cuisses are cloth armor stuffed with anything from horse hair to straw which are worn to protect the legs and feet of a knight. The mobility of a knight was not too smooth, but all of the heavy layers provided a safer fighting ground and would be worth its weight. Once the fourteenth century came around, knights and people during this era dr...