The Palace Armoury : workbook secondary level

Abstract

In order to prevent injuries during conflicts, knights had to wear strong metal suits and helmets. As you can see from the exhibits, suits of armour have changed drastically. Originally the main element of a knight's armour was the maille - consisting of metal rings woven into each other. As this did not provide much protection from the sophisticated weaponry and arms that were being invented, the knights had to start using a full metal plate body armour. Moving around in these metal uniforms was no easy task especially during the hot summer months! Later on, when gunpowder was invented, close combat became rarer and so there was no need to cover the whole body but only the vital parts.