1. Opening paragraph
2. History of armor
a) What armor is
b) Origin of armor
3. What armor consists of
a) Early Medieval armor
b) Late Medieval armor
4. Types of weapons used
a) Swords
b) Maces and axes
5. Closing paragraph
In the Medieval era, many knights used armor to
protect themselves from injury.
To defend themselves, they used weapons such as
swords, maces, axes, lances, nets, crossbows and a
variety of other crude but effective weaponry.
The above is explained in greater detail below:
The History of Armor
Armor is equipment of various materials used to
protect the body in combat. The oldest protective
device of armor is the shield, but the earliest body
armor was a wide belt worn to protect the abdomen,
invented by the Egyptians in 3000 BC. They later
developed the belt into a wrap-round garment
covering the wearer from his armpits to his knees. It
was held up by shoulder straps and contained no
metal.
In 1400 BC, Syrians improved this wrap-around
garment by reinforcing it with bronze scales sewn
onto a fabric backing or laced together in flexible
rows of lamellae.
The Samarians were the first to introduce the helmet,
in 3000 BC. It was basically a tight-fitting cap made
of copper. The Assyrians improved the helmet by
adding protective ear flaps.
What Armor Consists Of
In the 11th century, a knight's armor consisted of a
thigh-length shirt of mail with elbow-length sleeves
and a helmet complete with nose-guard. In the 12th
century, it gained a hood of mail and the sleeves were
extended to full-length, ending in mittens. Mail
chausses protected the legs. A mail shirt contained up
to 250,000 metal rings and weighed about 25 pounds!
TIn the 11th century, the oval-shaped shield was
modified to a longer form with a sharp lower point to
protect the horseman from eye to knee. In the 12th
century, the face-covering visor was developed and
added to the helmet, thus modifying the shield aga...