Mail-Armor and Armored Combat for Writers

Mail Armor for Writers

Mail armor (sometimes called Chain-Mail in modern times) was the dominant form of armor used in the west for the better part of a thousand years. It was relatively heavy and when worn over a padded coat rather hot. People wore it for one simple reason: it worked. I’ve worn armor and can tell you first-hand no one would bother with it if it didn’t. I’t's just too big a pain in the ass to put up with otherwise.

Modern mail is commonly made from round wire with the ends of the links simply butted together. In over thirty years of research I have not found a single instance where this type of mail was used historically for combat. Worn over a proper padded garment such mail would probably be better than nothing, but evidently it was not enough better than nothing to be worth the bother. When hit the links spread open. In addition the round wire is easier for the edge to ‘bite’ into and easier to cut. Modern tests show that a good reproduction of a viking-era sword will trash modern ‘butted’ mail in a big hurry.

For combat mail in European-style settings you are looking at flat-link riveted mail with four links through each link. It is worn over a padded coat (sometimes called a Gambeson.) often with a surcoat over it. The padding dramatically increases the effectiveness of the mail by spreading the impact of a blow. This padding was usually one-half inch to one inch thick. The surcoat may also be of some help. Flat-link mail also has more surface area in contact, so it is harder to cut through than middle-eastern mail made of round wire. Since swords are the most common weapons to be carried on the body (especially in fantasy novels) we’ll address those first.

General Rules for Swords vs. medieval European mail:

*Generally the later in the period, the better the average quality of armor.

*The wealthier/more important the person wearing it is, the higher the quality of the armor will be. In the case of Royals, Greater Nobility and the very wealthy is is safe to assume that their armor is effectively impervious to sword-cuts and offers moderate protection against impact.

*While mail varied in quality it was still highly protective. To cleave even relatively poor mail with a sword would require a clean, powerful blow. Most sword blows will not penetrate, otherwise why would they wear it? For two well armored opponents it would take a truly heroic blow, possibly backed by a bit of artistic license, to penetrate.

*Good quality mail prior to the use of longbows was nearly impervious to arrows. The very best mail late in the period might have resisted even armor-piercing points on longbow arrows.

*When dealing with mail-armored opponents that are using serviceable mail you can expect that bruises and cracked or broken bones will vastly outnumber cuts that penetrate armor. Battlefield archaeology indicates that the most common disabling blows struck areas with lesser or no armor- namely the left leg and the head. The head armor was good but the head is uniquely vulnerable to concussive force.

Basically as writers we can fudge a bit in favor of the story without anyone getting to picky about it if we more-or-less follow those guidelines.

Weapons Vs. Mail

Knives are going to be ineffective against mail, which is why the dagger superseded the seax (the Bowie knife of the Migration and Viking Eras) as the primary sidearm of the middle ages.

Early daggers (11th Century) were referred to by a variety of names like ‘Cutelle de Guerre’ or variations thereof that translate more or less to ‘Knife of War.’ These were narrow, very rigid blades with little ability to cut effectively. They would defeat mail by catching the point in a link when thrusting and having the hard edge of the dagger shear through the comparatively soft link as it penetrates. The higher the quality of the mail the harder it will be for a dagger to do this. In any case it would require a powerful blow to penetrate mail with a dagger and the very best mail might be impervious to dagger blows. To penetrate armor with a dagger the weapon was gripped with the blade below the fist; it is to hard or impossible to generate enough force to penetrate armor with the blade held ‘Knife-fashion’ with the blade above the fist. Daggers did not routinely become a part of a knight’s kit until almost the 14th C.

Viking Era and Early Medieval Swords

Viking Era and early Medieval swords are specialized cutting blades. You can thrust with them but these swords are too flexible to pierce mail with a thrust the way that a dagger does. In the 12thC. Larger, heavier swords for use with two hands came into use, presumably to help counter the greater quality and availability of mail. These were still specialized cutting blades but the added mass and two-handed use would have made them more effective against mail. Swords of this type were often referred to as Greatswords or Great Swords of War.

High Medieval (Mid-13th to early 14th C.) Swords

Swords in this period begin to be redesigned for effective thrusting; they are still mostly cut-and-thrust blades but they have narrower, stiffer points better suited to finding chinks in the armor or in more extreme cases thrusting through it in the manner of a dagger. Specialized thrusting swords also appear; these swords will cut adequately against unarmored opponents but will have trouble cutting against even padded cloth armor though impact effects will apply. Generally to penetrate mail with a thrust will require that a sword be gripped ‘half-sword’ with the weak-hand gripping the blade. Yes, you can grip even a sharp sword-blade without cutting your hand if you do it right.

The high medieval period also sees more and more plate being used to supplement mail. You cannot cut through plate armor with a sword, period. The transition to plate armor was helped along by the Black Plague, which killed many of the skilled workers that produced mail. Technological advances had made it easier to make plate of good quality in larger pieces. We’ll talk more about Plate Armor in a future article.

A Final Note About Medieval Swords

Medieval swords were not dull. Examples preserved in good condition, for example river-found swords, are often described as being ‘as sharp as a good kitchen knife.’ Sharp things cut better than dull things, regardless of what you are trying to cut. This is not to say that they stayed sharp through a battle; medieval sword-steel, while surprisingly good, seldom equalled modern steels and even modern steels will dull repeatedly hitting mail. Your character’s best chance of cutting mail with a sword will be early in the part of the battle where the sword comes into use while the sword is still sharp.

Mass-Concentration Weapons verses Mail

The most effective weapons against mail are weapons that concentrate the bulk of their mass behind a narrow cutting surface or point. A battle-ax might not weigh and more than a sword but most of the weight is directly behind the blade. The same is true for Maces. An ax is much more likely than a sword to penetrate mail, and even if it doesn’t it will transmit impact through the mail more effectively. A mace is specifically designed to transmit energy through the mail. Either is more likely to deliver a crippling blow through mail than a sword. A spear has a light head with a dagger-like point, but the entire mass of the haft of the spear is lined up behind that point when thrusting, and to some extent the user’s weight as well. Spears are reasonably effective at penetrating mail and transmit the most focussed shock when they don’t penetrate.

This brings us to spiked weapons- axes or war-hammers with a back-spike. These are pretty good at penetrating mail also, because the entire force of the blow is concentrated behind the point. The problem is they are fairly likely to get ‘hung-up’ in the mail if they penetrate and the user then has to rapidly switch to another weapon. Spears have this issue, but to a lesser degree.

The Role of the Sword in Armored Combat

Other than Great-Swords your character is unlikely to enter the battle using a sword as his primary weapon. In the period from the Fall of Rome to the mid-14th Century when mail was the best defensive armor a shield was routinely used as the primary defense in conjunction with an axe, mace or spear. The sword was a side-arm, much in the way that soldiers carry pistols today; it was the back-up to the main battlefield weapon. It was the weapon that you resorted to when you had lost or broken all of your more suitable battle-field weapons.

Wearing Mail for Historical or Fantasy Characters

If your character is a trained fighter they will know how to wear their mail properly and be well-used to it’s weight and the way it affects their maneuverability. They will be able to compensate for this and will not be noticeably slower than an unarmored opponent. They will tire quickly than an unarmored opponent though. If your character is traipsing about the world they are either going to ride or not wear their mail for general traveling.

A compromise for your character while traveling would be to wear a hood or mantle of mail over a quilted jacket or gambeson such as common soldiers and guardsmen frequently wore. The mantle is a circle of mail with a hole in the middle for the wearer’s head. When worn it covered the shoulders and the front of the chest to below the nipples and the shoulder-blades in back. It might be worn loose, with it’s own weight being the only thing anchoring it or might be secured in place with armor-ties attached to the gambeson. This is much lighter than a full shirt of course, and given that their shield covers the remainder of their torso quite well it offers more protection than you might think. A hood is simply a mantle with a hood that can be quickly pulled up to protect the head and neck. Ideally the character will be wearing a quilted cap to pull this over, but even if they aren’t a thick mop of hair helps and will be better than nothing… though they’ll lose some of their hair when they shed the hood. Given a chance they will also don a helmet over the mail hood. The mantle was frequently worn with a helmet already in place. This is a hugely more comfortable and practical compromise for traveling than wearing full armor.

Typically your hero is going to train in full armor, wear as little armor as they can get away with for day-to-day or travel and if they know they are going into battle will wear as much armor as they can.

Fighting in Armor

Speaking from experience in armored combat sports your character will feel very different in the course of battle than they do at other times. Assuming that they are committed to the fight when your armored character enters battle the first thing that their body does is fill their blood with chemicals, mainly adrenaline and noradrenaline. Their focus on their opponent(s) will be absolute. Hits that don’t degrade their effectiveness will register only dimly. I have sometimes had the thought “That one is going to suck tomorrow’ flit through the back of my mind but generally other than that hits simply don’t register. Your character will notice pain rather than feel it, and no level of mere pain will deter them in the fight or slow them down. They will register injury only as it affects their ability to continue fighting, and if they are slowed down or lose the use of a limb they will feel frustration or rage rather than pain or fear.

If the battle goes on long enough your character will ‘bonk.’ This means that their body will run out of chemicals and ready calories and start consuming their own tissues for energy. At this point pain becomes a factor and your character might even pass out. Dehydration is also an issue.

It is common in a fight for one’s vision to ‘tunnel in’ and lose some peripheral vision. Also time may seem to slow down but this will not normally allow your character to react any faster. In day to day life our brain processes very little of the sensory data it receives; in combat it processes 100% of that information and in retrospect it feels like time slowed down. We’ll address these factors more in future articles.

I hope this will be of some help to you in your writing, and feel free to ask questions.