The History and Development of Knight Armor

It is usually taken for granted that medieval knight armor was created in the Middle Ages. However, the history of suits of armor stretches back centuries, to the 8th and 7th centuries BC. While soldiers wore medieval knight armor in the times of King Arthur, Greek, Spartan and Gallation troops all wore at least some type of protective covering – at a minimum, a helmet and chest plate.

Chain mail, the poor soldiers’ medieval knight armor was one of the first transitionary pieces of battlefield protection. Originally developed by the Gaul’s of what are now modern France, Belgium, Switzerland and Northern Italy – it was their conquests in the East that introduced chain mail to ancient armies -- and further advancements in battlefield armor via the Roman Army -- back into Europe.

Several centuries passed, until the skill and availability of ready metal supplies began to influence suits of armor again. {By the 13th century, medieval knight armor had begun to take the shape of the modern|When the 13th century came about, medieval knight armor had started to take modern shape.} (relatively speaking) full complement of protective cover. People who had enough money to pay for it had their medieval knight armor designed to have a density of a maximum of 3 mm. Soldiers who had less money, usually the common soldiers at arms were made to buy medieval knight armor suits that were pre-made with the density of just 1 mm, and because of this they couldn't deal with all of the attacks that they had when they were at war.

Interestingly, medieval knight armor refinement led to more brutality and less sophistication in battle. In the days before more robust suits of armor, the victor was often the one more skilled with a sword in hand to hand combat. It is interesting to find out that as medieval knight armor advanced the center of attention was on causing shocking injuries to the head when the soldiers were wearing  a suit of medieval armor.