Essay - Knights at Crécy

The Battle of Crécy took place on 26 August 1346 near the city of Crécy in northern France, it is considered one of the most important battles of the Hundred Years' War.

Often history enthusiasts point to Crécy as an example of the devastating power of the longbow versus plate armor however full plate armor or, white harness, was not the typical armor during Crécy. The armor of this time was the true transitional armor between maille and full plate.

There is not much extant armor left from this time period like later time periods so we have to look at the manuscripts of the time to see what kind of arms and armor men wore into battle at Crécy.

Romance of Alexander

The Romance of Alexander is dated1338-1344 just two years before Crécy and provides and excellent visual reference for the armor fashion of that time.

Here are options shown in this manuscript:

• Full maille suit - Should cover the arms and legs fully and hands if you don't have gauntlets. Flat and round rivet maille are both period at this time.
• Body - An Aketon (padded garment) under the maille; you see the hem of them in many of the images. A coat of plates is in many images. Some are just maille.
• A heraldic surcote - Likely made of silk. Some are short in the front and long in the back; many have side lacing shown.
• Head - You need a maille coif and/or maille standard and either a kettle helm or an early open face basinet. A basinet might also have a great helm over it. Sugarloaf helms are also seen some with lifting vidors.
• Arms - Maille sleeves should be long. Some of the maille sleeves cover to the wrist and some cover to the forearm and are open with solid metal arm or a form of splint armor under them. Some images have soupcan elbows and some have rondels with plate pieces. Some have full plate arms shown.
• Hands - Maille mittens or Wisby style gauntlets.
• Legs - Full maille chausses. Front or full greaves, knee protection, and padded chausses are optional.
  

Image Gallery

Voeux du Paon

The Voeux du Paon is dated to 1350; 4 years after the battle of Crécy. The images in this manuscript are not as clear as those in the Romance of Alexander but it does show much of the same kind of armor present.

Effigies

Twelfth to Fourteenth Century Armour is an amazing site full of effigies and brasses of knights. Some of the drawings of effigies have come from Gothic Eye. I have selected some good examples from 1340-1350 of Kings and knights wearing armor like that in the manuscripts above.

Extant Armor

The website 75 years - Great Helms has 3 examples of great helms from 1350 to look at. The Prankhe helm, one in Berlin, and one in Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg.