Western plate armour

thumb|212px|French cuirassier (1809)

thumb|Cuirass worn by a Carabiniers-à-Cheval|Carabinier-à-Cheval

thumb|right|225px|Greek greaves of “Denda”, c. 500 BC, Staatliche Antikensammlungen (Inv. 4330)

Type of European helm

brimmed and crested helmet

thumb|right|250px|Light Italian celata (sallet) c. 1460, covered with velvet and decorated with repoussé gilt copper edging and crest

thumb|right|200px|Bascinet without accessories

thumb|Codpiece and dog belonging to Guidobaldo II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, portrait by [[Angelo Bronzino, 1531–32]] thumb|upright=1.2|A codpiece was commonly worn during the Renaissance; oil on oak painting by [[Pieter Brueghel the Younger]]

upright|thumb|A 15th-century Gothic breastplate, with belts hanging below the Faulds (armour)|fauld for the attachment of [[tassets]] A breastplate or chestplate is a device worn over the torso to protect it from injury, as an item of religious significance, or as an item of status.

thumb|250px|upright|The gorget in this 1772 portrait of Colonel George Washington by [[Charles Willson Peale, was worn in the French and Indian War to show his rank as an officer in the Virginia Regiment.]] thumb|Elaborately decorated gilt-brass gorget of , probably Dutch

glove having a deep cuff to cover all or part of the forearm

thumb|Brigandine from Handbuch der Waffenkunde (Handbook of Weaponry), Wendelin Boeheim, 1890

thumb|Depiction of a 13th-century gambeson (Morgan Bible, fol. 10r)

thumb|upright|A duckbill shoe|duckbill-style German sabaton for the right foot, thumb|upright|English-made Greenwich armour sabaton, 1587–1589

thumb|upright|Camail with triangle ventail (mail flap) on a bascinet (ca. 1360) at the [[German Historical Museum.]] An aventail () or camail () is armour consisting of a flexible curtain of mail attached to the lower part of a helmet that extends protection to cover at least the back and sides of the neck. Parts of the face, throat, and shoulders could also be covered, with spaces to allow for vision. Some featured a ventail (a mail flap next to the mouth), which could be laced or hooked up to cover the lower face, or left loose to facilitate breathing and speech.

burgonet with a long neck guard

thumb|Armour of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian I with bevor ()

armored visor as a helmet component

thumb|250px|A knight in the first quarter of the 14th century. Over his shoulders, he wears ailettes. The ailette (French language for little wing) was a component of late thirteenth and early to mid fourteenth century knightly armour. Usually made of cuir bouilli (sometimes of plate or parchment), ailettes were thick, quadrangular pieces of leather or wood that attached to the shoulders by means of silk or leather cord. Ailettes were usually flat and nearly rectangular in shape, and usually decorated with heraldic designs.

15th-century European steel plate armour

modern term for the style of early 16th-century German plate armour associated with, and possibly first made for, the Emperor Maximilian I

Type of European helm

thumb|Italian cuisse, circa 1450 Cuisses (; ; ) are a form of medieval armour worn to protect the thigh. The word is the plural of the French word cuisse meaning 'thigh'. While the skirt of a maille shirt or tassets of a cuirass could protect the upper legs from above, a thrust from below could avoid these defenses. Thus, cuisses were worn on the thighs to protect from such blows. Padded cuisses made in a similar way to a gambeson were commonly worn by knights in the 12th and 13th centuries, usually over chausses, and may have had poleyns directly attached to them. Whilst continental armours t

thumb|A left-arm vambrace; the bend would be placed at the knight's elbow thumb|An ornate German (16th century) vambrace made for Costume Armor Vambraces (French: avant-bras, sometimes known as lower cannons in the Middle Ages) or forearm guards are tubular or gutter defences for the forearm worn as part of a suit of plate armour that were often connected to gauntlets. Vambraces may be worn with or without separate couters in a full suit of medieval armour. The term originates in the early 14th century. They were made from either boiled leather or steel. Leather vambraces were sometimes reinf

thumb|A single tasset by Lorenz Helmschmied, 1495

type of armour

thumb|Poleyn, 1555–60 The poleyn or genouillere was a component of Medieval and Renaissance armor that protected the knee. During the transition from mail armor to plate armor, this was among the earliest plate components to develop. They first appeared around 1230 and remained in use until 1650, when firearms made them obsolete.

helmet that fully encloses the head, with a pivoting visor and integral bevor, is use from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern period

form of segmented torso armour, consisting of overlapping metal plates riveted inside a cloth or leather garment

thumb|upright=1.35|A couter of an Austrian imperial armour, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria The couter (also spelled "cowter") is the defense for the elbow in a piece of plate armour. Initially just a curved piece of metal, as plate armor progressed the couter became an articulated joint. Couters were popular by the 1320s.

thumb|Right pauldron of Polish hussars|hussar's armor, 17th century, District Museum in [[Tarnów]]

device attached to a breastplate to support a lance

type of plate armour

heavy cavalryman

Spaulders are pieces of armour in a harness of plate armour. Typically, they are a single plate of steel or iron covering the shoulder with bands (lames) joined by straps of leather or rivets. By the 1450s, however, they were often attached to the upper cannon or rerebrace, a feature that continued into the 16th century.

pieces of plate armour

German form of plate armour from the first half of 15th century

thumb|Detail from Gustav I of Sweden|Gustav Vasa's armour 1540 thumb|right|Armour displaying besagues (:Image:Dresden-Zwinger-Armoury-Armor.13.JPG|full image)

armor (German, Nuremberg) by Kunz Lochner (MET, 33.164a–x)

Western European, 12-13th century

type of plate armor

mass-produced late medieval body armour

armor for man highlighted in The MET collection