Armor throughout the Middle Ages evolved from leather with steel plates to chainmail to full plate armor. Armor also changes depending on location, for instance plate armor became used throughout Europe, but in the the Holy Land, knights lost the plate armor in favor of lighter and cooler mail.
Helmets and Neck Armor
The earliest medieval headgear was a mail coif which was basically a hood of chainmail worn with a hauberk. Then came the great helm or crusader helmet, a flat topped cylinder with small eye and mouth slits. It was often worn over a cervelliere or bascinet, an open faced steel skullcap, which replaced the great helm and was either worn with or without a visor. During the 15th century several helm designs emerged including the armet, the sallet, the closed helm, the barbute, and the burgonet.
As many helmets left the neck unprotected, there became a need for seperate neck pieces. This began with the aventail, a curtain of chainmail that was attached to a bascinet. With the advent of plate armor, the aventail was replaced by a gorget, a steel collar that protected the entire neck. The gorget was occassionally accompanied by a bevor which protected the lower part of the face and the whole neck. The bevor was usually worn with open-faced helms like the sallet, bascinet and the burgonet.
Body Armor
The earliest form of medieval body armor was a leather vest lined with small steel plates called a brigandine. This was replaced by and occassionally worn with a hauberk, a chain mail shirt. In the later Middle Ages, plate armor became more popular and there was a switch to a cuirass, which was actually just the breastplate but is also used to describe both the breastplate and backplate together. A cuirass was later worn with several additional pieces including a pixane, a mail collar that covers the shoulders, breast and upper back, a plackard, an extra layer of armor that covers the belly, faulds, bands that are attached to the front to protect the waist and hips, and culets, small lamés (bands of steel plate) that cover the small of the back and the butt.
Arm Protection
When many knights traded in their mail hauberks for plate cuirasses, they needed to find a way to protect their arms, and they devised a system of plate peices that covered the whole arm. The shoulder was first protected by spaulders, bands of plate that covered the shoulder and upper arm, and then by pauldrons, dome shaped shoulder cops that also covered the armpits and sometimes the back and chest. These were worn with a gardbrace or besagew, a small pate that covers the front of the shoulder or the armpit. The upper arm was covered, by a plate piece called a rerebrace, brassart or upper cannon and the fore arm was covered by a similar piece called a vambrace or lower cannon. At the elbow was a circular plate called a cowter. His arms were finished off with gauntlets, gloves that protected the hands and wrists.
Leg Armor
During the time when mail was widely used, knights would wear chausses, chain mail socks that went either to the knee or thigh. As with arm protection, the era of plate armor produced a system of pieces that were used together. The thighs were protected by leather cuisses that were worn with tassets, steel bands hanging from the faulds. Knees were protected by poleyns, shins by either schynbalds which cover the front and outside or greaves, which cover the entire lower leg, and feet by sabatons, which varied in length depending on social status.
Medieval Shields
The shields throughout the Middle Ages were for more than just protection, they were usually decorated with a coat-of-arms as a way of identifying a knight on the battlefield. Early versions called kite shields guarded the whole flank of a rider. As armor bcame stronger, the kite evolved into the heater shield with a flat top that curves into a point. Round shields like the buckler, targe and roundel were also popular but were not effective against missiles so they were resevered for hand-to-hand combat. For archers, pavises or mantlets were used to protect them as they reloaded.
Medieval Barding
Knights weren't the only ones fitted with armor, horses were also protected as they were expensive and essential to a knight's success on the battlefield. The champron was a covering of leather or metal that enclosed te horse's head. It was attached to a criniere of lamés that covered the neck and mane. On the chest was a peytral and the saddles were outfitted with flanchards which attached to both sides of the saddle. The hind quarters were coverd by a croupier of leather, mail or plate. Over the horse's armor was a caparison, a piece of cloth that covered the whole horse.
Sources:
Wikipedia-Components of Medieval Armor
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