Mail, often referred to as “chain mail” (a term later applied to this type of

armor in the Victorian era), was the armor of choice worn by the medieval knight.
Constructed of small rings of iron wire linked together, the mail coat formed a
flexible metal mesh that was often worn over a padded tunic. The traditional image
of the knight encased in a full suit of plate armor did not come about until the
1400s. Until then, the preferred armor was mail, and the use of mail can be dated
all the way back to 400 - 500 B.C. in Asia Minor and Central Asia.

The extended use of mail over time is due, in part, to its technological
simplicity and its ease of production, as the steps in the process are fairly
straightforward, though it is still a labor intensive job. The first step involves
the smelting of iron, and after that, one must make the wire. Making the wire
requires the use of small, thin sheets of iron and then shearing thin strips off
the sides of this sheet in order to form square wires, or using another method,
one can repeadetly beat and shape small iron pieces into narrow rods in order to
form the raw material needed for wire.

After making the rods, the armorer must reheat and draw the strips through conical
holes in a metal block to form round wire, and if thinner wire is needed, he can
repeat this step several times using narrower holes. Once the wire is reduced to
the desired diameter, it is then wrapped around a metal rod to create long,
spring-like coils. The armorer then cuts along the length of the coil, down one
side with shears or hammer or cutting chisel, and this causes the coils to
separate into individual rings. Each ring is then flattened with a tool called a
die, or something similar, and while flattening, the die also punches holes in
each end of the ring. The armorer then overlaps the ends of each ring and rivets
them shut. This process of flattening, punching with a die, joining the rings
together, and then riveting them might have to be repeated thousands of times in
order to make a single shirt of mail.

A mail shirt was also known as a hauberk. A hauberk, according to Terrence Wise in
Medieval Warfare, is a mail shirt covering the body as far as the knees, the arms
ending in mittens, and with a hood for the head (249). A haubergeon, or habergeon,
is “a shortened version of the hauberk, worn by both infantry and mounted men,
those for the former usually having short sleeves” (Wise, 248). Only the wealthy —
the nobles — could afford to purchase mail shirts, and so a hauberk became a
symbol of rank for the warrior class of society.

The iron links of the mail shirt provided a strong layer of protection and
flexibility for the wearer. The overlapping rings allowed a slashing or cutting
blow from a sword to glance off without penetrating into the skin; though a
smashing blow from a club could still shatter or break or crush bones. For this
reason — to prevent the breakage of bones — a knight would wear a layer of padded
armor, or an aketon, underneath the mail. So the combined layers of padded tunic
and mail gave the knight a suit of armor that was nearly impervious to cutting and
slashing and also protective against the heavy, smashing blows often delivered on
the medieval battlefield.

Sources:

Newman, Paul B. Daily Life in the Middle Ages. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company,
Inc., 2001.

Baker, Alan. The Knight. Hoboken, New Jersey. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003.

Wise, Terrence. Medieval Warfare. Osprey Publishing, 1976.

Copyright 2008 Steven Till

http://steventill.com