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GERMAN KNIGHT, GÜNTHER VON SCHWARZBURG d.1349
An extract from Armies of the Middle Ages, Volume 2by Ian Heath
105. GERMAN KNIGHT, GÜNTHER VON SCHWARZBURG d.1349
This figure differs considerably from the last. His arms and legs are protected by leather strengthened with metal splints and rivets, a popular form of armour in Germany from the late-13th century until c.1380. Even in René d’Anjou’s ‘Traité de la Formes et Devis d’un Tournois’ of 1447 it is related how avantbras and gardebras of cuirbouilli strengthened with 5 or 6 narrow splints ‘the width of a finger’ were worn in Brabant, Flanders, Hainault and ‘other countries towards Germany’. His foot-armour is similarly of rivet-reinforced leather, Claude Blair observing that the Germans ‘apparently had no great liking’ for mail sabatons.
Although he carries a heaume (with a crest that is unlikely to have been worn in action) the helmet he actually wears is a bascinet à brèteche, popular in Germany and Italy c.1340-70. This was a type of helmet in which the mail hood had an in-built nasal which could be hooked up to 2 studs on the brow of the helmet as shown in 105a. A form of visor, usually referred to today by its modern name of Klappvisier, evolved from this in Germany c.1360; this was hinged by the middle of its top edge to a vertical bar similarly attached by 2 studs on the brow of the helmet. 105b shows such a visor, from the tomb effigy of Konrad von Kronenberg (d.1372). 105c depicts a more unusual klappvisier from a Bohemian altarpiece of c.1380.
The type of armour depicted here also appeared in Italy, where it was introduced by German mercenaries; it is to be found in a large number of Italian illustrations of the second half of the 14th century.
[Based on the Effigy of Günther von Schwarzburg, German Knight, 1352AD. Sankt Bartholomäus, Frankfurt am Main.]
