Arms and Armour
Glossary of Terms

S

Sabaton, Solleret: Armour for the foot, usually consisting of articulated plates ending in a toecap. Plate sabatons seem to have made their appearance in the middle of the 14th century, remaining in common use throughout the 15th and 16th centuries. In the early 14th century, the foot was defended by mail or scales, though no examples of these defenses remain apart from evidence on funerary brasses. Milanese armour from the 15th century generally used mail for the defense of the foot rather than the solleret; the reason for this is unclear, especially since armour made in nearly every other region of Europe adopted the sabaton long before this.

Sallet, Salade: A common helmet of the 15th century, varying in style according to national preferences and rapid changes in defensive requirements. Most sallets are characterized by a flared tail, drawn out either from a single or several attached pieces. Some sallets were fitted with visors, while others were worn open-faced. Sallet design roughly followed the nationalistic style preferences represented by the Milanese and Gothic styles, though there was a degree of overlap as armouries strove to create pieces in competition with their rivals. There is no clear distinction between a sallet and the barbute or the armet; there are pieces that are clearly both a sallet and a barbute or an armet. Generally the sallet was a lighter helmet that was in common use amongst the soldiery throughout the period, while the armet and barbute seem to have been more popular with the nobility, at least in Italy. In Germany the sallet held universal appeal, while in England and France all three styles were worn, imported from continental armouries for the best quality.

Shield (construction of): The knight's shield of the 14th and 15th centuries was generally formed from wood, covered in gesso, and painted with his heraldic charge. Often the gesso was raised to give some texture to the shield, the back was covered in some kind of cloth, and finally enarmes and a guige were added so that the shield could be carried. The shield weighed no more than 6-10 lbs, usually leaning towards the lighter number.

Modern shields use a variety of construction techniques to preserve them since labor is now much more expensive that it was during the high middle ages. Fiberglass, edging, and lacquer are all commonly used in an attempt to protect the shield. See also Chronique: The Journal of Chivalry #8

Shield (knight's): Most knight's shields during the 14th century were of the familiar "heater" shape, varying widely in size. Knights who are illustrated in tournaments usually carry a very small shield, while those in war often carry a larger one. This owes itself probably to the presence of highly dangerous missle weapons on the battlefield, something the tourneying knight did not have to worry about very often. Also, the tournament carries an element of sport that rarely existed in war, so the small shield might also have served to encourage deeds of aggressive prowess rather than defensive boredom for the gallery.

Like his other accoutrement, the knight's shield came to take on symbolic meaning. A dishonored knight had his spurs hacked off and his shield hung upside down in disgrace, which insinuates that the shield stood for the honor and renown of the knight, which makes sense since his heraldic blazon, the way he was known on the battlefield or tournament list, was known.

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Silk: Used in banners, pennants, pavilions, and arming clothes.

Skull: The crown of the helmet, the central defense for the upper portion of the head. A casque consists of a 'skull' alone, while an armet or close helmet are built in several pieces, the visor and bevor attached in various fashions.

Slag: An impurity in an iron metal, in medieval armours generally composed of iron oxides and silica created when the heated ore reacts with the furnace's clay and stone lining.

Smelting: The process through which iron ore is separated from other elements to produce billets of ore useful in the manufacture of metal objects. See also Indirect Reduction & Bloomery Process.

Sotheby's: The London and New York auction house that deals in the finest art objects in the world. They produce a special arms and armour catalog, released approximately quarterly, that details the pieces for sale. These catalogs are invaluable in keeping track of the collector's market, and they occasionally feature photographs of pieces not available in museums. See also Armour, buying.

Spangen helmet: The early helmets derived from their Roman predecessors, the 'spangen' helmet, popular during the 7th - 11th centuries, consisted of a several small plates of iron or latten bound together with various patterns of banding, all held together with many rivets. A few surviving examples in the Metropolitan Museum of Art show evidence of gold gilding or wash, and there are written references to the helmets of local chieftains being adorned with precious metals and stones. Most spangen helmets were doubtless manufactured locally, since large sheets of *iron plate were hard to come by until the middle of the 14th century.

Spatha: The cavalry sword of the romans, between 36" - 40" in length, made from iron. The shape of the hilt is unknown to us, as only a few blades have survived. These blades can easily be confused with their Medieval counterparts, which were of approximately the same length and shape. The Roman footsoldier wielded a much shorter chopping and thrusting sword called the gladius.

Spaulder: The 14th and 15th century defense for the shoulder point, featuring a small dished defense for the shoulder point and a number of lames extending down the arm. During the 14th century these lames were generally attached permanently to the rerebrace, but during the 15th century many designs separated the spaulder into a separate piece. As the desire for greater and greater defense increased the demand for full plate protection, the size of the spaulder was increased to cover the armpit and even part of the back and chest, at which point modern scholars have separated out the term pauldron to classify these more extensive defenses.

Spear: "The oldest form of staff weapon, intended primarily for thrusting. The war spear usually had a long, leaf-shaped or long, thin, triangular head."-David Edge and John Miles Paddock, Arms and Armour of the Medieval Knight. In common use during the entire middle ages, the spear ranged in length from five to nine feet, at which point modern scholars begin referring to them as pikes rather than spears.

Spectroscopy: One technique used in conjunction with metallography to determine a metal's composition and the techniques through which it was smelted and worked. See Chronique #13, The Knightly Sword.

Splinted defense: Usually used on arm and leg defenses during the 14th and very early 15th century, the idea was to add longitudinal strips of reinforcing to a heavier leather gutter that formed the vambrace and another that formed the rerebrace. The couter was generally, but not always, attached with internal straps rather than articulated with lames. The leather vambrace and rerebrace are often depicted in surviving effigies and brasses as being tooled; the strips might have been formed from iron, brass, bronze, or latten, though iron was probably the most common. Especially popular in Germany and in Italy during the whole of the transitional period. (See Blair p. 64)

Spur: The y-shaped hardware attached to the heel by straps, the spur was one of the essential tools a knight possessed as an equestrian, and they became on of the dominant symbols of knighthood. Prior to the late 13th century simple "prick" type spurs were in wide use, but during the last two decades of the 13th century and into the 14th the "rowel" spur gained wide popularity.

14th century rowel spurs had a shank ranging in length from two to more than nine inches, with a flared tongue that allowed the spur to ride up the ankle slightly without causing discomfort. Made of bronze, brass and iron, these spurs were probably both cast and forged, depending upon the preferences of the craftsman. Rowels were generally sharp wheels, sometimes decorated with fascinating piercework patterns. 15th century spurs were generally much the same, but during the 16th century the shanks were shortened and more spikes added to the rowel.

Spurs were generally attached to the foot with one strap running under the foot and other over the foot, these straps affixed to the spur itself by metal clips that had rings at the other end passing through a hole at the apex of each fork of the "Y" shape. The underside strap was generally made in one piece while the spur was fastened into place in top of the foot using a decorative buckle.

Stake: The metal tools over which an armourer hammers sheet iron or steel. There are many shapes of stakes, but most of them are either classified as "mushroom" stakes, "T" stakes, "chisel" stakes, or "horns." See also hammer, and armour, techniques required for building.

Stechtarsche: The small ribbed German shield laced to the left shoulder, used in the gestecht, that served as a target for jousts of peace. Sometimes these shields were made of cuirboille, painted or gold leafed to great effect.

Steel, as a material for armour: Used in armour chiefly during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, steel was occasionally found by accident and incorporated into earlier harnesses. Steel is made by adding carbon to iron, but the process was not applied to plate harness until the early 15th century, although this might prove too late as armouries were secretive in their techniques and there might have been houses, particularly the Missiglian or some of the better German houses, that might have known and used steel rather than iron prior to that.

The amount of carbon in steel from which armour was made varies from 0.1% (low carbon) to 0.6% (high carbon). Heterogeneous steels have an uneven distribution of carbon, while heterogeneous steels have a uniform distribution of carbon. Modern mild steels are similar in the amount of carbon present to the lower grade medieval metals, but they are homogeneous rather than heterogeneous. Modern stainless steels have trace amounts of chromium, nickel, silicon, tungsten and vanadium, contain no slag, and polish to a much whiter finish than medieval steels. See also Chronique: The Journal of Chivalry #13.

Stuckhofen: A furnace used in the 15th century to smelt steel from iron ore, using a water-powered bellows to increase the heat above the melting point of iron (1550 degrees C). See also Bloomery Process and Chronique: The Journal of Chivalry #13.

Sugarloaf: A transition helmet between the heaulm and the bascinet where the skull of the helmet was pointed like a bascinet and the sides enclosed like a heaulm. Both were worn until the third quarter of the century, when the visored bascinet emerged as dominant. Sugarloafs were often adorned with a cross of brass, bronze or latten across the front and decorated with torses and mantles, especially since they were frequently worn in tournaments and in jousts.

Surcoat: A cloth covering usually worn over the body armour. During the 14th century they were gradually shortened from their 13th century lines. They started during the first quarter of the century ending at the knee, and ended the century ending at the edge of the hip. During the 15th century they were shortened further, and eventually abandoned in favor of a large tunic worn over the cuirass. The addition of white armour made the use of a surcoat less important, as full harnesses were generally somewhat individual. Most surcoats were emblazoned with the cote of arms or device or the wearer in order that they identity be known in the crush of battle.

Sword: The predominant weapon of the knight; a long, tapered, usually two-edged blade ranging from 32" to more than 72" in length ending in a point which was sometimes, but not always, used for thrusting. For most of the period from the 9th century to the end of the 15th century, the broadsword remained the mainstay weapon for knights, squires and men-at-arms. Swords generally weigh less than popular culture would have you believe; the finest weapon I have handled was one purported to belong to Edward III; it was nearly 40" in length and weighed in at only 3 1/2 pounds. The pommels on many swords are thicker than they appear in most two dimensional illustrations, being heavy to counter the blade. The sword also came to possess strong symbolic meanings, different virtues being assigned tot he two edges. The quillion (a 16th century term) or cross-piece formed across the handle of the sword resembled a Christian cross, furthering the symbolism. See also bastardsword, claymore, and Chronique: The Journal of Chivalry #13.