Arms and Armour
Glossary of Terms


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The glossary is meant as a growing resource for students, re-enactors, and anyone interested in knighthood, chivalry, or the medieval tournament. The current page is but a brief listing of what we would like to have on the page; if you would be interested in helping with a given area, such as in heraldry, transcribing tournament accounts, translations, or research, drop the author an email at brion@chronique.com. Additionally, we would like to expand many of the definitions here; if you want to try one or more of them send your submissions to the email address above--we can use the help!

Hammer (armourer's tool): The predominant tool of the armourer. Similar in shape to the silversmithing hammers, armourer's hammers are normally 2-3 times heavier than a similar tool used to work silver. An even and accurate hammer stroke is necessary to the production of crisp interpretations. Modern armourers can acquire such tools through some blacksmithing supply houses or from European toolmakers such as Peddinghouse. Sometimes old hammers can be acquired, and modified if necessary to do the required task. A modern armourer will have from between 20 and 100 hammers that they use regularly, with most preferring 2 to 5 for most of the work and the rest serving specialized purposes. These are often bought from tool collectors or modifies to solve a particular problem. See Chronique: The Journal of Chivalry #6.

Hammer (warhammer), Martel, Horseman's Pick: A weapon consisting of a hammer head on one side and a spike on the other, sometimes mounted on a short handle for use in one hand and other times mounted on a short shaft for use in foot combats. Warhammers and poleaxes were popularly used in judicial duels or in combats associated with points of honor.

Hand-and-a-half sword: (See Bastardsword)

Hands, defense of: (See Gauntlets)

Hardness: The quality of metal that describes resistance to denting, scratching, or bending.

Harness: The generic description for a man-at-arms defensive gear, including undergarments, armoured elements, and integral equipment such as spurs, sword, etc.. Field harnesses were armours of war, designed for use in the field. During the 14th century some specialization in armour was begun, where tournament gear first begins to be separated from field harness in inventory records. There may well have been leather gear also, used for practice, but this might not have proved valuable enough to record, though decorated tournament gear of leather was often recorded.

Haubergen: A shorter version of the hauberk, a shirt made of mail, usually laced down the sides ofter 1300.

Hauberk: A mail shirt, generally extending down to defend the legs. The hauberk was the main defense for both body and legs until the late 13th century, when armourers began to experiment with reinforcing using padded, courboille, and even rudimentary plate augmentations.

Head, defense of: Generally a helmet was used to defend the head; a camail and casque or heaulm prior to the 14th century; a bascinet, cervèllaire, sugarloaf, heaulm or chapel de fer during the 14th century; a barbute, sallet, armet or great bascinet during the 15th century; an armet or close helmet during the 16th century. See also Padding, helmet.

Heat treating: The processes through which armour is hardened through heating. In general, most iron or ferrous armour is hardened either through work hardening (done by hammering) or by heating it to its critical temperature (dependent upon the technique used) and then quenched in water, urine, oil or other more secret substances. Prior to the 14th century, most hardened pieces were worked, planished, from the hammer rather than heat treated. During the 15th century, there is some evidence that the German armourers, particularly in Augsburg, began to use a sophisticated two step method that achieved a superior hardness and a resiliance to brittleness. See especially Theodore Monnich's article in Chornique: The Journal of Chivalry #13.

Heater (shield): The common form of knightly shield introduced from the late 13th century and used commonly all during the 14th century. During the second and third quarter of the century it seems fashionable for knights to carry very small shields, as the examples from existing brassesChronique: The Journal of Chivalry #8.

Heaulm, Helm, Great Helm: A fully enclosed defense for the head developed during the 12th century. Known also as the "barrel" or "pot" helmet (modern terms), the heaulm was generally made from several smaller sheets of steel, completely covering the face. From manuscript accounts it appears that they were often painted in the colors of the knight, and might also have been washed in gold or adorned with brass, bronze or latten decor, generally in the form of a cross under the occularia and down the front of the face.

Helmet: The basic defense for the head. See the following:

Higgens Armoury, Worchester, MA: An extensive collection open to the public. They have one of the larger collections of 16th century Maximillian armour in the world, but few pre-16th century pieces.

Hips, defense of: The hips were defended both by the aketon, the hauberk, and after the middle of the 14th century by faulds. During the 15th century tassets were added to bridge the gap between the hip and the thigh. See also Cuirass and Body, defense of.

Horse, defense of: Prior to the 14th century, horses were generally defended only by mail. During the late 14th century, there are records of horse armour but there are no surviving examples. Full plate defenses were occasionally used during the 15th and 16th centuries, although usually only a crinet and chamfron were used.

Horse, use of: For most of the medieval period, the knight and horse combination formed the most awesome force the battlefield had ever seen. Using the stirrup and saddle, the knight and his fifty pounds of armour would bear down on the opponents with a heavy lance. The key to this attack was for a group of knights to charge closely together, the effect of which would completely unnerve the defenders and break up any who remained. Because this technique required such careful coordination, tournaments were begun during the 12th century.

During the 14th century, the English first began dismounting their knights, defending massed archers to check Scots and French cavalry. Following the Battle of Halidon Hill, where the English first tried the technique with great effect against the Scots, it became a standard English tactic for the duration of the Hundred Years War.

Following the war, the role of the footman, and particularly the pikeman and the introduction of gunpowder removed the dominance of heavy cavalry and reintroduced a more balanced approach to warfare.

Houpelande: A garment common to the nobility during the very end of the 14th century and extending in various forms into the mid and late 15th century. It was characterized by long flowing sleeves, sometimes dagged in many interesting patterns. They were generally worn as court attire but a variety seems to have been adopted in place of the surcoat, particularly in Germany during the late 14th century.

Hundred Years War: The war between England and France that lasted from the middle of the 14th century to the middle of the 15th century concerning the accession to the French throne and various holdings in France that had been under the control of the English crown. The techniques of warfare used, siege war, the chevauchée, and occasional set-piece battles were well recorded by Froissart and Engerrand de Monstrelet, two invaluable sources for study of the high middle ages.

Hundskul: See Klappvisier. The pointed visor fitted to a bascinet.

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