A few weeks ago, I decided to make a chainmail coif. “A what?” is just one of the two very reasonable questions that many have asked. However, the answer is a little more tricky. The coif is similar to a balaclava or dust cap, and a chainmail coif is a coif made out of chain mail, all of which may seem straight forward and simple. But this is just where the controversy and disagreements begin. The second question many have asked is “Why are you making it?”. I will attempt to answer this equally tricky question at the end.
Chainmail: affordable protection
Noblemen in the Middle Ages wore the full steel armour covering nearly every inch of their body, with complicated and very clever joints to aid movement, similar to the two knights on horseback below. That is if they could afford a full suit of armour, which at that time was equivalent to buying a house and an expense not to be rushed into.
Even though this sort of armour covered much of the body, it still left areas like under the arms, the neck and groin area vulnerable and this was where chainmail came in. In fact, the Celts are credited with first using chainmail around 400 BC, and others have suggested that variations were used long before that. However, some knights preferred several layers of fabric often including silk not covered by armour to aid movement and comfort. Fabric and leather worn in these vulnerable areas had proven to be very effective against sword and arrow and was much cheaper.
Squires and foot soldiers could rarely afford much in the way of armour but chainmail, thick leather and several layers of fabric were more affordable and almost as effective against some attacks but had a lot fewer bragging rights.
There are many knowledgeable historians who will try to convince us that there is no misunderstanding or mystery and even carry out tests to prove that chainmail was a poor defence against arrows but as chainmail was developed thousands of years after the arrow, surely they wouldn’t have bothered if it was ineffective. Then of course we get another expert with their own convincing argument.
How was the chainmail coif worn?
How and with what the chainmail coif was worn seems to be cloaked in mystery, unfortunately made much worse by film makers who show the knight and/or nobleman wearing the chainmail coif next to the bare head and draping under the chin, which was almost certainly wrong. Film makers are responsible for changing many aspects of history to suit their own agenda.
There are very few original coifs in existence, maybe as few as ten, several of these date from the Battle of Visby 1361, displayed at the Tofta church on the Swedish island of Gotland, these are now rusty steel blobs around a skull that shows an approximate one-inch gap between the skull and coif, which could be interpreted as the coif being worn against the head.There is no evidence of fabric but then there wouldn’t be after eight hundred years and they are too delicate to investigate fully.
Also, all of the original coifs and the ones depicted in the Morgan Illustrated Bible commissioned by Louis IX of France around 1250, all show the mail coif worn over the chin not under it as film makers insist. However, some of the images clearly indicate that chain mail wasn’t spear proof, and I’m sure even if it didn’t penetrate the mail coif, an iron bar in the shape of a sword would have rendered the recipient a tad dizzy for long enough to be finished off by other many and varied means too horrible to list.
So why make one?
So, the design and use is still open to interpretation, but the image below is my own attempt at an answer. Which brings us to the second question – why?
I was idly pondering the mysteries of the universe – why are we here and who’s going to make a cup of tea – when my eyes fell upon our Maximilian helmet that has made a rare venture out of the attic and onto our fireplace. The thought slowly crossed my mind that it would look even better with chain mail under it as shown ont’ telly.
Little did I know that further investigations would show that it probably wasn’t worn under these helmets. But by then I was committed to the idea and 7,000 individually constructed and fitted rings later I have often wondered as others have why I am doing this. But I have to say that the mind does relax into a meditative state where I don’t care why we are here and even where the next cup a’ tea is coming from.
An escape from the annoyances of modern life
While I’m on a bit of a grump, here’s the kind of thing it’s good to have one’s mind taken off.
Up to recently we could go to the council tip site and get rid of all our stuff and tat. In earlier times, we didn’t have much stuff and tat; we made some use of what we did have until that fateful day when it found itself on the back of the rag-and-boneman’s cart. Now we have to join the queue to take our two-year-old garden furniture ourselves to the tip and then we’re met by a young spotty-faced individual wearing a high viz vest who has just achieved a B2 in clipboard management at Nowhere University. And this is after we’ve run the gauntlet of numberplate recognition systems only to be told “You can’t bring that ere sir, you have to take it to Scunthorpe”.
Grump over, I feel better now. Back to fitting more rings.
Ed: Update from 18 May – here’s the finished item!
