Schynbalds

Shin armour, Europe, 14th and 15th centuries

Schynbalds were an early experiment in plate armour for the lower leg. Schynbalds were metal plates strapped over chausses. Each schynbald was a single piece of steel that covered the front and outside of the shin. Schynbalds did not enclose the lower leg: hence, they were not true greaves. Schynbalds first appeared in the 1230s or 1250s and remained in use during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.^[1]^[2]

Complete suits of armor survive only from the latter part of the schynbald era. In fifteenth century Gothic armour they were strapped not to mail but to fastenings on a padded undergarment. By the early fifteenth century greaves had supplanted schynbalds in white armour. Schynbalds were essentially obsolete by the sixteenth century.

Citations

^ Oakeshott 1996, p. 284.
^ Gravett, Christopher. English Medieval Knight 1200-1300. Oxford: Osprey Pub, 2002. Print.

References

Oakeshott, R. Ewart (1996) [1960]. The Archaeology of Weapons: Arms and Armour from Prehistory to the Age of Chivalry. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0486292885.

Components of medieval European armour

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