It is difficult to say when maille first appeared, as because it rusts and disintegrates there is limited archaeological evidence available. When maille is found it is usually in some unrecognisible clump, and so interpretation is difficult and it is possible that the earliest examples have been lost completely.
It is however thought, that maille was first introduced to the world by the northern Europeans around 400BC. The Romans encountered it while fighting the Celts in France and England and incorporated it into their armour. Maille was then used extensively throughout the following years, the knights depicted on the bayeux tapestry wear maille hauberks (shirts) adn hosen (leggings). Over the following years the arms of the hauberk were extended from elbow to full length, a coif (hood) was incorporated and then even mittens were attached. This meant that a knight was almost fully enclosed in small metal rings.... very heavy. The advance of weaponry meant that armourers were under pressure to create ever more effective means of protection for the knights. Maille moved from butted (the ends of rings just butted up againt each other) to rivited (the ends of each ring were overlapped, flattened and a small rivit was pushed through a hole punched through them) which increased protection considerably, as the maille could not burst open as easily if it was struck. Sometimes alternate rows were rivited, sometimes every ring in a garment was. This took a great deal of time and effort as there are over 30,000 rings in a hauberk alone. Welded maille is a type less commonly known, every other row on a suit could have the ends of the rings welded together, this could be done before the piece was constructed and was sometimes incorporated with rivited on the other rows, making the maille very strong indeed. It is thought that maille was probably made on some sort of a production line, as it would take a person too much time to do each stage him/herself. Possibly the earliest form of mass production.
In the 14th centuary however, things began to change. The development of more accurate and deadly weaponry meant that maille, rivited or not, was no longer providing the protection needed. In particular was the increased usage of the longbow. An arrow could pierce maille relatively easily and so plates of metal were added to armour to deflect blows and to disperse the kinetic energy of a strike. Maille does disperse the energy to some extent, but a blow from a sword could still break a bone, and if it shattered the maille it could drive links into an open wound. This would likely result in infection which could be serious, if not fatal. Plate armour did not have these drawbacks, and was used increasingly over the coming year until at the start of the 15th centuary, armour was nearly all plate. Maille still had it's uses, such as covering awkward areas like the underarms, but had vastly decreased in use.
Although it's downfall from wider circulation was rapid, maille refused to disappear completely. Maille was still being used as armour by Pakistani tribesmen around 1910 and was draped from Japanese WWII helmets to protect from shrapnel. The development of lighter protection and modern weapons means that maille is no longer useful as fighting armour, however it is still used in places. It is used in anti-shark suits for divers, and in places such as butchers in the form of gloves to protect from knives.
So, that gives maille a lifespan of at least 2400 years.... pretty impressive?!
|
This page has been visited
|