Plate armour

Plate armour is a historical type of personal body armour made from bronze, iron, or steel plates, culminating in suits of armour which entirely or mostly encased the wearer. Full plate steel armour developed in Europe during the Late Middle Ages, especially in the context of the Hundred Years' War, from the coat of plates (popular in late 13th and early 14th century) worn over mail suits during the 14th century, a century famous for transitional armour.

In Europe, full plate armour reached its peak in the 15th and 16th centuries. The full suit of armour, also referred to as a panoply, is thus a feature of the very end of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period. Its popular association with the "medieval knight" is due to the specialised jousting armour which developed in the 16th century.

Full suits of Gothic and Milanese plate armour were worn on the battlefields of the Burgundian Wars, the Wars of the Roses, the Polish–Teutonic Wars, the Eighty Years' War, the French Wars of Religion, the Italian Wars, the Hungarian–Ottoman Wars, the Ottoman–Habsburg wars, the Polish–Ottoman Wars, a significant part of the Hundred Years' War, and even the Thirty Years' War. The most heavily armoured troops of the period were heavy cavalry, such as gendarmes and early cuirassiers, but the infantry troops of the Swiss mercenaries and the Landsknechts also took to wearing lighter suits of "three quarters" munition armour, leaving the lower legs unprotected.

The use of plate armour began to decline in the early 17th century, but it remained common both among the nobility (e.g., the Emperor Ferdinand II, Louis XIII, Philip IV of Spain, Maurice of Orange and Gustavus Adolphus) and cuirassiers throughout the European wars of religion. After the mid-17th century, plate armour was mostly reduced to the simple breastplate or cuirass worn by cuirassiers, with the exception of the Polish Hussars that still used considerable amounts of plate. This was due to concerns over the weight of plate armour interfering with mobility coupled with views that the musket could penetrate common armour at range.