Ring armour
conjectured medieval armour type
Ring armour (ring mail) is an assumed type of personal armour constructed as series of metallic rings sewn to a fabric or leather foundation. No actual examples of this type of armour are known from collections or archaeological excavations in Europe. It is sometimes called ringmail or ring mail. In the Victorian era the term "mail" was used fancifully for any form of metallic body armour. Modern historians reserve the term "mail" for armour formed of an interlinked mesh of metal rings.
The Bayeux Tapestry has been misinterpreted as depicting several different types of armour. It is generally acknowledged today that virtually all the armour on the tapestry is standard mail armour and not "ring mail", "trellised mail" or "mascled mail" or any other Victorian misinterpretation.
Theoretical construction
Ring armour was believed to be a leather or textile item of clothing (a jacket, or trousers) with a large number of metal rings sewn or tied directly into the foundation garment. Unlike mail armour, the rings are not physically interlocked with each other.
Schiessjoppe (eyelet doublet)
It has been claimed that the garment called eyelet doublet is not a form of ring armour, but an undergarment intended to be used under actual armour.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Ring armour” as conjectured medieval armour type. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as conjectured medieval armour type. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 18, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q736868. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ring armour” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.