2005-09-22 - 10:06 p.m.
Nice picture of what the SCA armor standards say we are wearing. The standard says hardened leather arms, but that heavy gambeson looks like it offers protection pretty close to that, at least on the cut.
It also explains why Harold would have to push his helm back to be recognized.
A ventail drawn up to the nasal would make identification quite difficult.
That is if the square depicted on the chest of those wearing chain mail (as depicted on the Beaux tapestry) is in fact a ventail, loosed and resting on the chest.
Anyway these photos come from Gerry Embleton�s excellent book, �Medieval Military Costume�
I�ll come back to this later with some more pictures of period depictions of the ventail.
-Justus
