Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The Armors of all time...

Armour or armor is protective covering used to prevent damage from being inflicted to an individual or a vehicle through use of direct contact weapons or projectiles, usually during combat. Armor has been used to protect soldiers, war animals such as war horses (the application for the latter called barding), and war machines such as warships and armoured fighting vehicles.It has been used throughout recorded history, and manufactured from a variety of materials; starting with rudimentary leather protection, personal armour evolved to mail and full plated suit of armour. For much of military history the manufacture of metal armour in Europe has dominated the technology and employment of armour. Armour production was a cause of the development of many important technologies of the Ancient World, including wood lamination, mining, metal refining, vehicle manufacture (chariot), leather processing, and later decorative metal working. Its production has been influential in the evolving industrial revolution, and influenced commercial development of metallurgy and engineering. ( Via ) Wikipedia

(images via)

These armor belonging to that spokesman for restraint and modesty, Henry the 8th: not only was it state-of-the-art for its day, but it was designed and built -- as was most armor of the day -- to the wearer's dimensions. In the case of Henry, though, his personal suit looked like it was more portly battleship than streamlined destroyer. And who can forget the Royal ... um, 'staff' shall we say? Looking at a set of his armor, the question becomes was it designed to protect or brag? But, to be honest, we can't fault Henry for his choice: his armor was never really designed for war -- mainly because the time of armor's suit had passed.