The Crusades and the Battle Dress of the Medieval Warrior

We’ve all learned about the crusades in History class. But just in case you fell asleep or weren’t quite listening, here is a quick overview.  The Crusades were a series of military expeditions to the Middle East from 1096 to 1291 ad.  They were launched because they believed the Holy Land of the Israelites were in the hands of unbelievers, mainly the Muslims.  The main objective was the city of Jerusalem, to recapture it from the Muslims.

Now that you’ve had a quick lesson on the crusades, let us go into the battle cress and armor of the Crusader knights who made that long voyage to the Holy Land.  Though there were many different types of attire for the soldiers, one of the main ones was a standard chainmail armor battle dress.  This usually consisted of a full length/full sleeves chainmail made out of riveted/flat ring combination.  This was the strongest form of chainmail available and it provided the most protection as well.  Chainmail in general was also much lighter than plate armor and provided a greater freedom of movement.  Chainmail leggings was also usually worn as well, which was made out of the same material.  Over the chainmail a surcoat was often worn.  This was usually white or black in color and had a crusader cross sewn on the front of it.  During traveling, a cloak may have been worn as well, and this also bore the cross sign on it.

The last main item was that quite common for many soldiers was the crusader helmet and the sugar loaf helmet.  Crusader medieval helmets were signified by the flat top and crusader cross, often times embossed on with brass, on the front of the helmet going down the center.  This was probably the only “armor” item that the soldiers wore, as everything else was cloth, leather, and chainmail.  Occasionally, a chainmail coif (or hood) was worn in stead of the helmet.