From elite (and expensive) Imperial plate armour, ribbed for extra strength (don't worry about the open space between his legs-it and his bottom would have been covered by more flexible chain-mail armour),...
to common (cheap) leather and metal gorget (protected the throat and upper chest) ...
and simple brigantine (leather with metal studs), armor has protected warriors for thousands of years. Here we have samples of the best of the Renaissance armor maker's work. These are but a few of the hundreds of full and partial suits found at the Musee de l'Armee at Hotel des Invalides.
One size did not fit all, quality suits of plate were tailored for the individual user, one reason for their tremendous cost.
And let's not forget our four-legged friends, armor for them could cover as little as their foreheads...
our encase both them and their riders in complete metal protection.
Those that could afford the best, purchased full plate for both man and beast (at a cost in modern dollars of over a quarter million).
But an new technology was to soon be so effective as to render the wearing of expensive plate armor useless-the flintlock musket. Easier to use than previous weapons and deadly up to seventy-five yards through even the best armor of the day.
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