Armet (à rondel): The dominant helmet during much of the 15th century. Armets were built of a snug-fitting bowl that came to just above the ears, fitted with cheek plates that attached by hinges to this bowl. The bowl is often reinforced with an additional layer of steel across the brow, and a visor fills in around the nose and eyes to make an exceptionally functional closed helmet. 

Left: Armet

Coif: an armoured hood. Often made of mail, but sometimes quilted. Comes from the French word for "hair".

Left: Modern mail coif being made by hand 

Cuirass: (French cuirasse, Latin coriaceus, made of leather, from corium, the original breastplate being of leather, pronounced in English as "kwi-rass"), the plate armour formed of a single piece of metal or other rigid material or composed of two or more pieces, which covers the front of the person. In a suit of armour the term cuirass commonly is understood to imply the complete body-armour, including both the breast and the back plates. Thus this complete body armour appears in the Middle Ages frequently to have been described as a pair of plates. Elizabeth I of England often wore a cuirass.

Left: A medieval cuirass

Chausses: (Derived from the French word for "hose"), armour for the legs, usually made from mail. They could extend to the knee or cover the entire leg. Chausses were the standard type of metal leg armour during most of the European Middle Ages. Chausses offered flexible protection that was effective against slashing weapons. However, the wearer felt the full force of crushing blows.

Chausses were also worn as a woollen legging with layers, as part of civilian dress, and as a gamboissed (padded) garment for chainmail.

Left: Chausses, from an illustration by Villard de Honnecourt (13th century)

Gauntlets: (Derived from the diminutive of the French word for "glove"), hand defences. They can be either "mitten" gauntlets, in which the fingers are all armoured collectively, or "finger" gauntlets in which each finger is armoured separately. In addition, there are "demi-gauntlets" in which only the back of the hand and wrist are protected, but the fingers are not.

Historically, gauntlets were an important piece of armour, since the hands and arms were particularly vulnerable in hand-to-hand combat. With the rise of easily-reloadable firearms, hand-to-hand combat became less common and so gauntlets lost most of their strategic value.

Left: A gauntlet

Gorget: (Derived from the French word for "throat"), armoured collar that protects the throat. Sometimes strapped directly to the breastplate. These were worn relatively rarely in the Middle Ages, as they interfere with neck flexibility. However, they are recommended for many modern re-enactors because they defend against injury to the upper spinal column.

Left: A gorget

Pauldrons: (Derived from the French word for "shoulder"), shoulder plates. Pauldrons often also protect the upper arm and are generally found on later-period armour (from 15th century onwards). They can be attached to the gorget in some armours.

On armours designed for mounted combat, whether in the tournament or the field, the pauldrons would usually be asymmetrical, with one pauldron sporting a cut-away to make room for a lance-rest.

Left: Pauldrons