Chausses are armour for the legs, usually made from mail

Mail (armour)

Mail is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh.-History:Mail was a highly successful type of armour and was used by nearly every metalworking culture....

. They could extend to the knee or cover the entire leg. Chausses were the standard type of metal leg armour during most of the Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

. Chausses offered flexible protection that was effective against slashing weapons. However, the wearer felt the full force of crushing blows.

Reinforcing plates called poleyns began to supplement mail armour in the 13th century. One of the first locations to see this protection was the knee. But because most leg armor had to be pulled on from the foot, rather than snapped on such as a breastplate, a chausse might have been considered to be worn on the foot. Steel shin plates called schynbalds

Schynbalds

Schynbalds were an early experiment in plate armour for the lower leg. Schynbalds were metal plates strapped over chausses. Each schynbald was a single piece of steel that covered the front and outside of the shin. Schynbalds did not enclose the lower leg: hence, they were not true greaves...

 came into use during the final quarter of the century. Unlike greave

Greave

A greave is a piece of armour that protects the leg.-Description:...

s, schynbalds protected only the front of the lower leg. These early plate additions were worn over chausses and held in place with leather straps. Chausses became obsolete in the 14th century as plate armour

Plate armour

Plate armour is a historical type of personal armour made from iron or steel plates.While there are early predecessors such the Roman-era lorica segmentata, full plate armour developed in Europe during the Late Middle Ages, especially in the context of the Hundred Years' War, from the coat of...

developed.

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

The old French word chausse, meaning stocking, survives only in modern French as the stem of the words chaussure (shoe) and chaussette (sock) and in the tongue-twister:

Les chausses sèches de l’archiduchesse

Sont elles sèches ou archisèches?

which today is often misunderstood as ‘les chaussettes de l’archiduchesse’.

External links

• Arador Armour Library guide to constructing replica chausses
• A General History of Armor