Cuisses are a form of medieval armor worn to protect the thigh. The word is the plural of the French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 word cuisse meaning 'thigh'. While the skirt of a maille

Maillé

Maillé may refer to the following places in France:* Maillé, Indre-et-Loire, a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department, site of a 1944 war crime* Maillé, Vendée, a commune in the Vendée department* Maillé, Vienne, a commune in the Vienne department...

 shirt or tassets

Tassets

Tassets are a piece of plate armour designed to protect the upper legs. They take the form of separate plates hanging from the breastplate or faulds. They may be made from a single piece or segmented...

 of a cuirass

Cuirass

A cuirass is a piece of armour, formed of a single or multiple pieces of metal or other rigid material, which covers the front of the torso...

 could protect the upper legs from above, a thrust from below could avoid these defenses. Thus, cuisses were worn on the thighs to protect from such blows. Padded cuisses made in a similar way to a gambeson

Gambeson

A gambeson is a padded defensive jacket, worn as armour separately, or combined with mail or plate armour. Gambeson were produced with a sewing technique called quilting. Usually constructed of linen or wool, the stuffing varied, and could be for example scrap cloth or horse hair...

 were commonly worn by knights in the 12th and 13th Centuries, usually over chausses

Chausses

Chausses are 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...

 and may have had poleyns directly attached to them.

Cuisses could also be made of brigandine

Brigandine

A brigandine is a form of body armour from the Middle Ages. It is a cloth garment, generally canvas or leather, lined with small oblong steel plates riveted to the fabric....

 or splinted leather, but by the Late Middle Ages

Late Middle Ages

The Late Middle Ages was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th to the 16th century . The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern era ....

 they were typically made from 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...

.

External links

• Leg Harness (1400 - 1620)
• Armor for Beginners armor glossary