Rapier Armor in the Style of the 13th Century

Alianor de Ravenglas

ABSTRACT
This is a set of 13th century men’s clothes. It consists of a set of undergarments (a shirt and
braies), and a tunic. A pair of hosen (socks) will be added at a later date. The shirt has been
modified so that the combination of shirt and tunic is suitable for use as rapier armor. All
garments are made from 100% linen and were machine-sewn and hand-finished.

BACKGROUND
This set of 13th century men’s clothing can go from the rapier field to the Baron’s court. A
typical men’s suit of clothes during the early-to-mid-13th century consists of braies and a shirt,
one or more gowns or tunics, and thigh-length hosen. This set of clothes currently lacks the
hosen but is otherwise complete. The silhouette of the period was one of a very full body and
voluminous skirt. Many, but not all, men’s tunics were slit up the middle, presumably to allow
the wearer to sit astride a horse. These garments are not constructed to allow equestrian
activities.

Illustration 1:
13th c. Men’s Tunics
Maciejowski Bible f. 2r and 6
Illustration 2:
13th C. Men’s
Tunics
Murthly Hours f.
18v

RAPIER ARMOR STANDARDS

The goal with this outfit is for His Excellency to be able to move from the rapier field to his
more ceremonial duties without needing to change his clothes. This means, of course, that the
garments must be able to function as adequate rapier armor, conforming to Kingdom armor
standards. The relevant portions of the Aethelmearc Rapier Rules are excerpted below:
No skin shall show anywhere on the fencer's body, regardless of the position or stance of the
fencer. There shall be sufficient overlap between separate pieces of armor that the required
protection for that body area is preserved.
…
Torso and Arm Armor - Puncture resistant armor shall cover the body from the top of the shoulder
to the base of the groin and the underarm area. Minimum underarm protection is provided by a
 triangle extending from the armhole seam, and covering the lower half of the sleeve, extending
down the under side of the arm one-third the distance to the elbow. The edges of any closure must
overlap by at least 3". The rest of the arm must be covered with abrasion resistant material.
…
Lower Extremity Armor - All portions of the lower extremities must be covered with at least
abrasion resistant material. Spandex, cotton gauze, and nylon tights are unacceptable. If skin can
be seen through the material, the material is too thin. Footwear must completely enclose the foot
with a minimum of abrasion resistant material.1

These garments fit all of these specifications; the shirt and tunic together provide puncture-
resistant protection (tested using a drop tester); the braies, when worn with hosen, serve to cover
the lower extremities with abrasion-resistant material. The garments presented here are worn
with puncture-resistant hoods and leather gloves to complete compliance with Kingdom armor
standards.

SHIRT AND TUNIC

The shirt and tunic are made based on extant garments; I classify them as a hybrid between
Nockert Types 2, 4, and 5.2 They also bear a resemblance to the Italian garment that has been
attributed to St. Francis.3 They consist of body panels, sleeves, triangular gussets, and tall side
gores, as are shown in Illustrations 3 and 4. I chose this layout because I wanted the garments to
be very full from the shoulders down, while still maintaining the predominant thirteenth-century
structure of rectangular body panels.

Illustration 4:
Illustration 3: Sleeve/Gusset/Gore
Shirt & Tunic Layout Detail

Both garments were machine-sewn; despite the historical inaccuracy of this, I prefer to machine-
sew clothing that will be worn in combat situations. In period, the layer of clothing closest to the
skin would have been linen; in this set of clothes, the shirt is made from 100% linen. The outer

1 Aethelmearc Policies of the Marshal of Fence.

2 Carlson.
3 LABEC.

Rapier Armor in the Style of the 13th Century

Alianor de Ravenglas 2
layer would most likely have been wool; in this case, His Excellency chose to have the fashion
layer made from linen as well because that was the material that he had already purchased.
In order to make the combination of these two garments to conform to the rapier armor
standards, I double-layered most of the shirt; only the bottom half of the sleeves is single-
layered. In order to do work with the doubled fabric, I first machine-based the pieces together
and then used the zig-zag stitch on my sewing machine to hold the edges of the pieces together. I
treated each double-layered piece as one. The stitching that holds the pieces together is invisible
on the outside of the garment except on the sleeves. The garment will never be worn by itself,
however, so this “visible” stitching is never actually seen.
Because His Excellency actually portrays a time period a bit earlier than the 13th century, we
decided to add some wide strips of contrasting fabric as trim at the neckline, sleeves, and hem of
the outer tunic. These were cut on the bias so that
they could accommodate the curve of the neckline
and the hem. The neckline band was machine-sewn
and then finished by hand; the hem and sleeve
bands were pieced by machine and applied by hand.

BRAIES
These braies are made of 100% linen, machine-
sewn and hand-finished. They are of the style that I
call “capital H” braies, which reproduce the look of
13th century undergarments quite well, especially
when worn with hosen, as pictured here. What they
do not reproduce as faithfully is the look of braies
when they were worn by themselves, as we can see
in Illustration 5. They are a less good reproduction Illustration 5: Illustration 6:
Braies worn with Braies worn
of what the braies looked like when worn without hosen. without hosen.
hosen, as we can see in Illustration 6. This is a Maciejowski Bible, Maciejowski
tradeoff, however; braies that look correct when f. 18 Bible, f. 18
worn by themselves are significantly more labor-
intensive to construct and to wear.
The structure of these braies is simply the lower half of a
capital letter “H”. This consists of a wide center panel
with leg panels attached. This extremely voluminous
garment is then gathered at the waist with a waistband; in
this case the waistband is made of the same linen as the
braies.
When I construct braies in this manner, I leave openings in
each of the front seams. These serve two purposes: first,
Illustration 7:
they give access to the drawstring for purposes of tying
Capital H Braies
and un-tying. Second, they let the wearer attach the points

Rapier Armor in the Style of the 13th Century

Alianor de Ravenglas 3
for their hosen to the drawstring. There is iconographic evidence of similar slits in 13th century
illustrations, as can be seen in Illustration 8.

Illustration 8:
Note the slit in the waistband. Illustration 9:
Maciejowski Bible f. 33 Completed Braies

REFLECTIONS
My initial vision for the body garments of this outfit did not include the gussets in the sleeves;
my intention was to just use the triangular gores to give the fullness starting at the shoulders, as
is pictured in Illustration 10. This plan did not work out for a couple of reasons. In the case of
the shirt, I simply cut the gores too short and they did not reach all the way into the sleeve seams;
I pieced in the gussets rather than wasting fabric re-
cutting the gores. I corrected this measurement error
when I made the outer layer but we discovered that,
even with gores that reached almost to the elbow, the
garment was too tight across the shoulders to be
comfortable as rapier armor, so I again added the
gussets. I have used this gore/gusset/sleeve
arrangement one other time and am actually not all
that fond of it; it is very difficult to get all the pieces
to line up the way you want them to and it creates a
lot of bulk in the armpit area. I think the original idea Illustration 10:
Original Conception of Body Garments
of simply extending the triangular gores into the
sleeves is sound; I just need to make those gores
much longer than I initially thought.

Rapier Armor in the Style of the 13th Century

Alianor de Ravenglas 4
 Illustration 11:
The Completed Armor

Rapier Armor in the Style of the 13th Century

Alianor de Ravenglas 5
SOURCES CITED
Aethelmearc Policies of the Marshal of Fence. April 2006. http://www.aerapier.org/
aerules.doc; accessed June 2006.
Carlson, Marc. 2003. “Some Clothing of the Middle Ages – Kyrtles/Cotes/Tunics/
Gowns.” http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/cloth/tunics.html; accessed
June 2009.
Cockerell, Sydney C. 1969. Old Testament Miniatures: A Medieval Picture Book with
283 Paintings From The Creation to The Story of David. New York: George
Braziller. (Known as the “Maciejowski Bible”.)
LABEC. May 2007. “Physics discovers the Secrets of St. Francis”. http://www.infn.it/
news/newsen.php?id=431; accessed June 2009.
Multiple authors/artists. 1280. The Murthly Hours. National Library of Scotland. Available
online at http://www.nls.uk/murthlyhours/index.html.

Rapier Armor in the Style of the 13th Century

Alianor de Ravenglas 6