When speaking of the knee-pieces in late 16th century/early 17th century armour for heavy cavalrymen, which is the correct term? They function as cuisses, but you could also refer to them as tassets.

Any help on discerning the proper terminology would be appreciated.

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An example

Nowadays they would tend to be called tassets. As the terms are generally used, tassets attach to the fauld(s) and come down from there, while cuisses are separate components attached to the legs/waist directly.

Just to be difficult, I'd call those cuisses because they form to the leg, and likely have straps to secure them.

I'd call them tassets if they look like this:

[ Linked Image ]

But I wouldn't be dogmatic about it, either way works for me. Or "cuissets", maybe?

Matthew

I would have to agree with T. Kew. Cuisses, as my understanding goes, were separate pieces of armor that either buckled to the fauld or were attached to a belt at the waist. These often had an extra plate that wrapped around the outer thigh for extra protection. I would think that cuisses would be more likely used in on-foot combat. But, both photos show tassets, and the one that Mr. Amt provided would also be for foot combat, as in a pikeman's armor. :) .....McM

But to take that a spin in another direction these cuisses actually often have a way to split them from the lower half and polyens.... being very much Tasset, faulds again.

Fun stuff,

RPM

From Robert Barret's glossary:

Cuisset, is the armings of a horseman, for his thigh vnto the knees.

Taisses, a French vvord, and is the arming of the thighes, annexed vnto the forepart of the Corslet.

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A04863.0001.001/1:17?rgn=div1;view=fulltext


Usually authors seem to use the terms interchangeably, but if you want to get specific it seems that the tasses refers to the upper part that goes down to the thigh, and the cuisset refers to the part covering the lower thigh and the knee.

Quote:

True it is, it is necessarie, for the shocke of a horse to weare a little Cuisset to co∣uer the knee, so ought al the Launtiers to be. We know it by experience; let a horseman be armed, the forepart of his curaces of a light pistoll proofe, his head peece the like, two lames of his pouldrons the like, two or three lames of his tasses of the like proofe, the rest I meane his tasses, cuisses, pouldrons, vambraces, and gauntlets, bee also so light as you can deuise.

-Sir Roger Williams, A Briefe Discourse of VVarre

one could proboly say that the cuisses is part of the tasset in the first picture or one could say that that thing is long tassets and reserve the term cuisses for stand alone armor pieces. I would argue that sayng it is not tasset is wrong but at the same time cuisses might be as (or even more) right.

Didn't Cruso call them tassets? Tassets it is (although I wouldn't be too hard on people who call them cuisses since real proper cuisses were practically nonexistent by then anyway).