Hi all! First topic, driven by curiosity.

I've seen references in two books to a particular type of armor called a Westphalian gambeson - as such in Medieval Costume, Armour and Weapons by Wagner, Drobna and Durdik, and as the Westfelischen lendenire in the Osprey Man-at-Arms title German Medieval Armies 1300-1500. It's described as a "fashionably cut" quilted defense, and seems to specifically be a gambeson where the lower body and lower armies are tightly quilted in rows, while the chest and shoulders are in a thicker, diamond-quilted pattern. However, aside from these two references, I can't seem to find any information on where this term comes from, where else the garment is depicted, or what it actually does refer to. Can anybody point me in the right direction?

Many thanks!
--Dan

This thread might be of interest.
http://www.albrechts.se/forum/viewtopic.php?f...41618c06a3

Bertus Brokamp wrote:

And to make it complete, here is the Limburger Chronicle quote (ca. 1371): In derselbigen zit da gingen an die Westfeilschen lendenire. Dy waren also, daz ritter, knechte unde reisige lüde furten lendenire, unde gingen an der brost ane, hinden uff dem rucke hart zugespannet unde wanten also verre als dy schufe lang was unde was hart gesteppet, bynach eynes fingers dicke. Und qwam daz uss Westfalenlande.

It may be some sort of quilted belt or girdle.

Many thanks! That's a whole direction I wouldn't have guessed at - a girdle or broad quilted belt? Maybe that's somewhat consistent with the cited illustrations, but that would leave us in a weird place to interpret how broad the quilting is around the chest and shoulders - some kind of short, thickly-quilted shoulder cape?