[Emil Andersson]

Hello,

When it comes to medieval harnesses I've seen some mentioning of a term called 3/4 or three quarters plate armour/harness, but I haven't been able to find any good illustrations of how this would look. My guess is that it was the kind of armour that normally mounted knights would wear while fighting on foot in order to reduce weight and heat buildup where protection could be spared, but how was it done?

Any descriptions or images to help me visualise this better would be great.

Thanks,
Emil Andersson

[Mikko Kuusirati]

It's a particular configuration of plate harness, essentially leaving out the lower leg defenses to shed some weight and improve mobility. Like this.

[Gottfried P. Doerler]

i think, 3/4 armour is not medieval, rather 17th century.
cuirassers in the beginning of the 30-years-war often carried 3/4 armour, problably also in the english civil war.
as far as i can remember in contrast to some other forms of reduced armour, (half-armour e.g.) the 3/4 still has integrated protection for the knees (poleyns ?).

[Mikko Kuusirati]

Good points, yeah. Also note that the half armour features stripped down arm defenses, in addition to the legs.

[William Knight]

You also see some 3/4 harnesses in the 16th century, particularly on medium cavalrymen.

An early depiction of it is Durer's Knight the Devil and Death from 1513, if you look closely the Knight is not wearing sabbatons or the lower half of his greave:



EDIT:
I'd forgotten that the studies that turned into the Knight the Devil and Death came over a decade earlier; this one is from the later 1490s: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons...r_1495.jpg

In general, I've seen a lot more 3/4 harness on cavalry than infantry, and it is probable that it's popularity varied from country to country for different uses.