[Will Phillips]

Just how late were these big mail drapes used in Western/Central Europe?

The Landesknechts used them, but the latest painting/etching/woodcut I've seen of one by them is a 1549 painting by Lucas Cranach the Younger:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lucas_Cranach_d.J._-_Die_Predigt_Johannes_des_T%C3%A4ufers_(Herzog_Anton_Ulrich-Museum).jpg

I've seen modern illustrations of light cavalry armed with pistols, helmets, and bishop's mantles supposedly representing late in the 16th or early 17th, but I don't know how historically accurate these illustrations are.

Any ideas or references?

[Shahril Dzulkifli]

Bishop's mantle mail? Do you mean the one worn by the person in red as in that Lucas Cranach painting?

[Will Phillips]

Yes:



Anyone have evidence of them in use past 1550-ish from period paintings, woodcuts, etchings, or inventory lists?

[Mart Shearer]

I've got nothing, but didn't want you to feel ignored.

In fact, 1550 seems to be on the tail end of a fading fashion.