[Craig Peters]

I was reading an excerpt about the conflict between Heinrich V and the city of Cologne in 1114 AD. When mentioning the first battle between the emperor and Cologne, the text says:

"In the meanwhile the cavaliers of both sides had a free field and rode against one another as if they were taking part in a spectacle; but when a great cloud of arrows came showering in from the side of the Cologne people the knights of the enemy fell dead or wounded. There was in the emperor’s army a corps whose armor was made of horn and so could not be pierced by iron. When these removed their armor, however, in order to get a little air, for it was very hot, they were immediately covered with arrows, and all but six fell on the spot."

What kind of armour might this be? Does anyone know what the original Latin text says and whether or not "horn" is the best translation? The text itself comes from The Greater Annals of Cologne and was written in 1175 AD. Obviously, a text written over 60 years after the event may not be entirely reliable in terms of describing the armour worn, but I'm curious what others make of it.

Here's the rest of the excerpt: http://deremilitari.org/2014/02/warfare-betwe...ogne-1114/

[Mart Shearer]

Fastolf had horn jacks in 1459.

[Dan Howard]

As Mart said, the time period suggests that it is scale armour. Horn jacks date much later.

[Mark Griffin]

I've always suspected the very stiff looking 'jacks' in the Beauchamp Pageant battle scenes have horn in them. The skirts are very stiff and the rivets might be there to hold the plates in place. Just a pet theory though.

[Lafayette C Curtis]

Here's a reproduction of the primary source:

https://archive.org/details/chronicaregiaco00waitgoog

If anyone can extract the corresponding Latin passage (or at least locate where it is in the book), we can discuss it in more detail. I'm currently too lazy to do that myself.

[Craig Peters]

I was of the impression that scale armour was non-existent in Western Europe and the Empire at this time.

[Mart Shearer]

[Lafayette C Curtis]

Oh man, that's screwed up. We can't really tell whether the "ferro" is connected to "corneis" or "impenetrabilibus." I don't think the idea of the armour being made of horn is invalidated, but it's not completely proven either.

Given that the Annals were probably composed towards the end of the 12th century, it's also possible that the armour described here reflects contemporary trends rather than something that actually came from 1114. Weren't the accounts of Richard I wearing "plates" under his mail from roughly the same timeframe? If so, we may be seeing hints of a particular form of experimental proto-coat of plates with horn rather than metal plates.

[Neil Melville]

I admit that my knowledge is of classical rather than medieval Latin, but the text seems to me to read quite straightforwardly: " they used hauberks of horn, impenetrable by iron, which since they had taken off for the sake of getting fresh air.....". The word 'corneis' must apply to 'loricis' and 'ferro' qualifies 'impenetralibus'.
As for the use of horn as armour I defer to Craig, Mart, Lafayette etc, but remember that helmets made from slices of boar's tusk were worn by Mycenean warriors back in the 14th century BC!
Neil

[Mart Shearer]

Didn't the Benty Grange helmet use horn panels between the iron?