Posts: 1,191 Location: Kingston, Washington
Sat 10 Mar, 2007 9:24 pm
Rodolfo;
I'll see if I'm understanding your question properly here.
To begin with, the pauldrons as generally thought of in the later-16th Century were pretty well developed with Maximilian armours from the 1510's, I would say. Cimplete with haute-pieces, too.
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Secondly, what is generally considered to be the "Peascod" form of breastplate really doesn't appear on the scene until well after 1550. There are some moves towards it, with the central point in the breastplate seen around that time, but the over-hanging pouch/belly of the true "Peascod" doesn't really come into the fore until the 1570's or so, just as with civilian doublet fashions. And by that time, the pauldron was indeed quite fully developed.
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Per your lower photo of the black and white armour, note the hole in the breastplate in the right-hand side "white" stripe. I would venture to guess that it is for a lance arrét, just like the photo posted above (top) has. It was therefore made for use with a lance, though that of course doesn't preclude the use of pistols as well. (Note also that the right pauldron is also cut away to facilitate the use of the lance.) In general, armours with full greaves and sabatons were still made for the gendarmerie, who were (generally) still (as of 1580 or so) attached to the Lance.
(There is the outside possibility that the hole is rather for a plackart or reinforcing plate to be attached to the breastplate, making it not only pistol-proof but perhaps even musket-proof, but I'm not convinced that it is for this purpose, but rather for the lance arrét instead. The fact that the pauldron is cut away for using a lance rather helps in this, I believe. :cool: )
Per horse armours, the use of the crupper armour was pretty well abandoned by late in François I's reign. The
hommes d'armes of a
compagnie d'ordonnance was still required to provide himself with the peytral (breastplate) and chamfron (head protection) for his warhorse into the 1570's, but that seems to have been honoured more in the breach than in the practice by then.
I hope that this answers your questions?
Cheers!
Gordon