[Ryan S.]

Dear Mark Millman,

I am not sure that I am right, and as my opinon has changed more than once since the start I will clarify. I believe that both these quotes from the same book refer to the same garment:

"The common folk among the Wild Scots go out to battle with the whole body clad in a linen garment sewed together in patchwork, well daubed with wax or with pitch, and with an over-coat of deerskin"

"Those among them that are of more civility have no other shirts than what are made from deers' hides, and the plaids of their wild men are not otherwise"

The first quote has already appeared in this thread in another form, an it was taken to mean gambeson covered in leather:

[Ryan S.]

The Wilde Irishe, a reeactment group have two articles discussing leather armour. The articles overlap with what they cover, and mainly have to do with what the Irish Chieftain in Derricke´s Image of Ireland. They consider other options, but lean towards the interpration that the helmet and doublet are made from gilted leather, a type of leather made in Spain painted and treated with silver, and later tin. They also connect this to the "Leather quilted jack" mentioned by Edmund Spenser.

https://www.wildeirishe.com/_files/ugd/71b4fd_26323c0dfe444834a0b193cc2a3f44fc.pdf
https://www.wildeirishe.com/post/the-armour-of-derricke-s-chieftain


It seems that these do not refer to true leather armour, but rather leather covered armour. The quote from Spenser as well as the quote from John Majors could mislead someone to believe that a pure leather garment is meant, what the leather or deerskin is just the outer covering. My guess is that the leather outerlayer provided some degree of waterproofing, which is probably important when wearing 30 layers of cloth. The sources are also rather late in relation to the middle ages and the viking era.