Horse Barding

Origin

The origin of horse barding goes back to 12th-century Europe, where it began as a mail trapper laid over a cloth caparison. As plate armor began to cover the knight from the late 14th century, the wish arose to give the horse the same protection, and in the late 15th century, in the time of Maximilian I, the full plate barding reached its height. From the chanfron covering only the head, parts were added in turn for neck, chest, and haunches, until at last a single suit wrapped the whole horse. This growth came from the rising threat of the longbow, the crossbow, and the polearms of the foot soldier, which sought to break the mounted charge, and from the tournament, a ritualized mounted contest that demanded splendor in war gear.

Features

• Full-body protection of chanfron, crinet, peytral, flanchard, and crupper
• Began as mail barding in the 12th century, peaked as plate barding in the 15th
• Total weight of the peak barding reached 30 to 40 kilograms
• Together with the knight's armor the horse bore more than 100 kilograms
• Stripped off on the march and put on only just before battle
• Priced as a knight's harness, owned only by the highest nobility

Stories

Horse barding was the gear that kept the knight's warhorse alive on the field so that the force of the medieval mounted charge could be brought home to the end. The chanfron covered the face and brow that were the first exposed, the crinet covered the long and thick neck, the peytral covered the chest that bore the front of the charge, the flanchard covered the flanks, and the crupper covered the haunches that the foot soldier reached as he was overrun. As the longbow and the crossbow of the foot soldier sought the horse beyond the knight's armor, the barding became urgent, and as the tactic of striking the horse's legs and flanks with the poleaxe and the halberd to bring down the rider took hold, the flanchard that covered the flanks grew. In the tournament, too, the barding was used as part of the ritual of display, dressed with the family arms and a splendid caparison.

Weakness

The greatest weaknesses of horse barding were its weight and its cost. With 30 to 40 kilograms of plate laid on the warhorse's back and the knight's own armor added above it, the horse had to run bearing more than 100 kilograms, and so mobility and stamina fell greatly and a long march was simply not to be borne. The price matched a knight's harness or more, so the common knight often kept only the chanfron, and the full barding was the realm of kings and the highest nobility. From the late 14th century, too, the growth of the longbow and the crossbow and then of firearms began to pierce even thick plate, so the barding could no longer ensure full protection for all its cost, and in the 16th century, with the age of firearms, it lost its place on the battlefield quickly.

Cultural Significance

Horse barding stood as the clearest symbol of the splendor and the standing of the medieval knight. A barding was made with the same craft as a knight's armor, woven in the same workshop with the same arms and the same livery, making rider and horse seem one body to the eye. In the tournament the barding lay at the heart of the ritual of display, with the splendid caparison covered in the family arms, and to own one was itself proof of great wealth and family standing. The Maximilian-era armoring workshops of the Holy Roman Empire raised the bardings of emperors and princes to works of art, and surviving pieces in the Wallace Collection in London, the Royal Armouries in Leeds, and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna carry their craft to this day.

In Popular Culture

Horse barding appears often as a visual device for the prestige of the knight in Western films, period dramas, and games set in the Middle Ages. The scene of a warhorse dressed in a barding and caparison covered in the family arms bearing a knight with a lance in a tournament is drawn as the very heart of the medieval mounted contest. Fiction often makes the barding too light, however, leaving out the hardship the horse bore under its weight, and exaggerates by drawing every knight as if in full barding. In games the barding is treated as a high-grade piece that raises a knight character's standing, and in some RPGs and strategy games a careful system equips each part of the horse on its own.

Trivia

• The price of a full barding matched a knight's harness or more, so the full piece was in truth the realm of kings and the highest nobility, while the common knight often kept only the chanfron.
• Because a horse could not run for long under the weight of its barding, the barding was carried by a separate packhorse on the march and put on the warhorse only just before battle.
• The story that a knight was so heavy that he had to be hoisted onto his horse by crane is a 19th-century invention; an actual knight in full harness could mount his horse on his own and swing his sword.