Kite Shield

Origin

The origin of the kite shield is most often seen in the heavy cavalry of the Byzantine Empire of the 10th century. Byzantine ivories and 11th-century sources such as the Madrid Skylitzes already show horsemen bearing a great shield rounded at the top and pointed below, and the same form passed soon to the Normans who had settled in southern Italy, and by the middle of the 11th century became the standard across western Europe. In the Bayeux Tapestry of the Norman conquest of England in 1066, almost every knight of both sides bears a kite shield, and in sources of the First Crusade (1096-1099) of the same time the kite shield stands as the mark of the crusader knight. In the 12th century a longer and slimmer variant called the almond shield was used along with it, and by the middle of the 13th century the rounded top was cut flat into the smaller and lighter heater shield, and the kite shield handed its place to its heir and slowly withdrew.

Features

• Form rounded at the top and tapering to a point at the bottom
• About 100 to 120 centimeters high, covering shoulder to knee
• Design for catching the left side in a mounted charge with a single face
• Layered build of cross-glued lime and willow planks, hide-faced and iron-rimmed
• Two-sided grip of the enarmes for the arm and the guige for the shoulder
• A surface where the arms of the family were painted to know the knight from afar

Stories

The kite shield was the core gear of the mounted war of 11th- to 13th-century Europe. The knight passed his left arm through the enarmes to hold the shield steady, took the lance in his right hand, and from the seat of the horse the long point of the shield fell naturally down to the left knee and shin, covering the horse's flank and the rider's leg, both targets of the enemy, at the same time. At Hastings in 1066 the shield borne by William and his knights was the kite shield, and across the same field some of the Anglo-Saxon housecarls bore the kite shield alongside the round one. In the time of the Crusades (1096-1291) the kite shield became a mark of the European knight, and it appeared in the same form on the fields of Damascus and Antioch alike. The same form was used by the foot, but its weight and length made it a heavy burden in the hand of the foot soldier, so they turned more and more to the smaller round shield and the buckler that came later.

Weakness

The greatest weakness of the kite shield grew from the size of its body. Being a great shield more than a meter long, it was well suited to covering one face from horseback, but once set on the ground it caught between the feet and held back the quick step, and on narrow paths and slopes it became a burden. Rounded above and pointed below, it caught a frontal blow well, but it did not turn a slanting blow from a flail or an axe falling from above as fast as the round shield did, and to cover the right side the shield had to be brought across the chest, leaving the left side bare for that moment. From the 13th century, as plate armor grew and the leg and shoulder were protected on their own, the need to carry a great shield that covered shoulder to knee fell, and the smaller, lighter heater shield took its place.

Cultural Significance

The kite shield grew in step with the forming of European chivalry, and its flat face was also the very surface on which European heraldry took shape in earnest. By the early 12th century the knights, with their faces hidden under mail and helm, could no longer be told apart from afar, so they came to know each other by the colors and devices painted on their shields, and these in time grew into the arms of the family. The first hereditary arms in England and France are said to have set down on the face of the kite shield around the 1130s. The Bayeux Tapestry of the Battle of Hastings of 1066, embroidered in the late 11th century, conveys most clearly the figure of almost every knight on both sides bearing a kite shield, and the Maciejowski Bible and other illuminated manuscripts of the 13th century fill their scenes of a city under attack with knights bearing kite shields. The later English royal arms of three lions were, after all, set down on the heater shield, the heir of the kite shield.

In Popular Culture

The kite shield is the mark that never fails to appear in almost every film, period drama, and game about the European knight of the 11th to the 13th century. The great kite-shaped shield borne by the crusader knights in Kingdom of Heaven (2005) and by the English knights of the 13th century in Ironclad (2011) is its clearest visual sign, and the British period dramas Vikings and The Last Kingdom, set just before and at the same time as the Norman age, show its growth. The strategy games Medieval II: Total War, Crusader Kings III, and Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord set the kite shield as the core gear of the Norman and crusader knight, and the Assassin's Creed series and For Honor often use it as the mark of factions modeled on the 11th and 12th centuries. Films, however, often drag the kite shield anachronistically all the way to the Hundred Years' War of the 14th century.

Trivia

• In the Bayeux Tapestry of the Norman conquest of England in 1066, embroidered in the late 11th century, almost every knight of both sides bears a kite shield, and so this embroidered wall hanging stands as the source that most clearly tells us that the kite shield was the mark of the mounted war of that age.
• It was to tell apart from afar the knight whose face was hidden under mail and helm that the colors and devices on the shield grew, and this growth is the beginning of European heraldry; the first hereditary arms in England and France are said to have set down on the face of the kite shield around the 1130s.
• By the middle of the 13th century the rounded top of the kite shield was cut flat and passed naturally into the smaller, lighter heater shield, and the later English royal arms of three lions were set down on the heater shield, the heir of the kite shield.