Before the Romans discovery of chain mail, the Romans used brass, iron and bronze to make armour, however their armour did not provide them with sufficient protection from the types of weapons that were currently available in that time period …show more content…
This allowed medieval blacksmiths to create chain mail shirts that was not sewn or connected to a fabric in any way. This new form of chain mail was what knights in the 11th century needed because of the numerous types of weapons that already existed which the knights previously had no real protection against. Knights in the 11th century adopted chain mail as their main form of defence because the chain mail was flexible enough to allow the knight to move about easily and protected the wearer from sharp edges of blades, therefore preventing the wearer from being cut by weapons such as swords and pierced by weapons such as spears. As blacksmiths knowledge of metal working continued to grow so did the different range of protective equipment. In the 12th century, blacksmiths were able to create various forms of clothing made out of chain mail such as a coif which was a chain mail hood protecting the head. These developments of the chain mail armour meant that knights were now able to fully cloth themselves in chain mail when preparing for battle thus providing them with the best possible protection from the weapons in that