Mail or chain mail is a type of armour Armour or armor is protective covering used to prevent damage from being inflicted to an individual or a vehicle through use of direct contact weapons or projectiles, usually during combat, or from damage caused by a potentionally dangerous environment or action (e.g:cycling, sites of construction works) Personal armour is used to protect soldiers, consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh.
The word chainmail is of relatively recent coinage, having been in use only since the 1700s; prior to this it was referred to simply as mail.[1]
The word itself refers to the armour material, not the garment made from it. A shirt made from mail is a hauberk A hauberk is a shirt of mail armour. The term is usually used to describe a shirt reaching at least to mid-thigh and including sleeves. Haubergeon generally refers to a shorter variant with partial sleeves, but the terms are often used interchangeably. Slits to accommodate horseback-riding are often incorporated below the waist. Most are put on if knee-length, haubergeon if mid-thigh length, and byrnie if waist-length. Mail leggings are called chausses Chausses are armour for the legs, usually made from mail. They could extend to the knee or cover the entire leg. Chausses were the standard type of metal leg armour during most of the European Middle Ages. Chausses offered flexible protection that was effective against slashing weapons. However, the wearer felt the full force of crushing blows, mail hoods coif Coifs were worn by all classes in England and Scotland from the Middle Ages to the early seventeenth century and mail mittens mitons. A mail collar hanging from a helmet is camail or aventail An aventail or camail is a flexible curtain of chainmail on a helmet, that extends to cover the neck and shoulders. The mail could be attached to the helm by threading a leather cord through brass rings at the edge of the helm. Aventails were most commonly seen on bascinets in the 14th century and served as a replacement for a chainmail coif. Some. A mail collar worn strapped around the neck was called a pixane or standard.
Mail is now often used for decorative use and in jewellery.
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