Harness

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Harness of the Elector August of Saxony . Left: model from 1546 with flap, right: around 1567 with balaclava

When trotting harness or horse Protect Harnisch one in the lightweight is riding more common in the 16th and early 17th century armor type Central European origin called. To distinguish from trot Harnisch is the Harnasch Infantry officer and the Feldküriss of serious rider.

description

Trotting armor emerged around the middle of the 16th century as the characteristic armament of the “ Black Riders ”, who formed a class of troops fighting with wheel lock pistols and geared towards firepower and mobility. The armor of the "Black Riders", which were initially primarily made in the Low German region, were mostly blackened, which gave rise to the name for this light rider group. Corresponding to the fighting style of the people who wore them, the harness hook used as a support for the heavy lance was omitted from the trot harness , and the arm and leg armor belonging to the field dress of that time was also omitted. The components of equestrian armor that were lightened in this way included an open balaclava , an armpit collar , a harness chest with a belly band and leg pockets, a back piece and long iron gloves. The chest had to be “bullet-free”, so it had to have a great material thickness, which should ensure a bullet-resistant effect. Armor sleeves made of chain weave could be worn instead of armor, which was not required with this type of armor , but these represented a considerable expense because of their lengthy production. Such a pair of sleeves cost about 10 guilders in Graz at the end of the 16th century, a harness only 7.5 guilders.

The armor of the Imperial-Habsburg Colonel Hans Rueber zu Pixendorf, exhibited in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna , is an example of the early form of the harness . This armor, made in Braunschweig around 1555 , is completely blackened and supplemented by armored sleeves, and the chest piece has a dent that serves as proof of its “freedom from shooting”. Such a dent was commonly created by a pistol bullet fired from twenty paces away. Hans Rueber's harness deviates from the ideal composition only by adding a visor to the balaclava .

The trot harness was also used by the arquebus riders or horse riflemen, who emerged from the "Black Riders" in the last third of the 16th century , but without the leg pockets originally worn with them. In this form, which now extended to the middle of the body, trot armor remained in use until the turn of the 17th century and was manufactured in large numbers in the centers of armor production. In the years 1578/79 alone , the imperial city of Nuremberg exported almost 400 such armaments to Graz.

Towards the end of the 16th century, against the background of the Orange Army Reform, a trend originating in the Netherlands to standardize and simplify protective armament, which also affected the harness of arquebus riders. From an ordinance drawn up by Count Johann von Nassau-Siegen in 1599 on the equipment of this type of army planned in the Netherlands, it emerges that at that time both the omission of iron gloves and armored sleeves and the replacement of the armpit collar with a ring collar were already common. In the same form, reduced by any armor, Wilhelm Dilich described the arquebus riders in his book of war, completed in 1607 . Another relief was found in the art of war on horseback by Johann Jacobi von Wallhausen , published in 1616, whose works made a significant contribution to the spread of the Orange reform ideas. According to Wallhausen's descriptions, the arquebus rider's equipment consisted of a shooting cap , a ring collar, a chest piece and a back piece classified as optional. If the back piece was omitted, the chest piece was worn as a so-called cross chest, which was to be fixed to the wearer's body with crossed, metal-studded straps.

On the imperial side, the harness remained in use in the form customary since the late 16th century until the 17th century, but here too a gradual change in protective armament began. The number of zischäggen delivered to the Graz armory has increased significantly since 1601, which indicates that the balaclava was being replaced as head protection for arquebus riders. Since 1617, a significant number of cross breasts were delivered to the armory, sometimes together with the ring collars worn for this purpose.

By the beginning of the Thirty Years' War , the harness had given way to reduced protective armament, which in the ideal case described in military theory was limited to an open helmet, a ring collar and a harness chest with or without a back piece.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Beaufort-Spontin: Harnisch and Weapon of Europe. 1982, p. 32.
  2. ^ Krenn: Harnisch and helmet. 1987, p. 50.
  3. ^ Krenn: The Grazer Harnisch. 1971, p. 53.
  4. ↑ trot Harness Johann Rueber, Baron Püchsendorf and Grafenwerth . In: Nobility in Transition. Politics, culture, confession 1500-1700. Catalog of the Lower Austrian regional exhibition at the Rosenburg from May 12th to October 28th 1990. Edited by Herbert Knittler, Gottfried Stangler and Renate Zedinger. Catalog of the Lower Austrian State Museum. NF 251. - Vienna: Office of the Lower Austrian Provincial Government, Culture Department 1990. 612.4 °. Illustr. Object no .: 15.13, p. 337. In: KULT.DOKU. Hidden treasures from Austrian national exhibitions . Retrieved November 25, 2011.
  5. ^ Nickel: Ullstein weapon book. 1974, p. 152.
  6. ↑ Beaufort-Spontin: Harnisch and Weapon of Europe. 1982, p. 69.
  7. ^ Krenn: The Grazer Harnisch. 1971, p. 15.
  8. ↑ Beaufort-Spontin: Harnisch and Weapon of Europe. 1982, p. 71.
  9. ↑ Beaufort-Spontin: Harnisch and Weapon of Europe. 1982, pp. 26-27.
  10. ^ Krenn: The Grazer Harnisch. 1971, pp. 52-53.
  11. ^ Krenn: The Grazer Harnisch. 1971, p. 54.

literature

  • Christian Beaufort-Spontin : Armor and weapon of Europe. The military equipment in the 17th century (= library for lovers of art and antiques. Vol. 57). Klinkhardt & Biermann, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7814-0209-6 .
  • Peter Krenn : The Grazer Harnisch in the Turkish Defense (= publications of the Landeszeughaus Graz. No. 1). Graz 1971.
  • Peter Krenn: Harness and helmet. Landeszeughaus Graz at the Styrian State Museum Joanneum. Hofstetter, Ried im Innkreis 1987.
  • Helmut Nickel: Ullstein weapon book. A cultural and historical weapons customer with a list of brands. Ullstein, Berlin / Frankfurt am Main / Vienna 1974, ISBN 3-550-07449-4 .