Half of a Morion

[AHorsa]

Originally Posted by fernando

Großartig, Andreas .

And the French, as this engraving of the Bartholomaeus-night in 1572 shows.

Kind regards
Andreas

[fernando]

As per François Dubois ---


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[Jim McDougall]

Great stuff guys!!!
Fernando that particular art work is probably one of the best known of the soldados. That short jacket cuera was indeed in vogue in 1803 and its use continued even after Mexico's independence from Spain in 1821.
Actually troops of these soldados went from the presidios of SW Texas to the Alamo in 1836, and still using much of the equipage from the previous century (NO, they were not wearing morions! .......OK OK back to those!

Good note on the leather versions. During the cuera research back a few years, I was communicating with the Univ. of Nebraska, where the battle involving the cuera took place. They had come across a leather 'bishops mantle' found along with a leather helmet just outside El Paso. It had been discovered about 1880s and been placed in the museum, but never been studied. Original ideas were that it was from Coronado, or more likely Onate's time, but inconclusive.

Indeed the Swiss had morions (combed) and their Vatican guards are well known for their colorful uniforms. Actually, these became well known throughout Europe in the 17th century. The point of the original discussion here is just how early were these known in Portugal and Spain, and as noted, many artists have depicted them on the earliest explorers, including Cortez, Pizarro, and others in what is regarded as 'the age of exploration' (1492-into mid 1500s).
It appears, as I have suggested in noting comments of the late Walter Karcheski, et al, that these combed morions did not become popular until after 1830s, and then quite gradually popularized.

What has always been remarkable about the Spanish explorations and colonization in the America's is that typically very traditional arms and armor were distinctly favored, and kept in use almost relentlessly until the conditions demanded other options.
These largely private expeditions (not originally funded by the Crown) used whatever arms that could be privately obtained, largely a 'hodge podge' of forms.

The use of the sword, and later primarily the lance, became primary weapons as guns became unserviceable without necessary maintainance, and lack of powder was prevalent.

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

... Fernando that particular art work is probably one of the best known of the soldados...

Yes, Jim; a watercolour by (not so known) Raymundus àMurillo, dated early XIX century, depicting an early XVIII century soldado cuera, kept in the Indias Archive in Seville.
The caption tells that this 'short' cuera was made with 7 suede skins in the quilted manner. Initial cueras were as large as down to the knee, and had wonderful decorations in their seams and pockets (per Jesuit father Pferffek); with vents in the front and back to make it easy for the mounting and sleeveless, not to embarass weapons handling; but still too heavy, with 12 to 15 pounds. In the provinces of Coahuila, Nueva León and Texas a version using padded cotton was used, but its efficacy was lower than those with 7 skins. Even so an arrow shot by a strong native could get through a 8 skin cuera.

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

... The cuera seem to have evolved from these buff type liners which effectively buffered the mail, which was far more common than the steel cuirass.
With mail, it however quickly deteriorated without proper maintainance, and was terribly ineffective against arrows which spread and broke the rings, especially if corroded and brittle. Soon the mail was discarded, and the leather took over...

That's how it all started, ever since the conquest period; however not discarding the mail but the cuirass, according to a comprehensive and irrefutable work sponsored by the Ministery of Defence, written by José Maria Bueno "Los Dragones Cuera" (PDF below ... in Spanish ).
Looks like the Spaniards were encouraged by the cuera resource by a similar implement worn by natives, especially the Aztecs, in quilted cotton.
In 1779 lieutenant D. Luis Bertucat created his own version of cuirass, made with imbricated lamellae of tin. It was rather lighter than the cuera and more effective against arrows, as per tests carried out in Chihuahua. He produced 50 units covering his own the costs, which equipped Croix's personal guard. Having proved to be useful in a 1780 combat, they were no further produced, with reasons unknown by the miltary. The author has never seen on of these devices.


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[Philip]

Originally Posted by fernando

In the provinces of Coahuila, Nueva León and Texas a version using padded cotton was used, but its efficacy was lower than those with 7 skins. Even so an arrow shot by a strong native could get through a 8 skin cuera.

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Olá, Nando
You provide some interesting background info. I think the padded cotton is not necessarily lower than the layers of only skin, based on experiments conducted by archer friends in the Netherlands, who were serious about traditional Eastern archery. He says it all depends on how thick the quilting was.

Shooting tests with pointed steel arrows shot from reasonably heavy bows demonstrate some surprising things. I was with one of these friends, shooting in a gym that had theater-stage curtains on the far end, separating another portion of the hall. Guys were shooting at various targets, including the usual straw butts, and doing tests against wood boards. Same arrows from same bows, which could easily penetrate an inch or so into a board, just bounced off the curtain, hardly leaving a mark on the cloth!

During the 1594 Japanese invasion of Korea, the defenders developed a quick and easy to make armor for foot-soldiers, made of quilted layers (about 30) of coarse rice-fiber paper. It easily stopped arrows, and even
musket balls. The ancestor of the Kevlar vest.

The Mongols wore a shirt of well-woven silk under their armor. If an arrow pierced the armor, the silk kept the point from going very far into the body, so someone could break the arrow shaft, remove the armor, and gather the folds of the shirt around the arrowhead and pull it out, leaving a more superficial wound that might mean greater chances of survival than if it went deep into tissue, or an organ.

I'll leave it to a physics guy to explain why arrows, which are so good at breaking through the links of chain mail or sticking deep into wood and harder materials, can be stopped so easily by soft things like quilting and curtains.

Filipe

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Philip

Olá, Nando
You provide some interesting background info. I think the padded cotton is not necessarily lower than the layers of only skin, based on experiments conducted by archer friends in the Netherlands, who were serious about traditional Eastern archery. He says it all depends on how thick the quilting was.. .

That would certainly be right, Filipe. The sentence in the article is not about the principle but the specific way those three provincial cuera variants were made. It is put in a simplistic manner, that could imply in a not so thick cotton interlining between two layers of leather, in comparison with the 'standardized' multi layers .

Originally Posted by Philip

...The Mongols wore a shirt of well-woven silk under their armor. If an arrow pierced the armor, the silk kept the point from going very far into the body, so someone could break the arrow shaft, remove the armor, and gather the folds of the shirt around the arrowhead and pull it out, leaving a more superficial wound that might mean greater chances of survival than if it went deep into tissue, or an organ...

So true ... and probably the same happens with bullets. The intensively wooven silk, instead of tearing apart, penetrates into the body in a form of a pocket, allowing for an easier way to extract the projectile and leaving no particles of material. Cocoon silk is amazing; the longest existing natural thread, so fine that allows for a rather thight weaving. It has an extremely high resistence, only supplanted by spider web silk.

Originally Posted by Philip

... I'll leave it to a physics guy to explain why arrows, which are so good at breaking through the links of chain mail or sticking deep into wood and harder materials, can be stopped so easily by soft things like quilting and curtains...

I am glad i am no physicist, so that i can speculate at will. Hard immobile materials offer far more resistence to the impact, letting the projectile perforate them, while soft moblie stuff reduces (cushions) the blow. How's that for an ignaro ?

And speaking of cueras (buff coats) and still hijacking Andreas thread, let us upload hereunder the harquebusiers attire of a noble person, Dom Pedro II King of Portugal (reigned 1683–1706)
(Courtesy of The Met)


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[Jim McDougall]

All extremely interesting on these other elements of armor and the contexts surrounding the conquistadors. If I may, I wanted to return to the original topic on the morion, and its actual appearance in the America's with them.

As I had mentioned earlier in the discussion, the catalog by Walter Karcheski of the Higgins Armory Museum for the Florida Museum of Natural History (1990) had noted the morion was not used until later in the explorations. I received this from Kathleen Deagan, the director of the museum in 1998 as I was researching Spanish colonial weapons.

As noted (7a, pictured) , "...Hollywood notwithstanding, the classic morion as shown here evolved too late to have been used by early conquistadors".
These would include Cortes; Pizarro; DeSoto, Coronado in first half of 16th c.mostly c. 1540s.

In 'Karcheski' re: DeSoto, "..he was probably dressed in a field breastplate and the 'favorite' helmet of the early conquerers- the open burgonet with a bevor".

It is noted that infantry wore a simple headpiece such as a skull cap or sallet, many wore a removable defense called a barbera (BEVOR) on the lower face.

However, in the tropical climates armets and close helmets saw only limited use...............light and airy headpieces like skullcaps, sallets and burgonets and the LATER morion and cabasset were preferred by foot soldiers and horsemen alike.