14th century aventails.. they seem to have been lined

[Sir Wolf]

http://manuscriptminiatures.com/the-book-of-the-queen-harley-4431/1429/

http://manuscriptminiatures.com/the-book-of-the-queen-harley-4431/1433/

http://manuscriptminiatures.com/the-book-of-the-queen-harley-4431/1439/

http://manuscriptminiatures.com/the-book-of-the-queen-harley-4431/1445/

[Sir James A]

I've always thought they'd at least have a "collar" liner to hold the mail upright. I haven't seen a pic of the one where it has the dagged edges at the bottom ... interesting find.

[Sir Edward]

I suspect mail was lined and tied a lot more often than we think.

[Sir William]

It would make sense...steel against naked skin is only sexy when there's romance involved; in battle armor its like you're just asking for it.

In reading Cornwell's books, he makes a case of wearing fitted leather garments that have been greased underneath plate armor so that there's no pinching and the plates can shift about w/out chafing the skin its supposed to be protecting.  But he never really mentions anything about padded undergarments or gambesons- almost as if they didn't exist or maybe they just didn't exist for him.  He seems to have gotten most of the other stuff correct.  He also mentions leather-backed mail on more than one occasion...and that would seem to make sense to me too.  But its just historical fiction- so naturally you take it with a grain of salt but a lot of what he'd written just seemed right to me.

[Sir Brian]

You know considering I will have a spiffy new surcoat, it would help keep it clean if I make some kind of liner for my aventail so it won't mess it up! 


ARRRGGG! Curse you Sir Wolf for adding to my work load! 

[Sir Wolf]

muhahahahaha

[Sir Ancelyn]

Interesting, but I think I'll just stick with getting an aventail for now. :-)

[Sir Gerard de Rodes]

Yes I would have thought they were padded underneath. It explains the perfect sweeping shape to the aventails on the illustrations and effigies of the period.

These guys do a nice range in padded accessories. They trade at the Agincourt event and the quality is very good.

G