Plackart

Attached to the bottom of the plackart or cuirass would be the fauld. This is made of hoops or bands each called a lame. Usually there are three or four of these hanging around the waist. These could collapse inside each other to permit a knight to rise from the floor, if knocked down, or to cock a leg up to mount his horse.

Hanging from the fauld are two (or more) metal plates called tase or tasset’s. These cover the gap between the cuirass arrangement on the body and the cuisses on the thighs. English armour tended to have many smaller plates, often up to four pairs; whereas the fashion on the continent was for two or even none!

A cheaper version of the full cuirass is a plackart. This only covers the stomach up to the sternum and belts up round the back; but was still a very important part of armour, as a medieval surgeon could not treat the damaged vital organs if a weapon cut open the stomach. Such a wound had no cure, only a long agonising death. Cheap and relatively easy to manufacture, the plackart they were quite popular amongst billmen.