Hauberk

A hauberk, also called a byrnie, is a mail shirt of interlocking iron rings riveted together one by one, usually reaching to the mid-thigh or knee and fitted with sleeves. Mail armor is thought to trace back to the Celts and spread widely through Roman and later medieval armies; by the eleventh century, as shown on the Bayeux Tapestry, the hauberk had become the knee-length garment familiar from Norman warfare, and it stayed in use alongside plate armor into the Renaissance. Because the rings had to be made and riveted by hand, a hauberk was expensive, so it mostly equipped knights and other well-off, well-armored fighters, who often wore a padded gambeson underneath and sometimes added a mail hood, mittens and leg protection called chausses.