




Plate arm armor “Waldburg-Zeil”. Video about the forging of the elbow.

The German lands were a part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. It was a union of benefices bound by the very limited power of the elected emperor.

In the time of the Friedrich III ruling, the empire was shaken by the numerous wars of Princes, peasant disturbances, the aggression of the neighboring countries. The German roads are terrorized by the Raubritters – the robber knights.
That time was filled with military actions, and that means a development in the protective and offensive weapon. The main action figure of the feudal war was a knight. Lucky for historians and reenactors the tradition to commemorate the fallen knight by the tombstone appeared back then, where the knight was pictured in the whole armor.

The Georg I von Waldburg died in 1467. He is often mistaken for his heir, also Georg, who lived in 1488-1531. He was famous for the suppression of the peasant riots, and he lived in the era of Maximilian armor. Georg I also had a son, Georg II (1428-1482), we don’t know for sure which armor was he wearing. Yes, there were a lot of Georgs. The popular Saint George was considered the patron of the warriors, a great name for a knight. So this family did not use many different names.

The Italian variant of armor covered the whole body by the large, round, even steel plates. The main feature of the armor of this style is a round cuirass, which has two large segments – front and back one. And also a wide shoulder protection with large edges to protect from the hits by a spear. The left one was particularly massive, becoming one with the protection of the forearm.
An example of such Italian armor can be a set of the family von Matsch.

The armor of Georg von Waldburg-Zeil depicted on the tombstone, combines the features of the Italian and German types.

Georg is traditionally depicted with an uncovered head. The hairstyle – similar to the modern dreads is really fashionable at that time curls of hair.