The harnois is the armor of the knight par excellence.

It is the armor which one sees when one imagines a knight in armor with horse. The harnois is most powerful technically armours of knight. Contrary to an generally accepted idea (coming inter alia owing to the fact that a long time, the studied armours were armours of pageantry and a bad knowledge of the reality of the thing), a punt armor in general and a harnois lime pit in particular are less difficult to carry than a coat, even a Haubert, meshs, because the weight however higher is distributed better. A knight could thus nimbly ride a horse or be raised if it fell (since the pain of a wound did not immobilize it).

Sometimes, one speaks about the harnois " plein" (or lime pit), and the harnois can be painted or coloured by various processes, in order to give such or such visual capacity but also a certain property of solidity or resistance.

The defect of the harnois is under the arms, and on the level of the throat, separation between the helmet and the drill plate. The only effective weapons against the harnois were:

• the Halberd and the Bardiche, whose point made it possible to transpierce the armpit of the rider without approaching and risking a mortal blow of the enemy or horse;
• the Tuck (predecessor of the Rapière) and the Mercy, kind of short and broad blade knife (blade from 15 to 35 cm length, for 4 to 8 cm from broad at its base) which made it possible to cut the throat of the enemy put at ground while passing the knife in the defect of the armor and by making it slip on the arondit armor, in order to open the throat literally, as one opens one limps of preserve.

The harnois was the armor of 13th at the 17th century, and was the last medieval armor, too.

External bonds

• Some generally accepted ideas on the medieval armament