Gorget. A gorget, from the French gorge meaning throat, was a band of linen wrapped around a woman's neck and head in the medieval period or the lower part of a simple chaperon hood.
The term later described a steel or leather collar to protect the throat, a set of pieces of plate armour, or a single piece of plate armour hanging from the neck and covering the throat and chest. Later, particularly from the 18th century, the gorget became primarily ornamental, serving as a symbolic accessory on military uniforms, a use which has survived in some armies.
The term may also be used for other things such as items of jewellery worn around the throat region in several societies, for example wide thin gold collars found in prehistoric Ireland dating to the Bronze Age. In the High Middle Ages, when mail was the primary form of metal body armour used in Western Europe, the mail coif protected the neck and lower face.
As more plate armour appeared to supplement mail during the 14th century, the bascinet helmet incorporated a mail curtain called the aventail which protected the lower face, neck and shoulders. A separate mail collar called a pisan or standard was sometimes worn under the aventail as additional protection.
Towards the end of the 14th century, threats including the increased penetrating power of the lance when paired with a lance rest on the breastplate made more rigid forms of neck
The term later described a steel or leather collar to protect the throat, a set of pieces of plate armour, or a single piece of plate armour hanging from the neck and covering the throat and chest. Later, particularly from the 18th century, the gorget became primarily ornamental, serving as a symbolic accessory on military uniforms, a use which has survived in some armies.
The term may also be used for other things such as items of jewellery worn around the throat region in several societies, for example wide thin gold collars found in prehistoric Ireland dating to the Bronze Age. In the High Middle Ages, when mail was the primary form of metal body armour used in Western Europe, the mail coif protected the neck and lower face.
As more plate armour appeared to supplement mail during the 14th century, the bascinet helmet incorporated a mail curtain called the aventail which protected the lower face, neck and shoulders. A separate mail collar called a pisan or standard was sometimes worn under the aventail as additional protection.
Towards the end of the 14th century, threats including the increased penetrating power of the lance when paired with a lance rest on the breastplate made more rigid forms of neck
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