What was chain mail?

An important development in the story of armour was the introduction of flexible garments made of numerous small metal rings which interlocked like chains, known as ‘mail’. The coat of mail remained in favour for five centuries. A complete tunic of armour made of mail contained up to 200,000 iron rings. During the Crusades in the twelfth century, knights wore a linen surcoat over the mail to reduce the effect of the sun’s rays beating down on the metal.