Editing Chain mail (section)

==In Europe==
[[File:MWP Pancerni 2 polowa 17 wieku.jpg|thumb|upright|Mail armour and equipment of Polish medium cavalryman, from the second half of the 17th century]]
The use of mail as battlefield armour was common during the [[Iron Age]] and the [[Middle Ages]], becoming less common over the course of the 16th and 17th centuries when [[plate armour]] and more advanced [[firearm]]s were developed. It is believed that the [[Roman Republic]] first came into contact with mail fighting the Gauls in [[Cisalpine Gaul]], now [[Northern Italy]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/chainmail.htm |title=Chainmail |access-date=2013-02-13 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130115152240/http://middle-ages.org.uk/chainmail.htm |archive-date=2013-01-15 }}</ref> The Roman army adopted the technology for their troops in the form of the [[lorica hamata]] which was used as a primary form of armour through the Imperial period.

[[File:Harold dead bayeux tapestry.png|thumb|upright=1.1|left|Panel from the [[Bayeux Tapestry]] showing [[Normans|Norman]] and [[Anglo-Saxon]] soldiers in mail armour. Note the scene of stripping a mail [[hauberk]] from a dead combatant at bottom.]]
After the fall of the Western Empire, much of the infrastructure needed to create [[plate armour]] diminished. Eventually the word "mail" came to be synonymous with armour.<ref>Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, London, 1786</ref><ref>Samuel R. Meyrick, A Critical Inquiry into Ancient Armour, as it Existed in Europe, but Particularly in England, from the Norman Conquest to the Reign of King Charles II: with a Glossary of Military Terms of the Middle Ages, (London, 1824)</ref><ref>Charles Henry Ashdown, British and Foreign Arms and Armour, (London, 1909</ref><ref>Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-duc, Encyclopédie Médiévale and Dictionnaire Raisonne du Mobilier Francais de l'Epoque Carlovingienne a la Renaissance.</ref> It was typically an extremely prized commodity, as it was expensive and time-consuming to produce and could mean the difference between life and death in a battle.<ref name=":0" /> Historically mail makers were often men, but women also undertook the work: [[Alice la Haubergere]] was an armourer who worked in Cheapside in the early 1300s and in York in 1446 [[Agnes Hecche]] inherited her father's mail making tools to continue her work after his death.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-09-10 |title=The Women who Forged Medieval England {{!}} History Today |url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/women-who-forged-medieval-england |access-date=2024-09-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240910134319/https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/women-who-forged-medieval-england |archive-date=2024-09-10 }}</ref> Mail from dead combatants was frequently looted and was used by the new owner or sold for a lucrative price. As time went on and infrastructure improved, it came to be used by more soldiers. The oldest intact mail hauberk still in existence is thought to have been worn by [[Leopold III, Duke of Austria]], who died in 1386 during the [[Battle of Sempach]].<ref name=":0">{{cite book|last=Strayer|first=Joseph R.|title=Dictionary of the Middle Ages|year=1982|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons}}</ref>

By the 14th century, articulated [[plate armour]] was commonly used to supplement mail. Eventually mail was supplanted by plate for the most part, as it provided greater protection against windlass crossbows, bludgeoning weapons, and lance charges while maintaining most of the mobility of mail. However, it was still widely used by many soldiers, along with [[brigandine]]s and [[padded jack]]s. These three types of armour made up the bulk of the equipment used by soldiers, with mail being the most expensive. It was sometimes more expensive than plate armour.<ref>Reed Jr., Robert W. "Armour Purchases and Lists from the Howard Household Books", ''The Journal of the Mail Research Society'', Vol. 1. No. 1, July 2003</ref> Mail typically persisted longer in less technologically advanced areas such as Eastern Europe but was in use throughout Europe into the 16th century.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/afas17/hd_afas17.htm |title=Fashion in European Armor, 1600–1700 |last=Breiding |first=Dirk H. |publisher=Department of Arms and Armor, The Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=2020-10-03 }}</ref>

During the late 19th and early 20th century, mail was used as a material for [[Ballistic vest|bulletproof vests]], most notably by the [[Wilkinson Sword]] Company.<ref>{{cite news|title=Men Who Wear Armour.|newspaper=The Daily Mail|year=1886}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Randolph|first=T.H.|title=The Wilkinson Sword Catalog|year=1892|publisher=The Wilkinson Sword Co. Ltd.|pages=41}}</ref> Results were unsatisfactory; Wilkinson mail worn by the [[Isma'il Pasha|Khedive of Egypt]]'s regiment of "Iron Men"<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=KdJn9JbSYygC&dq=khedive+iron+men&pg=PA38 Google Books] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160503093840/https://books.google.com/books?id=KdJn9JbSYygC&pg=PA38&lpg=PA38&dq=khedive+iron+men&source=bl&ots=vvmfcaypMz&sig=f-cvAQJQKn0KZcKYFUEC5W8LVtQ&hl=en&ei=Fh1uTrS4JKra0QGGhOiGBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBgQ6AEwAA |date=2016-05-03 }} Iron Men</ref> was manufactured from split rings which proved to be too brittle, and the rings would fragment when struck by bullets and aggravate the injury.<ref>{{cite book|last=Robinson|first=H. Russel|title=Oriental Armour|year=2002|publisher=Courier Dover Publications|pages=85}}</ref> The riveted mail armour worn by the opposing Sudanese Madhists did not have the same problem but also proved to be relatively useless against the firearms of British forces at the [[battle of Omdurman]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Stone|first=George Cameron|title=A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor: In All Countries and in All Times|year=1999|publisher=Courier Dover Publications|pages=69}}</ref> During World War I, Wilkinson Sword transitioned from mail to a lamellar design which was the precursor to the [[flak jacket]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - African knights - African armour collection thread |url=http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showpost.php?p=189683&postcount=38 |access-date=2024-02-23 |website=www.vikingsword.com}}</ref>

[[File:WWI Splatter Mask.jpg|thumb|alt=a mask with a leather upper with slits on the metal eyepieces, and a chain mail lower, modelled on a dummy head with a metal war helmet|WWI Splatter Mask on display at the Army Medical Services Museum]]
Mail was also used for face protection in World War I. [[Oculist]] Captain Cruise of the British Infantry designed a mail fringe to be attached to helmets to protect the upper face. This proved unpopular with soldiers,<ref>{{Cite book |title=Helmets and body armor in modern warfare |last=Dean |first=Bashford |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |year=1920 |location=New Haven |pages=133 |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/20017513/ |access-date=2023-10-12 |via=[[Library of Congress]]}}</ref> in spite of being proven to defend against a {{convert|3|oz|g|adj=on|spell=in}} [[Shrapnel shell|shrapnel]] round fired at a distance of {{convert|100|yd|m|spell=in}}.<ref>{{Cite thesis |title='Without the Faces of Men': Facially Disfigured Great War Soldiers of Britain and the Dominions. |url=http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/55193 |publisher=UNSW Sydney |date=2015 |degree=PhD |language=English |first=Kerry |last=Neale |page=37|hdl=1959.4/55193 }}</ref> Another invention, a "splatter mask" or "splinter mask", consisted of rigid upper face protection and a mail veil to protect the lower face, and was used by early tank crews as a measure against flying steel fragments ([[spalling]]) inside the vehicle.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://americanmilitariareference.com/tank-splatter-mask |title=Tank Splatter Mask |access-date=2023-10-12 |website=American Militaria Reference}}{{dead link|date=February 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>