View source for Cuisses

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[[File:Pair of Thigh Defenses (Cuisses) MET 29.158.270a 001Sept2014.jpg|thumb|Italian cuisse, circa 1450]]
'''Cuisses''' ({{IPAc-en|k|w|ɪ|s|}}; {{IPAc-en|k|w|i|s|}}; {{IPA|fr|kɥis|lang}}) are a form of [[medieval]] [[armour]] worn to protect the thigh.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=J5PgapzD6FoC&dq=Cuisses+armor&pg=PA245 A Glossary of the Construction, ''Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor: In All Countries and in All Times'', George Cameron Stone, Courier Dover Publications, Jul 2, 1999 P.245]</ref> The word is the plural of the [[french language|French]] word ''cuisse'' meaning 'thigh'. While the skirt of a [[chain mail|maille]] shirt or [[tassets]] of a [[cuirass]] could protect the upper legs from above, a thrust from below could avoid these defenses. Thus, cuisses were worn on the thighs to protect from such blows. Padded cuisses made in a similar way to a [[gambeson]] were commonly worn by knights in the 12th and 13th centuries, usually over [[chausses]], and may have had [[poleyns]] directly attached to them. Whilst continental armours tended to have cuisses that did not protect the back of the thigh, English cuisses were typically entirely encapsulating, due to the English preference for foot combat over the mounted cavalry charges favoured by continental armies.
Cuisses could also be made of [[brigandine]] or splinted leather, but beginning around 1340 they were typically made from [[steel]] [[plate armour]].{{sfn|Smith|2010|p=70}} From 1370 onward they were made from a single plate of [[iron]] or steel.{{sfn|Smith|2010|p=70}}
==Ancient Greece==
'''Perimeridia''' ({{langx|grc|περιμηρίδια}}) and '''Parameridia''' (παραμηρίδια) were metal armour for covering the thighs.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0062:entry=perimeridia-harpers Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Perimeridia]</ref> Though not in common use in the ordinary Greek [[panoply]], are shown sufficiently often on the monuments and vase-paintings as occasionally employed by Greek warriors at least as far back as the fifth century B.C. They are frequently mentioned by Greek writers, of the third century B.C. and downwards, but here almost exclusively as employed by cavalry, both for the rider and his horse (in addition, some writers call the protective armour of the horse '''parapleuridia''' (παραπλευρίδια), while others makes a further distinction of παραπλευρίδια for horses driven in chariots and παραμηρίδια for those ridden by the cavalry).<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0063:entry=perimeridia-cn A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), Perimeridia]</ref><ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0062:entry=perimeridia-harpers Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Perimeridia]</ref>
==Citations==
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==References==
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* {{cite book |editor-last=Rogers |editor-first=Clifford J. |author-last=Smith |author-first=R. |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology: Volume I |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |year=2010 |isbn=978-0195334036 }}
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{{Plate Armour}}
[[Category:Western plate armour]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek military equipment]]
{{medieval-armour-stub}}