THE SHIELD

So long as the knight was clad in mail, the shield was a vital piece of defensive armor, which he held in his left hand, while wielding a sword or spear with his right. In the early days of chivalric warfare, shields were designed to cover the entire left side of a mounted knight, from his eyes to his knees. Since the shield effectively concealed his identity, he had the surface painted with a bold figure or design—frequently incorporating some version of the Cross—to signal whether he was a friend or foe. This practice, born out of necessity, was the beginning of heraldry.

In time, as the resilience of mail armor was improved, the shield was reduced in size to give the knight more freedom of movement. The introduction of plate armor in the fifteenth century further minimized the importance of the shield. Although still used in certain forms of foot combat or carried for display in pageants and parades, shields were no longer essential to the knight's identification or defense.