Chausses

Prototype chausses are first evidenced in the late Scythian burials of Gladkovsina and Alexandrovka from the 5th century BCE, made of small scales and integrated directly into the hauberk (torso armor).

[5] Byzantine art depicts shin-height mail chausses in the early phase of the New Church at Tokali Kilise in Cappadocia, datable to the third quarter of the 10th century CE.

A more definitive depiction of full height maille chausses is evidenced at nearby Karanlik Kilise, dating slightly later to the 11th century CE.

[6] One of the clearest depictions of mail chausses in west Europe is in the Bayeux tapestry of 1066–1083, with William the Conqueror and several other Normans and Early English wearing them.

While chausses never truly became obsolete, they gradually stopped being used on their own by wealthier armed retainers in the late 13th to the middle of the 14th century, as plate armour developed and became more affordable.

By the 1310s to 1320s, greaves fully enclosed the leg and were being combined with poleyns and early cuisses, making leather prototypes of these iron components obsolete.