passguard

English

A passguard in the sense of a piece of armor worn over the elbow when jousting.

The pieces labelled "m" are passguards (passegardes) in the sense of projections extending up from the pauldrons to protect the neck.

Etymology

French passe-garde, used with the meaning "armor projecting up from a shoulder-piece" since a least the 1800s. It has been suggested that the application of the term (in both English and French) to neck guards is, however, an error, and that the original meaning was "elbow armor".

Noun

passguard (plural passguards)

1. (historical) An L-shaped piece of armor worn over one arm (typically the left arm), which generally kept it in a bent position and protected it during jousts.

   Synonym: pasguard

   • 1896, Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Eleventh Report: Appendix. The manuscripts of the Earl of Dartmouth, page 5:

     Upon a like horse, one armour cap-a-pe, engraven with a ragged staffe, made for the Earl of Leicester, a mainguard, passguard, manifare and gauntlet; the horse's furniture being a chafron, crinet, and breastplate of the ...

   • 1902, Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, Proceedings of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, page 156:

     […] fastened to it by a clasp at the back and a linch pin in front; the passguard, or elbow-piece; and the bridle-gauntlet.

   • 2013, R. Coltman Clephan, The Medieval Tournament, Courier Corporation, →ISBN:

     The passguard is much larger than that worn in jousting at the tilt, reaching nearly to the left shoulder.

2. A ridge or an additional plate on a shoulder piece, to turn the blow of a weapon away from the neck or joint of the armor.

   Synonyms: neck guard, passegarde, garde-collet, haute piece, pikeguard, swordbreaker

   Coordinate terms: grand guard, gardbrace

   • 1846, Lincolnshire Architectural and Archaeological Society (LINCOLN), The first (second, fourth-sixth) report of the Lincolnshire Society for the Encouragement of Ecclesiastical Architecture, page 38:

     -Cuirass rounded and projecting
     -passguards on the shoulders

   • 1894, David Herbert Somerset Cranage, An Architectural Account of the Churches of Shropshire:

     Epaulières re-appear on the shoulders, but pauldrons are also used, with the inner parts turned up: these are called passguards. The coutes are larger than we often have them at this period. […]

   • 1886, The Midland Naturalist: Journal of the Midland Union of Natural History Societies with which is Incorporated the Entire Transactions of the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society, page 108:

     The knight's head rests upon his tilting-helmet, under which is a cushion. The helmet bears the crest an elephant's head […] The epaulières have ridges called passguards to protect the neck, and upon the breast ...

Translations

armor protecting the elbow and arm

piece extending upward on shoulder armor to protect the neck

• French: passe-garde (fr) f
• German: Brechrand m

Further reading

• Herbert Druitt (1906) A Manual of Costume as Illustrated by Monumental Brasses, page 174: “[…] The term passguard is probably misapplied to the upright shoulder pieces. See Lord Dillon's paper, “The Passguard, Garde de Cou, Brech-Rand, Stoss-Kragen or Randt, and the  […] "”
• 2008, Charles John Ffoulkes, The Armourer and His Craft, Cosimo, Inc., →ISBN:

  Meyrick named the upstanding neck-guards on the pauldron the "passguards" and the neck-armour of the horse the "mainfaire". From the researches of Viscount Dillon we learn that the passguard was a reinforcing piece for the joust and the mainfaire was a gauntlet (main de fer).