brayette

noun

1. (historical)An item of armor (mail or plate) protecting the groin.

   “30071 Black Armor with Embossed White Stripes, about 1540 : Burgonet with upraising helmet-shade; gorget with pauldrons attached; breast-plate with tapul and great brayette; back-plate with loin-guard. ' Nuremberg mark.”

   “Among the detached pieces of mail are nine hauberks, to all of which a European origin is assigned, a fine standard of mail of the late fifteenth century, and a mail brayette similar to that on the effigy of Count Otto IV. of ...”

   “European chain mail was rarely made after 1600 figures suits of plate armor from the Maximilian period (1500-1540) in which mail was used for brayettes or groin defenses (op. cit., figs. 65, 67, 72, 75, 91).”

   “These have been denoted the garde rein or culet. Usually a skirt of mail or at least a mail brayette was worn under these defenses. The shoulders were protected by pauldrons of lames, overlapping from the bottom up. These lames were carried well around over the back and breast ...”

   “The body itself is defended also by plate armour so that instead of the jupon, gambeson and hauberk-of-mail we find the cuirass now covering breast and back with the brayettes or taces which form a short petticoat or skirt of steel ...”