A piece of flexible armor for the neck and shoulders, often made of chain mail and worn under a helmet.
From Old French camail, from Arabic qamis (tunic) or possibly Scandinavian origins. The term was used extensively in medieval military terminology from the 11th-16th centuries.
Medieval knights wore camails to protect the vulnerable area where their armor stopped—the neck—which is why so many paintings show warriors with chain mail draped over their shoulders like metallic shawls.
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