guard of vambrace

guard of vambrace (plural guards of vambrace)

1. (historical) An additional piece of armor over the couter which further protects the arm.
   • 2008, Andrea Caroline Lawson, Reading Farewell Gifts in Early Modern Drama and Poetry:

     […] the guard of vambrace covers the cowter; the vambrace protects the forearm; and the gauntlet surrounds the fingers to the forearms

   • 2009, Angela Elwell Hunt, The Silver Sword, WaterBrook, →ISBN, page 181:

     "I have always heard," Anika answered, holding her arm out so Novak could fit the guard of vambrace over her elbow, "that the chief danger in battle is being trampled or smothered if unhorsed." She laughed.

   • 2013, Paul F Walker, History of Armour 1100-1700, Crowood, →ISBN:

     [image of a large guard of vambrace] Mid-fifteenth-century guard of vambrace.
     Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries' Tournament, Guard of Vambrace, Manteau D'Arms and Passguard
     The development of armour eventually made the shield redundant in battle for the knightly classes. By the late fifteenth century, the 'guard of vambrace' that covered the left elbow had grown, in England, as large as a small heater shield and many monumental brasses show English knights with extraordinarily large guards of vambrace; ...

• lower cannon of the vambrace ("the forearm guard or vambrace")
• upper cannon of the vambrace ("the rerebrace")