At the Higgins Armory in Worcester Massachusetts, visitors can see a wide array of armor. If  a person wants to learn about every type of armor in a short amount of time, they can focus on the three major types that were used in the Middle Ages. These three types of armor are combat, tournament and decorative armor. Each one serves a different purpose.

    The first type of armor is combat. Combat armor was used in wars and battlefields. It consists of over 200 pieces of armor with lots of moving joints so that the person inside can move with partial mobility. It weighs about 45 to 80 pounds which makes it the second to lightest armor next to the decorative armor. Ventilation was very important because when you were walking in a hot climate or fighting for a long period of time, you needed to be cool.  Combat armor was immune to many weapons like spears and swords. Certain spears, called lances, were big and sharp enough to puncture combat armor. Other types of weapons that could kill a knight were crossbows and muskets.

    The next major type of armor was tournament armor. This armor was used for jousting and fighting games. The flexibility in this suit was very poor because the armor had to be rigid when being hit with a lance. Tournament armor was the heaviest type of armor out of all the three weighing in at 80 to 100 pounds. Despite the bad flexibility, it was the thickest  most defensive type out of the three. The chest plating and shoulder armor was extra thick to deflect the blows of a lance. The visibility of the visor was very poor because in order to protect the face from splinters and strikes from lances, it needed to be free of big gaps and holes.