Knight's Tabard

Armorial surcoat of the medieval knight

The tabard is a knee-length sleeveless over-garment worn by medieval knights above their armor, emblazoned on front and back with the wearer's coat of arms to identify them in battle and tournament. It originated in the 12th century Crusades when white cloth was thrown over metal armor to deflect the desert sun; painting family arms onto the cloth evolved the garment into the surcoat, simplified by the 14th–15th centuries into the open-sided tabard. Heraldry — the rule-bound design of arms — governed the tabard's motifs strictly, with subtle variations marking inheritance lines. In tournaments, where knights were masked by helmets, the tabard was their sole identifier, proclaimed aloud by heralds. British royal ceremony preserves the tradition through the Kings of Arms who still wear tabards of the royal arms today. In fantasy RPGs, the tabard marks the knight, paladin, and kingdom's man-at-arms.