A gorget , from the French meaning throat, was a band of linen wrapped around a woman's neck and head in the medieval period or the lower part of a simple chaperon hood. The term later described a steel or leather collar to protect the throat, a set of pieces of plate armour, or a single piece of plate armour hanging from the neck and covering the throat and chest. Later, particularly from the 18th century, the gorget became primarily ornamental, serving as a symbolic accessory on military uniforms, a use which has survived in some armies. The term may also be used for other things such as items of jewellery worn around the throat region in several societies, for example wide thin gold collars found in prehistoric Ireland dating to the Bronze Age. As part of armour In the High Middle Ages, when mail was the primary form of metal body armour used in Western Europe, the mail coif protected the neck and lower face. As more plate armour appeared to supplement mail during the 14th century, the bascinet helmet incorporated a mail curtain called the aventail which protected the lower face, neck and shoulders. A separate mail collar called a "pisan" or "standard" was sometimes worn under the aventail as additional protection. Towards the end of the 14th century, threats including the increased penetrating power of the lance when paired with a lance rest on the breastplate made more rigid forms of neck protection desirable. One solution was a standing collar plate separate from the helmet that could be worn over the aventail, with enough space between the collar and helmet that a man-at-arms could turn his head inside it. In the early 15th century, such collar plates were integrated into the helmet itself to form the great bascinet. Other forms of helmet such as the sallet which did not protect the lower face and throat with plate were paired with a separate bevor, and the armet was often fitted with a wrapper that included gorget lames protecting the throat. The mail standard was still worn under such bevors and wrappers, since the plates did not cover the back or sides of the neck. At the beginning of the 16th century, the gorget reached its full development as a component of plate armour. Unlike previous gorget plates and bevors which sat over the cuirass and also required a