A culet (also spelled culette) is a piece of plate armour consisting of small, horizontal lames that protect the small of the back or the buttocks. Usually a skirt of chain mail or a mail brayette was worn underneath.
This armour was also referred to as a garde de reinJournal of the Arms and Armour Society (1989), volume 13, page 262 or garde rein,Ivor Noel Hume, Audrey Noel Hume, The Archaeology of Martin's Hundred: Part 1, Interpretive Studies; Part 2, Artifact Catalog (2001, University of Pennsylvania Press, , pages 391, 399Harold Leslie Peterson, Arms and Armor in Colonial America, 1526-1783 (2000, Courier Corporation, , page 120 or hoguine.Francis M. Kelly, Randolph Schwabe, A Short History of Costume & Armour: Two Volumes Bound as One (2013, Courier Corporation, : "that [armor] guarding the loins [was known as] as the HOGUINE or CULET."
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