"Mobility of Medieval knights" Topic

link

A bit more spry than popular belief.

Hmmmm…
We don't have a Game of Thrones Board to crosspost to yet?

Well, you DO have to be in shape…

Very interesting. Especially the combat techniques.

Proof that field plate and heavy tournament armor are very different things.

That guy in the second vid could kick my ass any day of the week, but I'm pretty sure my grandmother dances better.

Yep, if you're as fit as the butchers dog (and the armour is tailored for you by an expert, it's impressive.

One thing that always stayed with me was speaking to a professional reenactor (ex British Army chap working on Hadrian's Wall). He'd done a standard legionary day's march – 25 miles – and collapsed half way through. He worked out that the thing that did it wasn't the body armour per se, it was wearing the helmet.

Once he'd removed that he was fine. No wonder you see legionaries on a march with theirs slung.

So – medieval wise – I'd imagine that fighting in full plate was one thing but fighting with the helmet on as well was probably a real trial: wiping the sweat out of your eyes if nothing else would be impossible, but the overheating would be vast, I would guess.

Useful vid. Ta

John T

I am not surprised by this, Richard 3rd – with Scoliosis, could vault onto his horse in full plate without using stirrups, and from a simple logic viewpoint, if foot knights were ponderous fighters, lighter troops would have been able to hit their vulnerable areas before they could react!

Ha! Didn't keep Boucicaut from being captured at Nicopolis AND Agincourt.

John Treadway's remark is right on about the helmet. The visor down restricted respiration and vision--including the archer with a club attacking from your side.

Apparently plenty of French foot knights went into action with their visors raised, only to get an arrow in the face for their troubles.

The one thing the study didn't touch on was the foot knight fighting in a unit. Writers have commented on the tendency to "clump" together under fire. Even contemporary writers mentioned that knights became unable to raise their arms to fight effectively in their masses.

If you go to the Royal Armouries in Leeds, England they do regular demonstrations of fighting in full plate armour. It certainly changes your opinion. They are very acrobatic but look quite warm after ten minutes.