"New Study Busts the Myth That Knights Couldn't Move..." Topic

…Well in Armor.

"Medieval armor has a bad reputation when it comes to how much movement is possible for a fully-armored and outfitted knight. Chances are you've bought into the notion that it resulted in clunky, slow, and awkward battles.
Daniel Jaquet of the University of Geneva and several colleagues aim to bust that myth with a new study examining the range of motion and energy cost while fighting in medieval armor. They published their findings in a recent paper in Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History.

Medieval scholars have long known that armor worn by knights of that era allowed for far more mobility than most people realize. There's even a 1924 educational film created by the Metropolitan Museum of New York to address the popular misconception. But until quite recently, little quantitative data was available to support that stance…"
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Amicalement
Armand

"Some of it, I'm afraid,is little more than stating the obvious".

Well,duh. That's an understatement. Still,interesting read. Thanks,Armand.

I've seen a guy do cart wheels in full plate

A Medieval Knight would probably look at the average PFC RUC and wonder how modern soldiers can move with such a heavy burden in a sack on their back---and all that without a horse---LOL

There are videos on YouTube showing cap-a-pie plate while doing acrobatics. Other than moving just a tad slower than unarmored, there is no inhibition of physical movement at all….

I believe that a lot of the misunderstanding came about because people in later times failed to distinguish between tournament armor, which was a lot heavier, and armor intended for real battle, where mobility was obviously essential. As some of the previous posts indicate, the only thing really new here is an academic attempt to quantify the degree of movement that fully armored knights could achieve. Quite a few years ago I saw a video of a modern expert wearing authentic reproduction armor do a backward roll onto the ground and back onto his feet.

Royal Armouries were demonstrating this "new study" 20 years ago with their re-enactors. Also showed that horses were a lot smaller than shire horses frequently depicted in films and on TV.

Full length Chainmail hauberks were the real culprit.

At DragonCon I watched men and women cage fighting in period armor. They were surprisingly agile.

There is also evidence that the thin slits in the face mask, and tight chest plate, restricted oxygen flow even further.

That's something that we saw during the cage fighting. In some cases a fighter could nearly pass out due to a helmet's restricted flow of oxygen and the buildup of carbon dioxide in the helmet. After a fight they were eager to open their helmets and in one case a fight stopped early when a fighter nearly fainted.

And then in another decade, "new study proves without a doubt that knights could run and do acrobatics in their armor."