| Tango01 | 28 Jun 2019 4:43 p.m. PST |
"As if flying arrows and burning pitch weren't enough to worry about, medieval knights also had to battle their own armor. A new study that put armor-wearing volunteers on treadmills finds that wearing a full suit of armor (which might weigh up to 110 pounds, or 50 kilograms), takes more than twice the energy of walking around unencumbered. Even lugging around a backpack of equal weight is less energy-intensive than wearing armor, the study found, because wearing 17 pounds (8 kg) of steel plates on each leg requires no small amount of extra exertion…."
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| Zephyr1 | 28 Jun 2019 9:06 p.m. PST |
" armor-wearing volunteers " How "in shape" were the volunteers? I'd imagine that the knights back then were more fit due to constant training… |
| goragrad | 28 Jun 2019 10:35 p.m. PST |
Not sure where they got harness weighing 110 pounds. Most jousting armor topped at 90 pounds and wasn't intended for use in the field. 40-70 pounds for field harness with the heavier weights showing up in later years as firearms became more common. For the SCA I have a pair of cuisses with attached poleyns/knee cops that together don't weigh 10 pounds (don't have them handy or I'd give exact weights). 17 pounds per leg sounds high. Have to wonder what harness was used in the tests. |
| BillyNM | 28 Jun 2019 11:42 p.m. PST |
The article says it was re-enactors in their own suits of replica C15th armour. It is likely replica armour is less well engineered than the real thing (less at stake) and re-enactors usually are not the fittest of people (too much time in the pub). This may be unfair, but it would chime with some of the above comments. On the other hand, this is being done by the University of Leeds so I suspect it's linked to the Royal Armouries and therefore amongst the very best of experimental archaeology rather than hobby re-enactment, so none of the above may be true. In the final analysis, it is capturing the additional loading on the body, fitness only determining how well you cope. Hopefully at some point there'll be a scientific paper we can read rather a piece of popular journalism. |
| Tango01 | 29 Jun 2019 11:43 a.m. PST |
Thanks Rob!.
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Puster  | 30 Jun 2019 3:26 a.m. PST |
Depending on battlefield conditions, I assume that many would prefer being alive to being fit. Still, 50kg sounds excessive to me, and 30kg is what modern soldiers often lug around on their back, instead of well dispersed on their body. |
| Patrick R | 30 Jun 2019 3:31 a.m. PST |
Hollywood figured it out years ago, the unarmoured hero dances around the nearly immobile heavily armoured opponents and lightly drags the edge of his blade over the armour killing them instantly. |
| Yesthatphil | 30 Jun 2019 3:43 a.m. PST |
These kinds of tests are all really useful in our understanding of medieval combat. That said, exhaustion isn't really a common feature in contemporary accounts so we have to conclude – to an extent, at least – that they were able to cope with it. Phil |
| goragrad | 30 Jun 2019 10:51 p.m. PST |
Of course the problem is not with doing tests, it is how the tests are run and then properly interpreting the results. And how the the results are presented… |
Gunfreak  | 04 Jul 2019 10:38 a.m. PST |
An English plate harness of the early 15th century weighed about 28kg.
Based on a replica made for a living history guy that has a YouTube channel.
His armor is based on historic examples and so thinner then most modern reenactment armor. 28kg was with a full dogfaced bacinet.
And a full mail shirt.
He upgraded his armor with a back plate and so used a mail skirt and mail arms instead of a full mail shirt. And that probably dropped the total weight 2-3kgs.
The English armor would be more complete than the French armor. And so the French armour might be as light as 22-23kg.
His armor is tailor made for him. And so the weight is perfectly distributed.
Does he get slightly more tired then without, probably. But far more of a problem would be overheating. Long before he'd stop fighting because of physical tiredness. He'd have to stop from overheating. |
| uglyfatbloke | 13 Jul 2019 3:45 a.m. PST |
It took me about 6 weeks to become accustomed to wearing a mail shirt, gambeson etc all day. I was in my mid-forties and was n't especially fit. At the end of the 6 weeks I would be tired at the end of each day, but not exhausted by any means. The most challenging thing I did was cook dinner for 8 people – that may not sound like much, but hanging over a hot stove is pretty draining. |
