The charge was led by Captain Obvious.
With the help of a treadmill, the team was able to assess how much energy someone wearing armour would have used (Footage: University of Leeds)
With the help of a treadmill, the team was able to assess how much energy someone wearing armour would have used (Footage: University of Leeds)
surprised to hear they had treadmills back then. i thought it was a recent invention.
The armor we see in museums is often ( not always) ceremonial in nature. Very little “working” armor has survived in large part because when weapons development made armor obsolete, the high grade steel it was made of got recycled. Nothing so valuable as good steel went to waste.
I would submit as a working hypothesis that a medeival knight was in much better physical shape that the average volunteer selected today. Consequently, he could have carried the armour without as much distress. The other interesting observation from looking at old suits of armour is that the medieval man was much smaller that the modern H. Sapien.
I'm just glad that U.S. taxpayers don't fund this sort of stoopid research. /s
That’s why knights were armored horsemen - heavy lancers.
Foot soldiers wore less armor - helmet, breast and back, and tassets.
i thought you only wore armor like that if you were mounted...That the armour was a problem at Agincourt has been known for years. Master historian John Keegan gave a detailed account in his classic work “Face of Battle” in 1983. (A book most Freepers would find fascinating and a bit inspiring.)
But, these armored human tanks certainly did have their place in medieval warfare for several centuries. They could not simply be countered with a brave serf with a knife.
Oldplayer
“May have” had an effect on the battle of Agincourt???
The French were outfitted in armor and attempting to maneuver on muddy ground, and faced an “arrow storm” from the English at fairly close range, many from arrows that were specifically made to penetrate armor. Its difficult to know exactly how many arrows were fired over the course of 5-10 minutes, but it is clear that there were thousands of them, and more than enough to completely overwhelm the French. The French were so confident that mere English archers were no match for the “sophisticated” French, many of them part of the French aristocracy, that they marched to within range of the archers, then tried to stand their ground while the English arrow storm hit them.
In addition, the French cavalry were supposed to attack and defeat the English archers, but each one of them had cut a large pole for himself, sharpened it and planted it in the ground beside his position. When the horsemen approached, the archers just stepped back a couple of paces behind their barricade, and kept on shooting.
Nobody knows how many arrows those English archers fired, but Henry V brought about 3 million arrows with him for the campaign....
8:42 mile.
Just like US Rangers train extensively in full gear and extreme weather to prepare for battle, medieval knights trained from the age of 12 on in the art of warfare, including repeated drills and contests in full armor.
Putting randomly selected people from the street, putting them in armor for the first time in their lives and then putting them on a treadmill isn't very meaningful.
Why bother doing the study? All one needs do is read the battle accounts written at the time. They all say the same thing, no matter which battle. Extended fighting in armor is exhausting. Doh!
The charge was led by Captain Obvious.
Albeit messy, but the coffee should come right off my monitor... ; )
I once read that the Roman foot-soldier trained in heavy armor but fought in light armor.
body armour ping
Everything old is new again.
