Full suit of armour can be surprisingly agile. I saw this video where they had an obstacle course and had three runners, a fireman in full gear with oxygen tank and everything, a soldier in full combat gear and someone with full suit of armour. All of their equipment weighted approximately the same. But the guy in armour dominated and they concluded it's because the weight is so evenly distributed.
The problem was its insulation. Wearing it is like being boiled alive. Men can litterally died of in battlefield simply by being dehydrated from wearing it too long.
@@aetius7139 I've never heard of that happening. Also, given that most battles back then were very short, and full armor would only be needed for a small portion of that, I find it hard to believe that you would even be in full armor long enough to get seriously dehydrated
@@filmandfirearms Most reenactors told me that after a while. It become very unconfortable. Dehydration is a real threat even in a very short engagement.
@@aetius7139I assume the same applies to the other gear as well. A fire mans suit insolates arguably even better. Battles didnt take all day, and drinking is important. There is a reason a water bottle is standard equipment in every military
"The ban was basically ignored." That's the problem with laws - if nobody agrees to follow them and nobody can enforce them, they might as well not exist.
@@johnv6806No, because they can enforce speed limits and most people understand why speed limits exist and follow them on their own because they are not antisocial. Lol there are plenty of examples of dumb laws that prohibit things that effect nobody yet you chose speed limits as an example, which is probably the largest passive social agreement in any modern country.
@@indiomoustafa2047 it just popped in my head instantly as a "law" that no one really agrees to follow. Yes it can be enforced but I absolutely and fully disagree with your notion that most people follow speed limits. They absolutely do not. Speed limits are arbitrary and serve little purposes other than to give extra money to the state in way of fines. Other countries do not have speed limits and have fewer accidents.
I think the misconception about armor being heavy and cumbersome came from Victorian era people seeing jousting armor, especially the later stuff that had fixed pieces such as the left arm being immobile and attached shields plus attached helmets like Metatron's frogmouth. They probably assumed that it was also the same for combat armor and theorized that one would need a crane to mount a horse when one's movement was that restricted.
Also, Renaissance was heavier cus having to withstand bullets and the last Calvary regiment to use breastplates, naploen’s elite heavy Calvary, wore breastplates than were thick and restrictive cus bullets. Also, WWI experiments with steel body armor was freakishly restrictive with the only successful use was for machine gunners, snipers and pilots
I used to also get angry about D&D using the term "plate mail," but I recently reread the first edition Dungeon Master's Guide and was surprised to find tucked away in there an explanation that "plate mail" refers to a combination of plate and mail, as opposed to "full plate." The more you know.
Gygax and friends messed up with "studded leather" (brigandine), but there's actually a lot of stuff that suggests they really tried to do research on the equipment.
the devil is on the details, as always... at least all the way up to 3.5, the entry for armors said that each degree of armor build upon "the previous one", so a Breastplate was already worn over Mail, that was worn over Padded armor and so on, which is to justify why you can't stack armor... they are already stacked... technically it also meant you could "upgrade" your armor by paying the difference between your padded armor and your mail, and then between the mail and the breastplate, because you were just adding pieces to a pre-existing armor. I had being played for around a decade when I finally read the initial entry for Armor, rather than jumping straight to the table of equipment to check their stats... D&D (at least up to 3.5) is way more well thought than we usually give it credit for when you actually read the parts most ppl skip. Did you know that if your attack roll hit between the target's AC and their AC-Shield bonus you actually roll to damage the shield, potentially breaking it? or that if you hit between AC-Shield and AC-shield-armor that you roll to damage the armor? I never saw anyone actually use those rules because they would bog down attacks with even more rolls, but that's what you are supposed to do when you hit the target's armor...
Fun fact: the two guns shown @19:50 are part of the Santa Barbara Battery in Puerto de la Cruz. And yes, they are made of cast Bronze. In total, we have 4 of them.
As an American, I absolutely love the term "muppet." It makes me laugh every single time I hear it! I have no idea what it is, but it just adds some oomph whenever I hear it used in the context you use it, Metatron. I love it!
@@shawnwolf5961 Yes but the context should be pretty obvious given that America is where the Muppets themselves come from. They're dumb handpuppets under the complete control of the person stuck behind the desk. And if you're wondering why "puppet" itself isn't the insult well "Muppet" just sounds better. Fraggle is also used in a similar context though it's nowhere near as common as Muppet.
@@shawnwolf5961quite right my American friend. A 'Muppet' is a somewhat friendly insult and is something akin to an idiot. It's still offensive but anyone can use it openly, even on the telly.
In touring the Roman Colosseum many years ago I heard that a major source of revenue for the Colosseum was the collection of urine from public toilets during and after events held there. So yeah, I believe it was a great commodity
@@JustDaniel6764 not precisely. Tanning is adding tannin. Urine contains active nitrogen compounds making it useful for making degreaser, fertilizer, cleaning chemicals, and gunpowder bases. It's use in the tanning process is early doors getting hairs off the leather prior to soaking in a tannin compound. Animal waste was the only real way to get the active compounds prior to a certain WWI chemical weapons developer changing tack.
Make urine collection at sports venues a thing again. Just imagine! You could: - Tan your own leather (the arts and crafts ppl would love THAT One). - Fertilize your own lawn (middle-aged dads would go bonkers for that one, despite the smell ... they smelled worse in college, right?) - Harden your own alloys (it's a legit process, something to do with the nitrogen ... idk, ask a legit metallurgist, the process is called "Nitriding") - Dye your own shirts (hippies man ... hippies ... it's all natural, right? lol) I could probably keep going with a few more but I'll stop there. Those port-a-pottys would be gilded by the end of a season #ChangeMyMind
The old high German “knecht” meaning “servant” was used throughout the Middle Ages as seen in the word “Landsknecht”. The similarity between this and the English word “knight” are obvious, but the equivalent in German was “Ritter”.
And as such, translating the word Landsknecht as "servant of the land" actually makes sense as Landsknecht mercenary companies were, as would we say in modern times, people without citizenship. They were not subject to monarchs or noblemen - that is, outside their contractual term - which also made they didn't have to pay taxes to the countries. The German word Ritter is also a very logical one since it means simply rider. A rather pragmatic name for knights who mostly fought on horseback.
Not only through the Middle ages. My grandpa was a farmer. "Knecht" was still regularly used for the farmhands. But yeah, the German term for Knight comes from rider.
I found the linguistic aspects of that last fact examination especially fascinating as I had no idea that was the case. Leave it to Metatron to be so detailed and accurate in his knowledge and research to actually know that and point it out. This is one of the many reasons I love this channel. The detail he goes into is always appreciated! :)
I had thought that long bows and cross bows, while banned to use against Christians COULD be used against THE HEATHENS. Which is why Edward Longshanks had the Scots (conveniently) declared to be heathens by the Pope of his day.
I'm soo glad the Museum Replicas bit was fine. I grew up looking at their magazines, and learned a thing or two from them; such as realistic sword weights, and the proper bend of tempered steel.
That info about how to pronounce knight was very interesting. I now realize the word must be closely related to the Dutch word 'knecht'. Which also and still means a servant or laborer. It was fun discovering that.
@@lytsedraak english words ending in "gh" can in most cases be substituted with "ch" the connection to dutch and german becomes obvious then. night-nacht eight-acht weight-gewicht laughing-lachen
About armor: The Salt Lake City Crusaders recently displayed tournament-style combat in Orem. Just before engaging in great-sword dueling, one “knight” did a perfect cartwheel in plate armor. He demonstrated how much mobility it provided.
We love these types of videos! I homeschool our children and you are one of my favourite history channels. Not only do we learn something new but also the importance of looking at the context and not just taking everything we read or see at face value.
The re-enactors at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, would fight in a wooden ring, then they would take of their helmets and explain to the audience what they were trying to achieve with their poleaxes etc, When I asked how cumbersome the armour was , he promptly somersaulted across the floor. Bloody impressive 😁
The heaviest and most protective armors were the ones the medieval sources said were impossible to fight in. If it was fitted to the wearer and jointed to match the body inside, it was no more difficult than to wear clothing. Soldiers today carry a similar amount of weight to the average suit of mail.
Oh and medieval knights were not mechanized but they did have carts and pages. And lower ranking soldiers could probably throw some of their stuff onto a common cart or something.
As I am currently learning Old English, I love the linguistic notes. The dialectual continuum in Britain makes it difficult to pin point correct pronunciations. However, the Ænglisch word is 'cniht'. There are no silent letters in Ænglisch. The 'h' after a vowel is fricative (like spanish 'j'), and the 'i' (pit) becomes long 'ī' (peet). Since English is an amalgam of Saxon (WG) Angle (WG), Jute (NG), and Frisian (WG), there is abundant room for variation in this. This always makes me think of the Monty python scene in "Holy Grail" with the premaurely arrived French soldiers taunting the "silly English k'nee-gits". Unlike Dutch and German which altered spellings to match the pronounciation, English preserved a bizarre number of spellings through it's consonant and vowel shifts, while almost unrecognizably changing other (dysig (dizzy, foolish)=>dizzy, eosol (an ass)=>asshole, isig (ēsē)=>icy, hwæt=>what, weox (grow)=>wax).
In the game I've been designing, I'm very particular in not using the term 'chain mail'. In fact, I use the terms 'chain armor' to refer to the general category, and terms like 'mail hauberk' to refer to specific styles of armor. I do mix and match them a little, and in perhaps a mild nod to predecessors like D&D, I have a couple armor styles labeled as things like "plated mail" which is light plate armor over chain shirt and leggings (more than just voiders, usually), or "scaled mail" which consists of scale style armor attached to a backing of mail instead of cloth or leather.
I love your channel, and how I learn something new about history with each video; it's especially helpful, since I've been wanting to write a fantasy story set round this time period.
It might have been previously mentioned: I hadn’t expected comedy writers to do such deep research into the great vowel shift or pre medieval pronunciation to come up with the Knights of Ni (Monty Python). 😂 Another informative and interesting video Sir. Thank you.
Holy crap, in my 30 years as a Python fan i never made that connection. All this time i thought saying "ni" was just silly and nonsensical. i'm especially embarrassed because i'm so fascinated by the Great Vowel Shift in the first place.
If you go to the American South, you can still find people who speak that way. Yes, even educated people. I remember, my grandmother and great aunt and even on occasion my mom speaking that way. It is the echo of my childhood.
Also, regarding the piss: urine is actually quite clean when leaving the body. The main “waste” element is just excess urea and others. Not nearly as dirty as other human waste, nor as great a vector for miasma and plague like blood, mucus, and poop.
The amount of knowledge you bring to us is outstanding. Especially from the linguistic side of things. You're by far my favorite youtuber, please never doing what you do.
Excellent Historical information presented with an intense requirement for full accuracy. This is so important ! For brevity's sake, good or bad info in produces good or Bad conclusions out. Everyday in everyway we must choose . The axiom "History teaches by Example'' is similar to Otto Von Bismarck's quote paraphrase = ,''I want to learn from your mistakes, not from mine'' . Metatron your a REAL SCHOLAR without bias except a bias for what is true. Thank You .
15:24 POLSKA! POLSKA! It's actually the first time I see a youtuber using a Polish castle other than Malbork. And it's actually one of my favourites. It's the Ogrodzieniec castle.
With my last name being Knight, I do think that the pronunciation is very interesting! I actually learned that from my high school English teacher which was really cool. And of course, I absolutely love your content, thank you!
I suspect that the underlying reason why people tried to ban the crossbow is due to the fact that it made armour less protective since bolts could go through plate. So knights as well as kings became much more vulnerable to ranged attacks than before
Training time is a factor too. A knight trained like 10 years from a very early age to become a novice fighter while a decent crossbowman could be trained in a couple of weeks. So with the crossbow you could summon an army out of thin are comparatively. That was a major threat to the power balance back then.
Crossbow bolts couldn't penetrate plate armor. That was not the issue. They could however be used by untrained peasants covertly to ambush nobles while travelling the countryside during times of peace, not wearing armor.
Tod from "Tod's workshop" channel has done a number of tests on medieval reproduction armor with bows and crossbows and concluded that they aren't any more effective against plate than a normal heavy weight bow. The short power stroke makes heavy weight crossbows very inefficient even though the have high draw weights. And generally, against hardened breastplates you're not getting an arrow or bolt through it unless there is a manufacturing defect. The trope that crossbows are special armor-piercing weapons is a modern myth. Furthermore, the Lateran Council's ban wasn't just on crossbows, it was on every type of projectile weapon being used against other Christians. It should also be mentioned that this Papal ruling went into effect long before plate armor was even a thing on a medieval battlefield.
I like the idea of nobles peacocking at armoured dances, wearing extravagant heavy ornamentations to showcase their physical strength, whilst dancing gracefully to demonstrate not only their endurance, but also the wealth needed to craft armour with such mobility. I would love to read or see something like this in a fantasy story.
I remember seeing another video a while back that mentioned a type of armor (That D&D would call Brigandine) where it was basically leather with discs of metal attached to it for additional protection being made with Bronze discs. I believe this was done because Bronze could be cast a lot easier than Iron so it could be produced more quickly. The discs could be mass produced like coins and then attached by the leather worker. It's been a few years so i don't recall the specific video.
Still love that in Dutch, we use knecht, ridder and ruiter. Knecht pretty much means servant. Ridder translates into knight (it's the lowest noble title). And Ruiter means (horse) rider.
"Knight" still had the servant meaning in the 13th century when "Edi beo thu hevene quene" was written; the end of one verse reads "and have merci of thin knicht", "and have mercy on thy servant".
Good day. I can maybe shed some light on one of the things you talked about. By the way, I have been following your channel since the beginning and I appreciate your work. It is quite possible that one of the reasons for the myth about knights who are powerless after dismounting or falling from their horses originated in Bohemia - today's Czechia. At the very beginning of the Hussite Wars, the Battle of Sudoměř took place in 1420, where the brilliant military leader, Hetman Žižka of Trocnov, built a field fortification made of battle chariots on a dike between two ponds, Makovec and Škaredý (in English, for fun, "Poppy Sead pond" and "Ugly pond" :) ). One of these ponds was drained for fishing. It was this pond that the knights under the command of the Master Prior of Johanít Jindřich of Hradec and other nobles chose to flank to bypass the wagon wall. Unfortunately for them, their horses got stuck in the mud, and simple peasants armed with flails, pitchforks, and scythes rushed out of the wagon ramparts, and they were in the mud, partly because they didn't have to care for the horses and partly because they were simply clothed, without armor, simply more mobile. They too fell into the mud. But their comrades had no problem helping them out of the mud, while their iron-clad adversaries were utterly and decisively defeated. So while it wasn't so bad that the knights were completely unable to move, the rumor of this fight may have been one of the causes of this myth.
also that knight-servant thing only applies to english. the german equivalent knecht was only used for landsknechts, meaning "the countries servants" (contrasting some lords feudal levy). in the rest of europe, the word for knight comes from the horse-riding, indicating noble status. from roman eques to german ritter (rider), italian cavaliere, french chevalier, spanish caballero and even english civil war cavaliers, it all comes from riding the horse.
My favorite urine-related note from the Roman Empire: that Catullus poem in which he tries to undermine the new lover of the woman he loves by saying "You know how proud he is of his bright white teeth? How do you think he got them that white?"
@johnv6806 You have to let the urine sit and it turns into ammonia. It was used as a bleach. In clothes, it did leave a yellow tinge, which is why bluing was used because it made white clothes appear to be more white.
@@jeanjaz i understand it had uses for cleaning. But you just acquainted it with bleach when I asked about white teeth. Would you drink bleach to get white teeth?
The one thing I've heard about the Great Vowel Shift is that it's pretty much the reason why English vowel pronunciation is so different from other European languages. For instance, the Scottish accent is much closer to the Scandinavian pronunciations, and have a bunch of words from there. Even if you compare Swedish (example since it's my language) to something like Japanese, you have more similarities than with English.
About the urine being used to process leather - it was most likely not only urine, but also feces, both used separately during the different stages of leather curing. There's this great video by Business Insider showing all stages of the process that is 1000 years old, and probably utilizing the same techniques that were used by the ancient romans: th-cam.com/video/S4E465h9CAc/w-d-xo.html
Actually, dog poop (called "pure" in the trade) was used to de-flesh the leather at the beginning of the process. Being carnivores, the bacteria and enzymes in their poop are especially efficient at breaking down animal tissue.
@@trikepilot101 huh, so even worse, than in that video, then. The outskirts of rome must've reeked to a level, impossible to imagine for a modern person - first decomposing fish guts from garum making process, then this lovely mixture of stench of human and dog waste and God knows, what else to "round off" the aroma.
@@Tranzisto I wonder if ancient people would think our cities would smell as bad as we imagine their smelling? Their cities would have smelled like smoke due to all cooking that happened with wood, but how bad would our city air smell to them with all our car exhaust? And all our artificial smells that are just chemicals. I have a very sensitive nose and I can't stand things like perfumes and car exhaust, it makes me wonder if they would be used to their local smells but would think our cities stink.
@@mbern4530 You are right, we are quite used to various quite synthetic smells of the big cities and don't notice them, and even if we talk about country people coming to big cities they are still modern people, exposed (to a lesser extent, but exposed nonetheless) to things like car exhaust or industrial chemicals, so it's going to be difficult to make a good comparison. But I think the situation in an ancient city like Rome would be worse anyway, because their sewers were nowhere near than what we have today, the lack of refrigeration meant everything spoiled much quicker and was often disposed of right there in the city. I don't believe the situation was super horrible, though, as some click-baity article might suggest, since anatomically romans were the same as us and (roughly) the same smells would be abhorrent to them as to us, which is why they didn't produce garum or tan leather within the city (so, I believe, the outskirts of Rome were reeking, not the city proper) and, as you said, the omnipresent wood smoke, being antibacterial as we now know, would probably help combatting much of the stench.
As a Dutch native I can see the word knight being related to knecht, which does mean servant in a way. But the age of chivalry came long after Guiillaume le Conquérant, under which knights were already called chevaliers, because they rode on horses... I love language, but hate the abuse it brings...
I think this could denote a difference in tye irigins and starus of knights between Britain and the mainland. Isn't it curious that in both romance and germanic languages tge words for "knight" just mean "rider", while in Britain they used a word that meant "servant"? Maybe at first the knights of Britain and the riders of mainland Europe weren't the same thing, and only later they became the same thing.
@@arx3516Feudal knights were introduced to England by William the Conqueror. They owed military service based on holding their Manor from the King. Previously the Anglo Saxons had House Carls etc who gave military service due to their rank in society. Anglo Saxons didn't have knights and dismounted to fight on foot.
Deeeeeaaaammmm that last part of the fonética changes made me realized that this also happens in Mexico. The more rural communities have some archaic words and linguistic uses that some people perceive just as " bad Spanish" but the ignore that they, being isolated, their uses of the language didn't change as much as the urban areas. Nice
It's funny when people say that knights were unique overloaded due to their gear (which was roughly 60 lbs/27 kg, depending on time period, style, and use), yet don't say the same thing about Roman legionaries in lorica segmentata or modern soldiers, both of which weighted roughly the same.
If I'm not mistaken, the modern men's gymnastics pommel horse is derived from the wooden horse that was used by armored men to practice vaulting onto a horse.
You got to admit that if you take a medieval knight, who was trained since teenage years, and is capable to move in amour like nothing... imagine playing cat with him without his armor.
To my knowledge, words with "gh" in English were pronounced like "ch" in German through Middle English (unvoiced velar fricative). In addition to what you said, that would be a reconstructed pronunciation of knight.
'Plate mail' annoys me for similar reasons to the term 'quad bike'. The 'bi' part refers to the vehicle having two - and *only* two - wheels. Add a third and a fourth wheel and it is no longer a freaking bike!
If you think medieval long toed shoes were ridiculous look up Mexican pointy boots or tribal boots! They are a style of pointed fashion boots made with elongated toes, some 2-3+ feet long, that were a popular footwear for men in parts of Mexico. The boots were commonly worn in an ironic and comedic way by males involved in the trival music subculture that thrived in the early 2010s.
23:42 this is quite similar to polish Knecht (I have no idea how to write it phonetically). It's amazing to see that in the past european languages had so much in common even if they are completely different nowdays.
Regarding the crossbow trivia, do you think it's possible that they were referring to archery being used in a criminal context, rather than military? It seems to me that banning ranged warfare would be just as absurd as banning war itself. However, openly condemning bandits, murderers, or other criminals who kill with such weapons seems like a more reasonable thing to say.
I raise you a modern translation of canon 12 from the same second Lateran council "We decree that the truce is to be inviolably observed by all from sunset on Wednesday until sunrise on Monday, and from Advent until the octave of the Epiphany, and from Quinquagesima until the octave of Easter. If anyone tries to break the truce, and he does not comply after the third warning, let his bishop pronounce sentence of excommunication on him, and communicate his decision in writing to the neighbouring bishops." Given that this would literally restrict war to Mondays to Wednesday the only reasonable explanation is that it genuinely was an attempt to make war between Christians difficult to the point of impracticality. Notably the archery canon explicitly picks out for Christians not to be the target while for canon 12 it is implied by the fact that other religions would not have any reason to follow the truce..... so it's reasonable to suspect it had something to do with the.... theological debates being held in the middle east at this time.
That bit about Scottish pronunciations makes me think about similar phenomena in Appalachia. I tend to think of Scotland's relationship to England in a similar manner as Appalachia to the coast IE progressive cities and lowlands vs old fashioned and conservative rural places full of "hill people." Cultural shifts don't happen as quickly in such places, and indeed some older dialects and pronunciations are retained in parts of eastern Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, western North Carolina, northwestern South Carolina, and northeastern Georgia. I recall one linguist claiming that some parts of the Appalachians retain accents which are more in line with the English of Shakespeare's day, making our present experience of the plays a bit off from their origins in totally unexpected ways.
I remember when I was an Infantryman, our equipment whch we carried into battle weighed over 100 pounds. Included in the weight is body armor, helmut, weapon, ammo, extra machine gun ammo belt for the machine gunner, granades, flares, and much more. For me, there is no difference from full suit of armor and our modern equipment is no difference other than technology.
Well there is a small difference, movement is easier in plate armour than with plate carriers and a infantry backpack. Also it is unlikely that a men at arms would have to carry more than his weapons and his armour.
The difference is that the weight of the armor was more evenly distributed across the body. You guys were basically carrying everything on your back while a knight would have some of the weight on his arms and legs. I think a knight actually had it easier than modern soldiers in terms of weight distribution.
In Swedish we have two words, "knekt" and "riddare". The latter is what you would consider the more stereotypical knight in shining armor, a lord trained in warfare, derived from another wofd also used in swedish "ryttare" which means a rider. Knekt meanwhile is more like an armored guard or soldier in service of the crown or lord.
Thank you! I never knew about the ban extending to all bows. I had always been taught that the crossbow was objectionable because any commoner could now kill a noble.
I can definitely see fully armored knights collapsing due to fighting in armour. But most likely due to exhaustion of fighting, along with overheating and lack of oxygen. Even in pleasant weather armour is not that well ventilated after all and will insulate body heat.
Actually in the Middle High German speaking room, noble warriors in service of another man or household men were also referred to as „Knechte“ or the Middle High German equivalent of this modern German word. It is important to know, that servant isn’t necessarily a degrading word. The margrave of Brandenburg (a prince elector of the HRE) had the Imperial Arch Office of Arch Chamberlain, meaning he was a „servant“ of the Emperor, but that didn’t excluded those you held that title from being some of the mightiest nobles of the Empire. Just look at Albrecht Achilles in his golden suit of armor
Fun fact about trial by combat: it could be shockingly accurate. People believed so firmly in god that in some cases their own psychology would hold them back. They were so convinced of the existence of divine intervention that their fear of it made them fail. And in many (possibly most cases, I don't have actual statistics), people would back out as soon as trial by combat was invoked, because facing punishment from the justice system was usually preferable to dying in combat. And there is some evidence that the church leaders were aware of this.
The whole chainmail vs mail thing is rather pedantic. It did not start with D&D or wargamers. "Chainmail" goes back at least to 1786 (Francis Grose’s _A Treatise on Ancient Armor and Weapons_ ), and was used by Sir Walter Scott in _Fortunes of Nigel._ If the author of freaking Ivanhoe used "chainmail" or "chain mail", I think it has achieved legitimacy. Redundancy is quite common in the evolution of language, especially if a more specific word became more generic. I'll speculate that as the use of armor faded, in some areas, 'mail', became a somewhat generic term for armor, so adding "chain" to clarify was natural. It could also be that the use of 'chain' helped to disambiguate with the word 'mail'(of the postal variety). There comes a point at which you just have accept that the popular term for a thing _is_ a legitimate term for the thing. Language evolves. As a linguist I should think you would embrace this fact.
@@metatronyt It doesn't make you mad "too much"🧐... but fair enough, on a rewatch I guess you weren't that harsh on the term 'chainmail' itself. You _really_ hate "plate mail" and "scale mail". But was it really D&D that started those terms? If "chain mail" was used in 1786, and in 1822 by Walter Scott, that does suggest "mail" had evolved by then to mean "armor" somewhat generically. Gygax, et al, almost certainly inherited the terms from the preceding generation of wargaming/miniatures/reenactment community, who likewise picked them up from even earlier generations.
@@GreylanderTV You got me curious so I google ngram(med it). The first mention of plate mail seems to occur in 1780, so your thesis is correct, it originates well before the era of role playing games. I still hate it XD but you were correct
@@metatronyt I understand. And I'm a hypocrite. Because my head _literally_ explodes every time I hear people these days _literally_ murder the word _literally._ But I'm getting used to it.
m y new fav youtuber. everything you put out is so informative and well spoken. the way you utilize facts of history to make common sense is refreshing. and ultimately so much more palatable
As a kid (13-14 old) I built a crossbow after seeing a medieval crossbow (it might have been a replica) in an exhibition. It had this foot-long trigger I fashioned from junkyard iron rod, the string from an old bicycle brake cable etc. It worked well, once. The damn prod broke when I tried to reload it the second time. I gave up right then and there.
Wow! Making even a working prototype is impressive already as a solo teen. Too bad you gave up so soon, you clearly had an engineer's soul, you might have finagled a solution to make the weapon reusable. Still quite the achievement!
The -ei -ai pronunciation blows my mind. I always have business calls with scottish people and I was always puzzled by their accent! This is a great snippet of knowledge!
Worth pointing out in the case of 'medieval divorce' aka trial by combat between man and woman, I'm under the impression that particular form, rule of engagement was a largely Swiss to German thing. I can't find record of it outside of a few books or commentary on. Right now the only source I can think of is Fight Earnestly of Hans Talhoffer and that's.... discussed more theoretically I guess. As in it could be done this way, this is how it works, not so much as a practical case example of it. I seem to remember the last it was done was 1300's and it was a Swiss located duel. I could have parts of the last wrong, I expect I do. Either way, it didn't appear to be so markedly common or a thing that was frequently done. I do remember there being a very specific set of limitations on it too. It wasn't just 'we don't want to be married, one of us must die' but far more in the area of an abused woman, spouse against their abuser. Time to break out my copy, translation and see what exactly it says.
In Denmark for the Jutlandic dialects, especially southern part, the word for boy is 'knejt' while the equivalent on the Islands is 'knægt' both with a pronounced k, although the actual word used for boy on the Islands is 'dreng'. Knight on the other hand is 'ridder' which just means rider and is the same word as the verb for riding. I suspect the difference in the word for boy is because the southern Jutlandic dialect of Danish is like a fusion between West Germanic originally with heavy North Germanic influences.
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Nah
Irin 7/11 better
U not get u cookie from u mamma 😂😂😂😂😂
Be quick! Atlas may never sponsor a youtuber again ;)
@@napoleonfeanor Oh they will, in fact they sponsor me a couple of times a month, but the offer DO change, so they are limited time indeed.
Full suit of armour can be surprisingly agile. I saw this video where they had an obstacle course and had three runners, a fireman in full gear with oxygen tank and everything, a soldier in full combat gear and someone with full suit of armour. All of their equipment weighted approximately the same. But the guy in armour dominated and they concluded it's because the weight is so evenly distributed.
The problem was its insulation. Wearing it is like being boiled alive. Men can litterally died of in battlefield simply by being dehydrated from wearing it too long.
@@aetius7139 I've never heard of that happening. Also, given that most battles back then were very short, and full armor would only be needed for a small portion of that, I find it hard to believe that you would even be in full armor long enough to get seriously dehydrated
@@filmandfirearms Most reenactors told me that after a while. It become very unconfortable. Dehydration is a real threat even in a very short engagement.
@@aetius7139
Most reenactors are soft compared to actual Knights. No offense but I highly doubt that they are on the Same Fitness Level.
@@aetius7139I assume the same applies to the other gear as well. A fire mans suit insolates arguably even better.
Battles didnt take all day, and drinking is important. There is a reason a water bottle is standard equipment in every military
"The ban was basically ignored."
That's the problem with laws - if nobody agrees to follow them and nobody can enforce them, they might as well not exist.
Like speed limits?
I feel like this isn't a problem with laws but with law makers not understanding their people.
@@johnv6806 People do pay attention to speed limits (mostly) and they can be enforced.
@@johnv6806No, because they can enforce speed limits and most people understand why speed limits exist and follow them on their own because they are not antisocial. Lol there are plenty of examples of dumb laws that prohibit things that effect nobody yet you chose speed limits as an example, which is probably the largest passive social agreement in any modern country.
@@indiomoustafa2047 it just popped in my head instantly as a "law" that no one really agrees to follow. Yes it can be enforced but I absolutely and fully disagree with your notion that most people follow speed limits.
They absolutely do not. Speed limits are arbitrary and serve little purposes other than to give extra money to the state in way of fines. Other countries do not have speed limits and have fewer accidents.
I think the misconception about armor being heavy and cumbersome came from Victorian era people seeing jousting armor, especially the later stuff that had fixed pieces such as the left arm being immobile and attached shields plus attached helmets like Metatron's frogmouth. They probably assumed that it was also the same for combat armor and theorized that one would need a crane to mount a horse when one's movement was that restricted.
Also, Renaissance was heavier cus having to withstand bullets and the last Calvary regiment to use breastplates, naploen’s elite heavy Calvary, wore breastplates than were thick and restrictive cus bullets. Also, WWI experiments with steel body armor was freakishly restrictive with the only successful use was for machine gunners, snipers and pilots
I used to also get angry about D&D using the term "plate mail," but I recently reread the first edition Dungeon Master's Guide and was surprised to find tucked away in there an explanation that "plate mail" refers to a combination of plate and mail, as opposed to "full plate." The more you know.
14th century armor. The most armored a Knight was. Full plate isn't more armored its has more coverage by plate
When the term fantasy justifies.
Gygax and friends messed up with "studded leather" (brigandine), but there's actually a lot of stuff that suggests they really tried to do research on the equipment.
Unfortunately, the illustrations betray the descriptions
the devil is on the details, as always... at least all the way up to 3.5, the entry for armors said that each degree of armor build upon "the previous one", so a Breastplate was already worn over Mail, that was worn over Padded armor and so on, which is to justify why you can't stack armor... they are already stacked... technically it also meant you could "upgrade" your armor by paying the difference between your padded armor and your mail, and then between the mail and the breastplate, because you were just adding pieces to a pre-existing armor. I had being played for around a decade when I finally read the initial entry for Armor, rather than jumping straight to the table of equipment to check their stats... D&D (at least up to 3.5) is way more well thought than we usually give it credit for when you actually read the parts most ppl skip. Did you know that if your attack roll hit between the target's AC and their AC-Shield bonus you actually roll to damage the shield, potentially breaking it? or that if you hit between AC-Shield and AC-shield-armor that you roll to damage the armor? I never saw anyone actually use those rules because they would bog down attacks with even more rolls, but that's what you are supposed to do when you hit the target's armor...
Fun fact: the two guns shown @19:50 are part of the Santa Barbara Battery in Puerto de la Cruz. And yes, they are made of cast Bronze. In total, we have 4 of them.
As an American, I absolutely love the term "muppet." It makes me laugh every single time I hear it! I have no idea what it is, but it just adds some oomph whenever I hear it used in the context you use it, Metatron. I love it!
The Muppets were created in America though - Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzy Bear! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Muppets
@@franohmsford7548 Using Muppet as an insult is definitely an across the pond thing.
@@shawnwolf5961 Yes but the context should be pretty obvious given that America is where the Muppets themselves come from.
They're dumb handpuppets under the complete control of the person stuck behind the desk.
And if you're wondering why "puppet" itself isn't the insult well "Muppet" just sounds better.
Fraggle is also used in a similar context though it's nowhere near as common as Muppet.
@@shawnwolf5961quite right my American friend. A 'Muppet' is a somewhat friendly insult and is something akin to an idiot. It's still offensive but anyone can use it openly, even on the telly.
Awee kermie 😂
In touring the Roman Colosseum many years ago I heard that a major source of revenue for the Colosseum was the collection of urine from public toilets during and after events held there. So yeah, I believe it was a great commodity
Used for tanning hides i believe.
@@JustDaniel6764 not precisely. Tanning is adding tannin. Urine contains active nitrogen compounds making it useful for making degreaser, fertilizer, cleaning chemicals, and gunpowder bases. It's use in the tanning process is early doors getting hairs off the leather prior to soaking in a tannin compound. Animal waste was the only real way to get the active compounds prior to a certain WWI chemical weapons developer changing tack.
Based emperor vespasian said "pecunia non olet" (money doesnt stink) when his son titus complain about the nature of the money comes from.
Make urine collection at sports venues a thing again.
Just imagine! You could:
- Tan your own leather (the arts and crafts ppl would love THAT One).
- Fertilize your own lawn (middle-aged dads would go bonkers for that one, despite the smell ... they smelled worse in college, right?)
- Harden your own alloys (it's a legit process, something to do with the nitrogen ... idk, ask a legit metallurgist, the process is called "Nitriding")
- Dye your own shirts (hippies man ... hippies ... it's all natural, right? lol)
I could probably keep going with a few more but I'll stop there.
Those port-a-pottys would be gilded by the end of a season #ChangeMyMind
@@Emperor_Of_Mankindman this comment was a hoot to read
Really enjoy the linguistic tangents you go off on. And the breadth of your familiarity with world history always impresses me.
I wanted to know the channel where he goes into linguistics. It wasn't in the description. :'(
@@jeanjazMetatron academy
The old high German “knecht” meaning “servant” was used throughout the Middle Ages as seen in the word “Landsknecht”. The similarity between this and the English word “knight” are obvious, but the equivalent in German was “Ritter”.
And as such, translating the word Landsknecht as "servant of the land" actually makes sense as Landsknecht mercenary companies were, as would we say in modern times, people without citizenship. They were not subject to monarchs or noblemen - that is, outside their contractual term - which also made they didn't have to pay taxes to the countries. The German word Ritter is also a very logical one since it means simply rider. A rather pragmatic name for knights who mostly fought on horseback.
@@balintkovacs4089 It also follows the trend: cheval/chevalier (and other similar in Romance languages), equus/eques.
@@Tyresio12 Naturally. Language is a very pragmatic thing when humans don't try to know better.
Similar with the Dutch knecht, and in Dutch we call what we consider a knight now a "ridder", so very close to the German word.
Not only through the Middle ages. My grandpa was a farmer. "Knecht" was still regularly used for the farmhands.
But yeah, the German term for Knight comes from rider.
I found the linguistic aspects of that last fact examination especially fascinating as I had no idea that was the case. Leave it to Metatron to be so detailed and accurate in his knowledge and research to actually know that and point it out. This is one of the many reasons I love this channel. The detail he goes into is always appreciated! :)
You might also enjoy searching videos on "Anglish" then.
I had thought that long bows and cross bows, while banned to use against Christians COULD be used against THE HEATHENS. Which is why Edward Longshanks had the Scots (conveniently) declared to be heathens by the Pope of his day.
What difference would that make if everyone was ignoring the ruling anyway?
We save the square bullets for Turks.
@@47StormShadowSave the soul maybe.
I love how in depth you go adding a lot more context to these lists , it really helps paint a better picture . Please continue this series !
I'm soo glad the Museum Replicas bit was fine. I grew up looking at their magazines, and learned a thing or two from them; such as realistic sword weights, and the proper bend of tempered steel.
That info about how to pronounce knight was very interesting. I now realize the word must be closely related to the Dutch word 'knecht'. Which also and still means a servant or laborer. It was fun discovering that.
Fellow dutch person here. That part of linguistic information as very interesting, I had no idea knight was once pronounced so similar to knecht.
@@lytsedraak Well, tbh, I'm Flemish, not Dutch 😉 But yes, I was really but pleasantly surprised by it.
@@lytsedraak
english words ending in "gh" can in most cases be substituted with "ch" the connection to dutch and german becomes obvious then.
night-nacht
eight-acht
weight-gewicht
laughing-lachen
"You're a noble man so everyone is looking at you, including the church."
*_Flashbacks to Cercei's walk of shame_*
13:14 Well, knights were mobile as turtles of some kind.
NINJA TURTLES.
About armor:
The Salt Lake City Crusaders recently displayed tournament-style combat in Orem. Just before engaging in great-sword dueling, one “knight” did a perfect cartwheel in plate armor. He demonstrated how much mobility it provided.
We love these types of videos! I homeschool our children and you are one of my favourite history channels. Not only do we learn something new but also the importance of looking at the context and not just taking everything we read or see at face value.
The re-enactors at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, would fight in a wooden ring, then they would take of their helmets and explain to the audience what they were trying to achieve with their poleaxes etc, When I asked how cumbersome the armour was , he promptly somersaulted across the floor. Bloody impressive 😁
You can deep dive into ANY subject and I will be more than happy to watch!!!!
The heaviest and most protective armors were the ones the medieval sources said were impossible to fight in. If it was fitted to the wearer and jointed to match the body inside, it was no more difficult than to wear clothing. Soldiers today carry a similar amount of weight to the average suit of mail.
Heh, wrong, soldiers today carry MORE weight than not only a mail suit, but a set of full plate armor... sometimes 20 pounds more,
@@jeremiahsmith7924 which is offset by better nutrition (bigger and stronger on average) + most modern armies have a high level of motorisation.
But this weight is not spread evenly around the body. Instead it is mainly concentrated in the backpack (or is it a rucksack?).
@@Duke_of_Lorrainedo you really believe that the wealthier mercenaries and nobles had bad nutrition?
Oh and medieval knights were not mechanized but they did have carts and pages. And lower ranking soldiers could probably throw some of their stuff onto a common cart or something.
As I am currently learning Old English, I love the linguistic notes. The dialectual continuum in Britain makes it difficult to pin point correct pronunciations. However, the Ænglisch word is 'cniht'. There are no silent letters in Ænglisch. The 'h' after a vowel is fricative (like spanish 'j'), and the 'i' (pit) becomes long 'ī' (peet). Since English is an amalgam of Saxon (WG) Angle (WG), Jute (NG), and Frisian (WG), there is abundant room for variation in this. This always makes me think of the Monty python scene in "Holy Grail" with the premaurely arrived French soldiers taunting the "silly English k'nee-gits". Unlike Dutch and German which altered spellings to match the pronounciation, English preserved a bizarre number of spellings through it's consonant and vowel shifts, while almost unrecognizably changing other (dysig (dizzy, foolish)=>dizzy, eosol (an ass)=>asshole, isig (ēsē)=>icy, hwæt=>what, weox (grow)=>wax).
Me : Honey, I think we need to separate
Her : Swords at dawn !
Me : You look lovely today dear
In the game I've been designing, I'm very particular in not using the term 'chain mail'. In fact, I use the terms 'chain armor' to refer to the general category, and terms like 'mail hauberk' to refer to specific styles of armor. I do mix and match them a little, and in perhaps a mild nod to predecessors like D&D, I have a couple armor styles labeled as things like "plated mail" which is light plate armor over chain shirt and leggings (more than just voiders, usually), or "scaled mail" which consists of scale style armor attached to a backing of mail instead of cloth or leather.
I love your channel, and how I learn something new about history with each video; it's especially helpful, since I've been wanting to write a fantasy story set round this time period.
Glad to hear and good luck with your fantasy story
The crazy poulaine shoes-the pointy toes. Hilarious.
It might have been previously mentioned:
I hadn’t expected comedy writers to do such deep research into the great vowel shift or pre medieval pronunciation to come up with the Knights of Ni (Monty Python).
😂
Another informative and interesting video Sir. Thank you.
Terry Jones had a history degree and wrote some books on medieval history as well as made documentaries on various eras of history.
Holy crap, in my 30 years as a Python fan i never made that connection. All this time i thought saying "ni" was just silly and nonsensical. i'm especially embarrassed because i'm so fascinated by the Great Vowel Shift in the first place.
Good grief, i was wondering if that was from Terry Jones. Didn't the French knights pronounce the K when insulting Arthur as well?
If you go to the American South, you can still find people who speak that way. Yes, even educated people. I remember, my grandmother and great aunt and even on occasion my mom speaking that way. It is the echo of my childhood.
Perhaps the most underrated element of this channel is the pure comedy of cutting to Raf in various helmets and outfits.
Also, regarding the piss: urine is actually quite clean when leaving the body. The main “waste” element is just excess urea and others. Not nearly as dirty as other human waste, nor as great a vector for miasma and plague like blood, mucus, and poop.
i would definitely love to hear more about scale and/or lamellar armours.
The amount of knowledge you bring to us is outstanding. Especially from the linguistic side of things. You're by far my favorite youtuber, please never doing what you do.
I would have loved to have had you as a history instructor when I was in school. You make learning so easy and interesting.
Excellent Historical information presented with an intense requirement for full accuracy. This is so important ! For brevity's sake, good or bad info in produces good or Bad conclusions out. Everyday in everyway we must choose . The axiom "History teaches by Example'' is similar to Otto Von Bismarck's quote paraphrase = ,''I want to learn from your mistakes, not from mine'' . Metatron your a REAL SCHOLAR without bias except a bias for what is true. Thank You .
15:24 POLSKA! POLSKA!
It's actually the first time I see a youtuber using a Polish castle other than Malbork. And it's actually one of my favourites. It's the Ogrodzieniec castle.
With my last name being Knight, I do think that the pronunciation is very interesting! I actually learned that from my high school English teacher which was really cool. And of course, I absolutely love your content, thank you!
I suspect that the underlying reason why people tried to ban the crossbow is due to the fact that it made armour less protective since bolts could go through plate.
So knights as well as kings became much more vulnerable to ranged attacks than before
Training time is a factor too. A knight trained like 10 years from a very early age to become a novice fighter while a decent crossbowman could be trained in a couple of weeks. So with the crossbow you could summon an army out of thin are comparatively. That was a major threat to the power balance back then.
Crossbow bolts couldn't penetrate plate armor. That was not the issue. They could however be used by untrained peasants covertly to ambush nobles while travelling the countryside during times of peace, not wearing armor.
Tod from "Tod's workshop" channel has done a number of tests on medieval reproduction armor with bows and crossbows and concluded that they aren't any more effective against plate than a normal heavy weight bow. The short power stroke makes heavy weight crossbows very inefficient even though the have high draw weights. And generally, against hardened breastplates you're not getting an arrow or bolt through it unless there is a manufacturing defect. The trope that crossbows are special armor-piercing weapons is a modern myth.
Furthermore, the Lateran Council's ban wasn't just on crossbows, it was on every type of projectile weapon being used against other Christians. It should also be mentioned that this Papal ruling went into effect long before plate armor was even a thing on a medieval battlefield.
I like the idea of nobles peacocking at armoured dances, wearing extravagant heavy ornamentations to showcase their physical strength, whilst dancing gracefully to demonstrate not only their endurance, but also the wealth needed to craft armour with such mobility. I would love to read or see something like this in a fantasy story.
The METADON
His name isn't don
The GOATtron
for like a month i kept reading it as Mastadon…🦣
The METADOM
Cause he's addicting
Right on time Mr Metatron! Thanks
I remember seeing another video a while back that mentioned a type of armor (That D&D would call Brigandine) where it was basically leather with discs of metal attached to it for additional protection being made with Bronze discs. I believe this was done because Bronze could be cast a lot easier than Iron so it could be produced more quickly. The discs could be mass produced like coins and then attached by the leather worker. It's been a few years so i don't recall the specific video.
I'm so happy to see you have a sponsor!!
17:50 In D&D, plate mail is defined as mail with plates over a few areas, e. g. breast plate, etc. In 3rd. edition, it was called half-plate.
If you don’t pay taxes on the piss then urine a lot of trouble.
Citizen to the authorities: "Piss off!"
I love your work Maestro, por favor continuar su classes, yo gusto mucho. Gracias por su tiempo.
Still love that in Dutch, we use knecht, ridder and ruiter. Knecht pretty much means servant. Ridder translates into knight (it's the lowest noble title). And Ruiter means (horse) rider.
"Knight" still had the servant meaning in the 13th century when "Edi beo thu hevene quene" was written; the end of one verse reads "and have merci of thin knicht", "and have mercy on thy servant".
"It would be like modern day armor units actually ditching the tank for a bicycle."
Have you never heard about how the Japanese took Singapore?
Good day. I can maybe shed some light on one of the things you talked about.
By the way, I have been following your channel since the beginning and I appreciate your work.
It is quite possible that one of the reasons for the myth about knights who are powerless after dismounting or falling from their horses originated in Bohemia - today's Czechia.
At the very beginning of the Hussite Wars, the Battle of Sudoměř took place in 1420, where the brilliant military leader, Hetman Žižka of Trocnov, built a field fortification made of battle chariots on a dike between two ponds, Makovec and Škaredý (in English, for fun, "Poppy Sead pond" and "Ugly pond" :) ). One of these ponds was drained for fishing. It was this pond that the knights under the command of the Master Prior of Johanít Jindřich of Hradec and other nobles chose to flank to bypass the wagon wall.
Unfortunately for them, their horses got stuck in the mud, and simple peasants armed with flails, pitchforks, and scythes rushed out of the wagon ramparts, and they were in the mud, partly because they didn't have to care for the horses and partly because they were simply clothed, without armor, simply more mobile.
They too fell into the mud. But their comrades had no problem helping them out of the mud, while their iron-clad adversaries were utterly and decisively defeated.
So while it wasn't so bad that the knights were completely unable to move, the rumor of this fight may have been one of the causes of this myth.
I can't believe they dared call those awesome pointy shoes ridiculous! They're so cool! 😂
As a guy with a fascination for 18th century wigs that have been ridiculed plenty of times, I relate. 😂
@@marcello7781 That's so cool! Do you wear the wigs in reenactment or is it just a hobby?
@@maddyf.6296 Just as a hobby and for personal modeling, since I like drawing characters and clothing styles from different eras 😊
Lovely stuff to have articles that actually have some merit to them. The in depth analysis portion gives a lot more greatly needed addition to them.
also that knight-servant thing only applies to english.
the german equivalent knecht was only used for landsknechts, meaning "the countries servants" (contrasting some lords feudal levy).
in the rest of europe, the word for knight comes from the horse-riding, indicating noble status.
from roman eques to german ritter (rider), italian cavaliere, french chevalier, spanish caballero and even english civil war cavaliers, it all comes from riding the horse.
The change in vowels is fascinating! Love linguistics and didn’t know you had another channel but definitely looking now.
My favorite urine-related note from the Roman Empire: that Catullus poem in which he tries to undermine the new lover of the woman he loves by saying "You know how proud he is of his bright white teeth? How do you think he got them that white?"
Are you saying piss makes your teeth white?
@johnv6806 You have to let the urine sit and it turns into ammonia. It was used as a bleach.
In clothes, it did leave a yellow tinge, which is why bluing was used because it made white clothes appear to be more white.
@@jeanjaz i understand it had uses for cleaning. But you just acquainted it with bleach when I asked about white teeth. Would you drink bleach to get white teeth?
@@johnv6806"used as bleach" is not the same as "it was bleach"
Ammonia is a bleaching agent, a whitener.
The one thing I've heard about the Great Vowel Shift is that it's pretty much the reason why English vowel pronunciation is so different from other European languages. For instance, the Scottish accent is much closer to the Scandinavian pronunciations, and have a bunch of words from there. Even if you compare Swedish (example since it's my language) to something like Japanese, you have more similarities than with English.
About the urine being used to process leather - it was most likely not only urine, but also feces, both used separately during the different stages of leather curing. There's this great video by Business Insider showing all stages of the process that is 1000 years old, and probably utilizing the same techniques that were used by the ancient romans: th-cam.com/video/S4E465h9CAc/w-d-xo.html
Actually, dog poop (called "pure" in the trade) was used to de-flesh the leather at the beginning of the process. Being carnivores, the bacteria and enzymes in their poop are especially efficient at breaking down animal tissue.
@@trikepilot101 huh, so even worse, than in that video, then. The outskirts of rome must've reeked to a level, impossible to imagine for a modern person - first decomposing fish guts from garum making process, then this lovely mixture of stench of human and dog waste and God knows, what else to "round off" the aroma.
@@Tranzisto I wonder if ancient people would think our cities would smell as bad as we imagine their smelling? Their cities would have smelled like smoke due to all cooking that happened with wood, but how bad would our city air smell to them with all our car exhaust? And all our artificial smells that are just chemicals.
I have a very sensitive nose and I can't stand things like perfumes and car exhaust, it makes me wonder if they would be used to their local smells but would think our cities stink.
@@mbern4530 You are right, we are quite used to various quite synthetic smells of the big cities and don't notice them, and even if we talk about country people coming to big cities they are still modern people, exposed (to a lesser extent, but exposed nonetheless) to things like car exhaust or industrial chemicals, so it's going to be difficult to make a good comparison. But I think the situation in an ancient city like Rome would be worse anyway, because their sewers were nowhere near than what we have today, the lack of refrigeration meant everything spoiled much quicker and was often disposed of right there in the city. I don't believe the situation was super horrible, though, as some click-baity article might suggest, since anatomically romans were the same as us and (roughly) the same smells would be abhorrent to them as to us, which is why they didn't produce garum or tan leather within the city (so, I believe, the outskirts of Rome were reeking, not the city proper) and, as you said, the omnipresent wood smoke, being antibacterial as we now know, would probably help combatting much of the stench.
When Tabaco was introduced to Europe it was used as snuff which was sniffed instead of chewed to dull the scents of smell. @@mbern4530
Love your content keep it up
Taxes on urine? Sounds like the plot of Urinetown!😂🤣
Another awesome video! I had no idea about the "vowel change" thingy or the word pronunciation, and i found it really interesting!
As a Dutch native I can see the word knight being related to knecht, which does mean servant in a way. But the age of chivalry came long after Guiillaume le Conquérant, under which knights were already called chevaliers, because they rode on horses... I love language, but hate the abuse it brings...
I think this could denote a difference in tye irigins and starus of knights between Britain and the mainland. Isn't it curious that in both romance and germanic languages tge words for "knight" just mean "rider", while in Britain they used a word that meant "servant"? Maybe at first the knights of Britain and the riders of mainland Europe weren't the same thing, and only later they became the same thing.
That is why the French in monty pythons holy grail call Arthur and his band "kn-igh-ts"
@@arx3516Feudal knights were introduced to England by William the Conqueror.
They owed military service based on holding their Manor from the King.
Previously the Anglo Saxons had House Carls etc who gave military service due to their rank in society. Anglo Saxons didn't have knights and dismounted to fight on foot.
Deeeeeaaaammmm that last part of the fonética changes made me realized that this also happens in Mexico. The more rural communities have some archaic words and linguistic uses that some people perceive just as " bad Spanish" but the ignore that they, being isolated, their uses of the language didn't change as much as the urban areas. Nice
It's funny when people say that knights were unique overloaded due to their gear (which was roughly 60 lbs/27 kg, depending on time period, style, and use), yet don't say the same thing about Roman legionaries in lorica segmentata or modern soldiers, both of which weighted roughly the same.
It's almost like there is a certain range of weight a fit person can carry without mobility being affected too much. 🤔
The weight of armor hasn't changed since the Hoplite in Hellenic Greece. Every infantrymans kit was about to 70 lbs
If I'm not mistaken, the modern men's gymnastics pommel horse is derived from the wooden horse that was used by armored men to practice vaulting onto a horse.
You got to admit that if you take a medieval knight, who was trained since teenage years, and is capable to move in amour like nothing... imagine playing cat with him without his armor.
Like Goku taking off his weighted clothes.
I really liked this episode. More content like this would be very welcome 😊
To my knowledge, words with "gh" in English were pronounced like "ch" in German through Middle English (unvoiced velar fricative). In addition to what you said, that would be a reconstructed pronunciation of knight.
those gh words yes but not all. Never assume anything to be regular in English
Haha love it whenever Metatron says “if youre interested.” 😂
'Plate mail' annoys me for similar reasons to the term 'quad bike'. The 'bi' part refers to the vehicle having two - and *only* two - wheels. Add a third and a fourth wheel and it is no longer a freaking bike!
Then it's a quadke.
If you think medieval long toed shoes were ridiculous look up Mexican pointy boots or tribal boots! They are a style of pointed fashion boots made with elongated toes, some 2-3+ feet long, that were a popular footwear for men in parts of Mexico. The boots were commonly worn in an ironic and comedic way by males involved in the trival music subculture that thrived in the early 2010s.
23:42 this is quite similar to polish Knecht (I have no idea how to write it phonetically).
It's amazing to see that in the past european languages had so much in common even if they are completely different nowdays.
Regarding the crossbow trivia, do you think it's possible that they were referring to archery being used in a criminal context, rather than military? It seems to me that banning ranged warfare would be just as absurd as banning war itself. However, openly condemning bandits, murderers, or other criminals who kill with such weapons seems like a more reasonable thing to say.
I raise you a modern translation of canon 12 from the same second Lateran council
"We decree that the truce is to be inviolably observed by all from sunset on Wednesday until sunrise on Monday, and from Advent until the octave of the Epiphany, and from Quinquagesima until the octave of Easter. If anyone tries to break the truce, and he does not comply after the third warning, let his bishop pronounce sentence of excommunication on him, and communicate his decision in writing to the neighbouring bishops."
Given that this would literally restrict war to Mondays to Wednesday the only reasonable explanation is that it genuinely was an attempt to make war between Christians difficult to the point of impracticality.
Notably the archery canon explicitly picks out for Christians not to be the target while for canon 12 it is implied by the fact that other religions would not have any reason to follow the truce..... so it's reasonable to suspect it had something to do with the.... theological debates being held in the middle east at this time.
That bit about Scottish pronunciations makes me think about similar phenomena in Appalachia. I tend to think of Scotland's relationship to England in a similar manner as Appalachia to the coast IE progressive cities and lowlands vs old fashioned and conservative rural places full of "hill people." Cultural shifts don't happen as quickly in such places, and indeed some older dialects and pronunciations are retained in parts of eastern Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, western North Carolina, northwestern South Carolina, and northeastern Georgia. I recall one linguist claiming that some parts of the Appalachians retain accents which are more in line with the English of Shakespeare's day, making our present experience of the plays a bit off from their origins in totally unexpected ways.
I remember when I was an Infantryman, our equipment whch we carried into battle weighed over 100 pounds. Included in the weight is body armor, helmut, weapon, ammo, extra machine gun ammo belt for the machine gunner, granades, flares, and much more. For me, there is no difference from full suit of armor and our modern equipment is no difference other than technology.
There is a reason Roman soldiers got the nickname Marius's mules
Well there is a small difference, movement is easier in plate armour than with plate carriers and a infantry backpack. Also it is unlikely that a men at arms would have to carry more than his weapons and his armour.
I wasn't talking about the pack, I was talking about what I carried on me. The pack was additional weight.
The difference is that the weight of the armor was more evenly distributed across the body. You guys were basically carrying everything on your back while a knight would have some of the weight on his arms and legs. I think a knight actually had it easier than modern soldiers in terms of weight distribution.
Two Knights meeting in 1360.
Says one to another "youve got mail"...
Oke, i'll leave...
Dearest Metatron , how old are you ?
I'm 41
@@metatronytman you look like you're barely 30!
@@adenkyramud5005 I appreciate that
@@metatronyt Ew old white male, now Im TrIgGeRrEd
@@metatronyti thought you were late 20s
As always I really enjoy your videos Metatron, thank you.
In Swedish we have two words, "knekt" and "riddare". The latter is what you would consider the more stereotypical knight in shining armor, a lord trained in warfare, derived from another wofd also used in swedish "ryttare" which means a rider. Knekt meanwhile is more like an armored guard or soldier in service of the crown or lord.
It all comes from the german words Ritter and Knecht. In Dutch is even more similar Ridder and Knecht.
Thank you! I never knew about the ban extending to all bows. I had always been taught that the crossbow was objectionable because any commoner could now kill a noble.
I can definitely see fully armored knights collapsing due to fighting in armour.
But most likely due to exhaustion of fighting, along with overheating and lack of oxygen.
Even in pleasant weather armour is not that well ventilated after all and will insulate body heat.
Amazing video. I love it. I believe that up until the late 19th century, canons had been made from bronx.
Actually in the Middle High German speaking room, noble warriors in service of another man or household men were also referred to as „Knechte“ or the Middle High German equivalent of this modern German word. It is important to know, that servant isn’t necessarily a degrading word. The margrave of Brandenburg (a prince elector of the HRE) had the Imperial Arch Office of Arch Chamberlain, meaning he was a „servant“ of the Emperor, but that didn’t excluded those you held that title from being some of the mightiest nobles of the Empire. Just look at Albrecht Achilles in his golden suit of armor
And recall how letters were commonly ended. "Your Obedient Servant".
Super interesting. I very much enjoyed the discussion of the vowel pronunciation shift! It's never heard of that before.
Fun fact about trial by combat: it could be shockingly accurate. People believed so firmly in god that in some cases their own psychology would hold them back. They were so convinced of the existence of divine intervention that their fear of it made them fail. And in many (possibly most cases, I don't have actual statistics), people would back out as soon as trial by combat was invoked, because facing punishment from the justice system was usually preferable to dying in combat.
And there is some evidence that the church leaders were aware of this.
Loved this video, please keep this series going. And I'm in awe of your amazing knowledge!
The whole chainmail vs mail thing is rather pedantic. It did not start with D&D or wargamers. "Chainmail" goes back at least to 1786 (Francis Grose’s _A Treatise on Ancient Armor and Weapons_ ), and was used by Sir Walter Scott in _Fortunes of Nigel._ If the author of freaking Ivanhoe used "chainmail" or "chain mail", I think it has achieved legitimacy. Redundancy is quite common in the evolution of language, especially if a more specific word became more generic. I'll speculate that as the use of armor faded, in some areas, 'mail', became a somewhat generic term for armor, so adding "chain" to clarify was natural. It could also be that the use of 'chain' helped to disambiguate with the word 'mail'(of the postal variety). There comes a point at which you just have accept that the popular term for a thing _is_ a legitimate term for the thing. Language evolves. As a linguist I should think you would embrace this fact.
I literally said I don’t have a problem with the word chain mail 😅
@@metatronyt It doesn't make you mad "too much"🧐... but fair enough, on a rewatch I guess you weren't that harsh on the term 'chainmail' itself. You _really_ hate "plate mail" and "scale mail". But was it really D&D that started those terms? If "chain mail" was used in 1786, and in 1822 by Walter Scott, that does suggest "mail" had evolved by then to mean "armor" somewhat generically. Gygax, et al, almost certainly inherited the terms from the preceding generation of wargaming/miniatures/reenactment community, who likewise picked them up from even earlier generations.
@@GreylanderTV You got me curious so I google ngram(med it). The first mention of plate mail seems to occur in 1780, so your thesis is correct, it originates well before the era of role playing games. I still hate it XD but you were correct
@@metatronyt I understand. And I'm a hypocrite. Because my head _literally_ explodes every time I hear people these days _literally_ murder the word _literally._ But I'm getting used to it.
Love your work, love this series!! Thank you Metatron!! :)
This was a fascinating episode as always!
m y new fav youtuber. everything you put out is so informative and well spoken. the way you utilize facts of history to make common sense is refreshing. and ultimately so much more palatable
As a kid (13-14 old) I built a crossbow after seeing a medieval crossbow (it might have been a replica) in an exhibition. It had this foot-long trigger I fashioned from junkyard iron rod, the string from an old bicycle brake cable etc. It worked well, once. The damn prod broke when I tried to reload it the second time. I gave up right then and there.
Wow! Making even a working prototype is impressive already as a solo teen. Too bad you gave up so soon, you clearly had an engineer's soul, you might have finagled a solution to make the weapon reusable. Still quite the achievement!
@@biblicallyaccuratecockroach Later in life I made a career in designing/writing software. It was also a lot of fun!
@@biblicallyaccuratecockroach Thank you.
I enjoy all of your stuff. But this was one of your best videos. Keep doing stuff like this. Thanks
awesome video Meta! Glad you included that "Knight" linguistics lesson!
The pope going:" I hate archers they are op!" sounds like a gamer disgruntled with balancing this is too good 🤣
Chivalry 2 community in a nutshell
@@KingFancyson Thy choice of game is heresy! Thou shall play chivalry 1 or mordhau or be forsaken forever more!
The -ei -ai pronunciation blows my mind. I always have business calls with scottish people and I was always puzzled by their accent! This is a great snippet of knowledge!
Worth pointing out in the case of 'medieval divorce' aka trial by combat between man and woman, I'm under the impression that particular form, rule of engagement was a largely Swiss to German thing. I can't find record of it outside of a few books or commentary on.
Right now the only source I can think of is Fight Earnestly of Hans Talhoffer and that's.... discussed more theoretically I guess. As in it could be done this way, this is how it works, not so much as a practical case example of it.
I seem to remember the last it was done was 1300's and it was a Swiss located duel.
I could have parts of the last wrong, I expect I do. Either way, it didn't appear to be so markedly common or a thing that was frequently done. I do remember there being a very specific set of limitations on it too. It wasn't just 'we don't want to be married, one of us must die' but far more in the area of an abused woman, spouse against their abuser.
Time to break out my copy, translation and see what exactly it says.
the scale armour video you mentioned soubds very interesting, would love to see it!
I am so checking out your linguistics episode. Thx for doing this and of course this video:)
In Denmark for the Jutlandic dialects, especially southern part, the word for boy is 'knejt' while the equivalent on the Islands is 'knægt' both with a pronounced k, although the actual word used for boy on the Islands is 'dreng'. Knight on the other hand is 'ridder' which just means rider and is the same word as the verb for riding.
I suspect the difference in the word for boy is because the southern Jutlandic dialect of Danish is like a fusion between West Germanic originally with heavy North Germanic influences.
Another well done episode. Thank you.
I just love your content. Thanks so much for all you do.
Another amazing video from our favorite youtuber, thank you!
Great information, i liked the last bits the most, the chain/plate/mail armor section was interesting as well.