Would a collapsing device of thin overlapping plates, ala spaulders, not work there? Or does the inverted nature of the joint completely rule that out?
You do start to see those in the middle of the century, and they're in quite a few 16th century harnesses. At this point though, if the back of the knee is armoured, it's with maille.
Thinking that aswell. I have hypermobility and while im not ever going to have the muscle for any type of harness like that, seems like it could really help others with tendon or joint issues. Nice to wear smth heavy that wouldnt make someones knee go just from a misplaced step lol
@@poppymason-smith1051 me, too. My hypermobility led to a trapped nerve in my knee, which in turn led to CRPS, where the brain translates all sorts of nerve signals as pain, so the armour would come in very handy when I bump into stuff. No way I'd want to actually walk anywhere in it. Maybe we could get titanium versions made, they'd be a lot lighter then - or even that new titanium/gold alloy that's even stronger. Hook it up to a Raspberry Pi and I could be the next Iron Man! lol
@@gerryjamesedwards1227 ye ik it wouldnt be historically accurate materially or for being hit but thinner stuff just for the look is a dream lol. Atleast watching and reading more into it a lot of the armours didnt have extra weight of chainmail filling every gap. Stick spring in the armour joints so it helps push back against its own weight type stuff? Thatd be so inaccurate. If i ever wanted to reinact id have to go ancient and light armour, or more recent with guns and breastplates. Thankfully i like horses so if i got into that atleast it wouldnt be my own legs doing the walking lol. Ik im extremely lucky in how my hypermobility presents. No dislocations or permanent injuries yet. But as i get older i just learn more limitations to not be an achey weak, limping mess the next few days, after smth as simple as a day of walking on concrete. Any added weight while walking and i start to feel sharp pains in my hip joints, so i just watch and dream of armour
@@poppymason-smith1051 watching and dreaming of armour sums up a decent portion of my time, too. We're lucky to have people like Zac, Matt Easton and Tobias Capwell (and Tod and many others) making armour related content that far outdoes even the better TV attempts.
I wanted to mention how excellent your sound set-up is! I had zero trouble understanding the both of you, even though you were talking in your normal voices.
@@ZacharyEvans Yeah, it's much better than your previous interview with Drac. I understood everything in that one as well, but this was much more comfortable, and I could relax more.
@@ZacharyEvans there is one I’ve seen, I believe on a Greenwich garniture that seems to be just a post with a spring loaded wedge in it. The pauldron ( the fashion seem to be to call them ‘spalders’ now days), the wedge went inside the post, then it sprang out keeping the armor in place. I’m not sure how long it would last.
Yes, more please! Love to see the harness evolution and all the protection vs mobility, a-horse vs afoot, etc. Great stuff from 2 guys that know their s...er, business.
Absolutely love the Agincourt era knight harness. There is something about the pigfaced bascinet that i just love so much. Very stunning harness, and a similar style to one i dream on managing to get further on in life :)
Nice to see a follow up to the inital interview. Does anyone happen to have a link to the depiction of the hounskull visored armet? I find that sort of transitional armor quite interesting
On the development of armour for combating polearms, i definitely think the great bascinet was developed for this and i have heard rumours of them early in their introduction(particularly regarding king Henry V at Agrincourt)of being paired with a great helm, in the way that regular bascinets often were. Which is just too awesome and would in my opinion offer a ludicrous amount of head protection. But extremely niche, i mean you're basically saying you are expecting for guys to be belting you around the head continuously with big ole polearms. If Henry did in fact wear this during the battle i imagine it'd be a case of: "Yes my lord you can go into the heart of the battle. But we're not losing the bloody future king so you're wearing ALL of the helmets."
If you ever were to wear both I think it would only be worth it for the bombardment part of the battle. Once fighting starts I find even my armet too restrictive for me personally.
I wonder if Alex has any plans for a surcoat? If you did not want to go for heraldry there is plenty of depictions of surcoats at the time being a single colour or a brocaded fabric. I think linen or silk are the best options as they are apparently tear resistant although they are obviously more expensive than just cotton.
Realy nice armour. I really like armour from that crossover of the 14th-15th century. A very similar armour to Knyght Errant. I am currently building a slightly earlier armour, although of course there is no reason why it could not be fielded contemporarily. Never thought I'd say this but I'm kinda really curious of what it would be like to be kicked in the head by an MMA fighter whilst wearing my bascinet and ridiculously huge pembridge helm(its not ridiculous in size for a pembridge helm, but i love it). It has the shock absorbent properties if being able to move a bit but weighing like several kilograms.
In historical manuscripts we usually don't see closing mechanisms for bascinets beacause... We don't need to close the visor. the visor is only here to tank arrows and lance blows, it wouldnt have been used for hand to hand fighting, there are plenty of depictions of removed visors for sparring in fiore dei liberi's book, and just open faced helmets being widely used in battle. Seeing what's happening is more important than protecting your face (and if you follow any kind of buhurt tournaments you'll see that fighters are sometimes on the verge of collapse beacause how little they could breathe during the fight, and buhurt matches are very very short compared to a battle). So yeah, open faced helmets whenever you're not rushing a pike wall or facing archers.
There was a casual comment in passing about Tabards not coming in until about 10 years after agincourt. I'd love to learn more about the history of tabards. Do you have any recommendations for sources or do you have a video hidden somewhere I haven't found about that?
Does this harness have a plaque belt to act as a carrier for the sword scabbard and dagger? This is the era where these types of accessories were both the fashion and in use.
On the subject of the modularity of this armor, I would be concerned with somehow losing bits and bobs in the baggage train. Trains were a popular target for raiding, because of the quality of the loot and the effects taking the trains would have on the enemy. Better to have it on and not need it or bear the extra weight to have it complete when you do.
That of course would all be down to personal choice. The higher up the social ladder you were the more armour you were supposed to bring, so there would always be some of your equipment in your baggage train.
There's a lot of 16th an 17th century accounts of people losing an mixing up stuff in the baggage train. Some where in that cart is the tassets for your armour an dozens of other ones.
Would the double with integrated voiders and skirt be period? Or do you know? By the way, this is one of my favorites of your videos (and definitely Alex's best ;p )
It's hard to say for 1415, because I'm not aware of any documents about arming garments of the time. Maille sleeves and skirts are definitely in use by this point, but whether or not they are integrated is a difficult question.
Nice suit. Im not a fan of the look of the pig faced helmet style but to each their own. Considering i was into eastern martial Arts/mma for many years b4 HEMA I can say that while strikes dont really do much against armour, the grappling most certainly does. However i have noticed my opponents armour can make certain moves/holds difficult.
I don't know. When I compare those modern reproductions with what we see on the effigies, I always have the feeling that something is very off. Everything looks way to bulky and especially the helmets look like they're two sizes to big. When you look at the effigies, you clearly see how snugly the helmets fit and how tightly the avantails conform to the shape of the body. There is no gap between helmet and cheek. Like a properly fitter motorcycle helmet. Even the chest plates. They look like they're wearing a second skin. Like they didn't wore so many layers underneath, and just had a better fitment over all.
Building my leg harness now. With the fully enclosed cuisses, how is the interaction of the plates on the inside of the legs? Do the edges tend to hit each other? How far down the leg is the upper edge around the inside?
The edge of the back plate of mine runs inside the front edge to present a seamless transition (and allows a little muscle growth). If you drop me an email (see my channels about page) I can send you a close up of the leg armour.
This was fun to film as well :)
Nvr knew my fav big boat guy was into armour as well!
15th century Drachinifel: "We'll board that hulk when we get to it!"
Alternative title :" Darachinifel dresses up as a 15th century land battleship"
Drachinifel cosplays as an ironclad.
@@ZacharyEvans Ironlad
Not the crossover we deserved but the crossover we needed
The back of the knee is such a major target and so vulnerable that it had to be armoured, i'll argue that fine mail was the answer.
Would a collapsing device of thin overlapping plates, ala spaulders, not work there? Or does the inverted nature of the joint completely rule that out?
You do start to see those in the middle of the century, and they're in quite a few 16th century harnesses. At this point though, if the back of the knee is armoured, it's with maille.
Oooh! A harness that prevent hyper-extension of the limbs is right up my street. I have ridiculously bendy tendons.
Thinking that aswell. I have hypermobility and while im not ever going to have the muscle for any type of harness like that, seems like it could really help others with tendon or joint issues. Nice to wear smth heavy that wouldnt make someones knee go just from a misplaced step lol
@@poppymason-smith1051 me, too. My hypermobility led to a trapped nerve in my knee, which in turn led to CRPS, where the brain translates all sorts of nerve signals as pain, so the armour would come in very handy when I bump into stuff. No way I'd want to actually walk anywhere in it. Maybe we could get titanium versions made, they'd be a lot lighter then - or even that new titanium/gold alloy that's even stronger. Hook it up to a Raspberry Pi and I could be the next Iron Man! lol
@@gerryjamesedwards1227 ye ik it wouldnt be historically accurate materially or for being hit but thinner stuff just for the look is a dream lol. Atleast watching and reading more into it a lot of the armours didnt have extra weight of chainmail filling every gap. Stick spring in the armour joints so it helps push back against its own weight type stuff? Thatd be so inaccurate. If i ever wanted to reinact id have to go ancient and light armour, or more recent with guns and breastplates. Thankfully i like horses so if i got into that atleast it wouldnt be my own legs doing the walking lol. Ik im extremely lucky in how my hypermobility presents. No dislocations or permanent injuries yet. But as i get older i just learn more limitations to not be an achey weak, limping mess the next few days, after smth as simple as a day of walking on concrete. Any added weight while walking and i start to feel sharp pains in my hip joints, so i just watch and dream of armour
@@poppymason-smith1051 watching and dreaming of armour sums up a decent portion of my time, too. We're lucky to have people like Zac, Matt Easton and Tobias Capwell (and Tod and many others) making armour related content that far outdoes even the better TV attempts.
@@gerryjamesedwards1227 i watch stuff like this and i think wheres my next fix, but im already up to date with all of them 😂
The instructions of the new 90-year anniversary LEGO castle refer tho the helmet as an armet. I was supprised by that interpretation of the piece.
It's possible. The visor certainly strikes me as a pig face, but it seems pigface armets were a thing too.
@@ZacharyEvans Just ran into a picture of a pig face armet on a FB armour groups. From a fresco in Fenis Castle, painted in 1415.
For the algorithm!
Seriously, though, that's a nice bit or armour Alex has there and I really enjoyed the discussion about the ins and outs of it.
I was the 200th like hah!
I wanted to mention how excellent your sound set-up is!
I had zero trouble understanding the both of you, even though you were talking in your normal voices.
Thank you. I got some new microphones, so it's good to hear positive feedback!
@@ZacharyEvans Yeah, it's much better than your previous interview with Drac.
I understood everything in that one as well, but this was much more comfortable, and I could relax more.
I would love to see video of all the different fasteners on armor, the spring clips, arming point s turn keys and so on.
And there are some on originals I've not seen reproduced...
@@ZacharyEvans there is one I’ve seen, I believe on a Greenwich garniture that seems to be just a post with a spring loaded wedge in it. The pauldron ( the fashion seem to be to call them ‘spalders’ now days), the wedge went inside the post, then it sprang out keeping the armor in place. I’m not sure how long it would last.
@@ZacharyEvans I’m not sure people getting into jousting and re-enactment appreciate just what a pain in the arse getting armor on by yourself is…
@@andrewgillis3073 As it happens I have a video in the works all about that...
Yes, more please! Love to see the harness evolution and all the protection vs mobility, a-horse vs afoot, etc. Great stuff from 2 guys that know their s...er, business.
Wow, multiple harnesses! I'm jealous. Thanks for making this.
Absolutely love the Agincourt era knight harness. There is something about the pigfaced bascinet that i just love so much. Very stunning harness, and a similar style to one i dream on managing to get further on in life :)
I think it's definitely a marmite helmet. For some it is "the" knight helmet, for others it is too inhuman.
@@ZacharyEvans Do you happen to know who made Alex's helmet?
@@LeonidasSparta-Fun-History I think it was Armour Moskovia
@@ZacharyEvans thanks so much!
I don't know why seeing Matt grin ear to ear at someone getting kicked in the chest is so funny, but it is.
It's pretty fun to be on the receiving end when you're in armour as well :)
Brave man to wear that on a boat!
Now darch’s involvement with arrows vs armour makes a lot more sense.
Which makes sense. People into history rarely stick to one topic.
I don't suppose that there is any footage of Alex running in that armor? Just curious given how he described the reactions of the audience. :)
I'll put it on the list for future videos.
Love those kind of armors, so classy yet... So reprenstative of our French tragic defeat... Pro fighters Vs knightly dreamers...
Beautiful harness
Interesting and entertaining video. Well done, guys!
Angrily typing a comment as Cash deserves more carrots for her services as a war horse
Cash appreciates the support.
Nice to see a follow up to the inital interview. Does anyone happen to have a link to the depiction of the hounskull visored armet? I find that sort of transitional armor quite interesting
On the development of armour for combating polearms, i definitely think the great bascinet was developed for this and i have heard rumours of them early in their introduction(particularly regarding king Henry V at Agrincourt)of being paired with a great helm, in the way that regular bascinets often were. Which is just too awesome and would in my opinion offer a ludicrous amount of head protection. But extremely niche, i mean you're basically saying you are expecting for guys to be belting you around the head continuously with big ole polearms.
If Henry did in fact wear this during the battle i imagine it'd be a case of: "Yes my lord you can go into the heart of the battle. But we're not losing the bloody future king so you're wearing ALL of the helmets."
If you ever were to wear both I think it would only be worth it for the bombardment part of the battle. Once fighting starts I find even my armet too restrictive for me personally.
@@ZacharyEvans well if it was ever done, i guess it never caught on for a reason. LOL
I wonder if Alex has any plans for a surcoat? If you did not want to go for heraldry there is plenty of depictions of surcoats at the time being a single colour or a brocaded fabric. I think linen or silk are the best options as they are apparently tear resistant although they are obviously more expensive than just cotton.
Realy nice armour. I really like armour from that crossover of the 14th-15th century. A very similar armour to Knyght Errant.
I am currently building a slightly earlier armour, although of course there is no reason why it could not be fielded contemporarily. Never thought I'd say this but I'm kinda really curious of what it would be like to be kicked in the head by an MMA fighter whilst wearing my bascinet and ridiculously huge pembridge helm(its not ridiculous in size for a pembridge helm, but i love it). It has the shock absorbent properties if being able to move a bit but weighing like several kilograms.
This was great. Hope for more. You are both so entertaining.
Thank you!
In historical manuscripts we usually don't see closing mechanisms for bascinets beacause... We don't need to close the visor. the visor is only here to tank arrows and lance blows, it wouldnt have been used for hand to hand fighting, there are plenty of depictions of removed visors for sparring in fiore dei liberi's book, and just open faced helmets being widely used in battle. Seeing what's happening is more important than protecting your face (and if you follow any kind of buhurt tournaments you'll see that fighters are sometimes on the verge of collapse beacause how little they could breathe during the fight, and buhurt matches are very very short compared to a battle). So yeah, open faced helmets whenever you're not rushing a pike wall or facing archers.
Good video.
Great break down!
Great video, let's have more chats like this going through different harnesses and eras please.
It's definitely on the cards. Apart from anything else, I really enjoy making them.
Nice harness.
There was a casual comment in passing about Tabards not coming in until about 10 years after agincourt. I'd love to learn more about the history of tabards. Do you have any recommendations for sources or do you have a video hidden somewhere I haven't found about that?
I suppose I could do a video on it.
Splendid
Does this harness have a plaque belt to act as a carrier for the sword scabbard and dagger?
This is the era where these types of accessories were both the fashion and in use.
It does but I didn't bring it. :)
No besagews at Agincourt?
Definitely about, but not all harnesses had them
On the subject of the modularity of this armor, I would be concerned with somehow losing bits and bobs in the baggage train. Trains were a popular target for raiding, because of the quality of the loot and the effects taking the trains would have on the enemy. Better to have it on and not need it or bear the extra weight to have it complete when you do.
That of course would all be down to personal choice. The higher up the social ladder you were the more armour you were supposed to bring, so there would always be some of your equipment in your baggage train.
There's a lot of 16th an 17th century accounts of people losing an mixing up stuff in the baggage train.
Some where in that cart is the tassets for your armour an dozens of other ones.
I need me some platemail but unfortunately I'm only proficient in light and medium armor. Can't afford to mess with that arcane failure chance.
🙂
that aventail looks a bit loose/low, used to seeing them go across between the chin and lower lip
Would the double with integrated voiders and skirt be period? Or do you know? By the way, this is one of my favorites of your videos (and definitely Alex's best ;p )
It's hard to say for 1415, because I'm not aware of any documents about arming garments of the time.
Maille sleeves and skirts are definitely in use by this point, but whether or not they are integrated is a difficult question.
DOUBLET, dammit
Why do all the people I like and follow talk to each other? :P
We all have impeccable taste.
neat!
Nice suit. Im not a fan of the look of the pig faced helmet style but to each their own. Considering i was into eastern martial Arts/mma for many years b4 HEMA I can say that while strikes dont really do much against armour, the grappling most certainly does. However i have noticed my opponents armour can make certain moves/holds difficult.
Hyperextension is when the joint is bent backwards
That armour looks familiar: I made the cuirasse and sabatons and the other parts was made in our workshop too, mayby exept of gauntlets. 😂
Awesome! Glad you found the channel
I don't know. When I compare those modern reproductions with what we see on the effigies, I always have the feeling that something is very off. Everything looks way to bulky and especially the helmets look like they're two sizes to big. When you look at the effigies, you clearly see how snugly the helmets fit and how tightly the avantails conform to the shape of the body. There is no gap between helmet and cheek. Like a properly fitter motorcycle helmet. Even the chest plates. They look like they're wearing a second skin. Like they didn't wore so many layers underneath, and just had a better fitment over all.
Building my leg harness now. With the fully enclosed cuisses, how is the interaction of the plates on the inside of the legs? Do the edges tend to hit each other? How far down the leg is the upper edge around the inside?
The edge of the back plate of mine runs inside the front edge to present a seamless transition (and allows a little muscle growth). If you drop me an email (see my channels about page) I can send you a close up of the leg armour.
@@Drachinifel thank you for the response! I've sent an email with some additional context.
I would like to see how the English archers were dressed ... Please 🙏🙏🙏
Certainly a good topic.