Massive respect for actually having a coat of plates at hand to show. First person I’ve seen in the medieval arms and armour TH-cam community to have one.
@@ModernKnight I recently acquired a sword that resembles a medieval sword and many that I've seen on the internet I'm not sure of its authenticity , how do I find out the information I need, for provenance and proof of authenticity anyone who can help with this, thank you. how do I find out more information anybody know
i learnt about the layers because of kingdom come: deliverance. i always like the medieval setting but that REALLY got me into it. after this channel im going to try blacksmithing and look at HEMA sports as well. you have ignited a new interest im really, really, really getting into
@@zhain0 you have teams like White Company, Western Boars, etc. You can google "white company buhurt" and you will find info! Buhurt is love, begin the way of the halberd XD
I'm loving this series, but the animations are probably one of my favorite parts (other than the hosts flowing hair, that's number 1). The little squeak by the king as he was discovered had me cackling!
that coat of plates was not a dead end of armour development, but in fact a split, two categories formed, one with larger plates, later becoming the full plate harness, and one with smaller plates, becoming what is known as a brigandine coat, with lots of overlapping small plates.
The coat of platesriveted to a surcoat, not the coat of plates itself, just the issue of it being permanently attached to the surcoat. They quickly became separate items.
just a headup on the gambeson: medieval handcrafted linen cloth used for gambesons had lots of leftovers of the natural glue of the plants and as such were stiffer and more robust, thus making the gambesons more like modern kevlar armour than just a thick patchwork cloth. gambesons made from idustrial linen cloth miss that natural plant glue.
I’m not sure if you’ve done a video on this yet (still watching them), but being a fellow horse lover, I would love to see or learn more about the armor the horses wore into battle. How protected were they? How much more weight did they have to carry with a fully armored knight, etc... Again thank you for doing these videos!!
I cant imagine how terrifying medieval and ancient combat was, thousands of people on a field just hacking away at each other , nearly makes modern warfare look friendly
Nothing about modern warfare is friendly. Weapons are more deadly than ever. Psychologically, knowing that there is nothing you can do about the likes of armored vehicles and A10s makes every encounter terrifying. No amount of armor can really protect you from most ammunition. I would much rather have a fighting chance with spears and shields than seeing soldiers dying due to nerve agents.
Your stuff always has me looking forward to Fridays! And today is my birthday as well, so double the excitement! Thank you for putting out such high quality content!
Love the little animated fight just imagine getting hit in the face with a metal gauntlet🤕. This is top quality content and just wish my history teacher had a tenth of this mans passion. 👍
The story of the Scottish king reminds me of what I read about the ancestor from whom the name McLean was derived. He was evidently very proficient with his weapon of choice. He was known as "Gillain of the Battle-Axe." So if I am ever called an old battle-axe, they just might be right. 😂 Maybe he was able to avoid the fate of this King David in your story.
Another thing that might protect the man just besides the physical protection and the symbol of ransom, is psychological protection. i could definitely see how having good armor would psych you up for being more bold and taking the initiative in combat, just like how American football players tend to hit very hard and get a lot of injuries because they are “psyched up” having all that protective gear and go all out instead of being as reluctant as they might if they were less armored.
I second this. Commanders have had to use all sorts of tricks to give their men enough morale to charge at an enemy. Napoleon had to use dense columns of troops, and I believe that early Bronze Age armies used armoured champions to lead the regular infantry into a charge. Not to mention, I've seen some controversy in the historical combat sport scene. Guys like Rolans Warzecha get criticised for sparring with sharpened swords and no armour, but the math shows that fighters wearing full armour and using blunt weapons are statistically way more likely to inflict and sustain severe injuries. It seems to me like the added safety measures give HEMA fighters a level of boldness that inspires reckless ferocity in order to snag that win.
6:30 - then again many people didn't have the chance to go back to the armourer and ask for changes and upgrades... because, although they had valuable experiences to share with the armourer, these experiences included a gruesome end to their lives
2 Q's: 1) How long does it take you to put on your full complement of tournament or battle armour? 2) Do you have any 'guesstimates' as to how much the entire medieval knight outfit (from padding layer to outermost layers of metal) a knights armor probably weighed? 3) From whatever that answer is, is it fair to say that a knight had to have weighed at least (190 lbs or 86 kilos to 270 lbs or 123 kilos in personal weight in order to be able to hold up all that armour?
Getting armoured up in a rush takes about 15 minutes. If I’m talking and doing it , then about 30 minutes. My harness weighs about 25 kgs, with the tournament helmet being the heaviest bit. It is similar to the load a modern soldier is expected to carry.
@@ModernKnight Except that it's spread out all across your body whereas a modern soldier's kit is all on the upper torso, mainly on the shoulders and the hips.
Jason is more talented by far than a script memorizing parrot dancing monkey actor. That's what I believe makes this channel so fantastic. Knowledge and enthusiasm comes through so honestly it's contagious and so entertaining
Given the connections the Kingsley brothers are sure to have, the fact that this is on TH-cam and not TV must be a deliberate choice of theirs. Not being connected to a TV network gives them a lot more freedom to do exactly what they want. These days it’s mostly just Jason and Kasumi, and being unaffiliated means that they can choose how often they want to make videos, what they want to make them about, and how to edit them, all without interference from any higher-ups. They have “normal” jobs too that they need to fit this stuff around, after all.
your hair style is the perfect one for these topics. by the way, how wide spread was long hair among knights and other professional warriors? sure, we see it all over games and movies and GoT and LotR (hence it is perfect for these videos), but it is perfectly against common sense. With medieval hygene and often thousands of men in an army for months on end, all the blood and heat and sweat and lice and whatnot seems like a terrible problem. easy to prevent with haircut. so how common was the Eomer style and how true is Hollywood about the hair topic? thanks
He talked before about tapestries depicting men riding with quite long, flowing hair. Unless it was done for... Mmm, artistic effect, I suppose shoulder length hair was common enough.
It's not like they knew hygiene was a problem. They knew there was disease but didn't know the source. Also it is a pain to have your hair cut and it could be a symbol that knights could afford shampoo and whatnot where peasants would nor xD
"Mail hangs rather awkwardly on your body." well.... Yes and No. You carry it with your shoulder, and on your waist with a belt. Your sleves are also fitted close to your wrists so taht it wont flap about. Oh and of course your mail is fitted to your body. Unless you are wearing someone elses mail, and then it can hang a bit awkwardly, yes. But a mail made for you, fitted propperly and held in place by the propper items, its not that awkward at all realy. Not in my experience at least. and of course it all depends on what kind of mail we are talking about. A long Hauberk that reaches you knees (or beyond your knees if its not fitted propperly to your body) is alot more awkward than a mail shirt that goes down to your waist an a bit more. The longer the mail, the more it will flap about.
Also the gambeson! Maile won't fit the way it's supposed to unless you wear the padding underneath!! It's usually never worn bare by itself. Without that padding force blows will kill you long before any slashes or stabs will. It's supposed to be 2 parts not 1. Also he forgot about hardened leather as part of armor evolution for light cuts and scrapes. Scale armor and llamenar armor to. There was Soo much more armor evolution that came along.
Love your video! Is there a specific term or name for the earlier leg armor that didn’t wrap around your legs? Basically on the greaves plate was in front and just straps on the back.
According to lindybeige...if chain mail is well fitted and measured to the wearer, maybe supported by a belt around the waste then it doesn't feel very heavy because the weight is more evenly distributed...he even demonstrates with his own snug fitting shirt.
It would be insanely heavy and pretty useless as armour. In real life the highest status burgundians had fully gilded steel harness. They were very wealthy indeed.
Forgive me for I have another annoying question, lol, but over the years I have come across illustrations and descriptions of jousting plate armour and "normal" plate armour. Jousting armour is apparently twice the thickness of normal plate armour (a.k.a. "Field plate"). In a prior message exchange you said that your plate armour suit was 3mm thick in the front and 2mm everywhere else. Would your suit be considered jousting or field plate, or is it a hybrid of both? Thank you for your time.
in the late medieval and renaissance some specialist jousting armour is developed. Before then people used their war armour maybe with some reinforces, but before that, just war armour. So it changes over time. Mine is field plate but on the heavy side for heavy cavalry.
Its all very interesting but somehow sad how we have wasted so much time and effort on arms race when we could have used that time to invent something useful.
Of course, armor made from leather would proably have been better than nothing, and modern creations can be moderatley effective, especially when worn over a padded gambeson or under mail. Much of what we know of ancient and medieval armor comes from analyzing artwork and written descriptions and comparing that to surviving examples of real period armor. There are very few surviving examples of leather armor since leather is a n organic material. There ae a lot things depicted artistically that could have been leather or metal, but we know metal was used as we have surviving examples. If Europeans did use leather is was probably Aurochs hide. The Aurochs was a type of cattle that went extinct in Europe in 1627 and thought to have thick hide that might have made serviceable armor, but I know of no surviving examples.
Its still strange: Romans had great armour, during the end, it was mail , dark ages, people got back to no armour/padded/Scale/mail and just during the 13/14th century, they got back to plate armour... its strange and now we are back to cloth armour
So if you can get away with not wearing chainmail under sufficient amounts of plate armor, do you just wear a gambeson or even an arming doublet right underneath the plate?
@@ModernKnight alright awesome thanks! I'm putting together a late 15th century suit of Germanic plate armor, your videos are a big help in understanding the how and why certain things were done. Also a bit of a relief knowing I can get away with eschewing chainmail from my getup. Riveted mail looks awesome but like you said, it is heavy, not to mention freakin' expensive!
Is the armor that you have now the armor set you want or because of how much it costs and if so what would your armor be if you had the funds to get it.
Have you had the idea to have armor that was not plate, but armor your family could have worn back in the early medieval era even if you cant have someone make you it maybe you can have someone do it on a computer so that way you can see a 3d version of it and maybe you can make a video of the evolution of your family using certain armor and weapons from then to you now. And its just and idea I am not trying to tell you to do it
it varied, but earlier in the medieval period it was typically more an armed miitia with a small core of professionals. that changed to being mostly professionals towards the end.
Again I love your videos just brilliant. Didn’t they use a leather armor as well. I will screw the name up but I believe it was called caribulli or something like that ????
It existed. The japanese painted their lamellar (or was it laminar?) armor black, including the wooden ones. So there was an angel of deception to it. After all you dont want to be banging against armor but exploiting the gaps in it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laminar_armour#Laminar_armour_of_native_peoples_of_Bering_Strait_region Bone was a better material as it doesnt split as easily as wood. siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/features/warriors-3900-year-old-suit-of-bone-armour-unearthed-in-omsk/
How often were leather armor or more specifically, boiled leather armor used? I hear it was more prevalent in the East as some Turkopoles used it, but what about in Western and Northern Europe?
It's hard to tell from effigies or illustrations, and records are unclear about its use. One area I'm looking at is horse armour as it can be moulded to shape apparently, and might be useful there. Basically we don't really know.
As you skipped over most other armors to get quickly to plate armor, would you do a proper video about cloth, hide, studded. ring, boiled leather, etc. at sometime in the future?
That's because most of that stuff was the invention of fantasy novels and RPGs. He touched upon cloth at the very beginning, studded never existed and was likely a misinterpretation of brigandine, and there's no evidence for wide scale use of boiled leather as armor outside of maybe for bracers/vambraces. If you really want to know more check out the following channels, all will have talked about one or the other at some point: Skallagrim, Scholagladiatoria, Metatron, Shadiversity, and Knyght Errant.
@@Riceball01 Well there was scale armor. Although as far as I know it wasnt popular in medieval Europe. Not sure it was still popular anyehwere to be honest. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorica_squamata
@@westvirginian3102 No. Just that leather and studded leather did not, or didn't likely exist. Leather is great against slashes and cuts but does nothing vs. thrusts, much like a gambeson, but is heavier and takes more to make, Historians think that people had much better uses for leather than to make armor with, esp. given the amount of leather needed. As for studded leather, that's mostly a role-playing game (D&D) invention and a result of misinterpreting art from the period. What's been interpreted as studded leather is almost certainly either a coat of plates or brigandine, the studs being the rivets holding the plates to the fabric. The rivets are too widely spaced to offer any added protection and it's really easy to thrust between the studs. Even if you happen to hit a stud/rivet with a thrust, there's a good chance that it will just cause the blow to glance off and into the leather.
Modern soldiers carry about as much gear as a knight would, so if you want firsthand accounts of carrying all that weight, there are loads of people who can answer you. In general, I believe the answer is that as long as it fits you well and you’re sufficiently well trained it’s not a problem.
I reckon it might give you a chance. Steel is pretty tough even for a bear. You'd have to consult someone who know more about how bears fight and what weapons they prefer.
But not impossible. Skeletons dug up from medieval battlefields show signs of having survived shockingly brutal wounds to the head (to be killed by a later blow of course).
Yes, covered in dirt and blood and has to be rebuilt rather than cleaned. I think you missed my point, I was talking about the combination of heraldry on a coat of plates rather than a separate cover.
@@ModernKnight thats the same problem i imagine it happened with brigandines, damn, it would be super annoying to receive a slash to the leather/linnen cover where the plates were riveted to. Maybe there is no enough documentation about this, and actually the knights/man at arms with those armors had lots of patches sewn where a cut has been made? :o
What sort of stuff would peasants wear when they were called to wars? Just padding clothing and gambeson? What about city guards that had to walk around all day, yet still wear something that would protect them against armed villains? I bet they didn't wear full plate armour when they had to walk for a week or two.
Unlikely they would be able to plunder from high status dead because their own lords would either stop that of do it themselves. They’d likely acquire helmets, gauntlets body harness and a decent weapon, plus any valuables that were easily carried, but from mid to low status bodies generally. Stuff gets thrown away by a defeated army too as they escape.
@@ModernKnight Yeah, I may have exaggerating a bit. Thanks for the replies! Do you have any clue as to what equipment a professional fighting man would get at the lowest tier, though? Like a guard, a member of a noble's retinue, or something like this? (not-a-knight kind of soldier)
Peasant levies were typically supposed to have gambeson and helmets, at least. However, what is written in the regulations and what actually happens are often entirely different things, even today.
Have you heard of the Dutch youtuber Snapjelly? He is a tad sarcastic/feedback-y but he knows his stuff when it comes to fencing. I enjoy his channel also very much :D !!!
Is there a way to view Part 20? Seems to be set to Private. I'm absolutely loving this series of yours, it's a real shame to be missing out on even a single part of it heh.
Coat of plates evolved into brigandines. Same principle but with more plates. They were pretty strong and people wore plackards (a half cuiras) over it for extra protection. So that it lasted longer.
I heard of a story that a nobleman went to fight with fancy armour and it was engraved with "I'm very rich, and I accept ransom" just to not die, if it is true it is actually really funny that if you had the means you could easily survive a battle.
I always thought riveted mail was lighter than butted mail because essentially the only way butted mail got it’s strength was the thickness of the mettle that made up the rings but in riveted mail the rings could be flatter and so there was less mettle that was used but because of the rivet it was actually stronger
If butted a blade poke could easily split the ring apart. Basically making it useless against stabs Riveted forcibly holds the ring to keep its shape. But because it is riveted with an extra nail like piece in between the ring to join it together it adds additional metal. Riveted is harder to do and takes longer but it works well against both slashes and stabs. Butted is good for slashes only and faster and easier plus a little lighter and cheaper. So it has those advantages. Either or could be thicker or thinner though historically the real maile was a lot thicker. By gauge the rings were 14 gauge!!! Very thick!!! Most store bought armors today are thinner 16 gauge or even thinner 18 gauge... Hardly strong at all....
Awesome video, as all yours are if I'm being honest! :D Just wanted to let you know the 3rd part of the video is called "Male" instead of "Mail". Other than that, as always, thank you for providing great content!
Rewatching your videos , never get bored of your descriptive delivery. Medieval history brought to life, love this period in time and I reckon your channel is the best on YT by far. Thanks Mr Kingsley.
I know from personal experience in Afghanistan it’s a fine trade off between protection and being mobile especially when it’s 55 degrees. Excellent channel thanks.
thanks for the data point, and yes, armour always will be a balancing act. Some UK military colleagues suggested that they often only used the back plates when on patrol, as an ambust was likely to happen once they'd gone past. No idea if that's true or not.
@@ModernKnight I didn’t personally we would use just plate carrier, and later version of a coat of plates I suppose you could say. I will be strapping my armour on again tomorrow as I currently work over in Kabul. I love being part of the history of men at arms. Makes me proud of our heritage.
I'm intrigued with your explanation of why the coat of plates went from being directly attached to the surcote to being separate from the surcote. It makes sense that you wouldn't ideally want your armour attached to the garment meant to keep your armour from getting filthy. I have seen other videos about the progression of the coat of plates but I have never heard an explanation for why this change occurred so I appreciate this video for that tidbit of information.
Regarding Chain Maille and horses. Many years ago, I was a member of a mideval living history group. To help round out the mideval training for our participants, those of us with horsemanship experience would teach equestrian skills to anyone with a desire to learn. As a group, we soon came to the conclusion that until the student was of greatest proficiency: there will be no Chain Maille on horseback! Just a small change in balance would cause a dirt bath for the rider and aggravation for the horse. Best to learn a cooperative and balanced way of riding, sans armour, when tackling the quintaine or hacking away at the Saracen heads.
@Lisa McNeill, you bring up a good point. As an amateur military history buff myself, I often wondered why lightly armored or completely unarmored light cavalry forces were used on battlefields for so many hundreds of years going up against heavy forces or infantry forces and I think you have the answer. And that is riding at speed with armor is a challenge in and of itself and any weight you add starts to significantly effect how maneuverable and fast those mounted forces can be. What people forget is that warfare is a highly accelerated Darwinian system in that those ill-fitted for survival quickly find that out and the techniques that persisted for long periods of time did so because they just worked.
Paying randsom for a captured person... you mean the family would pay this, right? For a moment it did sound like the captured person himself would have to pay, which I would found odd, since the capturer could easily take all the capture's belongings.
I really enjoy your conversational yet informative style of presentation! These videos are packed with so much information in such a short amount of time, but each video is interesting, entertaining and a real joy to watch. Definitely binge-worthy!
Mail is actually very comfortable if you have a good coat. Yea it is heavy but it's not encumbering by any means. When you put a belt on around your hips you basically find yourself overall heavier.
Did the lower class soldiers in those days where allowed to take high grade armour from knights that died on the battlefield to upgrade their own armour?
Soldiers are seen in the Bayeux Tapestry stripping the dead of their armor. The dead's wounds at Towton and Visby were too terrible to strip and were buried in mass graves with bits and pieces of their armor on.
@@kevinlutz2679 I assume any armour left on the dead was armour none of the survivors wanted. If you see a dead body with some armour, but also terrible wounds, it’s not unreasonable to think: “well, that armour didn’t protect him all that much.”
You do a good job trying your best to teach people useful information, and ive always been a fan of chain mail because its the kind of armor that's in between light and heavy
Massive respect for actually having a coat of plates at hand to show. First person I’ve seen in the medieval arms and armour TH-cam community to have one.
thanks.
@@ModernKnight I recently acquired a sword that resembles a medieval sword and many that I've seen on the internet I'm not sure of its authenticity , how do I find out the information I need, for provenance and proof of authenticity anyone who can help with this, thank you.
how do I find out more information anybody know
Where did you acquire said sword?
Excellent work, subbed
Nice to meet you, albeit virtually. Enjoying what you do too.
I'm a long time subscriber of Metatron and I like that he also enjoys this gem of a channel. Also - I hope you have recovered from your recent ilness.
awsome man i subbed
Metatron! Love your channel! Love this channel too for that matter...
Finally a medieval channel I can bear to watch and actually like it.
Yes, Holy shit. Most medieval/war-history channels are run by weaboos and it's disgustingly cringey.
@@Ozepyon09 Or borderline Nazis. I agree, it's very refreshing to find a medieval channel from a normal & wholesome person.
Ozepyon09 like who?
Wonton which channels? From the ones I watch they seem pretty normal
Truly !
i learnt about the layers because of kingdom come: deliverance. i always like the medieval setting but that REALLY got me into it. after this channel im going to try blacksmithing and look at HEMA sports as well. you have ignited a new interest im really, really, really getting into
Good luck with it all.
Where are you from? Have you heard of buhurt or HMB? You might want to try
@@pablotesticules uk, not heard of them
@@zhain0 you have teams like White Company, Western Boars, etc. You can google "white company buhurt" and you will find info! Buhurt is love, begin the way of the halberd XD
If u make blades remember sharpness and narrowness are two things
I'm loving this series, but the animations are probably one of my favorite parts (other than the hosts flowing hair, that's number 1). The little squeak by the king as he was discovered had me cackling!
that coat of plates was not a dead end of armour development, but in fact a split, two categories formed, one with larger plates, later becoming the full plate harness, and one with smaller plates, becoming what is known as a brigandine coat, with lots of overlapping small plates.
The coat of platesriveted to a surcoat, not the coat of plates itself, just the issue of it being permanently attached to the surcoat. They quickly became separate items.
just a headup on the gambeson: medieval handcrafted linen cloth used for gambesons had lots of leftovers of the natural glue of the plants and as such were stiffer and more robust, thus making the gambesons more like modern kevlar armour than just a thick patchwork cloth.
gambesons made from idustrial linen cloth miss that natural plant glue.
I’m not sure if you’ve done a video on this yet (still watching them), but being a fellow horse lover, I would love to see or learn more about the armor the horses wore into battle. How protected were they? How much more weight did they have to carry with a fully armored knight, etc...
Again thank you for doing these videos!!
Oh, I would love to see that too! 👍
I cant imagine how terrifying medieval and ancient combat was, thousands of people on a field just hacking away at each other , nearly makes modern warfare look friendly
Nothing about modern warfare is friendly. Weapons are more deadly than ever. Psychologically, knowing that there is nothing you can do about the likes of armored vehicles and A10s makes every encounter terrifying. No amount of armor can really protect you from most ammunition. I would much rather have a fighting chance with spears and shields than seeing soldiers dying due to nerve agents.
Your stuff always has me looking forward to Fridays! And today is my birthday as well, so double the excitement! Thank you for putting out such high quality content!
Logan Bassham our pleasure, they are fun to do.
I don't know how I missed so many of these viseos. But I'm really enjoying finding them now.
thanks for watching!
Love the little animated fight just imagine getting hit in the face with a metal gauntlet🤕. This is top quality content and just wish my history teacher had a tenth of this mans passion. 👍
It's really great seeing all these things in a practical context. Interesting to see which bits have survived in our image of the knight.
6:03 "I took an arrow to the knee."
Aiming for the knee makes sense when the enemy are riding, as hitting leaves them with an injured warrior, and missing injures or kills the horse.
It's a reference to a video game quote based on medieval era. The phrase would get repeated a lot. It sorta became a famous line to say online
An interesting video. Armour must always be a compromise between protection and mobility if it's combat armour. It must be practical.
Lovely video! I am excited to see what you do with Graham, his videos have been instrumental as I've been building my own armor.
So great video with so detailed explanation. I love it.:) Thank you very much.
You're very welcome!
I'm going to be so sad when I've caught up on all the episodes
The story of the Scottish king reminds me of what I read about the ancestor from whom the name McLean was derived. He was evidently very proficient with his weapon of choice. He was known as "Gillain of the Battle-Axe." So if I am ever called an old battle-axe, they just might be right. 😂 Maybe he was able to avoid the fate of this King David in your story.
Another thing that might protect the man just besides the physical protection and the symbol of ransom, is psychological protection. i could definitely see how having good armor would psych you up for being more bold and taking the initiative in combat, just like how American football players tend to hit very hard and get a lot of injuries because they are “psyched up” having all that protective gear and go all out instead of being as reluctant as they might if they were less armored.
I second this. Commanders have had to use all sorts of tricks to give their men enough morale to charge at an enemy. Napoleon had to use dense columns of troops, and I believe that early Bronze Age armies used armoured champions to lead the regular infantry into a charge.
Not to mention, I've seen some controversy in the historical combat sport scene. Guys like Rolans Warzecha get criticised for sparring with sharpened swords and no armour, but the math shows that fighters wearing full armour and using blunt weapons are statistically way more likely to inflict and sustain severe injuries. It seems to me like the added safety measures give HEMA fighters a level of boldness that inspires reckless ferocity in order to snag that win.
good job, nicely made video
6:30 - then again many people didn't have the chance to go back to the armourer and ask for changes and upgrades... because, although they had valuable experiences to share with the armourer, these experiences included a gruesome end to their lives
Well I'm sure thier comrades could tell the tale
I really enjoyed that short but sweet
This channel truly is amazing!
thanks.
I love your work! Keep it up!!!!!!!!
2 Q's: 1) How long does it take you to put on your full complement of tournament or battle armour? 2) Do you have any 'guesstimates' as to how much the entire medieval knight outfit (from padding layer to outermost layers of metal) a knights armor probably weighed? 3) From whatever that answer is, is it fair to say that a knight had to have weighed at least (190 lbs or 86 kilos to 270 lbs or 123 kilos in personal weight in order to be able to hold up all that armour?
Getting armoured up in a rush takes about 15 minutes. If I’m talking and doing it , then about 30 minutes. My harness weighs about 25 kgs, with the tournament helmet being the heaviest bit. It is similar to the load a modern soldier is expected to carry.
@@ModernKnight Except that it's spread out all across your body whereas a modern soldier's kit is all on the upper torso, mainly on the shoulders and the hips.
Thank you.
You seem a lot like denethor the steward. Much nicer guy tho
Am I the only one missing the brigandine?
Since they were very common in the 14, 15 hundreds.
Plus they could be very stylish.
Why hasn't a TV show picked this show up
because TV is full of hack frauds
Jason is more talented by far than a script memorizing parrot dancing monkey actor. That's what I believe makes this channel so fantastic. Knowledge and enthusiasm comes through so honestly it's contagious and so entertaining
Given the connections the Kingsley brothers are sure to have, the fact that this is on TH-cam and not TV must be a deliberate choice of theirs. Not being connected to a TV network gives them a lot more freedom to do exactly what they want. These days it’s mostly just Jason and Kasumi, and being unaffiliated means that they can choose how often they want to make videos, what they want to make them about, and how to edit them, all without interference from any higher-ups. They have “normal” jobs too that they need to fit this stuff around, after all.
Ransom is such an ingenious way to keep your warrior class alive.
I LOVE the animation!🤙🏼😃
Love it!
Thanks.
your hair style is the perfect one for these topics. by the way, how wide spread was long hair among knights and other professional warriors? sure, we see it all over games and movies and GoT and LotR (hence it is perfect for these videos), but it is perfectly against common sense. With medieval hygene and often thousands of men in an army for months on end, all the blood and heat and sweat and lice and whatnot seems like a terrible problem. easy to prevent with haircut.
so how common was the Eomer style and how true is Hollywood about the hair topic?
thanks
He talked before about tapestries depicting men riding with quite long, flowing hair.
Unless it was done for... Mmm, artistic effect, I suppose shoulder length hair was common enough.
It's not like they knew hygiene was a problem. They knew there was disease but didn't know the source.
Also it is a pain to have your hair cut and it could be a symbol that knights could afford shampoo and whatnot where peasants would nor xD
Really, it just depended on the time, fashion & personal preference
If you look at pictures of medieval kings, most seemed to have a bowl cut
@@JonatasAdoM he says in an earlier video they were very much aware of hygiene
awesome stuff
Dates for when these things were used would have been good.
"Mail hangs rather awkwardly on your body."
well.... Yes and No. You carry it with your shoulder, and on your waist with a belt. Your sleves are also fitted close to your wrists so taht it wont flap about. Oh and of course your mail is fitted to your body. Unless you are wearing someone elses mail, and then it can hang a bit awkwardly, yes.
But a mail made for you, fitted propperly and held in place by the propper items, its not that awkward at all realy. Not in my experience at least.
and of course it all depends on what kind of mail we are talking about. A long Hauberk that reaches you knees (or beyond your knees if its not fitted propperly to your body) is alot more awkward than a mail shirt that goes down to your waist an a bit more. The longer the mail, the more it will flap about.
Mail becomes heavy once you get in to full mail suits, longer skirts and arms
Also the gambeson! Maile won't fit the way it's supposed to unless you wear the padding underneath!! It's usually never worn bare by itself. Without that padding force blows will kill you long before any slashes or stabs will.
It's supposed to be 2 parts not 1.
Also he forgot about hardened leather as part of armor evolution for light cuts and scrapes. Scale armor and llamenar armor to. There was Soo much more armor evolution that came along.
Love your video! Is there a specific term or name for the earlier leg armor that didn’t wrap around your legs?
Basically on the greaves plate was in front and just straps on the back.
I think that might be a schynbald, but am not sure.
I really like the song during the titles.
There is a limit to how many layers you can wear to fight in.
14th-15th century Knight with jupon: hold my beer.
According to lindybeige...if chain mail is well fitted and measured to the wearer, maybe supported by a belt around the waste then it doesn't feel very heavy because the weight is more evenly distributed...he even demonstrates with his own snug fitting shirt.
LOL, that helps, but it depends on what you mean by 'not heavy'. It is certainly heavy from my perspective, as is plate, but it's easily manageble.
Chain mail hood looks really cool, but full body does look really awkward for sure.
A collaboration with Lindybeige would be awsome.
What about armour for the horses? I would have thought the horses were vulnerable and an easy way to bring down the rider.
@SJ Greer but never fully, horses can't have plate legs.
Apparently the main difference between a coat of plates and a brigandine is that the former is sewn whereas the latter is riveted.
Can you imagine pure gold armor? You can get some in runescape.
It would be insanely heavy and pretty useless as armour. In real life the highest status burgundians had fully gilded steel harness. They were very wealthy indeed.
My ancestor was the one who captured the Scottish King 👑 🙏 Battle of Neville’s Cross
Forgive me for I have another annoying question, lol, but over the years I have come across illustrations and descriptions of jousting plate armour and "normal" plate armour. Jousting armour is apparently twice the thickness of normal plate armour (a.k.a. "Field plate"). In a prior message exchange you said that your plate armour suit was 3mm thick in the front and 2mm everywhere else. Would your suit be considered jousting or field plate, or is it a hybrid of both? Thank you for your time.
in the late medieval and renaissance some specialist jousting armour is developed. Before then people used their war armour maybe with some reinforces, but before that, just war armour. So it changes over time. Mine is field plate but on the heavy side for heavy cavalry.
Where does elven-made mithril mail come in? 😂
If I had any of that I'd be wealthy indeed.
Modern History TV You’d be worth more than the entire shire!
@@ModernKnight 🤣🤣
New sub here as well
Welcome
I wonder if the knights took a farrier to the field with a portable forge, or maybe cold shoeing was used?
Its all very interesting but somehow sad how we have wasted so much time and effort on arms race when we could have used that time to invent something useful.
Was leather ever used? It seems like thick, fairly hard/stiff leather would've been used?
Of course, armor made from leather would proably have been better than nothing, and modern creations can be moderatley effective, especially when worn over a padded gambeson or under mail. Much of what we know of ancient and medieval armor comes from analyzing artwork and written descriptions and comparing that to surviving examples of real period armor. There are very few surviving examples of leather armor since leather is a n organic material. There ae a lot things depicted artistically that could have been leather or metal, but we know metal was used as we have surviving examples. If Europeans did use leather is was probably Aurochs hide. The Aurochs was a type of cattle that went extinct in Europe in 1627 and thought to have thick hide that might have made serviceable armor, but I know of no surviving examples.
Its still strange:
Romans had great armour, during the end, it was mail , dark ages, people got back to no armour/padded/Scale/mail and just during the 13/14th century, they got back to plate armour... its strange and now we are back to cloth armour
Sewing machines make a _huge_ difference in how long it takes to make the modern stuff.
So if you can get away with not wearing chainmail under sufficient amounts of plate armor, do you just wear a gambeson or even an arming doublet right underneath the plate?
Yes, just a robust arming doublet with very little padding at all.
@@ModernKnight alright awesome thanks! I'm putting together a late 15th century suit of Germanic plate armor, your videos are a big help in understanding the how and why certain things were done.
Also a bit of a relief knowing I can get away with eschewing chainmail from my getup. Riveted mail looks awesome but like you said, it is heavy, not to mention freakin' expensive!
Is the armor that you have now the armor set you want or because of how much it costs and if so what would your armor be if you had the funds to get it.
I'm always buying new armour, each has it's own characteristics, but custome made high quality stuff takes ages to complete.
Have you had the idea to have armor that was not plate, but armor your family could have worn back in the early medieval era even if you cant have someone make you it maybe you can have someone do it on a computer so that way you can see a 3d version of it and maybe you can make a video of the evolution of your family using certain armor and weapons from then to you now. And its just and idea I am not trying to tell you to do it
How was a military formed back in them times? Was it voluntarily or was it mandatory to serve in the Kings Army?
it varied, but earlier in the medieval period it was typically more an armed miitia with a small core of professionals. that changed to being mostly professionals towards the end.
Again I love your videos just brilliant. Didn’t they use a leather armor as well. I will screw the name up but I believe it was called caribulli or something like that ????
yes cuirboulli, boiled leather. It's not researched very much though and is an interesting area to investigate.
Was wood ever used for armors or just shields? I feel like it would have been pretty effective especially against swords
It existed. The japanese painted their lamellar (or was it laminar?) armor black, including the wooden ones. So there was an angel of deception to it. After all you dont want to be banging against armor but exploiting the gaps in it.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laminar_armour#Laminar_armour_of_native_peoples_of_Bering_Strait_region
Bone was a better material as it doesnt split as easily as wood.
siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/features/warriors-3900-year-old-suit-of-bone-armour-unearthed-in-omsk/
How often were leather armor or more specifically, boiled leather armor used? I hear it was more prevalent in the East as some Turkopoles used it, but what about in Western and Northern Europe?
It's hard to tell from effigies or illustrations, and records are unclear about its use. One area I'm looking at is horse armour as it can be moulded to shape apparently, and might be useful there. Basically we don't really know.
No, rivited mail is lighter beacose the rings are flat, not rounded.
that depends on what era maille you are talking about of course.
As you skipped over most other armors to get quickly to plate armor, would you do a proper video about cloth, hide, studded. ring, boiled leather, etc. at sometime in the future?
That's because most of that stuff was the invention of fantasy novels and RPGs. He touched upon cloth at the very beginning, studded never existed and was likely a misinterpretation of brigandine, and there's no evidence for wide scale use of boiled leather as armor outside of maybe for bracers/vambraces. If you really want to know more check out the following channels, all will have talked about one or the other at some point: Skallagrim, Scholagladiatoria, Metatron, Shadiversity, and Knyght Errant.
@@Riceball01 Well there was scale armor. Although as far as I know it wasnt popular in medieval Europe. Not sure it was still popular anyehwere to be honest.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorica_squamata
@Riceball01 So you are saying that the only armors were cloth and plate and that all others never existed in the real world?
@@westvirginian3102 No. Just that leather and studded leather did not, or didn't likely exist. Leather is great against slashes and cuts but does nothing vs. thrusts, much like a gambeson, but is heavier and takes more to make, Historians think that people had much better uses for leather than to make armor with, esp. given the amount of leather needed.
As for studded leather, that's mostly a role-playing game (D&D) invention and a result of misinterpreting art from the period. What's been interpreted as studded leather is almost certainly either a coat of plates or brigandine, the studs being the rivets holding the plates to the fabric. The rivets are too widely spaced to offer any added protection and it's really easy to thrust between the studs. Even if you happen to hit a stud/rivet with a thrust, there's a good chance that it will just cause the blow to glance off and into the leather.
What about heat stroke and exhaustion from carrying all the weight
Modern soldiers carry about as much gear as a knight would, so if you want firsthand accounts of carrying all that weight, there are loads of people who can answer you. In general, I believe the answer is that as long as it fits you well and you’re sufficiently well trained it’s not a problem.
100 light armor
Id imagine that a coat of plates was also a lot less work to make than mail. All those riveted rings.
But easier to maintain and repair.
Actually I think the opposite was true because making iron and steel plates was difficult with medieval forging technology.
I want to be a knight amor and knight sword
someone needs to send this to the mha heros lol
It's like i am playing RPG game :)
Ok wheres the Brigandine ?
Your Pollacks would destroy this armor!
Will all these armor stop a bear attack?
I reckon it might give you a chance. Steel is pretty tough even for a bear. You'd have to consult someone who know more about how bears fight and what weapons they prefer.
You have to draw a circle and stand in it.
Just run 😝
6:00
If you survived a Battle and had being hit on The knee, chances are you would lose your leg or your life later From infection lol
But not impossible. Skeletons dug up from medieval battlefields show signs of having survived shockingly brutal wounds to the head (to be killed by a later blow of course).
Coat of plates useless after 1 battle? I don't think so.
Yes, covered in dirt and blood and has to be rebuilt rather than cleaned. I think you missed my point, I was talking about the combination of heraldry on a coat of plates rather than a separate cover.
@@ModernKnight thats the same problem i imagine it happened with brigandines, damn, it would be super annoying to receive a slash to the leather/linnen cover where the plates were riveted to. Maybe there is no enough documentation about this, and actually the knights/man at arms with those armors had lots of patches sewn where a cut has been made? :o
@@joygamesinteractive
I think the point was that it’s a lot easier to clean _and_ repair both the armour and the surcoat if they’re separate items.
What sort of stuff would peasants wear when they were called to wars? Just padding clothing and gambeson? What about city guards that had to walk around all day, yet still wear something that would protect them against armed villains? I bet they didn't wear full plate armour when they had to walk for a week or two.
My guess is they’d wear whatever they could get hold of, borrow or make. Often getting better kit if they survived through plunder.
@@ModernKnight So just clothes and a pitchfork for the first battle, then full plate armour when the war was over :)
Unlikely they would be able to plunder from high status dead because their own lords would either stop that of do it themselves. They’d likely acquire helmets, gauntlets body harness and a decent weapon, plus any valuables that were easily carried, but from mid to low status bodies generally. Stuff gets thrown away by a defeated army too as they escape.
@@ModernKnight Yeah, I may have exaggerating a bit. Thanks for the replies!
Do you have any clue as to what equipment a professional fighting man would get at the lowest tier, though? Like a guard, a member of a noble's retinue, or something like this? (not-a-knight kind of soldier)
Peasant levies were typically supposed to have gambeson and helmets, at least. However, what is written in the regulations and what actually happens are often entirely different things, even today.
Did I see a teddy 🧸 on your armor 🤔
Brigandine :(
Jason,
I'm shocked to find your humanity in the form of a mistake.
I made sure I cannot find "metalogy"
Metallurgy, yes, not metalogy.
It is indeed the normal English English pronunciation of metallurgy (Me-TAL-ur-gee) not (metal-lur-gee).
Metallurgy not metalugy. BTW, all that heavy armor is actually a hindrance on movement.
Its funny in the movies that no matter what you're wearing the heroes will slash you down with a butter knife
And in games.
Have you heard of the Dutch youtuber Snapjelly? He is a tad sarcastic/feedback-y but he knows his stuff when it comes to fencing. I enjoy his channel also very much :D !!!
yeah a copper sword going through plate armour, makes me mad
Don't forget that any amount of being stabbed--no matter how deep or where it is on your body--is fatal.
Unless you're a protag
Movies also show ling drawn out sword fights but in real life a few parrys and your sword edge will look like swiss cheese
Is there a way to view Part 20? Seems to be set to Private. I'm absolutely loving this series of yours, it's a real shame to be missing out on even a single part of it heh.
Hi - we had a slight issue with Part 20 and had to update the video slightly. It should be available now.
I dont think ive ever actually liked and subscribed when someone asks me too. Until now that is.
Coat of plates evolved into brigandines. Same principle but with more plates. They were pretty strong and people wore plackards (a half cuiras) over it for extra protection. So that it lasted longer.
What happened to part 20? :)
Hi, we had to make Part 20 private temporarily but it's available again now. Sorry for the disruption.
I heard of a story that a nobleman went to fight with fancy armour and it was engraved with "I'm very rich, and I accept ransom" just to not die, if it is true it is actually really funny that if you had the means you could easily survive a battle.
I always thought riveted mail was lighter than butted mail because essentially the only way butted mail got it’s strength was the thickness of the mettle that made up the rings but in riveted mail the rings could be flatter and so there was less mettle that was used but because of the rivet it was actually stronger
Or you could just use mithril and have the elves make it. That way it would be both light and strong.
@@anyascelticcreations as hard as dragon scales
If butted a blade poke could easily split the ring apart. Basically making it useless against stabs
Riveted forcibly holds the ring to keep its shape. But because it is riveted with an extra nail like piece
in between the ring to join it together it adds additional metal. Riveted is harder to do and takes longer but it works well against both slashes and stabs.
Butted is good for slashes only and faster and easier plus a little lighter and cheaper. So it has those advantages.
Either or could be thicker or thinner though historically the real maile was a lot thicker. By gauge the rings were 14 gauge!!! Very thick!!! Most store bought armors today are thinner 16 gauge or even thinner 18 gauge... Hardly strong at all....
Awesome video, as all yours are if I'm being honest! :D
Just wanted to let you know the 3rd part of the video is called "Male" instead of "Mail".
Other than that, as always, thank you for providing great content!
I love those "flat-man" cartoons !😁
Rewatching your videos , never get bored of your descriptive delivery. Medieval history brought to life, love this period in time and I reckon your channel is the best on YT by far. Thanks Mr Kingsley.
Glad you like them!
I know from personal experience in Afghanistan it’s a fine trade off between protection and being mobile especially when it’s 55 degrees. Excellent channel thanks.
thanks for the data point, and yes, armour always will be a balancing act. Some UK military colleagues suggested that they often only used the back plates when on patrol, as an ambust was likely to happen once they'd gone past. No idea if that's true or not.
@@ModernKnight I didn’t personally we would use just plate carrier, and later version of a coat of plates I suppose you could say. I will be strapping my armour on again tomorrow as I currently work over in Kabul. I love being part of the history of men at arms. Makes me proud of our heritage.
I'm intrigued with your explanation of why the coat of plates went from being directly attached to the surcote to being separate from the surcote. It makes sense that you wouldn't ideally want your armour attached to the garment meant to keep your armour from getting filthy. I have seen other videos about the progression of the coat of plates but I have never heard an explanation for why this change occurred so I appreciate this video for that tidbit of information.
Jason, when are you going to get your company, Rebellion, to make a medieval sword fighting game? It would be awesome!
Regarding Chain Maille and horses. Many years ago, I was a member of a mideval living history group. To help round out the mideval training for our participants, those of us with horsemanship experience would teach equestrian skills to anyone with a desire to learn. As a group, we soon came to the conclusion that until the student was of greatest proficiency: there will be no Chain Maille on horseback! Just a small change in balance would cause a dirt bath for the rider and aggravation for the horse. Best to learn a cooperative and balanced way of riding, sans armour, when tackling the quintaine or hacking away at the Saracen heads.
+
@Lisa McNeill, you bring up a good point. As an amateur military history buff myself, I often wondered why lightly armored or completely unarmored light cavalry forces were used on battlefields for so many hundreds of years going up against heavy forces or infantry forces and I think you have the answer. And that is riding at speed with armor is a challenge in and of itself and any weight you add starts to significantly effect how maneuverable and fast those mounted forces can be. What people forget is that warfare is a highly accelerated Darwinian system in that those ill-fitted for survival quickly find that out and the techniques that persisted for long periods of time did so because they just worked.
@@Jazzman-bj9fq Also this was a time without stirrups, which made it more difficult to control horses.
Paying randsom for a captured person... you mean the family would pay this, right?
For a moment it did sound like the captured person himself would have to pay, which I would found odd, since the capturer could easily take all the capture's belongings.
You every tried carrying all your stuff or lands?
I really enjoy your conversational yet informative style of presentation! These videos are packed with so much information in such a short amount of time, but each video is interesting, entertaining and a real joy to watch. Definitely binge-worthy!
I’ve always heard it pronounced metalLURgy, but yes, meTALlurgy works better.
Mail is actually very comfortable if you have a good coat. Yea it is heavy but it's not encumbering by any means. When you put a belt on around your hips you basically find yourself overall heavier.
Its true, but it does tend to be heavier on the shoulders than plate.
Did the lower class soldiers in those days where allowed to take high grade armour from knights that died on the battlefield to upgrade their own armour?
There is always a problem of officers taking best stuff for themselves, but yes. If it fits ones body, one could upgrade their gear with loot
Soldiers were supposed to surrender their loot to officers then they divide it afterwards after the superiors already took the good stuff.
Soldiers are seen in the Bayeux Tapestry stripping the dead of their armor. The dead's wounds at Towton and Visby were too terrible to strip and were buried in mass graves with bits and pieces of their armor on.
@@kevinlutz2679 AFAIK the armor in Visby were just to old and outdated, so the winner of the battle had no use for them.
@@kevinlutz2679
I assume any armour left on the dead was armour none of the survivors wanted. If you see a dead body with some armour, but also terrible wounds, it’s not unreasonable to think: “well, that armour didn’t protect him all that much.”
You do a good job trying your best to teach people useful information, and ive always been a fan of chain mail because its the kind of armor that's in between light and heavy
i love this video. thank you! love from philippines