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<blockquote data-quote="Andelas" data-source="post: 2691374" data-attributes="member: 35590">I don't think many of you realize exactly how flexible, and well designed plate mail actually was. Truth be told, neither did I in fact, until a freind of mine, who is big into the SCA, did cartwheelss in his. Not one mind you...several.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Check out the work that Museum Replicas limited is doing in conjunction with the Tower of London. The Tower of London is doing a great deal of work at recreating the fighting styles in use during medeival times, from the actual manuals that the various fighting schools and such used back then. &nbsp; &nbsp; There is a fairly common mistake made when dealing with plate mail armor, and that is that most of us assume that full plate would be the suits of extremely heavy plate that is used in jousts. The jousting plate was far heavier than normal plate mail, and was useless for anything but a joust. Some of these suits where so heavy that the wearer had to be literally winched up onto his horse. Anyone stupid enough to use that in an actuall battle would have been helpless once he was unhorsed. &nbsp;&nbsp; Keep in mind that one of the tests for an aspiring knight was swimming in his armor, and then think about how flexible that armor would have to be in order to do so.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Last note, and you are incorrect about archers being peasents. The English archer was a highly trained, and extremely accurate combatant. Peasents where... discouraged fron owning longbows. Hard for the Noble to properly lord it over his inferiors if they could shoot him off his horse from a 100 yards off, eh? One of the reasons that the crossbow had such a huge effect upon medeival society was that it too was capable of punching through heavy armor, but it required very little skill or training to use properly. The advent of the crossbow, and later on, the firearm is what really put an end to fuedalism in Europe.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Andelas, post: 2691374, member: 35590"] I don't think many of you realize exactly how flexible, and well designed plate mail actually was. Truth be told, neither did I in fact, until a freind of mine, who is big into the SCA, did cartwheelss in his. Not one mind you...several. Check out the work that Museum Replicas limited is doing in conjunction with the Tower of London. The Tower of London is doing a great deal of work at recreating the fighting styles in use during medeival times, from the actual manuals that the various fighting schools and such used back then. There is a fairly common mistake made when dealing with plate mail armor, and that is that most of us assume that full plate would be the suits of extremely heavy plate that is used in jousts. The jousting plate was [B]far [/B] heavier than normal plate mail, and was useless for anything but a joust. Some of these suits where so heavy that the wearer had to be literally winched up onto his horse. Anyone stupid enough to use that in an actuall battle would have been helpless once he was unhorsed. Keep in mind that one of the tests for an aspiring knight was [B]swimming [/B] in his armor, and then think about how flexible that armor would have to be in order to do so. Last note, and you are incorrect about archers being peasents. The English archer was a highly trained, and extremely accurate combatant. Peasents where... discouraged fron owning longbows. Hard for the Noble to properly lord it over his inferiors if they could shoot him off his horse from a 100 yards off, eh? One of the reasons that the crossbow had such a huge effect upon medeival society was that it too was capable of punching through heavy armor, but it required very little skill or training to use properly. The advent of the crossbow, and later on, the firearm is what really put an end to fuedalism in Europe. [/QUOTE]

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