Literally everyone holds the English nobility in contempt, right? What use are they? What are they for? Useless and nothing, correct. The only good thing any of them ever did was pay for and wear all that totally sweet plate armour.
I’m not into war. As much as I love to read and write about it, I loathe real world violence. But, oh man, who doesn’t love the sight of a hulking great medieval exoskeleton war machine? Is there any cooler outfit? You’re probably thinking of your corduroy blazer with the elite, profound muffin elbow patches but the answer, my friend, is no.
English Style armour worn by the Plantagenet toffs during the Wars of the Roses. Photo copyright Hermann Historica.
English armour was designed for fighting on foot, unlike German and Italian style which were generally made for fighting on horseback.
My Immortal Knight series runs through the high to late middle ages (and beyond) so I am doing a lot of research into knights, weapons, warhorses, tactics and armour.
There is so very much to know about plate armour. The various functions, purpose, design and artistry. The varying quality and expense. It’s interesting to note that covering yourself in gold plated armour was not just meant as a status symbol but also served as a battlefield insurance policy. The richer you looked, the more likely you would be captured for ransom rather than killed.
Another interesting fact is the enormous expense associated with highly polished, shining armour. Cheaper armour was painted. Often, even expensive armour was left dull. After all, a lot of it would be covered by your surcoat. But getting a full suit polished to a mirror shine in the late middle ages was so labour intensive and highly skilled that it would cost about 80% of the total cost of the armour. That’s just taking the piss.
I’ve come across a lot of amazing content but this here video is so great I thought I should share it. It’s actually more of an audio recording with timed photos of the presentation but it works pretty well.
The talk is by Dr. Tobias Capwell, arms and armour curator at the Wallace Collection in London. The audience is Historical European Martial Arts enthusiasts and medieval reenactors. It’s about how to make medieval plate armour. Specifically, understanding the design and function of real medieval plate armour. And how that can help someone build their own armour in a more historically accurate and properly functional way.
Dr Capwell is not your typical curator. He is actually one of the most experienced champion jousters in the world today. He is also kicks ass in a melee, which means fighting on foot with his longsword. He doesn’t just walk the walk, then he jumps on the walk and gallops off on it, and smashes into another walk at thirty miles an-oh forget it.
In this talk he relates his experiences designing and building at least three sets of historically based armours, and then fighting in them. He’s totally awesome and so is this talk.
Dr Tobias Capwell: Building Medieval Plate Armor An Operator’s Guide
Video by Scott Farrell of Chivalry Today. Scott’s Channel
Dr Capwell’s books weapons and armour are on Amazon
There is also a talk on YouTube by Dr Capwell on designing and building what Richard III plate armour might have been like. Really it’s about how they dealt with the hugely curved, twisted spine. It’s pretty fascinating, too.
About the shining armor… As I understand it, the metals they used were not high-grade, stainless steel. They were prone to rust. Nobody wanted rusty armor — it implied if you couldn’t take care of your armor, you couldn’t do much else right. So there were two main ways to keep armor rust-proof. One, as you note, was to paint it with blacking. The other was to keep it polished to that mirror shine.
Knights who had squires had a handy source for polishing. These would be established men with good positions and some degree of wealth. Knights without squires painted their armor with blacking. These were the new guys without permanent positions, hence their wandering lifestyles.
So the “black knight” we’ve come to know as a stock villain, in reality might have been unemployed or a mercenary fighter rather than established as part of a court or civil society.
I also suspect that in fantasy settings where women can be knights, they might also wear black armor. A woman’s lower social status would make it harder for her to attract a squire who would keep her armor shiny.
Thanks, Deby! Very interesting.
Indeed, the variation in quality of steel and workmanship was enormous. He says the cheaper stuff that was made in the tens of thousands almost never survives and that makes in the most valuable to those who study such things.
I like your extension of the logic to a fantasy setting. I love the woman black knight image, makes total sense.
In the video there’s a low grade helmet discussed that is painted with a tusked beast head image. Groups, as in military units, would often paint their armour in the same way and be known by their decoration. This cheap, painted helmet suggests there was a “Beast Company” or equivalent squad of men at arms or bowmen. Which is very cool.
My favourite in the video is the fully gilded, engraved and then polished golden armour of the Archbishop. That is just staggering. Only the helmet survives but you can see it in your mind’s eye.
Thanks so much for your comment. I could talk about this stuff all day 🙂