![]() Until specialized weapons were invented with long narrow points to go inside the rings, there was no up-stroke, or between-the-joints stroke to defeat chain. Oh, By the Way, There was No Special Stroke for Chain Or, even if instructed, probably had not really internalized what they needed to do when a certain kind of technology was up against them on the battlefield. Or lamellar armor of tiny plates all stitched very close together, which was best attacked in-between plates.Ī professional soldier likely knew these things.Īn army of 20 thousand hastily recruited volunteers who'd been assembled so quickly that you couldn't feed them very likely did not know these things. There were other types of armor around in the 12th century: like scale mail which was tougher than chain head-on, but if you were trained, could be defeated easily with upward strikes only. He's is unarmored, barely armed, and as far as morale goes only around for as long as he stays motivated to hang around. He may know how to throw a punch or use a knife or bow to kill game. Your average "infantryman", then, has maybe held a sword once in a county fair. Or, the king would send messengers to their nobles who would go into local pubs and recruit. Per several stories, not the least being the Battle of Hastings, the way in which temporary troops were rallied is informative: a king would literally go into the local pubs and recruit. This was equal to between 4 and 6 years wages for the common field hand!Ĭheap weapons, at a few pence, were much easier to provide than good armor. According to the Medieval Price List, a suit of chain cost between 1,200 pence (100 shillings / 5 pounds) to 1,920 pence (160 shillings / 8 pounds). Chain Mail is Prohibitively Expensive for the Poor AdventurerĪccording to some other articles, squires and knights alike (full time soldiers) wore the same level of protection. This means, against an armored knight in combat, in order to kill someone wearing this kind of protection, you needed to hold them down and stab them repeatedly. Even spears basically required multiple hard stabs to create the tiniest cut. As you'll see in the video, nearly every weapon is ineffective. Here is a video of someone testing riveted chainmail against a variety of 12th and 13th century weapons, including towards the end weapons custom-built to defeat riveted chains. Per the research I've done, nearly all chain actually recovered that is believed to have seen real warfare is riveted chain. There is butted chain, and there is riveted chain. ![]() You Have to Basically Hold a Knight or Squire in Chain Down While You and Your Buddies Stab Him Repeatedly for a Few Dozen Minutes to Hope to Kill the Knight Inside How feasible is chain armor at it's peak (early 12th century before custom anti-chain weapons are developed in the 13th century)? What other misunderstandings might the average consumer of fantasy literature have about 12th century combat? I feel like D&D may have spoiled my understanding of fantasy adventure settings because it blends in several centuries of technology into the same setting. It seems to me that if you're getting 70:1 or 50:1 force multipliers for these kinds of soldiers in historic combat, then I need to re-assess what made this kind of amazing effectiveness possible. Or this video explaining how 400 knights and some rounded-up peasants slaughter 90 PERCENT of an armed force of 20,000 soldiers. This question is inspired by a comment in this video that the official war historian of the Battle of Cresson describing 140 knights attacking an army of 7,000 as "an experience that will turn black hair grey" FOR THE ARMY OF 7,000! (the knights were defeated, but in the eyes of the commanders that outcome had not been certain)
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