What’s It Like to Fight in 15th Century Armor?: A Surprising Demonstration
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But now that we know how to make it and put it on, how best to keep it shining? Yet armor remains an impressive historical artifact and, at its best, an achievement in craftsmanship as well. That practice continued even as the use of armor declined on the battlefield, the development of firearms having greatly lessened its protective value and put a high premium on agility. As a form, it peaked in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, spanning the end of the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance the image of the knight we all have in our heads is probably wearing a suit of 16th-century armor made for jousting. Though we associate this kind of plate armor with the Middle Ages, it actually developed fairly late in that era, around the Hundred Years’ War that lasted from the mid-14th to the mid-15th century. With narration by Dirk Breiding, Assistant Curator of its Arms and Armor Department, the video reveals every step of Wasson’s process, beginning with research into how 500-year-old components of armor looked and work, and ending with pieces that, while newly made, could easily have fit into the suit worn by a knight of those days. Wasson at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. You can see what went into the making of a knight’s armor - and still goes into it, for those inclined to learn the craft - in the video above, a live presentation of the real tools and techniques by armorer Jeffrey D. Then follows a question with an even more complicated answer: how did the armor get made in the first place? Luckily, we in the 21st century have medievalists who have dedicated their lives to learning and explaining just such pieces of now-obscure knowledge (as well as the ever-growing legion of medieval battle enthusiasts doing their utmost to both demand that knowledge and hold the scholars who possess it to account). Look at a medieval knight in armor and you can’t help but wonder how he got the stuff on.
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