Scientists Study Impact of Wearing Medieval Armor

FoolishOwl writes "Scientists at the University of Leeds tested the effects of wearing heavy medieval armor by monitoring volunteers, who were experienced medieval reenactors, as they walked and ran on treadmills, while wearing accurate replicas of 15th century armor. While the suits of armor weighed between 30 and 50 kg, comparable to the weight of gear carried by modern soldiers, volunteers who carried equivalent amounts of weight in backpacks had an easier time with the weight. Volunteers in armor burned more energy and had difficulty breathing. The scientists speculate that much of the additional effort was due to weight of armor on the legs — leg armor was one of the first things dropped in the shift towards lighter armor in the 16th century. While it has long been assumed that heavy medieval armor limited mobility, and that this contributed to the outcome of battles, such as the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, this was the first study to quantify the impact of wearing heavy armor."

Comments

Ergonomics

[pgpalmer]

There's a reason why good-quality backpacks have a strap that wraps around the waist - the pelvis is capable of comfortably supporting a large amount of weight, and that is why the weight of backpacks is best supported there. Medieval armour supports it all over the body, causing body-wide muscle fatigue. From the article: "We were interested to find out why that was - and one of the main reasons is that if you wear a suit of armour, a lot of the weight is carried on the legs - about 7-8kg of it."

Re:Ergonomics

[Nefarious Wheel]

Medieval armour supports it all over the body, causing body-wide muscle fatigue.

Not so. Medieval armour up to the 14th century had hip belts that supported the weight of the leg armour on the pelvis.

The amount of effort you spend wearing armour is way more dependent upon the fit than the total weight.

There's been a huge study of this in various groups of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). Possibly the best proponent of this study that I know of is a gent known as His Majesty Cornelius von Beck, current king of Lochac (Australia). (www.sca.org.au). He's an armourer himself, and has studied - and worn - original 14th century plate. Serious students only can contact him via the SCA.

The SCA is the only organisation I know that chooses its leaders by rite of combat...

Re:Battles

[liquidweaver]

Oh come on. http://www.militaryfactory.com/battles/french_military_victories.asp When you cherry pick from the history of any country, you can come up with a long list of defeats. I don't remember Japan, Germany or Russia being too successful in the last hundred years. Even America got it's capital burned to the ground in 1812, and was defeated in Vietnam (in fairness, after France too).

Re:Firsthand

[Toze]

Regarding 2, Bengt Thordeman's "Armour of the Battle of Wisby" includes a survey of wounds from a 14th century mass grave, and very many of the deaths in historical combat seemed to be preceded by leg wounds. Specifically, one or both legs followed by an overhead strike to the top of the head with sword or hammer.
(sca) I found it particularly amusing, because there's an An Tir joke about "the kingmaker" being ankle-ankle-head. (/sca)