Weight
A full "battle harness" (armour worn for real combat as opposed to a specialised tournament armour) weighs between 60 and 70 lb.’s which is around 35 kilos. That sounds heavy, but in comparison a modern soldier carries almost twice that in his backpack. Take into account that the weight of the armour is distributed over the whole body as the various pieces of plate are attached to the area they protect, where as the bulky pack of the modern infantryman is in one huge heavy lump attached to his back.
Overall the weight of the armour is something that individuals would have to get used to. There is documented evidence of courtly dances being held, where a young knight would learn to dine, socialise and dance whilst wearing his armour, in order to explore the subtleties of movement as well as getting used to wearing the harness, that in most cases would save his life in battle. The whole notion that a person was unable to rise from the ground or mount a horse is preposterous, as a harness that heavy would certainly kill you in battle, not save you. Indeed a fit man can do a cartwheel, run and do other vigorous exercise in armour.
The main problem with wearing metal armour is the temperature. In winter armour can attract the cold and with freezing metal about the body, it can cause muscles to cramp up; whilst in the heat of summer a fighter can virtually cook in his harness (a problem both then and now!). Outside the metal gets hot to touch, but inside, the heat the body creates has difficulty escaping, and builds up making dehydration and heat exhaustion a real problem once you become physically active, even on cold days.
So during our displays you will see many "Water Bearers" administering to the combatants, a vital role for us re-enactors today which was equally important during a real battle, and like then is carried out by "Non-Combatants" and camp followers. They assist the men by supplying water to replace lost fluid, and cool the body.
There were many regional variations in armour construction and design, however, during the fifteenth century in England there were three main styles available to a wealthy patron these are,
"Milanese" , " Gothic" and "English"
There are, broadly speaking, two types of armour that were widely used during the fifteenth century, these being 'soft' or 'hard'. 'Soft' armour was predominantly made up of padded armour and boiled leather armour. The “hard” metal armour gave the choice of various styles of 'plate' or the tried and tested 'Maille' armour.
If we look at the metal armour first we find that even ordinary professional soldiers had access to reasonable quality plate defences. This 'munitions plate' was generally of a lower quality than their betters, but still offered protection in the heat of battle. The munitions armour was not made to measure, but mass produced in the workshop and delivered by the cart load, often having a lesser finish and usually still showing marks from it’s time under the armourer’s hammer it was nevertheless still capable of performing the same task as the more expensive finely made armour of the nobility for a mere fraction of the price.
As a point of note, not all of the armour would be provided by a soldier's employer, and much of it would be obtained by the individual, either by trade (for coins or in dice games!), or simply stripped off the dead in the aftermath of a battle.
Helmets,Gauntlets and varying types of Cuirass were
popular amongst soldiers, and the better sort of
professional or veteran soldier may have amassed
enough armour to make a fairly decent attempt at
three quarter harness thus protecting most of his body.
Even the lowly rank and file soldiers would have a
Helmet at the very least, and probably gauntlets or a
Plackart as these were relatively easy to make and
protected the vitals where even a relatively light blow
if struck whilst un-armoured could kill.
The term 'Harness' is the proper name for what most people would call a suit of armour, as it is harnessed onto the body in separate pieces.
