Medieval & Fantasy Minecraft Roleplaying

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Why you want to show your wealth

MRPolo13

The Arbiter of the Gods
Medieval period has some absolutely stunning pieces of armour. I'd say that from about 14th century on, when tabards became rarer, the knightly and noble classes began to seek ways to make their armours more beautiful. Some of these were partly for maintenance purposes - because black armour is usually already oxidised it rusts a lot more slowly. But that doesn't explain all the gold, all the brass and silver that armours were made with. All the embellishments, all the intricate sculptures across the armours. Why then? Well, I put it to you that this was actually this was actually a form of protection.

One thing that is certain is that medieval nobility was vain. This much is true when one considers the parrots brought into Poland to be eaten in early 15th century, or the spices, silk and china that were imported into Europe solely for its upper classes to enjoy. The richest lived a life of plenty. They organised huge tournaments and hunts. The armours reflected that. But there is something much more to this. Extremely decorated plate armour is your best friend in a battlefield. You may say that it makes you a target, and while that may be true it also does one more thing: would you really want to kill someone wealthy enough to purchase an armour like this?

The reality of warfare in 14th and 15th century was that people would mostly be captured and ransomed off. This is why Agincourt was to French so shocking: English king Henry V ordered that only the wealthiest of prisoners be spared, and the rest were to be slaughtered. If you had the choice would you truly kill someone whose armour suggests that you can get a very hefty price for his return? Ultimately killing him will do no good anyway unless you're very desperate. So in the end, being able to show your wealth on the battlefield is this final layer of protection you can wear in a battle. On the other hand sure you can keep some random man who cobbled together a suit of armour but why would you? His family likely can't afford a ransom, so you'll be keeping a burden.

And finally, time to show some pretty armours of the past. Please bear in mind not all of these fit within the server time period.


Gotta start of with the Lion Armour from the Royal Armouries in Leeds. We're not sure who it belonged to, but it's beautiful.


Greenwich armour


Armour of Christian I of Saxony


Transitional plate armour, similar to Cherbourg armour. Note how engraved all the gold pieces are.


15th century Gothic plate armour


Armet with wrapper, mid-15th century. The wrapper used isn't the same as the one that the armet would have. An actual wrapper plate would reach to the top of the armet visor.
 

Jase

"Something need doing?"
Legend
Bare in mind that beautiful armour like that may be meant for ceremomy and display instead of combat as any good amount of plain plate main or chain mail would show an abundance of riches in the eyes of a peasant or another knight.
Other indicators could be the size of the knight's support contingent, how well they are geared, the Knight's warhorse, and their tabard. (Tabards were still present some in nobility by agincourt, and even present after)
 

MRPolo13

The Arbiter of the Gods
That gothic thing is the most ridiculous outfit I've ever seen.
Actually it's also got a very practical purpose. The fluting on the armour (that is the very excessive amount of ridges) ensures that the strength of the armour isn't entirely down to thickness of it. Each flute provides an additional ridge to strengthen the piece. Maximilian armour, which is a development of Gothic armour, is even more ridiculous! :p

This seems to be a reproduction of Henry VIII's foot armour for the Field of the Cloth of Gold tournament, named such because it was allegedly just this disgustingly rich. I actually recommend reading about the whole tournament since it's pretty famous. The craftsmen were preparing another armour, which was already completed aside from decorations, when the rules of the tournament changed and they were forced to make something as fast as they could. They built this out of three different armours in three months, if you look at the decorations on the original one it's quite hilarious.

Bare in mind that beautiful armour like that may be meant for ceremomy and display instead of combat as any good amount of plain plate main or chain mail would show an abundance of riches in the eyes of a peasant or another knight.
Other indicators could be the size of the knight's support contingent, how well they are geared, the Knight's warhorse, and their tabard. (Tabards were still present some in nobility by agincourt, and even present after)
All of these are very true, but in actuality the Lion Armour I've shown in the first picture has signs of being worn in combat, and it does not appear to be a set made for tournaments so it's likely it was actually worn in battles. We know that the Greenwich armour was a combat armour. Ceremonial armour was rarely a thing in Medieval and Early Renaissance period. It's far more likely that the armour was a jousting armour, such as the set for Christian I of Saxony. Also by 15th century most armies were equipped in some form of plate armour. This became even moreso the case as munitions grade armour became more popular, and even more still when standing armies replaced levy armies.
The last paragraph is true also, but you're quite unlikely to have the liberty of checking in a middle of the battlefield. And yes, tabards were prevalent at Agincourt. But we know for instance that the English wore very similar tabards to each other by the order of the king (I can't remember exactly what the order was. If I recall correctly everyone had to wear the three lions sigil? It might have been something else, I soak up a lot of information and can never remember the sources.)
 

MRPolo13

The Arbiter of the Gods

Tobias Capwell talks about armour. He actually briefly mentions exactly the point I make at about 50 minute mark, that you won't kill someone wearing an extremely expensive armour.
 

Jase

"Something need doing?"
Legend
Tobias Capwell talks about armour. He actually briefly mentions exactly the point I make at about 50 minute mark, that you won't kill someone wearing an extremely expensive armour.
Sounds legit; in a perfect world that might be the best scenario but sometimes this may not work-
Keeping people in prison takes a tonne of resources which a poor peasant or a company under pressure may not have. Their would be ransomers would have to spend money to make money, as well as spend valuable time in keeping the knight under lock and key- which they may not have. In those circumstances it may be better for them to kill the knight and deprive their enemies of a skilled warrior than to spend time and money under high pressure to protect themselves in escalating conflict. The expensive armour would make a nice payday as it is (but would probably fall short of the possible ransom).
 
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