Yeah it’s all about tradeoffs, really. Plate’s great but it does weigh and cost more so you wouldn’t see as much of it in the field – although it’s not nearly as clunky as popularly portrayed because you had to be able to fight in that thing. A lot of the time throwing some mail and a gambeson on a peasant is Good Enough™ for the mass of your army
I recall a tour guide at the armory museum in Boston describing accounts of (presumably well-to-do) armor wearers showing off their suits’ mobility by doing cartwheels. Still difficult to imagine, but yeah fighting in clunky armor sounds like it could easily be more dangerous than none at all.
Yeah it’s all about tradeoffs, really. Plate’s great but it does weigh and cost more so you wouldn’t see as much of it in the field – although it’s not nearly as clunky as popularly portrayed because you had to be able to fight in that thing. A lot of the time throwing some mail and a gambeson on a peasant is Good Enough™ for the mass of your army
I recall a tour guide at the armory museum in Boston describing accounts of (presumably well-to-do) armor wearers showing off their suits’ mobility by doing cartwheels. Still difficult to imagine, but yeah fighting in clunky armor sounds like it could easily be more dangerous than none at all.