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alkoaine said:From what I've heard a medieval soldier armoured from head to toe would still be carrying less weight than a modern infantry man, and the medieval soldier would have his burden better distributed. It varies of course by what type of armour he is wearing, but especially later full plate armours could be fairly light, and made in such a way as to allow very much freedom of movement.
All in all, the equipment was lighter than we usually think, but of course swinging a sword that weighs not much more than a kilogram gets tiring more quickly than we expect also.
Actually no. Full plate wasn't one piece of armour. It was made of a cloth padded armour, with chain mesh and steel plate on that. So it weighted allot and was hard to move in, just try putting on two pants. You cant wear just metal on your skin, so the combination of those layers made them almost invincible. But as i wrote, the full plate came almost at the end of the middle ages.
As most army's in the middle ages where equip with padded armour with some chain and later breast plates that was light. And it didn't encumber the farmer on a campain.
The good equipment was reserved for noble knight who would pay for it from there own pockets, also for army's going on crusades, that's why they where so expensive, and the economy in the middle ages was on human races all times low.
Also, for them it was easier as our body were a bit different back then, but that's another story.