ARROWS vs ARMOUR - Medieval Myth Busting
NEWSFLASH!
If you liked this, watch the whole new Arrows vs Armour 2 series available here
• Arrows vs armour 2
All films and documentation about both series are housed here www.todtodeschini.com
160lbs ENGLISH WARBOW shoots FULL WEIGHT MEDIEVAL ARROWS at reproduced MEDIEVAL ARMOUR. Find out what happens!
The contributors are all world class in their fields of expertise, armour, arrows, shooting and historical context.
Dr Tobias Capwell - Arms and Armour Curator, The Wallace Collection
Joe Gibbs - Archer and bowyer / hillbillybows
Will Sherman - Fletcher - www.medievalarrows.co.uk
Kevin Legg - Armourer - www.plessisarmouries.co.uk
Chrissi Carnie - Fabric armour - www.thesempster.co.uk
Tod Todeschini - Host - www.todsworkshop.com
www.todcutler.com
The English longbow is laden with myth; of its origins, its power, its achievements. The centuries that have passed since it was used in earnest, means that the knowledge of what the bow was actually capable of doing, has also passed. The captains and commanders that once knew its’ true power in physical and in military terms, are long dead. The knowledge is lost and it is time to rediscover what it can and cannot do.
Find out more about the battle, the armour and the arrows in these companion films.
The battle • Find out More - The Ba...
The armour • Find out more - The Ar...
The arrows • Find out More - Mediev...
Longbow
160lbs (73Kg) mountain yew English Longbow based on those found on The Mary Rose (sank 1545). Bow was shooting 80g (2.8oz) arrows at 55ms (180fps) at 10m, giving 123J and 52ms (170fps) 109J at 25m
Distance 10m 25m
11yds 27yds
Speed 55ms 52ms
181fps 170fps
Energy 123J 109J
91ftlbs 80ftlbs
Arrows
The first arrow type we used was MR80A764/158. The diameter at the shoulder was 12.7mm (1/2”) tapering to a nock of 8.5mm. Total length was 30.5”
The second arrow type was MR82A1892/9. The diameter at the shoulder was 12.9mm (1/2”) and the nock was 7.5mm. Same total length.
The shafts were black poplar (Populus Nigra) and ash (Fraxinus Excelsior).
Fletchings were swan, bound with silk into a beeswax, kidney fat and copper verdigris compound.
Heads were wrought iron, copied from MoL Type 9 7568
Arrows weighed 80g (2.8oz)
Breastplate
Based on the Churburg 14 piece. The reproduction is made from 0.5% carbon steel and air cooled and is of variable thickness. The front and centre is 2.5mm (3/32”) thick and it tapers down to 1.5mm (1/16”) at the sides and edges.
Jupon
The paper by Tasha D. Kelly on the Jupon can be found here
cottesimple.com/wp/wp-content/...
Resources
Mary Rose Trust
maryrose.org
The Wallace Collection
www.wallacecollection.org
Museum of London
www.museumoflondon.org.uk/mus...
Azincourt Museum (Agincourt)
www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attract...
Churburg Armoury
www.hansprunner-estore.com/por...
Alan Williams - The Knight and the Blast Furnace
www.amazon.co.uk/Knight-Blast...
Dr Tobias Capwell, Armour of the English Knight
www.amazon.co.uk/Armour-Engli...
Tasha D. Kelly - Jupon of Charles VI www.academia.edu/5610708/The_...
"Grand Canyon" Music licenced from www.bensound.com
For opening my mind to all of this and fantastic general information
myarmoury.com/home.php
Spoiler: The reason people wore armor is that it worked.
Figure of speech.
It would be interesting to see a 200lb draw. The longbow was crazy and the training of archers was mandated for the peasantry.
Haha Indeed
Well, snark aside I think there at least some notion in even fairly savvy medieval historical circles that English longbows were the primary method of turning back the French knights and Agincourt. As this video demonstrates, that is probably not the case, at least not directly. Getting a direct hit looks like it was pack a wallop for sure, but the idea that volumes of armor clad French knights were getting mowed down by archer fire seems to be a false one. If anything, it seems like archer fire would be best concentrated on the least armored soldiers on the battlefield as a means to thin them out before melee ensues.
It didn't work out well for the French, all their armor weighed them down and messed up their vision.
This is so much better than any TV documentary.
Yup anything with Tobias Capwell is gonna be good.
TV can't even compare to this
The best ;)
You can have more information density when you don't have to dumb everything down to knuckle dragger with 9 second attention span.
It’s better because it’s done by professionals of their respective professions, not by someone who’s job it is to get better fewer ratings ;)
The fact that this guy easily pulls a 160lb longbow gives me chills. That is so ridiculously heavy.
i came to say the same thing, thas awesome
I'm not sure I'd call it 'easily', but yeah, Joe is a legend.
@@Elmojomo I only say easily since he claimed to be able to do it all day!
@@RC_Engineering Yeah, but did you watch the full video? He was definitely struggling to reach full draw, and didn't hold it long at all. I'm not saying it wasn't a mighty feat, since I can't draw more than about 45lbs repeatedly, but you could tell he was working for sure. 😉
@xionliing sh Yep!
Can we talk about, that adding a simple V-shaped ridge had an enormous impact on lessening fatalities. It really does play a vital role overall.
No kidding. It seemed like every other arrow shot deflected off that thing and probably avoided a major injury.
V is for vital.
Isn’t that because it functions like a wedge so it moves it aside instead of piercing it
tanks are using same thing to ricochet artillery
@@milandjukic4583 …ricochet artillery?
“I’ve been shot, with arrows, in armor, for other experiments”. Imagine being able to utter that sentence.
I can utter it ....it wouldn’t be true but I am able
I've been shot, with arrows, in armor, but the arrows were padded and the draw weight was only 35 lbs.
SCAdians... did I shoot you at Estrella?
@@Nik.No.K you shall be silenced by the supreme court
@Andrew Laye And, just- in passing, as t'were.... My exact same thought
Can we appreciate that they did everything right in terms of how they are testing? Amazing.
Thank you and we tried in a very short time frame
Pretty much, never heard that they wore cloth armour over metal armour, makes sense that the french would more than the english as my understanding was that the french didnt use archers as much as the english. The only thing i would have liked to have seen on the test of possible would some way of detecting how much force reached the knights body, was this enough to knock them off of the horse? Would they have been winded? could this still have broken bones?
@@Scasne Well this is material for at least two additional videos I guess. Depends on the draw weight of the bow, was the enemy moving? How was he armored? What was the distance? Was it windy? What kind of arrow head was used? How long was the arrow? How does the energy getting transfered with certain arrow head type? What part of the body is getting hit?
@@jamesnetherian4981 Please dont think i was deriding the video in any way as it was truely interesting, I know there is a limit to the sheer number of variables that are possible, which is why i said about being able to measure the actual effect to the body as then we could have compared to known similiar situations (bullet proof vests for example) but then i dont know how a dummy with sensors in reacts compared to that gel.
@@Scasne Dude... all cool. I'd never thought you'd deriding the video or something. I was just brainstorming how many question arise if you wanna go in that direction of myth busting or testing. :D
When I first saw the "V", I initially thought that its purpose was for bracing & reinforcing the breastplate area. However, the demonstration made it quite clear its real function and that the armourers of that day really knew what they were doing. Impressive engineering and a great video - Thanks!
my dumbass thought that the V was a chevron indicating rank like banneret or bachelor
I immediately realized it's for stopping ricochets.
@@thehuntermikipl1170 wow congrats
@@thehuntermikipl1170 You are so very smart how could anyone ever beseech you in such a way......
@@contraband1543 dont troll
22:00 Every time he said "experience," I hear "lives." Every new innovation in armor design was built upon dozens of deaths. I love that they gave us such a specific insight into history. More movies should give us this level of realism in historical stories.
The sound alone! So much more audible than in the movies, where it's always a muted 'tink.' To hear that clang ring out as someone got hit with an arrow, and to watch the arrow explode into bits, would actually be MORE exciting than what we typically see in movies.
dozens? its more like hundreds, maybe even thousands
This feels like watching a history channel documentary before it was taken over by aliens
I do miss the hilterlory channel
@Ian Or Hitler mind controlled by aliens.
My History Channel only runs Pawn Shop shows and car repair shows. I don't even know what that has to do with history. Rip me.
Ancient Aliens though is very entertaining. Kind of like The Room, unintentionally hilarious.
I believe this was around the same time when Mtv played music, before it was taken over by teen mom.
"the thinner areas of the armor, like the legs or something, it might start to make a difference" no wonder that arrow to the knee took out that guardsman.
Didn't even take him out, just ended his adventuring days.
@@AJKecsk Now he just begs for sweetrolls
probably because he needs that knee to carry 150 pounds of armor
Arrow to the knee is also an euphemism for getting married.
Once I was an adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee
How did everyone there take the fantastic aiming for granted? 😂
That bow looks proper hard work to use
Simple, they assembled a dream team, and you wouldn't expect anything different from Joe Gibbs, dude's a monster.
@@prgnify The English regularly practised archery. I think there was a law that forced archers to practice. The skeletons recovered from the Mary Rose had deformed backbones due to pulling a bow string. The English archer was a professional, probably better than this chap shooting now
Yes. He has been shooting most of his life and three times a week.
@@haroldwebster1459 There was, enacted by Henry VIII from 1511 onwards (ie a hundred years later). Four hours, every Sunday morning, and not just for professional archers, for every able-bodied man. You should remember Henry V was functionally Welsh, raised around the nascent Ordnance base in Monmouth.
the archer is just amazing, just amazing. I had a go at bows at the Mary Rose museum at Portsmouth and it was almost impossible to draw the easiset bow. For this guy to perform all day long is just incredible.
Joe is pretty famous amongst archers and bowyers. He's been top dog in the historical archery world for a while now.
You get used to it
@@christopherchurch2653 Used to what?
Time to hit the gym, champ! 😆😆😝
He says in another video it took him 5 years to become that proficient.
Number 1 rule of firing in 20th century: Always aim center mass Number 1 rule of firing in 15th century: Aim literally anywhere but center mass
More like don't even aim at a plated knight and focus on their support troops.
1st century - 20th - future century : Aim for the head
Archers in battle did not aim, they fired at 45 degrees angle on the command: "Loose arrows!"
Man, I know a lot of times they were shooting from an elevated position. To me if arrows didn’t work nobody would use them lol. I imagine like anything else, even of that time everything is not created equal.
@@mcflotty agreed, also even though a longbow can’t pierce a piece of plate armour reliably that doesn’t mean it will be pleasant for the wearer I mean it’s still 200lbs of force concentrated in the area of a pen tip, the sheer force behind that will probably hurt you.
Gentlemen that was better produced than many televised living history shows. I was delighted by the honesty, accuracy, attention to detail, source discussions..... & surprised at the outcome. Well done! More please.
Most tv shows care more about spectacle then information.
Indeed. I've seen some Shit-shows masquerade as "documentary". Please no more 1/4mm costume armor tests with modern bows and arrows
The prevailing theory is that what really won Agincourt was the terrain which funneled the French Knights and the mud which slowed them down and the English archers killed them mostly using swords, axes and daggers.
What do you mean, are you saying ancient aliens isn't true😳
@@linusa2996 No it is not the prevailing theory. They killed them predominately with arrows and finished them off with daggers and mallets. Your theory is not supported by Juliet Barker, Ian Mortimer, Clifford J. Rogers, Michael Jones, John Keegan and Anne Curry to mention a few of the top scholars on this subject. The prevailing theory is that most of the men-at-arms had plate armour made of wrought iron and low-carbon steel. Around 2/3 or more. Limb protection and the side of helmets and breastplates were usually thin - around 1.5 mm. The French men-at-arms formed a solid line, 20 men deep. When the archers started to shoot at them from 100 meters away, the arrows were shot into the formation and came down at an angle of 14 degrees. As they moved closer this angle started to decrease. Most of the arrows struck the highest part of the tightly packed formation - the helmets - and the rate of hits increased as they moved closer. In addition to this, the arrows usually came from the flanks and hit the sides. The result was arrows piercing the side and visors of their helmets, as pointed out by Gesta Henrici Quinti - "... the missiles which by their very force pierced the sides and visors of their helmets ..." (Curry, Sources 36). In addition to this they penetrated plate amour covering the shoulders so that they were unable to lift their weapons. They also pierced the aventail protecting the neck and throat, the voiders protecting the arm pits, the back often covered by mail or a thin plate, and the thinner side of breastplates made of wrought iron. That was the majority of the killing. The archers moved forward to finish them off before they died. The secondary factor was the press in the middle. The third was the melee in the center. The sorces are very clear on this. The arrows did most of the damage. “In the opinion of the French, it was precisely what injured the most their enemies which assured the English of victory, especially the continuous way in which they had rained down on our men a terrifying hail of arrow shot.” The Religieux (Monk) of Saint-Denis. (Curry, Sources 106) The knights and high ranking esquires (sons of knights) of good armorial standing were in the center of the first division and made it to the English lines because they had better armour than the rest of the 10,000 men-at-arms participating. Here the arrows usually came from the front. This decreased their ability to find a weak spots, but they wounded and hampered them nontheless. They numbered scarcely 2,000-3,000 men from a total of 4,800 in this division. Of these, 1,500 or so were taken as prisoners to Calais. The second division had around 1,600 gros valets and 3,400 men-at-arms of lower status. These gros valets had poor quality plate armour and mail. Against them the arrows did the job from 100 meters away.
The mister pulling and shooting the bow is an absolute monster, 160 pounds is heavy if you've shot a bow, and the accuarcy is fenomenal.
As a retired Mathematics and Engineering Professor, this testing is fantastic! It would be great to measure the speed and direction of the arrows during deflection, the energy delivered in various areas of the breastplate and ballistic gel, the wave shape through the gel, the possible strikes to the head and face even though there’s the “V” deflector, that’s diverted the arrow, how much wood hit surrounding objects like the faces and hands of comrades, and on and on. This stuff is sexy and needs further study. Thanks for the great videos! Bill from Minnesota, USA.
Thanks Dr. Sutherland. What sort of arrow shape would be best to penetrate armor?
@@smellypatel5272Please call me Bill. Maybe an arrow with a tip within a tip similar to armor piercing ammo we have today would have success penetrating body armor? The fractured arrow tips you guys found demonstrated the presence of extreme heat as they hit the breast plate: use this information to make an arrow tip of a material that when under high compression produces heat exceeding the melting point of the breast plate material, have a thin heat insulating agent behind that, and a hardened tip behind that. Also, an explosive material compressed behind a hardened tip would easily penetrate the breast plate. Slightly modern day, but definitely a hoot to play with. A third suggestion is to increase the energy of the projectile tip by reducing the size of its tip surface area in relation to the arrow’s total kinetic energy. The smaller the tip, the more energy focused on a tiny spot. The way the breast plate was dented from some of those hits tells me that you probably have high enough energy to penetrate the material with a very small diameter, hard, and tough projectile. Another method might be a siding weight that adds to the punch of the tip at impact, but the problem with this solution is to find the correct slide weight, the best travel length of slide relative to the time of impact, and discovery of the optimal ratio of weight/speed of the projectile to maximize the joules delivered. I’ll be watching. The best of luck, Bill
What does this say about the Battle of Towton?
"Imagine if you had 40 of those sticking out of you." You know what, if I see a guy with a sword and 40 arrows sticking out of him coming at me. I'm going the other way.
A knight would only pull out his sword as a last resort on a battlefield, he would rather be wielding a mace, hammer or a flail.
But all the peaasants behind and around you stop you from just saying "Im out, bye suckers!"
BioFake1 Or a pole ax or other pole arm.
@@Skyblade12 I agree, most likely pole arm.
that's how you get court martialed...
This is like.. 10 times better than any documentary on these topics funded and filmed for public television. Well done sirs.
And commercial television as well, sir.
Great! Really enjoyed this one.
Totally agree, never seen anything better on this subject,
Very much so, it's refreshing to see the test done correctly. In Agincourt there were reports of point blank shots to helmets... would be incredibly if they could test that, though safety might be a concern.
this is a scientific experiment, not a show
Bear in mind also that a man at arms might suffer multiple simultaneous strikes of the kind that severely dented the armour in the video. The cumulative effect of such impacts can only be imagined, but they would surely stall or incapacitate the person on the receiving end. You can just about imagine what it must have been like to advance through the 'clouds' of arrows that are described in historical texts. Even if none penetrated , the individuals' fighting capacity would surely be degraded to some extent.
Each square on hit is like getting smacked with a ball peen hammer. It may not be deadly but I'm sure each one leaves a bruise. Can't imagine what you must have felt like at the end of a long day of fighting.
@@bwhog especially when you had 100s of arrows flying at angles with gravity too
Men at arms.... who wear plate armor are now just wearing the plate armor.. Their wearing an arming doublet which is padded shirt/armor underneath while chainmail is put in the right plates to protect from slashes/cuts. While wearing plate armor. Doesnt matter how much your hitting them their well padded underneath to soften as much tension and blow. But also know that the literal MAN wearing said armor won't let you do as you please to him.
You know, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them would suffer concussions from arrows to the helmet on their way to the enemy line. In any case, even if you are somewhat "impervious" to said arrows, the psychological impact of getting rained on by them, has to get to you at some point.
Damn. That was impressive both in the expertise of the individuals as well as the scientific and historical execution. I think the sound of the arrows hitting the armour surprised me and gave me a new perspective on what medieval warfare was like. Scarry to begin with, but with powerful arrow hits happening all around you, even scarier.
Thank god, a “bow vs. armor” test that isn’t a compound bow being fired at some LARP armor in someone’s backyard.
How dare you
"i've been shot with arrows in other experiments" i'm sorry but i'm going to need those videos
Same
@@benjaminbraghtley515 he has we used to a bunch of crazy stuff years ago have known Tobias Capwell for decades
@@tramelius17 link
Would have liked to see them shoot those arrows at modern body armor just for comparison
Correction: shot with arrows in armour.
I read somewhere that the French knights in Agincourt were unhorsed by the archers and then subdued by the foot soldiers as they struggled to rise out of the mud.
I used to hate how real armor looks like, but people like Metatron, Tobias Capwell and Jason Kingsley changed my mind by showing how practical they are, and this video just made me love realistic armor even more
That V in thee armor probably saved hundreds of lives.
They had hundreds of years of R&D. I would bet the first plate armors were shit but because some humans are smart they developed over time
V for vendetta? :)
Hundreds of thousands *
It's a feature in WWI trench armor as well.
And those saved hundreds of lifes then took hundreds of lifes.
this is by far the most scientific and thorough test of this type that I've seen. This is a landmark video in the medieval community. Well done!
Yeah except, they're all stationary, frontal targets... that's not very realistic, is it .
Could they not have used steel arrows?
@@Skyrilla A target in motion would be even harder to penetrate, and would accentuate the deflecting effect of the curved breastplate.
except they did not case harden the plate armor
ive seen better actual English longbow with actual arrow heads used at the time fired at actual armor not replica it just dented the armor btw armor beat the bow after all it took the invention of a gun to defeat the armor and that ended the age of the knight
It's weird, what I can't get over is the sound! I knew that sword hitting shields and armor would be loud, but the arrows hitting these plates near constantly would be ROUGH. Not to mention, the camera and mics were a pretty good distance away from impact, if you were the one getting hit, your ears would be ringing for sure! Also, that archery accuracy was NUTS, fantastic work by everyone involved!
I wonder what some comparable impacts might be. One of those arrows cracking on your helmet- is that like a large man cracking a pool cue over your head? 🤔
Well, tbh, that's pretty short range for a longbow. In practice, you had units of archers firing at other units over a distance. Kinda like shooting a shotgun, you don't need to be accurate, you just rely on numbers. Shoot enough arrows at a large target, you're bound to hit something. And that's why there was such a thing as archers gathering up expended arrows. Not all of them hit something hard enough to break them.
@@TheEvilDrR there’s a fair amount of debate about the “massed indirect fire” theory of longbows. Open battles were incredibly rare- the common use of the longbow would have been on raiding (the chevancée) and sieges. I can’t imagine small groups of archers operating in that fashion.
Great video! I've been an archer for 50 years now and can say the craftsmanship of the armor and arrows are truly incredible! I've not seen much armor in my day, but this video revealed things I never could have imagined. The arrows - a true work of art and science. Well done!
I, for one, welcome our new overlord: professionalism.
It's a refreshing change ain't it
"Professionals have standards" and standards these guys have
16:55 "There's not enough data yet" Translates to: "THIS IS REALLY COOL SHOOT MORE ARROWS AT IT"
Collecting data is the difference between "screwing around" and "science"...
@@pnkssbtz LMFAO
A real Mythbusters approach :) They just need to start blowing it up to go full MB
stupid grow up
@@pnkssbtz Actually, you can do both at the same time. And its not data, as such, its methodology. Any fool can video himself getting drunk and killed. Getting killed, repeatedly, in pre-planned ways that are designed to narrow down or disprove an intial hypothesis, now thats science. And you can still screw around as long as the test itself remains unchanged. :-)
Many tanks starting in WWII had something like that “V” on the frontal armor to deflect shots on the frontal plate to protect weak spots on the tank and the driver.
This is fantastic science at work. Thank you for showing this collaboration. I love how you take the expertise of each individual in their part of this examination and test them with contemporary limitations. It is so informative why the French wore the cloth garment on the outside of their plate armor against the English longbows when we see this relatively simple demonstration
As a 71 year old life-long fan of Medieval military equipment and a former SCA recreation it’s for 25 years (5 years fighting in 15th C armor), this is the absolute BEST experiment of Medieval arms vs. armor I have ever seen. Well done, sirs! Kudos...
Hello, my brother! Glad to see a fellow ex-anachronist. I remember when they were doing tests with 110# and it was controversial, now we're at 160# XD
This is the single best authentic demonstration of archery against armour. Exceptional work, lads. This is a must-see.
Thanks! BTW would love to see a response video from you!
This was very informative. You could add a metallurgist to your team. Excellent research!
Archery against high-quality steel armor.
Тогда как английские лучники уничтожили французских рыцарей при Азенкуре?
@@emoneyemoney5091 yes
This was an amazingly well and honestly executed demonstration with a lot of humble craftsmen that represent the best in their field…I got chills!
This is one of the best videos I’ve seen in KZhead that studied something I didn’t know I needed to know! Being a craftsman myself and a novice bow-smith it was awesome to see the contribution of the team you assembled, their individual skills and it was truly on the edge of my seat to witness the results! Tremendous presentation with accurate period pieces and for myself surprising results! Very surprised to see the arrows explode on impact. Thanks again for a superb video!
"Armor is so curved it's deflecting it exactly". In other words, it's Arrow-Dynamic!
Wow dude
Very good! Lol
Brilliant Captain! Literally loled
Its stealth armor
Brilliant bro
13:45: is when the shooting begins 29:30 for the 10m shot at the armour
Thank you !!
Watch the whole thing pussy
The introductory speech was so epic it shouldn't be skipped, friends
Thank you so much mate
@@YOMAMAXXL I did, thats why I knew the time-stamps.
Thank you all for your work! I've seen a lot of videos referencing your work and the history community owes you for this!
This was so interesting. I always love deep diving into specific historical events. Much thanks. Many takeaways but two biggest for me. The gravity that the likelihood that every innovation came from the severe death and torment of real people. Another being the psychological variables of being in a battle in real time. Being able to draw a bow under relaxed, controlled conditions vs thousands of grown men screaming orders and agony and running to kill each other. The hell of battle adding in all the adrenal and survival stimuli cannot be discounted and also effectively measured and duplicated. I have a feeling I could draw a bow a few extra times and if I survive realize later my shoulder is out of socket. What incredible people came before us. Also incredible people for making this very worthwhile video. Thank you
When you picked on a specific timeline for the test, i know this experiment is going to be good.
it was the medieval time i think it was :/
Imagine that sound multiplied by hundreds, thousands of arrows hitting thousands of armored men in battle. Agincourt must've been crazy.
There is even mention of one of the survivors, that is sounded like a hailstorm
it was very, very noisy, I know I was there!!
I can imagine why the French morale got broken, truly terrifying!
with that many hits you would get messed up pretty quickly just from force of impacts. Perhaps tiring knights so foot soldiers could get in for the lucky strikes was one method of taking down what essentially were medieval tanks.
I think its shined in agincourt mainly because the arrows hitting horses in full charge really fucked those french knights up think about it there were at least 3 to 4 lines of cavalry and horses tripping over dead hours and riders flinging riders. I mean armor is movable in its been proven but I wouldn't imagine getting flung off a steed in full charge in a full harness would feel very good you chance of breaking you neck must've been pretty damn high and tbh idk about you guys but after getting slung outta my saddle I don't think I'd have very much fight in me and the French crossbow men probably shit their hosen witnessing that.
Amazing test and production. Thanks for all the knowledge and effort you guys brought to this. Super interesting!
It's nice to know that armor actually protected the knights that wore it, at least for a while. I think Adam Savage from Mythbusters would really enjoy watching this experiment.
1969 people: we will have flying cars in 2019 2019 people: we are finally understanding now that long bow arrows cant penetrate armor.
cant penetrate 2.0 mm armour
These arrows are so bad guys, no chance for bowman/archer.
Modern arrow and bow ofc can penetrate. What u expect?
We were to busy rushing to the next step that we forgot to really examine the things around us. like apparently we landed on the moon (debatable) but we still don't know what's really in our seas and forests.
Norbert Nicpoń how do you know
Tod, that was just fantastic... Finally, all the correct pieces come together... You picked the right team, for sure.
britishmuzzleloaders just missing the gunpowder expert. ;) And good evening, nice meeting you here!
Didnt expect to see you here Rob
Yep, absolutely... I guess a lot of people on this and other channels have been anticipating this for a long time, fantastic to see it coming together.
Hi there. Thanks! It was a lot of work to bring all that together. Love your channel BTW
@@Legitpenguins99 Lot's to like at Tod's Workshop!
Absolutely fascinating ! Can't wait to watch next experiences on arms, legs, helmets and so ... and also possible thinking on quantity, a major factor imo. Struck by the sound, I imagine that on hundreds of armors at the same time. Must have been like an iron rain ! That's a subscribe ! Keep up the good work gentlemen.
Fantastic demonstration. Thanks so much. You obviously put many hours of research and effort into this. Great team!
"How many layers of armour and padding do you want?" French Knights: "Oui"
I found this funnier than I really should have 👍
I would like to add : "Absolument"
Agincourt: You sure about that mates?
@@CommanderSharpEye Learn to juggle (bear with me) It doesn't make you fitter, smarter, better at your job etc. so you just have to want it for its own sake Once you have put in the hours you get competent, then good, then fancy, and it starts to pay off in strange ways (I'm getting toward the point…) Most people can't comprehend juggling, so firstly you'll find that people are impressed, but secondly you'll find that you're impressed with yourself (nearly there) Because it's such a useless accomplishment that can only be achieved through practice, it really highlights how flexible you are, you can do anything you want, and lots of "gaps" just seem that much smaller You want to be more confident in social situations, well that's something you can do. You want to be a leader at work, well that's just something to practice. TLDR play with your balls
I'm french, i laughed.
Movies: Only heroes don't die easy. Reality: Everyone is a tank.
Everyone who could afford an armour
Not everyone. Only nobles and kings could afford an armour.
@@j.f.l.bousquet1998 not true, it was a requirement for knights to have a set of full plate armor and regular foot soldiers wore at least a breast plate and a helmet. And while knights were mostly landlord's they weren't necessarily nobels.
@@j.f.l.bousquet1998 Not everyone was fully armored, but not everyone was fully naked. Only this armor on video is a big thing to have.
@@Killerbee_McTitties how on earth were people knighted before the advent of full plate armor then? That makes absolutely no sense. To begin with, the definition of knight varies according to the era we are talking about. Armor and arms were expensive even for knights, and many knights were actually "poor" and thus unable to afford something like a full plate armor set.
Great Video, I'd love to see more of how an arrow interacts with the limb protection. There might also be a difference in how an arrow interacts with armour if it comes riding straight at you with a speed of around 60-70 km/h.
Good point Not investigated
this is just mind-blowingly great content. Opens up so many more questions about the period. So enjoyable, thankyou!
imagine wearing this armor of generations of innovation and experience proven to be impervious to arrows... and the first arrow that flys by hits right underneath it lol
Like the ogre said... "LAYERS!" If you look at a suit of plate at a museum you'll see that the various pieces overlap. Some designs more than others obviously. There may be situations where you wouldn't bother with all the gear, but if you KNOW you're going into battle, you''re not wearing that breastplate on its own.
@@AM-hf9kk Depends on your budget really, only knights and nobles ever get to wear a full set. Men at arms and levies often only wore a chestplate and helmet
@@AM-hf9kk Yeah but how thick is it going to be at every layered place? steel-mastery.com/image/catalog/Description-Photos/AB-01-01/350x546xchuburg-breastplate-xiv-century.jpg.pagespeed.ic.2Cofx8zCAK.webp And that is the armor of a Count! This test proves, conclusively, that if you get shot in the beastplate, where armor is thickest and toughest, you will survive. However, even in modern-day a breastplate can take most rifle rounds. A helmet can take most pistol cartridges pistol cartridges, but if you get hit in the arm or leg there is no armor there. Furthermore, the number of knights that would be wearing full plate would be very small. It was quite expensive, and not something you would want to fight in all day (despite the fact that you were far more mobile in it than RPGs would have anyone believe). Complete full plate armor was rare on the battlefield, think like 1/5 or 1/10 knights. If all the other guys are getting wounded minorly, wounded majorly, or killed by the time you reach the enemy Longbowmen, it is going to decimate morale, and morale is the key to winning battles.
@@pulsarplay5808 yes, the horses were vulnerable, and you still have to remember that event at that level of armor, armor wasn't regularly standardized. Everyone wore what they pleased around some very basic guide lines at best, and even many comparatively wealthy knights couldn't afford everything. And again, what wins the battle is morale. If even 10% of the knights went down due to their horses being killed, or they themselves were wounded or killed, that would be enough to start a retreat or a route.
Plate was effective until gunpowder weapons.
At last a true experiment based on actual historical reproductions and not cheap low quality tat. Love how it’s been made more realistic too having the test medium have movement back like a person and not solid mounted. Love Tods content
Absolutely fascinating video! The design of that armor really is impressive against, what is frankly, a terrifyingly powerful weapon. The effort put into this, in making it as historically accurate as possible, is also incredibly impressive! This channel is amazing.
I like that before the shooting started, they showed the length they went to make the setup (bow, arrows, armour, etc) as realistic as much as they can.
Joe the archer, Will the fletcher, and Kevin the armorer. Sounds like a dream team, prepared for battle.
Also sounds like their job titles could have become their surnames
@@derronong9331 If the internet was invented back then, I would have been called something like Robert Shitposter
@@Kensuke0987 Now thats funny.
@@Kensuke0987 Joe Archer, Will Fletcher, Kevin Smith
How is a smith and a fletcher along with an archer a dream team for battle? Only the archer is the one who fights while the others stay back still working.
Better production quality than anything on TV.
Yeah of course, Tv is run by Aliens :P
Greetings from Humboldt County California. Extremely impressed with the depth of your testing. First time watching your channel, glad I found you. Loved the slow motion . Explanation of the armor, arrows and the heads was very interesting. Made history come alive. ( Always hated history in school). Thank you very much.
I appreciate how thorough this is. I'm researching for my book, and now I've got some new ideas for interesting things I can do with arrows.
At Agincourt, the arrows of the English archers didn’t need to pierce the French armor to create havoc. The French battle began with cavalry attacking the English archers on the flanks of Henry's knights, followed closely by 4-6,000 French knights as infantry going toward the center of the English line. John Keegan, the military historian, says the archers aimed at the Cavalry horses, wounding them, driving them in pain toward the center of the battlefield. This stampede brought them up against the French infantry, scattering units and knocking down knights. This was confirmed by the account if the monk of St. Denis. The stampeding horses also churned up the mud of the battlefield. The battle took place on a plowed field that was recently wet by rain. The French knights had to struggle through wet, sticky mud that became knee-deep. Some French knights actually died of drowning, not wounding when they fell and then were kept down by the press of their fellows behind. The English archers made this more difficult by forcing the French knights to keep their visors lowered and their heads bent, restricting their vision and keeping them from breathing correctly. The French knights that reached the English line were fatigued and short of breath. Given that the archers loosed thousands of arrows, some of the must have found joints or seams in the French armor, knocking down dozens of knights, creating an impediment for the knights behind them who had to climb over, or step on their fallen comrades, or possibly trip over them making a bigger trip/fall hazard for the knights behind. Then, when they ran out of arrows the English archers with their hammers, axes and knives attacked the French column from the flanks. The column was so compressed the French knights didn’t have room to defend themselves and died at the hands of the English commoners. The true secret of the win at Agincourt wasn’t the English longbow or the arrows, it was the archers themselves, adapting their attack and changing tactics as the situations developed.
good ...also mention the knight who have been "taken prisonnier" in the morning and executed in the rear camp ...when the french circumvention group have menaced the rear camp in the afternoon (with some desapproval of the "mens" who's see their "rancons disapear" )
it was the weather really, and the decision to advance the English line at the last minute, closing it on the rim of the muddy fields. Horses go crazy when they haven't solid ground under them, add the arrow barrage to that, the borken charge and yeah, you got a huge clusterfuck of knights burried under horses and comrades, unable to defend themselves. But the French weren't flanked by the English like you say. The English archers were formed into wedges behind stakes walls with men-at-arms between each wedges: thus they automatically flanked attackers from both sides, and could use crossfire at point blank. When the French got clumped up within those wedges and started to die of suffocate, they just mass surrendered and were massively made prisoners by the English archers and footmen, who saw in them good money from ransoms. They only started slaughtering them when King Henry heard about the French attempt to attack in the back and feared he couldn't both manage the prisoners (in fear of them revolting) and face this new threat from the rear. Then he had to take this harsh decision. But basically, the battle was over already when the French had surrendered. The massacre is quite a part of the battle itself.
@@chrisball3778 Just a small point - Rear ranks were rarely 'more eager' That's why they were in the rear. The eager beavers were up front.
The dense English Billmen formations and dismounted foot Knights played a part too, in many battles of the Hundred Years War smaller numbers of elite English Infantry overpowered French Men at Arms.
I'm more with Anne Curry here and less with John Keegan or similar more traditional interpretations. The results of the battle are easier to understand so. The mounted attack of the French was made by very few knights, a few hundreds, with allegedly low casualties. It was a failure but not very important for the battle. The main attack was on foot. The English seem to have had numerical superiority through the whole battle, as the two armies were nearly about the same size and the third French line never entered combat. The arrow storm surely took some effect on the French. I presume during a certain period of the battle, when the French and English men-at-arms were in close combat, some close range precision shooting happened, with penetration through limb armor perhaps or through gaps in the armor. The archers were well trained professionals actually. But the men-at-arms were at least as important for the outcome of the battle as the archers were.
I think your first shot really answered a lot of the questions: it's possible to get into a target if you find the gaps in the armour, but if you hit a plate, the arrow is not going through.
16:17 That peculiar stance he takes to move his legs to the left of the line of fire while bending forward to keep his massive shoulders and forearms directly behind to maximise the force he can apply is so cool.
And it looks very much like what you see in Medieval Art. A lot of manuscript illuminations have this funny looking stance where they are leaning forward like that but it seems to be quite an accurate portrayal of the archers.
@nutyyyy, except they also shot from the other side of the bow for faster reloads and also proven by Thrand and Shadiversity, you can pull the arrow way farther along the bow and not feel too much strain as compared to the other way
Excellent video, thoroughly enjoyed watching. There was a time years ago, when I could shoot 50 arrows from an 80 lbs longbow. What Joe is doing here is pretty amazing ... 👏
That first shot is actually a perfect example why the archer is still very dangerous, if they hit somewhere other than the armour you'll have a very bad time
Then there is a big fuck you called shield.
It's not always safe even if it hit the armor though. You would still die or at least heavily injured here 20:43 if the broken arrowhead spin into your neck or face with that momentum.
@@Heavente Not all infantry had shields. Not just due to the weapons they carried (ie: pikes, 2handed swords/hammers, ect.) but shields were just as expensive as armor was, more so in some cases.
@@ShadowRhapsody81 Not saying all of them had shields, and price of shields depended on a quality of it. You can have shield which is just a plank of wood and it can protect you against shortbow
@@Heavente yea, but after it has 10+ arrows sticking into it.. assuming none of them jabbed your arm as they passed partially through the shield, it becomes a bit cumbersome :) Unless your talking something on the lines of the Roman Tower shields, but those were a bit pricy :)
Informative and accurate. Great production values. Specialists worth listening to. No unnecessary drama, “fake excitement”, sound effects, noise or graphics. Exactly what I wish tv was. You’ve earned a subscription from me 👍🏼👌🏽
Very true
Also, to the point, without awful and irritating delays.
@@CESSKAR And still a solid 30min of content.
Excellent comment. I agree entirely. Very well done.
Tv is being run by Aliens :)
I just love hearing these very passionate people talking about something they really love and are very good at. The armorer especially, what a guy. Hats off!
Great colab with experienced people to put "myths" to the test. Love it. And just imagine the sound of hundreds of arrows hitting plates during a battle, must've resembled a symphony of clancks.
That archer could probably crush brick between his shoulder blades holy shit
LOL!
you mean his forearm and biceps? yes
I was surprised with his Stance. I had expected a more upright stance and a more upright bow.
@@jamesgoacher1606 If I remember correctly when pulling the warbow that forward lean is needed to use all the back muscles for the pull without injury.
fwwdADwDwa fefh aWEdweddewawdawdwadagawdwag the Bizeps has absolutely nothing to do with drawing a bow.... wrong muscle It’s back muscle all the way through, neither Bizeps nor triceps play a considerable role in drawing a bow
If Age of Empires has taught me anything, its gotta do at least 1 damage.
You forgot limitless arrows!
to the chest, but not necessarily to the head
And if it's taught me anything, it's that if you shoot enough arrows at a building, it will catch on fire.
it’ll probably bruise the person underneath
@@user-ti6hq2tc9o Well, they did mention that the arrow head tips heat up significanly on impact ...
A beautiful piece of research. Thank you all. Would like to see flanking archer shots. Please keep experimenting. I have subscribed!
I remember my father teaching me about medieval knights, arms, and armor. A lot of what we thought we knew was disproved here. I wish he had lived to see this (he's have loved it). Thank you guys.
This is a modern tool steel breastplate at 2.5 mm, shot at with arrowheads made of iron. It didn't teache us anything of value.
This was better content than the History channel has produced in YEARS. 10/10
Was Agincourt really fought by... ALIENS???
"This armor is really effective but was it really designed by humans?"
RobotSlug History channel hasn’t produced anything about history period in years
RobotSlug It has been many years since the History Channel has done any history. It needs renaming to the BS Channel.
The "History Channel" sucks.
in addition to being decorative, the jupon had a practical application from these tests. the knight wasnt ALONE, he was in a line with other soldiers. imagine all those arrows exploding everywhere, all that debris flying into the other soldiers to the left or the right. maybe a head glanced into an eye of his mate to the side. with the jupon however, it CATCHES almost all of it, REMOVING the debris as a battlefield hazard almost entirely. i feel it was yet another military invention, aimed specifically at english longbows.
If knights were charging at 25-30km/h horse back it would change the physics. History must be rewritten then may be longbow men could be good swords men. Or tactically used to attract knight charges and skilled at capturing them. Or wars are won black ops raiding , ambush, sabotage, burning of crops more than the battlefield like in movies. If so, even if the french keep winning the battle due to armor theyll loose the war from mobility of light infantry plundering here and theyre knights keep defending in futility tiring them.
Or war could have been won on more verbal manner politically or psychologically. If the french common people support the english or dislike the government like ministers not the crown. Since england could fight european countries and eurpean countries cant fight back due to geography of england. Cliffs and weather anf harsh sea. Like japan to korea snd china
@@ansonang7810 Where do you get this notion that "/.../european countries can't fight back due to the geography of england."? The list is substantially long so I'll just highlight the Normans but if you wanna read on further in the provided link below I'd suggest looking at the Roman and Danish parts. England was conquered by the Normans in 1066 and for several hundred years the newly established nobility in England would continue to speak French while battling France proper with (mostly) English fighters. During that period the Old English language was the tongue of a commoner in England. In fact, the modern English language today takes a lot of inspiration from French language due to this very reason. I'm less knowledgeable about Japanese history and I don't feel like finding sources for this too (I'm sure you can look it up though) so take this with a grain of salt... At one point the Mongols were set to invade Japan but got caught up in a storm so perfect for the Japenese defence that they attributed a lot of mythical properties to their island. It's not unlikely that this could've also made an impact on both contemporary as well as future ideas of invading the archipelago up until the time when U.S.A. parked part of their navy outside. It could've literally been a lot of luck that dissuaded attempts at invasion. Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasions_of_the_British_Isles#Norman_conquest_of_England www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/changlang/activities/lang/norman/normaninvasion.html
@@pingusbror yeah the British isles have been invaded half a dozen times but IIRC not since 1066 have they been invaded by mainland Europeans, so in that sense the present day english, or the norman descendants haven't been invaded. AFAIK he japanese experienced holy winds or kamikaze twice which sunk invasion fleets
Absolutely. Simply put, you're much safer if the people fighting next to you are also wearing jupons over their armor.
This actually looks too professional for KZhead, very well done sir/s.
What a fantastic video. No conformation bias, just practical application of science and historical knowledge. Well done chaps. Also interesting to see the shape of a longbow archer in real life compared to a medieval tapestry. They all seem so thin and ungainly in the tapestries. Joe on the other hand is "a machine"
That archer’s aim is insane. Being able to consistently hit the breastplate from that distance with such a heavy draw weight- wow!
Joe Gibbs is a member of the English Warbow Society. He makes his own bows, and experiments with a wide variety of draw weights.
Its called editing. Of course they wont show the shots he missed.
Rykehuss Wouldn’t there be arrows in the target behind the armor if he missed? Unless he missed by so much that it missed the target too, but given how good he is that seems unlikely.
Jaxon Burn Those arrows can be removed.
Rykehuss I mean, sure it’s possible, but now you’re going from saying that they were just editing out the shots that missed to some sort of conspiracy theory where they’re trying to preserve this guy’s reputation as a great bowman. You’re saying they not only edit out the shots that missed but also went and took the arrows out of the target between each shot. It just doesn’t seem that likely. Why would they care about making this guy seem better than he is?
Love how the English archer did that passive-aggressive thing right off the bat. He Killed the knight first, by hitting the weak spot, then carried on knowing that the point had been made.
the gaps weren't really significant points, for example being hit in the armpit or thigh is a whole lot less worse than being hit in the chest, armour is meant to cover vitals
I'd like to see you fight after getting shot in the armpit by a longbow. People shot arrows at soldiers for a reason. In fact, armpits are exposed because the inside of joints are almost impossible to cover with plate (and still move your limbs), not because they aren't vital points. Armpit punctures can even pierce a lung or heart depending on depth and angle. Tl;dr weak points on armour can be fatal, but also they are super hard to hit unless the archer gets lucky, so it is still totally worth wearing armour.
Yeah.. I think a half inch shaft through the lower intestine would incapacitate most Frenchmen.
Max there’s an artery in the armpit called the axillary artery if they were to hit that you are dead Lol also on the inside of the thigh next to the groin is the femoral artery... another place you do not wanna get hit at.
Exactly! Joe Gibbs is a badass.
The production value of this is astronomical re-watching it is a pleasure!
Just stumbled onto this This is amazing, thank you for doing this style of research and sharing it
"I've been shot with arrows in armor" must make for one helluva flex at parties
That’s our Toby!
I'm thinking about that scene from Super Troopers
"Man, I gotta get me one of these!" - Boromir
:)) There was no plate armor in Third Age Gondor, if you ask J.R.R.Tolkien. If you ask Jackson, on the other hand, it was as if they were wearing nothing at all. I'm never going to be able to watch T.T.T. the same way again.
@@ivandovranic5834 It seems every minas tirith foot soldier was able to afford a full plate armor and chainmail but the son of the steward and first captain couldn't, unlucky.
Important to remember that they were travellers. Imagine wearing or carrying full armour for weeks, plus food and other necessary equipment.
^this.@@adomv05 not exacly. Boromir has set out in a great hurry on a journey over many hundred miles to reach Rivendell, a lot of it over unknown and potentially dangerous/hostile terrain. It's out of question to undertake such an enterprise wearing all your wargear. In peacetime it would be surely be customary while being on a diplomatic mission, to be accompanied by a retinue of guards and servants, plus several beasts of burden to carry everything (potentially) nessecary, incl extra weapons and armor. P.S. Although yes, as a criticism of what we are seeing in a movie i quite accept your comment as is, apart from that Boromir bit.
@Baron Von Grijffenbourg well, yes. I'm sure filmmakers would probably defend their decisions as artistic choices, something along the lines of "we felt it to be more important (than historical accuracy [in a fantasy movie {snigger}]) to underline overall hopelessness of a situation, and characters being overrun by it" or something like that. So that only characters important to their artistic vision/choices can come across as hardy and heroic. I mean ok it's their movie; mine however is a right to disagree and criticize. The movies are good when they make an effort to be.
Absolutely a great variety of testing taking place here. Laying to rest some old fables. Very educational
Feeding the KZhead algorithm. Really informative video. I so appreciate all of the work that went into making the components and performing the tests. Thanks.
Imagine being able to be a full time fletcher in the 21st century
I thought the same thing too! :)
Talk to me when your fletching level is 99.
How many that have that name know it's meaning?
It's good money if you got the customers, I see these traditional arrows go for $10-$20 each...
"The arrow heads are completely gone" The guy's teenage son mowing the grass a week later. Krgkcrunkscuk ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing! "WTF was that?"
Dad. I found the tortoise. Oh, wait.
The ziiiing killed me 😂
Very cool, and revealing tests Gents! Looking forward to seeing your additional testing!
Fascinating - thank you all for the time and effort taken.
The fact that they simulated the give of a real standing human rather than bolting the plate to the target elevates this x100 to me.
I was impressed too when I saw that. Most tests of this sort have multiple glaring flaws in their testing methods. Here they utilized the best available knowledge in this subject and carefully crafted a period weapon, ammunition for it, and armor used to defend against it, and the condition of a person wearing it. They couldn't of done it any better short of having a real man in the armor. I guess volunteers were hard to find ;)
@@frankkolton1780 How about those dudes that volunteer to be the 'target' for the knife-thrower at the circus? I guess they must have been busy that day lol.
And the shape is so important, not a flat target.
is it realistic though, I wonder. someone wearing that armor charging on horseback towards you is essentially galloping into the arrow. there's not gonna be a lot of give, if any.
@@gordonlekfors2708 Horseback charging still relies on your ability to rock back in the saddle, otherwise a couched lance strike would break the rider's back along with the target.
and there I thought the armor's curve was made to fit a beer belly. damn.
boob plate
multi-purpose device
I don't believe people living in these ages had the beer belly or at least the soldiers. The way they've trained with these heavy weapons and heavy armors and the hard lives they were living wouldn't allow it
I thought that an armor's curves was to match the massive pecs and stone abs of the Spartans and Channing Tatum.
That breastplate would not cover the belly, only the upper torso, or right around where the ribs would be. Hence, breastplate. Because it covers the breast.
Thank you guys so much for putting this together, It was fascinating. I'm pretty late seeing it, but this really was enlightening.
What a valuable piece of research! Very interesting, very informative! Thank you!
The sound of a volley of arrows hitting an armored formation must have been deafening.. and terrifying!!
It would be hitting shields, of which are primarily wood so you'd be hearing the thunk more than anything, alongside the screams of the arrows that say, hit someone's hand through it and pinned their hand to their shield, or hit their mostly exposed feet/legs.
I was thinking about that too. And the terrifying processes of discovery that lead to all these developments in tech...
@@andrewg4412 not necessarily, i mean, if you are wearing a full suit of plate armour, wouldn't a shield be a bit overkill when instead you could use a Zweihänder. I am of course no expert, but that's just my two bits on the subject. Also, i like to imagine that deafening sound of a volley of arrows hitting an armored formation.
@@thomaspitter3229 you think nobles standing against arrows wouldn't use a shield? Overkill > dead and I'll promise you for full plate there aren't gonna be enough to make a full formation of a large amount of troops.
@@andrewg4412 Many knights abandoned shields altogether because plate was all that was needed for protection. Those who didn't have full plate certainly would still use them.
So nice to see something that does not treat the viewer as a child. Amazing work and focus on detail! Can't wait for the next mythbusting :D
This is the Avengers level team of Medieval Arms and Armor. Fantastic work all around.
Man, that was fascinating! Props to everyone involved as well as to the ancestors that created each of those awesome implements. Btw, this was random in my feed. Glad I gave it a go.
Absolutely amazing work. I loved it. Very well made, professional, scientific. I wish this got the views national television gets.
Why are you not verified yet
MAMA MIA
I was just about to recommend this to you too Metatron XD. You beat me to it!
😂😂😂 I was looking for you in the comments
Most Noble One! Nice to see you here. Yes these videos really are great.
You've done what dozens of big budget TV shows have failed to do. Top quality!
I absolutely love the Wallace Collection and always enjoy Tobias's talks. He is the definition of "deadpan"!!!!
I'm impressed by your video. All items are pieces of best craftsmanship. I was a little bit surprised by the result, but that is what makes such research so fascinating.