- Start with the wraps
for the knees.
This is kind of like a padding.
And also the spurs.
Usually start by arming up
from the feet first,
and work your way up.
Because everything overlaps.
-And there are 15th century
documents that actually talk
about starting with the feet and
working your way up.
- Spurs.
- And even running the risk
that you're disappointed,
we don't have a horse backstage.
So the spurs
are just for show today.
- Okay, this first part of armor
are the greaves.
They completely enclose the leg.
(indistinct chatter)
- Well, he can't wear a mic
because the armor suit's
too tight,
it has to be well-fitting.
So the armor for the lower legs
goes on first.
You can see the straps
and buckle combinations
that will close
the two parts together.
They're hinged on the outside,
and on the inside--
which is more protected--
you have the leather straps.
It will ideally prevent them
from being cut,
and the armor popping open
if the leather straps
are actually on the inside.
And the next part that goes on
is the protection
for the thighs.
I'm not going to confuse you
with all the technical terms.
Almost every generation,
but different centuries
over the time had their own
special terms
for each piece of armor, which
even to people like Jeff and me
nowadays can get very confusing
when you mention
one technical term that can mean
three different things
over three different centuries.
One term you might know
is a gauntlet for the protection
for a hand, of course, and that
didn't change very much.
The main point, obviously,
that you want to achieve
is flexibility so you can move,
but at the same time,
you want the plates to overlap,
which creates more thickness,
more protection.
But you also want the plates
where they overlap
to overlap and fit together
as tightly as possible,
which was usually a sign
of really high quality armor.
The sort of mediocre quality--
and I'm not talking about
the really bad quality
that I showed earlier--
but the mediocre quality
you can sometimes see or repairs
that some of the plates
don't quite fit together.
The really well-fitting plates
fit so tightly together
that it's even difficult to push
a piece of paper between them.
So now you see the arming points
that are just attached
to the doublet over the points
of the hip,
which is where the thigh bone
articulates, of course.
He's now donning,
the other way around
than most of you would probably,
a skirt of mail.
This is the Italian fashion.
Italians-- at least
until the late 15th century--
in order to protect the groin,
would wear a mail skirt.
Then there's also variations.
Jeff today is wearing
a mail doublet which has,
as you can see,
is wearing an arming doublet,
which has mail voiders
or arm protections
sewn onto the fabric garment.
Italians would sometimes also
just wear a second mail shirt
over the doublet.
And now the standard
is going on, the mail collar,
which will hopefully add
protection for the area
where the breastplate ends
and the helmet will overlap.
But there is of course a gap.
In the 15th century,
the neck protection
or the breastplate and
the helmet were not connected
as in the Henry VIII armor that
we saw of the 16th century.
So there can be a gap
between helmet and breastplate.
And for that, he's wearing
mail underneath,
which also gets laced
to the garment
that he's wearing underneath.
Should a weapon get between
breastplate and helmet,
this will hopefully offer
additional protection.
- Okay, next we have
the cuirass,
which there's two pieces
to this cuirass.
The upper part
and the lower part.
- So you can tell it takes
a little while to put on armor.
And this is why
in the two images that you saw,
there were two squires or pages
helping that will, of course,
speed up the process.
But here we have a team
of husband and wife,
and I'm not going to get
in between that.
I think they know exactly
what they're doing.
And Stacy, by the way, also
wears armor and also jousts,
like Jeff.
So they help each other
putting on the armor
before they start jousting.
So they're very familiar
with each other's armors
and how to put them on.
- I want to make a point
right now.
The breastplate,
the cuirass weighs
probably about 15 to 20 pounds.
And it's very tight
in the waist.
And the reason for that is so
that it sits right on my pelvis,
sits right on my hips.
So it's, instead of hanging off
of my shoulders,
it's right here at my center
of gravity,
and so it makes it a lot easier
for me to move my arms.
And the whole idea behind
the armor
is that the weight of it
is supported by, like Dirk said,
points,
and it's all over the body.
So I'd rather wear my armor
than have to carry it somewhere.
- That's what you have
the little boys for,
to carry your armor.
(laughter)
Yeah, the Italians interestingly
kept the strap connection,
even for the two parts
of the breastplate
for a long time
throughout the 15th century.
From a modern,
logical point of view
it seems somewhat strange
to have a leather strap there
which someone with a sword
could cut,
but since they had it for, you
know, about 100 years, roughly--
so that's three generations--
I think they knew
what they were doing,
it must have worked.
It gives you more flexibility.
- Yes, it does.
What it does is allows my
shoulders to move independently.
You see how it can shift
back and forth like that?
And another nice thing
about this type of breastplate,
the Italian breastplate--
the cuirass here
with the placard--
is that there's two layers
of metal right here,
right over my chest.
And in the early years,
they only came to here,
but as the century progresses,
they grow.
This part gets larger and larger
to cover, so you have
two layers of plate protection
over your chest.
So, which is another aspect
of armory is that there are
layers of material to keep you
protected from axes and swords
and missile weapons.
- Now comes the armor
for the arms.
And crossbows, yes.
That'll be a different program,
crossbow.
This is also... there are
sort of not just visual,
but also very subtle differences
in quality of armor.
Armor made by the best masters,
you can tell they're thick
in those areas.
For example, the frontal part of
the helmet and the front part,
the left part of the breastplate
where they need to be thick,
where they need to offer
the most protection
for first line...
as a first line of defense.
And in order
to save weight, though,
those parts of the armor that
were not immediately exposed
to an enemy, like the back
of the helmet, the back plate,
they could be slightly thinner,
lighter.
That way you could still offer
the best protection
exactly where you needed it,
but you could get rid
of a little bit
of excess weight.
Not much, but some.
But I think this should
show you
that once he's
completely dressed,
even then he won't need a crane
to get on his horse,
which is not here, by the way.
(laughter)
So in those days also, you know,
getting ready for battle,
with a tournament
it didn't matter that much,
but for battle,
it took a little while,
if you're thinking in terms
of several hundred
or even several thousand
of troops.
And as I told you, it's not just
the knights wearing armor,
it could be other troops, too.
The element of surprise
could really give you
an element of surprise
if you had that advantage
that you could catch an army
unawares or unprepared
when people weren't armed and
didn't have their weapons ready.
That could be
a potential disaster.
Okay...
Getting the arms.
So you can begin to see
how the mail takes care
of those parts of the body that
are really difficult to protect
with metal strips or, you know,
plates of mail.
Henry VIII, of course,
could afford
the best armorers of his time,
so there you saw
the inside of the arm,
even the inside where you have
a lot of movement
was protected with small strips
of metal that would work
almost like an accordion 
or a Venetian blind.
It is much simpler to just put
on Italian armor like this
that allows you
a lot of movement
and just cover
those parts of the body
where you have a lot of movement
under the arms,
inner side of the elbows
with mail.
That offers additional
protection and ideally,
the more he moves,
the more difficult it'll be
for an opponent to actually get
to those weak points
or weak parts of the armor.
Now the shoulder defenses
come on,
which in Italy tend to be
asymmetrical and rather large.
Gives you a bit more
of an air of masculinity.
And also a lot more protection.
And the reason for the asymmetry
is what Jeff and I
mentioned before,
two right-handed people
attacking each other,
they would attack each other's
left side first,
so this is why
you're just seeing
the right shoulder defense
coming on.
The left shoulder defense
is almost twice as big
as the one on the right.
Because they would be facing
each other like this,
the left shoulder
is the exposed one.
So that one is thicker.
Do you need a hand, Stacy?
You're okay.
- The point as you saw... it
disappeared inside the cuirass.
- Ah, see at that point,
the page would probably
get smacked over the head
for that kind of mistake.
(laughter)
In those days, that was okay.
It's not going to happen today.
And it's not okay today anymore.
(woman asking question)
The weak points are, you know,
wherever plates
don't exactly cover.
For example, the armpit,
so that's where the mail
offers some additional
protection,
but he needs the movement,
and also he will demonstrate
with the lance,
this is also where
the right shoulder
is a little bit smaller,
has a cutout so that
the lance can go under the arm,
and he can maneuver it in front.
So what you would try is...
of course two people fighting,
none of them are standing still.
What you would try is to get
whatever weapon you have--
if it's a sword, you would try
to get in between the plates
and push through,
or with an axe or a hammer,
you would just try
and knock him unconscious,
and then once
he's on the ground,
it's easier to deal with him.
Let's phrase it like that.
So it's actually
pretty effective.
I mean you know,
they would not have bothered
for several hundreds of years,
centuries, with armor like this
if it hadn't worked, clearly.
The gauntlets.
- So here I am armored up.
Armored up.
I can move.
I can fight.
If I...
If I am down on the ground,
right?
Down on the ground,
it is, you know, a weak area.
Like Dirk said, somebody could
just sit on me and defeat me.
Or I can get back up again.
You know, I'm not,
I'm not totally...
You know, just because
I fall on the ground
doesn't mean I can't
get back up again.
Okay, I'm ready for the helmet.
- Ready if you are.
That is, you know,
one of the disadvantages
is not so much
that you can't move,
the weight does slow you down
a little bit.
It gets pretty warm,
and if you put on
an Italian-type helmet
like this, which is actually
of the type that I showed
earlier where we took off
the front defense and found that
original surface underneath.
The hearing is not that well,
so this is also, you know,
obviously on a battlefield
you had shouting
because of the stress, because
of fear, because of aggression.
But it was also if you wanted
to be heard by the people
around you,
you really needed to shout.
This is a specific Italian,
very ingenious invention.
This is an additional
face defense.
The technical term,
for obvious reasons, is wrapper.
It wraps around the front,
and again,
it's intended to offer
one additional protection
to cover the gap between
the helmet and the breastplate.
And you see how nicely
it works together
with the shoulder defenses.
It'll be very difficult
to get a weapon in there.
Especially as long as he tries
not to let me get a weapon
anywhere near him.
Now one of the pieces
that comes on,
one of the last pieces
is the lance rest.
That could also be on there
already.
It's the lance rest is also
one of the main questions
that always comes up.
What is that strange thing
sticking out
from the breastplate?
That helps you to...
you rest the lance on there.
He will demonstrate that
in a second.
It's not so much because
the lance is very heavy,
it helps you to absorb the shock
when you hit your opponent.
It will actually take final
adjustments in the field.
(laughter)
(applause)
Thank you, Stacy.
So Jeff will demonstrate...
Don't take out the lights, yeah.
That works.
Will demonstrate
how the lance rest works.
And he can actually
let go of it.
That's how it works.
You know, I can stand here
for ten minutes
explaining to you how it works.
That takes care of that.
And as you can see,
the lance is not that heavy.
It doesn't really need
that kind of support.
It offers a shock absorber,
and it also offers you
more ability to maneuver the
lance and aim at your opponent.
And ah, yeah, that should go in
between the wrapper, exactly.
So one of the things
that you will see
when someone is wearing
full armor,
the vision slit obviously
obstructs your vision,
but you can still see
quite a bit.
The one change that you have
at that point
is people wearing full armor,
the visor is closed,
they look a little bit
like birds.
You can tell that they're moving
their heads a lot more
than someone like you and me.
We have quite a good
peripheral vision.
Perhaps not like a rabbit, but
still-- or a dog-- but still.
Once the vision is obstructed
with the vision slit,
you can still see very well
as long as you keep moving
your head around.
That will allow you pretty good
control of your surroundings.
And I think that concludes
our afternoon.
Thank you very much
for your patience.
(cheers and applause)
