A STUDY SHOWING KNIGHTS COULD MOVE PRETTY WELL IN THEIR ARMOR. I posted here about the argument that the British won at Agincourt because once the French knights were on foot in the heavy mud, they were relatively helpless. This article by Jason Daley in the Smithsonian reports on a recent experiment that showed that “some knights were downright spry in their armor.” Daley begins by acknowledging that: “There are legends that some suits of armor were so heavy that if a knight fell face down in a puddle he would drown.”
The medievalists “dressed a volunteer in replica armor made from the same materials and in the same manner as medieval armor. The team then recorded the subject walking and running on a treadmill, analyzing his gait and range of motion using 3-D kinematics. What they found is that while the armor did add weight and increased energy use, the wearer retained most of his range of motion.” They point out that the weight of the armor would be comparable to that of the gear of a modern soldier or fireman.
Of course, the mud at Agincourt has been shown to be of an unusual texture.