Leather Armor? (NO HOLDS BARRED!!)

[Dan Howard]

The historical record is quite telling: in all the literature that I know of, there are exactly two accounts of arrows wounding a man armoured in plate where the arrow actually went through the plate.

Sooo.... the historical evidence says arrows CAN pierce plate? which means it's a myth, right?

Both instances involve penetrating plate that was significantly thinner than what was worn on the torso. In one instance a vambrace (wrist guard) was penetrated. In the other a gorget (neck guard) was penetrated. In both instances the wearer survived the wound and neither was incapacitated during the battle. In the case of the vambrace the wearer could take off the plate without extracting the arrow first and was well enough to write a letter complaining to his mother that night with the same hand that was wounded. Hardly the masses of dead that proponents of the longbow claim occurred at Agincourt.