super heavy armour of multiple layers of metal?

[Kai]

Hello forum,

first I am sorry if I missed a topic on this, but I have a question that interests me a lot recently.

In modern reconstruction drawings of ancient and early medival troopers I often see that they have not only a subarmalis/gambeson and a mail shirt or lamellar/scale cuirass above it, but the full panoply of subarmalis, long mail shirt and an additional lamellar or scale cuirass above it.
I am aware that such combinations existed, although I think they were very rare.

However what I am wondering is if someone here as experience in using such super-heavy armour. Is it really worth the weight (and costs)? Do you tire sooner when using it? Are you more restricted in your movement?

I would appreciate any first (and second) hand experience.

regards
Kai

PS: one example (infantry!):
http://larsbrownworth.com/blog/wp-conten..._Guard.jpg

[Gaius Colletti]

Yes armor such as that existed, but well past the (Western) Roman era, knights often wore a variation of plate and mail armor together. Mail itself is not the greatest armor, and plate armmor requires that certain joins be left exposed in order to still move around, leaving gaps in the armor, now mail was sometimes used to cover these gaps. Knights were the "tanks' of their era, it was hard for a regular light infantrymen to inflict a significant wound to a knight without being killed himself. No regular sword is going to hack its way through plate armor, very special weapons had to be used, but none of them were perfect.

Of course something that heavy and plated would be exhausting, but knights often had armor tailored to them and learned how to most comfortably wear it. I believe the whole knight/armor movement started dying out due to the invention of gun powder weapons.

[Dan Howard]

I think you are over-estimating the weight of mail and plate armours. Often if mail and plate were combined then each component was made lighter than if one was the sole defense. A mail shirt worn by itself might weigh 15-20 lbs but mail intended to be worn under other armour could be as light as 8-10 lbs. Total weight would be well under what a modern infantryman is expected to carry. Armour underpadding is also a lot lighter and thinner than padded armour that was worn as a standalone defense. In some cases no padded undergarment was worn at all - the mail would have a lightly padded liner instead.

FWIW mail by itself is an excellent defense. It was the preferred type of armour for virtually every metal-using culture on the planet for well over a thousand years. Plate is better protection against blunt trauma but that is about it.
http://www.myarmoury.com/feature_mail.html