How A Saint George English Longbowman Shall Be Armed

Intro Together with my friends, we have designed this wonderful artwork commemorating my first ever How a Man Shall Be Armed video, The English Knight. For the purposes of full transparency with you, my audience, I'd like to tell you that the prices listed offer me an average of £5 profit per item sold. £3 will go to me, £1 will go to the re-enactor featured, and £1 to the artist. I also only chose high quality and comfortable materials for each item, the prices reflect the quality of the fabric that I chose. If you like this design, then I will be hoping to make more in the future showing different How a Man Shall Be Armed episodes. I hope you enjoy, I worked really hard on making this a possibility, I even made the website. I have designed t-shirts, long sleeves, and hoodies in multiple sizes and colours, how spiffing. Anyways, let's see some medieval armour. Following the previous generational successors of Cressi, Poitiers, and Agincourt, the English continued to invest heavily in archers, and indeed the classic longbowmen made up the majority of English armies both on the sides of the Lancastrians and the Yorkists during the War of the Roses. First, the Englishman is assisted when putting on his leg harness. This is an element of armour that he could put on himself, but the elevated status of this soldier particularly, likely a sergeant or captain of an archer company, means that he has an aspiring squire to assist him. First, sabatons are worn to protect the feet. These are classically English in style, as each individual lame of steel is ridged to give an additional artistic flair which is a very English design. The sabatons are attached to the sabo, or arming shoe, by the use of lacing points which are tied to the top of the toes. Then, a hinged plate curves around the back of the heel and is locked in place with a small pin. Next, the squire fetches the greaves. In preparation for the greaves, the soldier wears a pair of bulwarks, which are essentially wraps which go around the leg for an extra level of comfort before the greaves are worn. Despite these being an often overlooked item of clothing when donning armour, they are clearly noted in the 15th century English manuscript titled, Our Man Shall Be Armed. These greaves are fully enclosed to protect the lower legs. They are anatomically shaped to match the wearer's leg muscles, to provide a tight yet comfortable fit. The greaves come in two pieces, the front and the back, which are attached by hinges on the outside, then enclosed and tightened up by the use of two small straps and buckles on the inside. Following the greaves, the upper leg harness is worn, called the cuisse. This cuisse is the third and final part which makes up the overall leg harness, and is also made in the English style. Indeed, this entire leg harness is a reproduction of an effigy in Riva Church in Yorkshire. The knightly effigy depicts Sir William Riva, a prominent English knight during the mid-15th century. On the upper cuisse plate, a decorative pie-crust style patternwork can be seen, which again is a typical English style, together with the artistic design of the pollein fan plates, as well as the small inner fan plates which protect the inner knee. This leg harness is blackened, which is done by first polishing the steel, then rubbing a thin layer of boiled linseed oil over the metal, and applying a low heat to slowly burn the linseed oil into the metal, leaving it stained black. Blackening armour was a good way at prolonging the metal surface against rust, so English soldiers could march through rainy weather without risking getting their armour immediately rusted by rainwater. The leg harness is attached to the soldier by lacing directly to the doubler. Wearing plate armour like this requires a lot of trial and error, so the soldier must test how the armour feels and make any necessary adjustments to ensure the most uncomfortable and reliable fit. Incorrectly worn armour can greatly impede the wearer's mobility and their ability to dodge incoming threats. The household accounts of Sir John Howard states that some men were equipped with male standards, which are collars made up of 6mm or 8mm rings of mail that protect the neck and the throat. These standards are tightened by the use of straps and buckles around the back of the neck. The Howard household accounts also mention the use of brigandines, which are cuirasses made up of small metal plates all riveted to an outer canvas made of wool or sometimes leather. Brigandines became a very popular alternative to full plate cuirasses during the late 15th century and were widely used all throughout Western Europe. They were considerably easier to make than full plate cuirasses, they required less tailoring and, most importantly, they could be worn and tightened up without the help of a second person. Most brigandines are closed around the front using multiple straps and buckles, and were fairly adaptable since the adjustable straps meant that people of different sizes could comfortably wear the same size brigandine. As seen in this original from the Royal Armouries in Leeds, brigandines feature hundreds of small rectangular plates which are all connected and designed to overlap and crunch over each other, allowing for a good level of mobility. Some versions feature larger plates around the chest, commonly referred to as lung plates, and share characteristics with other variations throughout the middle ages such as the coat of plates or the corosina. The man now wears a livery coat with the red cross and white background of St George. St George had evidently been a prominent spiritual figure for English archers throughout the late medieval period, and indeed King Henry V was said to have mentioned him specifically during his battle cry at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. St George had been made the patron saint of England in around 1350, and would therefore be assumed to have kept a watchful eye over the English armies during various campaigns throughout the middle ages. This garment could also be considered a light variant of the Jack, a popular lower-piece status of protective clothing which was generally made up of multiple layers of linen to create a tough and durable garment, capable of protecting the wearer against glancing strikes or shrapnel from exploding arrows, which happened very commonly when arrows hit plate armour. Next, the archer wears a belt around his waist, which holds a leather pouch and his trusty dagger, called a bollock dagger. Bollock daggers were very common weapons worn by the English throughout the late middle ages, and they were often fairly rudimentary and cheap, so therefore available to a wide array of soldiers from poorer backgrounds. This is a particularly higher end example of a bollock dagger, featuring decorative brasswork and an etched leather scabbard. Bollock daggers appear to be named as such due to their literal resemblance with a pair of male testicles, with the handle also resembling something rather obscene and phallic in nature. Penis jokes were just as popular in the middle ages as they are today, with them being present in various forms of iconography such as in paintings, manuscripts and even masonry. The archer is now given his arming belt, with sword and scabbard. Archers were paid more depending on their additional fighting capabilities and skill sets, since if they were more useful and versatile on the battlefield, then they would be seen as more of a valuable asset. While swords had become much more available by the late medieval period, they were still quite a valuable item and would not be available to the masses. Most archers would instead own a hand axe or club instead, which were useful for sharpening and hammering in wooden stakes as an anti-cavalry mechanism during the hundred years war, and also made for a good bludgeoning or cleaving weapon which didn't require a lot of skill to wield. Shields were not seen as very necessary during the late 15th century, but bucklers still served a purpose. These are small, often round shields held in the hand and protected the wearer's hand like a budget version of a gauntlet, allowing them to confidently parry an incoming strike. Bucklers were, therefore, a popular defensive item favoured amongst archers, since they typically wouldn't wear any armour on their arms, because it would impede their abilities to draw a longbow. The soldier hands his sword to his squire, who is an aspiring soldier himself, keen to learn the art of warfare and combat. Squires would often be seen in charge of carrying out a wide plethora of tasks on behalf of a knight or man of senior military rank. Anything from cleaning and polishing his armour, tending to his horses, or rigorous training with various weapons including the sword or polearm. The most common helmet for Englishmen and especially archers during the War of the Roses was the sallet. Sallets are directly mentioned in multiple accounts, such as the Bridport Master of 1457. The Howard Household accounts also specify the use of sallets both with and without visors. This soldier has a visored sallet, which were typically much more expensive than the open-faced sallet. The archer is now handed his longbow, which is made of yew, since this was a strong and springy type of wood which allowed for a very high draw weight and therefore a very powerful shot. A yew bow will feature two caps at each end, called nocks, and are made of horn. The longbowman now checks the quality of the curve of his bow, using a method called fist meal. This is where he places his fist and thumb between the bow and the string to check that the distance is adequate. Too much distance means that the bow has been stressed and bends too much, which would result in a loss of power and possible breakage. The archer now wears his brace, which is made of leather and is engraved with a depiction of Saint George. Next, the archer wears a leather finger guard to protect the skin on his fingers when repetitively shooting the bow. And now the archer checks the quality of the arrows which have been brought to him. He organises his arrows by head type, as he sorts through which arrows he will require to take with him throughout the day. There were many types of arrowhead throughout the middle ages, and they had a variety of different uses, which will be fully explained in a future video. During the late 15th century, the most common arrowhead type was the bodkin, which were typically four-sided heads of iron or steel, and were particularly good at puncturing through plate armour. These are considered the mass-use arrowhead type, where smiths could easily hammer them out at a high rate, and then later hardened them so they would be strong enough to penetrate steel armour. At this point, I would like to thank the archer featured in today's video. Ian Pycroft is a highly dedicated historical interpreter of both military and civilian portrayals from multiple periods in history, and will surely be featuring in at least a few more videos on this channel. Ian is the owner and creative director of Black Knight Historical, a high-quality historical reenactment and entertainment group who host many living history events all across Britain, and are based in Norfolk, England. Black Knight Historical play a large part in providing us with highly authentic, immersive hands-on experiences covering over 2,000 years of history. And of course I use the footage from these events to help bring an extra level of visual immersion to the videos that I create for you. So I highly urge you to follow Black Knight Historical's social media, using the fancy QR code that I have placed on screen for you now. If you are looking to hire an interactive and highly dedicated living history group, either for public events, schools, or private hire, then I fully suggest Black Knight Historical. Supporting our historical interpreters and reenactors helps show more people what truly authentic arms and armour of various periods actually looked like, and allows more reenactors to feature on this channel. But for now, thanks for watching.