How Did Medieval Soldiers Level Up and Get War Gear? DOCUMENTARY
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- čas přidán 16. 05. 2024
- The real history behind medieval RPG leveling! Support my channel by downloading Warpath now in Google Play or pre-register in the AppStore with my link: bit.ly/WInvicta Use my creator code Warpath000 to get gold x200, military x100,000, steel x100,000, crude x100,000, army experience x100,000
In this medieval history documentary we take a look at the realities behind how characters traditionally level up in medieval RPG game settings. We begin by looking at what sort of war gear and medieval soldier equipment was needed for war. This includes not just weapons and armor but tools for maintaining their kit and going about daily life in camp. Some of this does show up in video games or table top RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons but usually have negligible impact.
We then take a look at the cost of medieval war gear. It turns out that upfront, armor was the most costly followed by weapons. However the recurring costs of basic items could quickly catch up over time. If you wanted to get a horse that would be even more expensive with a proper war horse costing several year's worth of salary for your basic longbowman.
With the scope and cost of medieval soldier equipment outlined we next talk about the primary ways spearmen, archers, men-at-arms, and knights would go about equipping themselves. The first main way was inheritance passed down through families. However unlike in fantasy rpg games or books like Game of Thrones this was a quite mundane rather than elaborate process. The next way to get medieval war gear was to have it gifted or loaned to you. This would typically involve a lord giving weapons and armor to their retainer or a city armory dispensing gear to their militia. The next way for medieval soldiers to get war gear was to buy it. We provide an overview of the medieval arms industry and how people would go about making or purchasing weapons and armor. Finally we take a look at the last main way to get war gear which was to scavenge on the battlefield. However this was not always possible as is evidenced by the battle of Visby or the battle of Agincourt where such activities seem to have been cut short. To sum things up we then briefly mention the social mobility wars could provide where people like english longbowan from the hundred years war could become rich men at arms.
I hope this history of what it was like for medieval soldiers to to level up and war gear proves useful to you. I know that for my own dungeons and dragons gameplay its been great to have a reasonable sense of what D&D items should cost.
Bibliography and Suggested Reading
Thom Richardson, The Tower Armory in the 14th Century
Clifford Rogers, Soldier’s Lives Throughout History: The Middle Ages
Alan Williams, the Knight and the Blast Furnace
Investigating the Socio-Economic Origins of English Archers in the Second Half of the Fourteenth Century, Gary Baker
Andrew Ayton, “English Amries in the 14th Century,” Arms, Armies, and Fortifications in the Hundred Years War
John Keegan, The Face of Battle
Anne Curry, The Battle of Agincourt: Sources and Interpretations
#History
#Documentary
#RealLifeRPG
Check out our "Welcome to Roshar" video on the Stormlight Archive: czcams.com/video/xL4M7Yx0SSE/video.html
Can you cover the Byzantine army? It'd be quite interesting.
What about the other side of the world? The more advanced one. Those who invented Damascus steel?
*"See how this son of a village blacksmith became a knight with just this easy trick. Cumans hate him!"*
Jesus Christ be praised!
Hey! Henry's come to see us!
Based Henryposter
Man I love that game, even if my nation is on the "wrong side" :D
I feel quite hungry!
They bought loot boxes for 9,99 off course and with the season pass they could level up faster and get exclusive gear
I wanted to say the same thing🤣
You weren’t born in a family that inherited their Battle Passes?
Gotta love pay-to-play 🤣
Supercell is typing rn...
Pay to Win Royalties
Basically, if you're abandoning a blacksmith's wages and running off to live the life of an adventurer, you'd better have a bloody good reason for doing it
that depends on where your shop is located at
@@EricWulfe
Depends if theirs a high demand for weapons in your area
@@ethanmcfarland8240 yup
theres a big difference between a common tools blacksmith who mostly forges nails, horse equipment, building ewuipment and material
and a weapon/armorsmith, which would sure as hell be good off
Medieval peasant made 2 pounds a year! Militia soldier 3 pounds a year! Archer 5pounds a year! Heavy infantry mercenaries 9 pounds a year! Landsnecht(best soldiers and mercenaries in all of eroupe) 15 pounds a year! Medieval master blacksmith 15/16 pounds a year! Medieval knight at least 20 pounds a year!
Most of the armor buried at Visby were actually quite old at the time of the battle. The peasant soldiers who were buried with them most likely inherited them from their grandfathers, while the Danish victors were clad in state of the art Gucci wargear.
They were, in effect, a Gucci Gang.
Gucci Dane, Gucci Dane, Gucci Dane
There were actual pouches of gold found in the graves at Visby. It is a bit of a mystery why they were burried so quickly that even a clinking pouch didn't slow the process down. Some suggest that a summer heat wave made people especially fearful of disease.
They got that danish drip
@@trikepilot101 Or it made the bodies stink to hell and they wanted to get rid of the smell, but I guess that would tie in with what you said because at the time they though disease was spread through bad smells
“If chances of victory are unsure, quick save the game.” - Sun Tzu art of war
Ha
Rome total war in a nutshell
no quick saves is better imo because every action has consequences
Pay to win. The same way they do now. Because war, war never changes.
"What they mean War never changes? I can change." - War. Four Horsemen of Apocalypse Random Encounter. Fallout-Tactics -
Fyi, -know- "now"
Edit: wow, I can be kinda condescending & unlikeable sometimes, can't I? 😕😓
@Shiro I apologize for correcting you 🙏
Pay to win games are actually quite realistic.
Lol best loot pre bearing the game in fallout 2, robe of the bridge keeper. Light, very good protection overall (minus plasma) amd a lovely shade of purple. Best post game, the cheat manual!
U.S. military is pay to win.
Can you do a "life of a mercenary in the medieval times"?
Probably the same as in the video except you don't go home to harvest your crops at the end of the campaign
@@talknight2 Well I am not a medieval age expert but surely there is a possibility where a Farmer turned Mercenary and came back after fighting at 2 sides of a war to harvest his potatoes and start Medieval Communism(maybe not the medieval communism part but still potatoes) :3
@@kaiserattano2454
Potatoes are a New World import, so your average Medieval peasant wouldn't be aware of them. Grain is more likely.
@@eldorados_lost_searcher Medieval Communism built upon Grain then.
@@kaiserattano2454 go look it up on a Norman Knight or Varangian guards
I'd love to see a historical perspective of medieval "questing" and adventuring. I've always wondered how professional you could get as an adventurer. Gear and such not meant for large scale warfare, but instead personal protection.
Were bounties and local townsfolk willing to hire outside help? From a total stranger waltzing around in armor? Was it a lifestyle you could maintain? How close is the idea of quests in media to realistic medieval expectations?
It wasn’t common. In real life authorities didn’t like strangers nosing about in their parts. It generally creates more trouble than it’s worth.
Just like today, the last thing a mayor wants is someone rolling into town and breaking a ton of laws in pursuit of some “quest.”
Also like today, Medieval towns had people actually trained and having the authority to deal with dangerous situations. We have police forces, Medieval people had local militias and men-at-arms. If those can’t handle a situation, a random loner probably can’t either.
The lone adventurer is a fantasy game trope more than anything inspired by real history.
I think the closest you could get is Medieval mercenaries between campaigns, and those acted like bandits most of the time- to the point that lords would hire them just to get them to stop terrorizing the countryside.
@@QualityPen
Yup, the historical adventurer was part mercenary, part bandit, mayhaps even something of a pilgrim and an odd-jobs man.
There were no "adventurers", the local farm boy who decided to "adventure" instead of farming beets like his father and grandfathers would just get stabbed by brigands and bandits a couple miles away from home.
@@gustavosanches3454 That's a bit of an exaggeration. Banditry wasn't THAT prolific. Major roads would have been patrolled by the troops of the local lord (also collecting tolls to pay for this protection). Medieval people traveled around quite a bit more than most people imagine - they went on pilgrimages to famous holy sites in distant lands, there were plenty of merchants and nobles traveling between cities, young craftsmen would go from city to city seeking gigs before settling down in their own workshop. Even the peasants would often move around to other towns and villages seeking seasonal jobs or to sell their wares at markets.
They just didn't wander around clearing bandits out of caves for bounties.
@@talknight2 the level of banditry depended on what part of the world you were in and some areas were rife with banditry. on record, Pope Sixtus V executed around 5,000 people for banditry in the last few years of his papacy in the 16th century and they estimated there were around 27,000 more bandits in central Italy alone. central Italy is as developed and cultured as the medieval world goes thanks to centuries of Roman history, which is probably why the Renaissance started there.
medieval people did travel, but they traveled in groups for safety. most bandits operated in very small numbers and the idea of a huge group of organized bandits like Robin Hood and his merry men are more fantasy than reality. the medieval societal divides and economy gave disenfranchised people little other option but banditry.
Imagine owning a horse that requires its own horses to pull its shit..
Owning a horse is like owning a sport car today. The bulk of supply line is either mule, donkey, or ox.
Did you think a pampered, fancy-ass war horse was going to carry its own supplies? That's a job for the _poor_ horses.
@@88fibonaccisequence i dunno man I wouldn't wanna ride a tired horse into battle
I agree that it was an economically sound approach to the logistics of warfare. I just don't like the way the snobby, rich horses put on airs.
If you think about it, they're really not that well-to-do. They're still walking on their own four feet, which basically makes them infantry. Now when the rich horses start riding people into battle (reverse cavalry, if you will), *then* they'll have something to feel superior about.
Until then, they need to get off their high hor... You know what I mean.
The same reason why F1 drivers don't drive their F1 cars to the circuit.
On the note of fantasy sword inheritance tropes: it's absolutely appropriate to Medieval fiction. Even at the cusp of the end of antiquity you have things like Beowulf with named objects, weapons and armour being carefully and especially gifted or handed down. This carries on right through the Middle Ages in Norse Sagas, the Arthurian Cycle and many other works. They enjoyed the idea just as much as we did, even if it wasn't all that practical for everyday life
I think most men name their "weapon".
=D
I inherited a rifle from my dad, there wasn't a huge ceramony, he just gave it to me, MOST people in medieval times would expiernce it the same way, UNLESS its a highly socially significant item that acts as some sort of right way or entry into adulthood/ knighthood ect not every blacksmith, tom, dick and tanner is gunna spend money on a ceramony to give a dagger to their son
@@grimreapybones2875 yeah like I said, not practical for everyday life but still a well known trope even then.
Which kind of makes sense, fiction tends to be exaggerated so a family member passing over a good tool or weapon because you need it and they want to give it to you, gets translated into a supernatural ceremonial event
Even if in video games and media a padded armour,a gambeson,offer pretty low level armur protection,in real life a gambeson was good enough and more then able to protect you even from sword slashes or arrow fire.
A gambeson,a metal helmet and a shield was a pretty good protection for a low level footman or spearman.
Right, but a gambeson was definitely not cheap on its own and with shield and helmet you already needed considerable sum of gold to purchase.
@@Adamos321
Gambeson could be made at home,a shield is a piece of wood in his most basic form.The only expensive thing is a metal helmet,you had to buy,but many lords supplied this basic gear to their men.
I am sorry have you been shot with an arrow while wearing a gambeson before? the gambeson MIGHT protect you from some slashes from a sword but you'll need to fix it up as it will be falling apart hanging by threads at the end of battle, really the bare minimum is chainmail
but nothing provides 100 percent protection
even plate mail can be pierced by a 1000 lb draw weight cross bow
do you have any idea how long it took to sow things like gambesons before the invention of the sowing machine? not to mention your average tanner is not gunna know how to draft a pattern @@georgecristiancripcia4819
@@grimreapybones2875
Depends of the quality of the armour you wear and the distance from which you are shot.A good gambeson,combined with a shield offer enough protection for a low level spearmen in a battle bc they fought in formation and as such the protection is multiplied.
Can a gambeson be pierced by an arrow?Yes,expecially from short distances.But in a battle situation where enemy archers fire from 100 meters or more and you also have a shield and you fight alongside your mates,a gambenson offer enough protection.Even if the arrow penetrate,it does not go deep enough to kill.And medieval people were pretty good at treating arrow wounds or slash wounds.
So in most usual situations,a low level spearmen can find himself in,a gambeson is a good first option.If it was not usefull,it would have been discarded long ago.
Also a gambeson was made of multiple layers of material,so even sword slashes were mitigated or even stoped(depends on the angle of attack and the force).
They fought looters and sea raiders untill they could afford better armor
LESS TALKING MORE RAIDING
"It is almost harvesting season!"
#bannerlordlife
@@dtcanxz Nope, as upon now it's not so enjoyable as Warband was. So rather #warbandforlife.
Fight sea riders
Sell the loot at Wercheg
Buy salt and sell it at Rivacheg
Have a monopoly on Velvet production
Take over the world
When you said it was like inheriting a trusty hunting rifle from a relative that only made me think even more that its like a ceremony
Yeah, all the legend and lore your grandpa told ya and his exploits with the gun. If it was passed on to him the legend might be bigger than that too.
@@jayeisenhardt1337 for me it was my grandpas mossberg 500. He named it kindness. I WILL AVENGE HIMMM
@Elijah O'Connell: "Here boy, try not to shoot your toes off with it." doesn't sound like much of a ceremony to me.
@@dpeasehead “here boy, dont cut your hand off”
@@elijahoconnell LOL! Joking aside, as a person who briefly dabbled in Iaido, Japanese sword drawing art, I am very aware of how easily a poorly handled sword in inexperienced hands can be a life changing or, even a life ending experience.
How to be rich in medieval : be a blacksmith
Nah i would like to be a brothel owner or a banker.
Well same as today, brothel=pimp. banker=banker, investor, pawn shop owner. Blacksmith= factory owner, arms dealer, gun shop owner
Nope. They didnt think of it in pure monetary terms back then. The point was to climb the social ladder. Many a rich guy used his money to buy himself noble status one way or other ...
Nah to be a blacksmith you'd have to work your ass off. Did you see that price of a sword? 4 days wages! You'd have to procure 1 sword every four days using medieval techniques just to break even.
im medieval times your business was inherited. You could not decide that you want to be a blacksmith, only if your father was a blacksmith or a blacksmith took you as his apprentice. If your father was a hangman - you will be a hangman. If your father was a peasant - you are a peasant. Even if you would try to switch your trade, there was a thing called "guild". They could inform the authorities and you would end up in cells. Think about your job and imagine to do it until you die )).
If the witcher has taught me anything it is that gear can be found randomly in caves and chest in my area
I am surprised you forgot the key route to level up: Impress your lord and become one of his retainers. You get issued kit and get paid, then in battle really try to impress him and if you succeed you might just get yourself knighted like John Hawkwood.
What was daily living costs like?
X shilling as a monthly wage is pretty non descriptive unless we know how much of that was left at the end of the month.
It won't be exact but considering the number in the video: a cheap sword is 1 shilling a cheap horse/donkey is 20 a warhorse is 2500 or so. And a monthly salary is roughly 16. A shilling divide into 12 pence and it seems that the price of most pound of staple food was 1 shilling while fancier food was 2 or 3.
Based on that, the value of a shilling, in modern spending power would be $100 US give or take. With your cheap sword costing roughly $100, your pound of bread costing $8, a cheap horse $2000 and a warhorse, the price of a nice car, $25000.
This is not the price you would pay today for those items, of course, but it gives you an idea of the spending power of a shilling in the mid-late middle age or so.
@@AnimatedStoriesWorldwide Dang, buying a pound of bread from a baker is nearly as expensive as eating takeout is today... Assuming you only eat half a pound of bread each day you'd still only be left with 1 shilling for non-food expenses.
@@bigtimbolim
It's expensive on the surface but not really at the time. You're buying processed wheat that has already been made into bread and are basically paying for convenience not dissimilar to modern practice. Most people could make their own bread if they so chose but wheat was generally consumed in the form of porridge. So if you didn't grow your own food then you'd be spending a lot on just sustenance but then you'd most likely make more than a farmer and so could afford it.
@@generalzyklon3913 Very true, the wealthy could afford cooks, and have even more refined flour for their bread, but commoners would make most of their own food. I've heard that village bakers did use their ovens relatively communally though, after the baker was done with the oven for his day's baking he'd allow people to use the residual heat to bake pies, maybe charging a small fee or they'd perhaps give him some other food items.
It is easy, if the median revenue of peasants is X, then X is the cost of living. They didn't amass wealth, on average, so what they earned is what they needed to keep the population growing. The only period I know of when peasants got better pay then the cost of living was the recovery from black death, when labor was scarce.
Compair the median revenue of a peasant with the median revenue of today's worker and that is that. Of course, it is not a perfect comparison, but it gives a good idea.
Being a soldier and having soldiers is really expensive
Quin illud sit.
keeping an army is the basis of every countries core economy.
@@MonkeySpecs301 That is not true. A lot of countries tried to avoid war at all costs. That is why some of them paid invaders to just go away. If war were the basis of their economy, the church wouldn't be so rich (even though they also engaged in war). Most and foremost, their economy was geared to give the elite a lavish life style and the glorification of the church.
Also, diplomacy was just as good a tool to amass power. The Habsburgs, for example, went from being obscure Austrian counts to a very prominent family just by politics and strategic marriages.
@@Alkis05 Hmm i guess im referring to modern times, and not necessarily war but the upkeep in military budgets.
See i just toss them 50 denars and BOOM... chainmail, tier 6 sword and a coat of plates.
Except there's a chance of getting a jazzed up tier 1 sword with a fake tier 6 stamp and a coat of iron plates, possibly rusted as it's held between fabrics or leather...
Really 50 denars for chainmail, tier 6 sword and a coat of plates? Have you ever played Mount and Blade????
r1q2 I think they’re referring to upgrading soldiers, not buying armor for your personal character. It is funny how it’s like 300 denars total to level a peasant to a full knight
i mean money in a game right ... its never realistic. in fact if you think about the money examples in the video your troop upgrades make sense number wise. What doesnt make sense is the items itself if you check them with MC - 1 item could cost over 100k which is stupid since some nobles are cheaper. It suggest that this stupid random ass helmet is worth 4 armies of troops. Okay fine give me 4 armies and give the enemy this 1 piece of junk and lets see who wins in a battle. MB money system is stupid as it was in Warband , almost every game has stupid money system that is just there to be exploited by the players.
The looting gear=better pay I am sure happened in my family history. Long line of peasants and soldiers in my family. Looking at records for the 100 years war, the family name pops up as archers several times. Then suddenly one list the name pops up as Man at Arms. My first thought when seeing that was "good job looting ancestor, you make me proud."
In his book about bows Mike Loades mentions an English soldier in the hundred years war who over time served as both a longbow archer, a crossbow man, and a fully armoured man at arms. So if you had the skill and the balls to stay in the fighting game for a while you could amass enough gear and experience to earn good money in a variety of roles.
This video would have been improved if a specific time of the Medieval era had been selected and the focus has been on that period only. Arms and armor were vastly differet in 1000, 1200, 1400. And some items discussed and pictured - “lancer’s armor” - look decidedly Renaissance.
i agree but i missed mercenary''s, the get paid to fight so it just be easyer for them to loot or buy better armor.
@Eren Yeager not really, its either 1453 or 1500 not much discussion, the only place where you can say it started earlier is Italy in the late 1300s- early 1400s, but as a whole the statt is between 1453-1500.
End of the Roman of Empire with the fall of Constantinople or the turn of the century after it.
And every start date is arbitrary for everything
Most of the items pictured are bullshit fantasy, like the poorly designed "plate armor" with the stupid ass loincloth that for some reason people love to show on knights, despite that not being an actual fashion. Or they just don't make any sense, e.g. Great helm paired with 15th century plate armor, Great helm paired with fantasy leather armor, etc.
Yep its absolutely not the same fighting vikings and moors with leathwr armour and short sword in the 800s than fighting in full armour in a crusade or against a rival kingdom in the 1100s and that also has nothing to do with being a pikeman or a bowman in the 1400s armed with nothing but a bow or a pike and group efort
11:23 Organized looting is not to be underestiamted. It was one of the major changes that Armies like the Roman Legion and Genghis Kahn implemented.
During the free-for-all looting, the army is exceptionally vulnerable to a counterattack by rallying enemies.
Yeah,makes sense,and you need to have a right time to loot the battlefield.For example Battle of Megiddo,the Egyptian army routed a rebel army but did not pursue them,rather than that,the Egyptians soldiers started to loot their dead and camp.So the rebels retreated into city of Megiddo while they were looting.And a siege followed which would be avoided if the Egyptians had discipline implemented into them,and they had to continue to fight few more months rather than go home.Soooo i wanna say its important to know the time when to loot,and have patience and wait till a total victory,the dead on the field wont go anywhere,and their equipment for sure wont be needed to them personaly.
@@hevyc8353 That they "just" retreat is still a good result. Could be better, but there is worse outcomes.
A really bad one is: Victory in the field -> looting of the enemy camp -> enemy rallies -> rallied enemy counterattacks looting army -> total rout for original victor.
Particular among the mongols this was a notorious problem.
From what I experienced in Kingdom Come Deliverance, I just find the Wayfairing Knight, fight him then knock him out and loot all his gear. It might be different in other parts of Europe but Henry of Bohemia can get fancy gear easy. XD
I remember when i came across him alone in the road, all i thought was jackpot!
irl though, being able to beat down an actual knight in melee duel to the point of stealing his armor, was probably quite exceptional
An average man killing a knight back then would be the equivalent of an ordinary guy beating peak Arnold Schwarznegger in power armour. So it's easy in game but not so much in real life.
That's surprisingly accurate to real life though, probably the simplest way to get high-tier wargear as a commoner was to knock someone on the head and take theirs
After all, if you can defeat someone in full kit, you probably deserve it more than they do
I robbed them all in they sleep because I found the fighting trainer very late.
Missed the times when loot doesn't come in boxes with _surprise mechanics_
where there was still as surprise
Gacha things
But they had pay to win
@@themerchantinblack6157
-Loots bascinet from a dead guy
“Huh? King Louis…is that you?”
Using this guide, you can go from a level 1 crook to a level 60 boss.
Being an aristocrat was like having access to the season battle pass
It still is
They started off by slaying rats, and then stray cats, ending with mutant dinosaurs, hydras, krakens and titan dragons.
Plus all the gold and gear they get from breaking random boxes and barrels along the way.
Its a real live the witcher 3 😂
Complete knight’s armor - 320 shillings
Armor for prince of Wales - 6800 shillings
That feeling when you’re overpaying for exclusive tailored clothes made by famous couturier 💰
To be fair, it does look like it may have had inlaid gold. That'll get expensive, fast: vimeo.com/107472290
@@hueco5002 Knyght Errant made a pretty good video about that subject. It really does seem like what separated a "cheap" white harness (plate armor) from an expensive one wasn't really the protective quality of the armor itself, but rather the finitions and possible ornaments. Mainly because you'd need a lot more people from different fields to come in and work on your armor.
@@hueco5002 sounds heavy
@@Knoloaify Yep. First you got the blacksmith, then it's gotta go to the engraver, then the silver/goldsmith, and on and on.
Complete Knight´s armor - 320 shilling
Complete Knight´s armor whit Supreme logo - 6800 shillings
Season passes would be like joining a crusade and thus getting some cash from the church for a one time campaign
Here is the awesome medieval item cost list we used for much of the video: medieval.ucdavis.edu/120D/Money.html
thank you
In MMO's female warriors end up with an armored thong and nipple armor.
Don’t tell Mikass you said that Eren
I ain’t complaining
Laughs in Joan of Arc oh wait...
@Eren Yeager
I can imagine what happens next; and it will be X-Rated!
@Eren Yeager False, you mean in Europe during medieval times which is a tiny part of history
Man I'm so happy when someone else asks the real important questions
Hugely interesting perspective, well done man. I am happy to see the development of the channel and its team since the name change and all that, the productions are really good.
An anglo-saxon mail shirt sold for 44 shillings but that was before the invention of the blast furnace in 1350 AD which made mail shirts worth 16 shillings in 1360 AD as invicta said it costed! The breastplate was worth 30 shillings and 3mm thick! To get the same thickness you would need to wear a brigandine (1.5mm thick) over a chainmail shirt(1.6mm thick)! This is why plate armor was made! To save weight!
Thanks for the info.
Hmmm,isnt plate armor more heavy than chain mail and brigandine combined?Or actually youre right i think...brigandine is hardened leather with small metal plates from inside,and yeah mail is also all metal,wouldn't the brigadine and mail shirt give better protection than full breastplate?
@@hevyc8353 just watch some other documentaries my friend, you'll get a better detailed explanations, i just want to say there are reasons why in the height of medieval era, everybody want to use plate armour, especially the nobility
@@hevyc8353 No plate armor is actually surprisingly light you can do back flips and cartwheels no problem, very light and protective armor.
@@hevyc8353 brigandine=15 lbs chainmail shirt 22lbs. Steel Breastplate 4.4lbs for just the front!
The recent videos on this channel have been superb. Waiting for more videos on topics like these and ofcourse the rest of the elite units
Bronn of the Blackwater: "I'm a knight now, I'm worth double."
@Michael Rainey: Double? Bronn started out as a lowly sellsword and"levelled up" right into the stratosphere, ending as the treasurer/tax collector of the six kingdoms.
Absolutely amazing video as always
What’s the conversion rate from shillings to dirham and dinars? Just moved from the Abbasid caliphate.
Ahhhhh... that's hard, because as you very well know, purchasing-power parity is like comparing apples to oranges. I'm not a professional historian, but we can take a few different methods to compare purchasing power for an average household in medieval times.
First, definining time periods, we'll go for the years 900s.
100kg of corn in 10th century England costed roughly 17 shillings,
100kg of wheat in early 10th Baghdad costed anywhere from 2 dinars at the beginning of the period to 14 dinars near the civil war.
Let's keep in mind now that with the rise of populations leading to overpopulations everywhere in europe for a few centuries which lowered wages and increased food prices, and at the same time confounding factors such as civil wars, civil unrest, military campaigns, etc, heavily skewing the numbers, we might go with something like 1 shilling to 1 dinar as a rough conversion sometime during the late 10th century, or 1 shilling to 2 dinars, something of the sort, all the way down to 8 shilling to a dinar. Those figures are far too specific, but given the back of the envelope calculations, there's one possible interpretation.
history.uwo.ca/people/Docs/Shatzmiller-Articles/03-Prices-and-Price-Formation-in-the-Islamic-Middle-East.pdf
regia.org/research/misc/costs.htm
(Note, corn is another germanic word for wheat, not north american maize, so don't get those confused.
@@ProfessorSyndicateFranklai I was joking but that’s actually a thought provoking idea. Medieval international economics
@@ProfessorSyndicateFranklai Given that international trade was done with gold and silver, I dont think we need to go for PPP here ... just use Venetian dukats, and everyone will understand what you are talking about ...
I remember a game called Dungeon siege, and it had a party of warriors could have a Mule / Donkey - as literally a walking baggage carrier.
The pet dragon was the best
I love that game.
There was a velociraptor looking animal that you could get too , with saddle bags to carry shit
That was a fun game.
You could just start as whatever you want and even change it halfway if you wished for.
Usually my team looked like potion addicted porcupines (because of all the arrows in they belly).
Personal I like the second game more because it had better lore.
8:09 This picture was taken in the Landeszeughaus in Graz, Austria. Definitely worth checking out, they got some beautiful pieces. :)
i mean would they REALLY notice if a sword or helmet went missing i mean REALLY miss it , they have spares :P
@@elgostine Good luck smuggling that out. ;)
I gave a thumbs up on the title alone, before I even watched. Great job on yhe channel, your hard work, and original style shines. Cheers 👍
Oh my god I love this channel, they know exactly what kind of everyday questions about the medieval period we want to know the answers to.
Lvl 0: Crook
Lvl 10000: God Emperor.
That's how Feudalism works
You are everywhere
The emperor protects.
I think you mean level 40,000? :)
@Lane Hok ah, but you see, you can advance in class when under capitalism
They were given 300H credits to spend on gear at the shop*.
* Prices start at 350H
I am currently working on a realistic medieval simulator and videos like this are so useful for me
Thanks for actually putting up the amount of labor needed. Helps to understand a lot. Also having it on screen helps so I can just screengrab it and throw it in my worldbuilding folder.
I really LOVE this drawings!
Blood and war are an expensive endeavor, the imperial general Raimondo Montecuccoli said it best: "For war you need three things: 1. Money. 2. Money. 3. Money." Also in the novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer there is a rather funny part that also somewhat illustrates this aspect when a character goes into a rant in which he complains about many things including the cost of war complaining that a single warship costs thousands of Louis d'or from their taxes and then goes down with the first cannonball that hits it.
Fantastic content! Really enjoyed it, thank you =D
Very interesting! Thanks for uploading!
Basically the poor died or survived enough to become berserk.
These types of videos are great! Can you make more videos about managing a medieval army? The upkeep and stuff like that. I also heard that medieval armies raided friendly lands for resources?
Medieval armies did not raid friendly lands but what did happen frequently was that once a mercenary company’s contract was over they would usually raid their former employers lands for extra money. This problem became so Endemic that it was one the reasons standing armies became a thing.
love these videos! thank you!
Great video! Thanks for sharing’
At least they didn't have to deal with scalpers on Ebay using bots to buy up all the launch Knight gear.
Scammers selling the box that contained a PS5 on Ebay. lol Same counterfeiters that sold them cheap swords as if they were quality products. Always a scam or scalper somewhere.
11:35 That's such a good point, wild looting frenzies did happen after charging the enemy and it would often cost the entire battle if the enemy rallied their men and counter charged. We saw this happen during the crusades or when retreating mongol armies leave loot behind to further encourage their pursuers to follow them into a trap.
loved the illustrations and their mostly consistent artstyle! 😄
One of the most interesting videos so far
Support my channel by downloading Warpath now in Google Play or pre-register in the AppStore with my link: bit.ly/WInvicta
Use my creator code Warpath000 to get gold x200, military x100,000, steel x100,000, crude x100,000, army experience x100,000
I really like your voice man. Everytime I see you got a new video. I just leave everything aside and watch it ;). Keep up the good work :))
How did medieval soldiers rank up in an army? How do you go from being a page to a knight? I've been trying to find a good video on that subject, but I'm still confused. There's so many ranks.
idk about this title
@@jollysalad5484 We mostly covered levelling up in terms of war gear here and will have to cover promotion and ranks in another episode
Amazing thank u for this
I liked the video, as always well researched and comprehensive as can be in the runtime! One nitpick- Cheshire isn't pronounced 'Shire' as in 'The Shire', it's more like 'Che-sheer' as in a sheer edge or a pair of shears!
this is why I hate english
That was an amazing video. I find it by a pure chance... and I don't regret any minute spent by watching it.
That was rather enjoyable to watch. Thank You.
So im building a medieval military academy as a part of my Minecraft build.. yet I'm not sure what to put in it! Could you perhaps make a video covering how the upper echelon learned tactics, commanding skills, etc.? Were they privatized, owned by the monarchy? Did they even exist, and if so, how much of an impact did they make on warfare as a whole? That would be an awesome video IMO!
Thanks for this very informative video!
I was really wanting to know how this worked out in real history.
Another thing I'd love to learn, is how and when exactly uniforms or unified recognition signs became a thing. As I often see illustrations of medieval soldiers in a formation, but all of them look different and bear different pallets of colour. So how did they know friend from foe in the chaos of the battle?
young knights were required to memorize the coats of arms of local nobility and other knights. And soldiers/warriors would fight 'under the banner' (as in the banner literally flapping in the breeze above them) of their current commander. So it would just be like recognizing the face of someone. Even if you don't recognize the coat of arms of the guy in front to you, you recognize the crest of the guy he fights for, and know that is your opponent.
An important factor to this is that the concept of armies didn’t exist for a while, or rather was infeasible. Large scale battles were incredibly rare, usually it was just skirmishes that numbered 20 on 20 or so. The vast majority of this warfare would be fought between local lords, using their retainers as soldiers. Their retainers were knights, and each knight had a couple of squires. So really you would have a castle, fort, city etc run by a lord. That lord would have maybe a dozen knights, each with one or two squires. These guys would all know eachother and what they looked like with armor, so needing a uniform was kind of useless.
In large scale battles where more than just knights were brought in, you had similar situations. Typically an army would be divided into companies, and each company generally consisted of people from the same area so they all kind of knew eachother. In addition the companies would fight in formations (not an all out brawl like in movies) so distinguishing between friend and foe was as easy as looking to your left right and back (friends), and looking at the guys in front of you (foes), and on top of this usually soldiers would have some type of coat of arms painted on them somewhere, and formations also had a standard bearer with a coat of arms that signified “everyone around me is on the same team”.
And finally in the later medieval period, 1450+, armies at this point were entirely mercenary companies. In these instances, you had a company of guys that all traveled together, lived together, fought together etc, so they all knew what eachother looked like and could easily distinguish friend from foe
I really enjoyed the video, thank you
One of my favourite episodes Yet
If only there are Cheat Codes in real life.... what would be you do?
People who piss me off get big head mode. Good luck trying to find a hat that fits now sucker.
Lol
Control other people's minds
@@fullmetalalchemist9126 nice
Prove to certain CZcams Archers how pathetically ignorant they are. *Cough Cough* Shadeversity vs. NuSensei.
Ah yes, the fabled county of Chess Shire.....
Whistle Trainer, don't worry, I see what you did there
as someone from Cheshire, his pronunciation made my skin crawl
I like this. Good material analysis. Well done.
I have studied many types of carpentry and worked with some medieval experts of all variety. They talked about the “extra parts” soldiers were carrying like tacks, cold rivets, buttons and buckles to fix the straps that held on armor and shields. That in a company of 20 men with more than a dozen straps to hold their armor, it would be a daily occurrence and would carry them until they could see a professional.
I have heard of similar things from accounts early modern soldiers. Some soldiers might have fire-starting equipment, some would have a sharpening stone, some would have spices or sweets, BUT some would have screws, nails, wax or pitch (waterproofing), extra leather, paper, or a number of other useful repair items they could use, bargain, or sell.
It's kind of funny to imagine a world where "loot drops" from fallen enemies were an actual thing
if you kill a random person nowadays you'll also get loot drops and best of all some of it has a timer, for example once you killed a guy you need his fingerprint to acess his digital loot and make his phone yours, that way you can also gain access to various legal papers and sell his car
@@nocensorship8092 What I meant was, back then loot drops were an actual legitimate way for soldiers to be compensated. Obviously that doesn't happen now. Now any weapons or supplies taken from dead or captured soldiers are simply turned over to the army.
Great that you tackled this topic. I wondered about that many times, because movie armies all kitted the same or the concept of loot in games always rubbed me the wrong way.
Man im glad i found your videos ive thought about all this weird RPG medieval shit so much glad to see someone making videos on it
The artwork on these videos is awesome
Please do a video on cavalry charges and how they actually worked
Tho Renaissance not middle ages here are some good ones
m.czcams.com/video/ZEJak1DDm6k/video.html
m.czcams.com/video/MZkjyFfmXbU/video.html
Would be fun to listen about how soldiers leveled up their melee/ ranged skills and so on. How were they training, or not having any preparation.
the art is always very nice, Kudos
I love History and Invicta!
I did not know that my hometown of Nuremberg was once known for weapon smithing. Wow, thanks for the fact! :D Awesome! :D
What about magic items? Was there a skill tree or something? 😁
Fantastic video btw! Very informative. Big thank you!
Great video! Very interesting and educational! 👍😎
This was a much better summary than I expected.
someone needs to give the artist a lesson on what a horse looks like
The perspective is kinda shoddy but there isn’t anything too wrong with them
@Sir Knight Errant 4:51 just look at it urself. U know many horses with beards?
bruh
They got experience and gold.
And they invested their skill points decently.
Not like me. all of it into *Anime tiddie expert* branch
BY THE POPE!!
HERESY!
Great video, thank you!
Fascinating, thank you.
RNG Jesus raised me on the wrong side of the stables.
Wasnt the knights have to born within the right class?
Yes, but they would start as squires at age of 14 and at later age recieve knighthood if they were allowed to
Enes çağrı tonyalının son videosuna gelsene
Depends on a period. In Carolingian times, any properly equipped horseman was considered a knight, regardless of their origin. And after a victorious war, the victorious lord was distributing land to those who he believed would be able to defend it for him, regardless of their origin. The distinction between noble knights and non-noble cavalrymen only formed in the 1100s.
in later life yes or they could be knighted by the king or a other high noble.
It depends.
One of the things that is often less discussed is that knighthood was also a military rank that came with specific obligations and often could be "purchased" by anyone wealthy enough to afford those obligations. Usually this meant owning land/wealth sufficient to maintain your armor and a troop of accompanying soldiers. At the end of the day, what the feudal lords wanted was a way to have soldiers that could be called upon regularly but didn't require the lord to personally pay for.
Note however, being common or born to the "lower" class didn't mean you were poor. Wealthy landowners and merchants of non-noble birth were often quite wealthy and possibly richer than some knights and lower gentry. A rich merchant or yeoman farmer could afford to buy his son armor and gear and send them to fencing schools or hire tutors to train them in swordplay/horsemanship/etc. Which would then make it much easier for him to distinguish himself in battle, etc. And that sort of training was something they'd do anyway since you still needed to defend yourself against bandits, etc.
A good example of the sort of mobility is the story of Sir John Hawkwood who rose from a "common" birth to knighthood through his service in the Hundred Years War.
Very well done
Excellent video!
They would normally have the local blacksmith make them weapons or armour, very rarely, a bandit group may use this gear on an ambush on a knights errand or some such group and manage to look better weapons and armour for themselves but such ambushes are risky business and normally if you can hire a blacksmith to make you gear then you'd likely not need to ambush anyone.
In rare circumstances if your prowess in battle is exceptional then you may be called upon to serve your king or your Lord and such a call to action would grant you better gear, as well as higher prestige/honours.
The only way to really be considered for such a service would be to join the military, or at the very least to be known for some exceptional deeds across the lands.
But those things would take you either to battle or some form of peril, which if you manage to survive, will "level you up", but really you'll just gain better experience in those situations and know better what to do next time.
A german tv documentory calculated in cows (no inflation) and said for one knight:
Armor 4 cows
Good sword 5 cows
Horse 9 cows at least
Being a knight is costly...
Seems unlikely that the sword would be more expensive than all the armor, unless by armor they meant just the cuirass or very cheap amor
@@SmaugTheTerrible Geographic location and time period is the anwser... What can be produce localy and at what rate. I'ts all relative.
Indeed. A sword needs better steel and a knight needs more than only a sword. In summary: you need to sell at least 20 cows to make a knight.
Great video. Weapons and armor were actually way cheaper than I had previously believed.
Awesome video!
I would imagine that inheritance of weapons wouldn't even have been an event, but rather you use your father's sword because he is old & doesn't have a use for it.
The idea that mundane items are by default to be decorated in the simplest, most practical æsthetic is a modernist idea that only gained prevalence within the last 80 years.
The virgin, lvl 1 serf vs. the chad, lvl 97 Mounted Knight
This was a really cool video!
Very detailed info with price for each item. This idea can be use in D&D 👍🏻