Question concerning armors.

[Ser Duncan of Flea Bottom]

One thing that always aroused my curiosity is armors, like, the type of armors knights use in Westeros. Do all of them wear full-plated armor? Are Hedge Knights armor of a lower quality? Do they only use hauberk and cloth mail? I know full-plated armor is expensive, what makes me think only nobles would have the money to have one of those made. I remember Dunk has armor, so I was wondering if any of you know the kind of armors hedge knights tend to use. 

[U. B. Cool]

3 minutes ago, Shadow of Asshai said:

One thing that always aroused my curiosity is armors, like, the type of armors knights use in Westeros. Do all of them wear full-plated armor? Are Hedge Knights armor of a lower quality? Do they only use hauberk and cloth mail? I know full-plated armor is expensive, what makes me think only nobles would have the money to have one of those made. I remember Dunk has armor, so I was wondering if any of you know the kind of armors hedge knights tend to use. 

That would depend on the hedge knight's ability to earn coin.  Steely Pate and Tobo Mott are both good armorers but expensive.  In the real history, horse and armor were very expensive and kept many young men from becoming knights.  The quality you get depends upon the weight of your purse.

[Byfort of Corfe]

Most do not wear full plate.  One of the best sources to see how GRRM envisions these characters himself is to check out his official line of miniatures produced by Dark Sword.  GRRM has talked to them about the depictions.  These are figures that are roughly 30mm tall but they should give you a good idea as to armor.  Assume of course though that Jaime Lannister (for example) will be much better armored than a regular Lannister Man at Arms. 

 

http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/shop/index.php/miniatures/george-r-r-martin-masterworks.html

[Ser Duncan of Flea Bottom]

Oh, thanks  I was wondering, because I want to write a story in a middle-ages fantasy world and I was wondering how knights would carry their armors (as I am sure they don't wear them all the time), I mean, concerning hedge knights, how do they travel with their armor? Do they wear them as they travel and jus take them off when they rest or do they carry them on the horse?

[Ser Something]

17 hours ago, Shadow of Asshai said:

Oh, thanks  I was wondering, because I want to write a story in a middle-ages fantasy world and I was wondering how knights would carry their armors (as I am sure they don't wear them all the time), I mean, concerning hedge knights, how do they travel with their armor? Do they wear them as they travel and jus take them off when they rest or do they carry them on the horse?

It's a good question. Knights certainly wouldn't travel everywhere in their armour. They would need pack horses and servants to travel with them, both to transport it and help them put it on. If they could afford a good suit of plate, they could afford servants and extra horses too.

So the 'hedge knights' of ASOIAF would probably just have their one horse, and likely not a full suit of plate - they could well travel around in a mail shirt or brigandine quite comfortably though. Though of course as the Dunk and Egg stories show us, some hedge knights have squires, but how unusual Ser Arlan and Dunk are in this regard is not clear.

I'll also point out that in real history, indeed full plate armour was very expensive, but that doesn't mean just knights and lords wore it. Men-at-arms in a noble's retinue would have good armour of some sort, often full plate like their masters. Long-serving and loyal men would could well have armour and equipment provided for them by their masters. And of course experienced soldiers / mercenaries could acquire good quality gear through other means - looting after battles, and paying for it themselves through money earned from ransoms. Capture a wealthy knight in battle, get a ransom, buy a suit of armour!

Also, in the late medieval period (15th century) the term man-at-arms referred to a fully armoured fighting man, whatever his social ranking, be it king, noble, knight or commoner. They usually fought mounted, but not always - you would need a horse to be a man-at-arms however. So if you had a horse, a  suit of armour and at least some sort of experience and skill at arms, you could be classed as a man-at-arms. Not all men-at-arms were knights, but all knights were men-at-arms. Interestingly in the latter part of the 15th century, the ratio of true knights and nobility in the ranks of men-at-arms went down, meaning more and more 'commoners' were seen fully armoured and ranked among the men-at-arms - the elite fighting men of the day. So my point is - historically it wasn't just knights that wore heavy plate armour.

(Though to be 'armoured' doesn't necessarily mean a complete 'harness' of plate, the term 'half-harness' was used... Just enough armour to be classed as sufficient).

[Universal Sword Donor]

20 hours ago, Shadow of Asshai said:

Oh, thanks  I was wondering, because I want to write a story in a middle-ages fantasy world and I was wondering how knights would carry their armors (as I am sure they don't wear them all the time), I mean, concerning hedge knights, how do they travel with their armor? Do they wear them as they travel and jus take them off when they rest or do they carry them on the horse?

Honestly the best way to get a handle on it in-world is to read the D & E stories. The main ASOIAF novels describe it pretty well too, but there's 15x more source material. The Hedge Knight and The Mystery Knight do a decent job of describing the armor and why certain things are desirable or necessary with respect to armor and traveling around.

[Ser Duncan of Flea Bottom]

Thank you very much, my friends!

Yes, I'll definitely re-read the Dunk and Egg novellas, it's been a while since I read them and I want to have an insight of those armours.

Anyway, thank you for the help

[SmoothSnow]

Jorah wore full plate armor when the dothraki tried to fight him the blade just bounced off

[mormont]

On 03/04/2017 at 3:45 AM, Enzo Ferrari said:

In the real history, horse and armor were very expensive and kept many young men from becoming knights. 

Er... yes, it was expensive but to be clear, it certainly wasn't just a question of expense being the barrier. Becoming a knight was about more than being able to afford armour.

On 03/04/2017 at 9:30 PM, Ser Something said:

So the 'hedge knights' of ASOIAF would probably just have their one horse, and likely not a full suit of plate - they could well travel around in a mail shirt or brigandine quite comfortably though.

'Quite comfortable' isn't how I'd describe riding around in a mail shirt or brigandine. Either of those weighs easily 10kg and you'd have to wear a thick garment like an aketon underneath, which is fine in winter but not summer. You can wear them for quite a while if you're used to it, but you wouldn't do that on a daily basis if you didn't have to. A mail shirt, at least, is easy to roll up and strap to your horse. A brig is trickier.