Study Shows Knights Were Pretty Spry in Their Suits of Armor

Looking at a suit of armor, it’s easy to imagine that walking around in the thing, much less swinging a broadsword, is difficult. There are legends that some suits of armor were so heavy that if a knight fell face down in a puddle he would drown. Movies and books often show knights in armor being hoisted onto their horses by a special crane for jousting tournaments, though there is little to no evidence for the practice.
 Rather, while suits of armor did add extra weight, research by medievalist Daniel Jaquet at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science shows that some knights were downright spry in their armor.