Could medieval armour stop bullets?
The glittering armor worn by medieval European knights was originally made to protect them from weapons such as swords. Live Science, a science news site, asked several experts whether such armor could stop bullets.
Was medieval armor bulletproof? | Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/was-medieval-armor-bulletproof
The exact time period defined as the 'Middle Ages' varies, but Live Science defines the Middle Ages as the period between 500 and 1500 A.D. This period is most often associated with Europe, but some historians also apply it to the Middle East and China.
Many different types of armor have been developed around the world, but the most well-known is plate armor , which is made up of connected metal plates that cover the entire body. According to an essay in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, plate armor was first used in Europe in the 13th century and became the mainstream form of protective gear by the 15th century.
Next, let's look at guns. Gunpowder was first invented in China about 1,200 years ago, and weapons using gunpowder spread across Eurasia. These were then brought to Europe around the 14th century, which is when armor and guns met on the battlefield.
Knights of this era rarely encountered firearms. 'Firearms certainly existed in the Middle Ages, from the 13th to the 15th centuries, but they were used much less frequently than in later periods,' says Jonathan Tavares, curator of European art at the Art Institute of Chicago.
It is believed that if armor was exposed to bullets, high-quality armor would have had a certain degree of bulletproof performance. According to Associate Professor Roger Pauly of the University of Central Arkansas, who is an expert on the history of firearms, from 1380 in the late Middle Ages to around 1600 in the early modern period, European armorers and gunsmiths engaged in a technological war, but the basic sequence was that 'more sophisticated armor was developed, and then guns were improved in muzzle velocity, power, and range to compete with it.'
'A lot of that depends on whether the armor or the guns are newer, and whether the guns are small or not, but my guess is that most small arms of the time would have had a hard time punching through first-class armor,' Pauley said.
Armor from later periods than the Middle Ages has been tested several times, for example in the 2017 episode of the TV show Nova, 'Secrets of the Shining Knight,' in which a late 16th century breastplate was used with a replica of a gun from that period, and the armor was found to be successful in stopping bullets.
Secrets of the Shining Knight (2017) | Full Documentary | NOVA - YouTube
'There are a lot of pieces of field armour from the 16th and 17th centuries, both infantry and cavalry, that seem to have been successful in stopping lead pellets from black powder weapons,' Tavares, who also appeared on the show, told Live Science.
While European armorers competed with gunsmiths, Chinese armorers, who had invented gunpowder, did not. Experts believe this was because the situation was different in China, where wealthy knights dominated the battlefield.
'Medieval Chinese armor doesn't seem to have changed in response to firearms,' said Peter Lorge, an associate professor of history at Vanderbilt University. 'Chinese armies at the time tended to incorporate large numbers of soldiers conscripted from the general public, and it seems that an army made up of many commoners couldn't afford expensive armor that could protect them from bullets.'
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