Could a Peasant Defeat a Knight in Battle?
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Could a Peasant Defeat a Knight in Battle?
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Re: Could a Peasant Defeat a Knight in Battle?
#2This article is garbage.
Re: Could a Peasant Defeat a Knight in Battle?
#3Surprised there is no specific mention of the misericorde (a long, narrow dagger that could get between the gaps in armor plates or the holes in visors): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misericorde_(weapon)
Re: Could a Peasant Defeat a Knight in Battle?
#4It seems to me that a few peasants, or a group of them would ‘absolutely’ be able to defeat a knight in battle in a theoretical sense. You really only need to drag them off their horse and stab them.
But the situation is not like that in any real life instance, as the described situation in France depicts.
What the peasants are lacking isn’t so much arms and equipment, as discipline and organisation.
Re: Could a Peasant Defeat a Knight in Battle?
#5Surprised there is no specific mention of the misericorde (a long, narrow dagger that could get between the gaps in armor plates or the holes in visors) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misericorde_(weapon)
That's an expensive non-food-producing piece of metal for an average medieval peasant to have lying around. Much more likely for your average knight to have one though, and as the link says it was used by Polish nobility.
Re: Could a Peasant Defeat a Knight in Battle?
#6You won't have to deal with an army of knights but litigation backed by an army of lawyers on retainer now
Re: Could a Peasant Defeat a Knight in Battle?
#7Well the landsknechts of Germany and Swiss Pikeman were the ones who took down the heavily armored knights of the late Middle Ages. Most of them were from common stock. Probably not in a one on one fight though.
Re: Could a Peasant Defeat a Knight in Battle?
#8It’s not just weaponry, most of fighting is nutrition, I’m surprised the article doesn’t discuss that. Given that the article says the knights and their weaponry were correlated to wealth and power, I would expect the knights to be better fed than the peasants as well.
Re: Could a Peasant Defeat a Knight in Battle?
#9At the famous Battle of Agincourt peasants slaughtered thousands of knights. It was a decisive blood bath against a vastly superior force that allowed Henry V’s conquest of France. This is confirmed by eye witness records both French and English.
Re: Could a Peasant Defeat a Knight in Battle?
#10What this article seems to barely touch upon is that the peasants spent most of their time eking out a living, the rich had free time and a culture of practicing their fighting skills at length, and from a young age, too. I would even say that the equipment was a secondary advantage, though still significant.