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Could a Peasant Defeat a Knight in Battle?

medievalists.net

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Re: Could a Peasant Defeat a Knight in Battle?

#321

Post by questionfor »

Sander_Marechal wrote: post #188
questionfor wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When they lost their horse, they fought their way back to their own side and got on the next horse. Oh interesting, so it was basically expected? Not a force majeure? I always thought losing a horse back then was a really big event for the knight, borderline tragic - a big financial loss, a highly increased likelihood of dying (getting stuck under the horse etc etc)

Oh it is, a warhorse is very expensive. But they were still expected to take multiple warhorses into a battle in case one of them got killed. And fighting your way back is easier said than done. The most common reason for loosing a warhorse is probably not that it was killed. It was that it was wounded by archers. In that case you can ride back, swap horses and join the cavalry again. And tend to the wounded horse af…

after reading about some feats of strength exhibited by knights, I assume carrying your precious war horse back to safety wasn't completely out of the picture.

Re: Could a Peasant Defeat a Knight in Battle?

#322

Post by dodobirdlord »

questionfor wrote: post #173
dodobirdlord wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nutrition in childhood, especially early childhood, is extremely critical to development. The average person historically was remarkably short, generally because of childhood malnourishment. Simply being properly nourished in childhood would have led to a huge height and weight advantage (also probably considerable advantages in brain development). Even into the 18th century the average height of an officer in the Br…

Would the knight even have access to “bad” carbs / sugar in significant enough amounts to make them so fat that they’d be unfit for combat? It’s not like they can just get another carton of Pringles to finish off the dinner

Medieval stereotypes about fat people seem to indicate that men who were fat generally got fat from alcohol consumption.

Re: Could a Peasant Defeat a Knight in Battle?

#323

Post by justinclift »

blockmarker wrote: post #240
WJW wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a European I've always thought that this bit of US law has not aged all that well. Imagine a tyrant takes hold of the US armed forces and uses that to overthrow the rest of government so they can rule alone. The US armed forces have equipment going up to tanks, fighter jets, bombers, drones and nuclear weapons. A militia is going to struggle to field even heavy machine guns, let alone an air force. I doubt they'd…

I have saved a post about this from 4chan, they passed it around on some pro-gun rights forums. Will paraphrase it and spare you the expletives. "You cannot control an entire country and its people with tanks, jets, battleships and drone or any of these things you believe trump's citizen ownership of firearms. A fighter jet, tank, drone, battleship or whatever cannot stand on street corners. And enforce "no assembly"…

> A fighter jet, tank, drone, battleship or whatever cannot stand on street corners. And enforce "no assembly" edicts.

Loitering drones sure could.

The US seems to have one of the most widely deployed sets of them (so far), spends lots of R&D money to improve (and automate) them, and has already shown they'll be covertly used within US borders for (at least) surveillance operations.

Re: Could a Peasant Defeat a Knight in Battle?

#324

Post by scottlocklin »

bobbybabylon wrote: post #319
scottlocklin wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not clear that knightly training was as useful as UFC training. Ineffective martial arts were a big deal for literal decades before the Gracie family came along, I guess because people didn't want to put in a mouth guard and see what happens. How often did the knights actually see combat, as opposed to train for combat, and do non-lethal sparring? The one form of training which is of undoubted utility is group t…

If you don't mind could you tell me what exercises exercises you use to build hand strength, or even just post a link?

Block weights, sledgehammer levers, captains of crush grippers, fat grip barbells/dumbbells; even a large bucket of water and a pair of pliers. Brookfield's books are considered canonical, and everyone who is anyone (I'm not anyone) in grip is on grip board[0]. I was first made aware of it looking at this dude's geoshitties website[1], which is mercifully still around and a great beginners resource.

To sell you on it a bit: if you've lifted for ~10 years you've probably hit your biological peak on the big exercises, and you've gone into some kind of maintenance mode, or are concentrating more on strength endurance, or rotating through peak efforts on different kinds of strength, or working around inevitable injuries or whatever. Either way, a man gets bored, and a large part of the appeal of strength training is the feeling of making progress. Various forms of hand strength; there's basically infinite potential there. Leonardo used to bend horseshoes, and it's a seemingly impossible feat I think most men are capable of with some training. It's also something available to old people who might not be able or willing to pull 5 wheels on the deadlift any more. You can, of course, injure your hands or forearms, but your chances of being crippled by it are fairly low. The other thing about it; you can train a fair amount (unlike big lifts) without blowing out your cortisol, but you get that intense triumphant grrrrrrr ogre nerve energy from doing it that you do after a max effort lift. Also it looks cool and chicks and small children dig it when you do seemingly impossible feats.

Anyway, peasants who hoed their crops and lifted bricks all day were fucking STRONG in the hands. Probably stronger than most nobles in that regard.

[0] https://www.gripboard.com/index.php?/forum/7-workout-reports...

[1] http://www.geocities.ws/ltgodfrey/lever.html

Re: Could a Peasant Defeat a Knight in Battle?

#325

Post by bobbybabylon »

scottlocklin wrote: post #324
bobbybabylon wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't mind could you tell me what exercises exercises you use to build hand strength, or even just post a link?

Block weights, sledgehammer levers, captains of crush grippers, fat grip barbells/dumbbells; even a large bucket of water and a pair of pliers. Brookfield's books are considered canonical, and everyone who is anyone (I'm not anyone) in grip is on grip board[0]. I was first made aware of it looking at this dude's geoshitties website[1], which is mercifully still around and a great beginners resource. To sell you on it…

Seriously, much, much thanks. My training is bodyweight exclusively (Convict Conditioning), so, I have relatively weak wrists and forearms.I have hit a pullup plateau (weights are expensive around my parts, and the gym is COVID-closed.), so these tips should be a real help.

Re: Could a Peasant Defeat a Knight in Battle?

#326

Post by scottlocklin »

bobbybabylon wrote: post #325
scottlocklin wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Block weights, sledgehammer levers, captains of crush grippers, fat grip barbells/dumbbells; even a large bucket of water and a pair of pliers. Brookfield's books are considered canonical, and everyone who is anyone (I'm not anyone) in grip is on grip board[0]. I was first made aware of it looking at this dude's geoshitties website[1], which is mercifully still around and a great beginners resource. To sell you on it…

Seriously, much, much thanks. My training is bodyweight exclusively (Convict Conditioning), so, I have relatively weak wrists and forearms.I have hit a pullup plateau (weights are expensive around my parts, and the gym is COVID-closed.), so these tips should be a real help.

Decent program, but try to get some lower back work in there. That's an investment you absolutely won't regret. Sandbags work and are cheap; big rocks too. Bridges if nothing else.
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