I'm trying to find out how long it took for infantry, knights, or mercenary groups to get ready for battle.
I'm interested in how long it would take simple warriors to equip their armor, and weapons before entering battle.
How long for a gambeson/padded armor? Maile? Plate style armors? And possibly even late Roman Lorica Segmentata styles.
The little information that I've seen varies widely. My google-fu failed me - as I'm finding information on how long it takes to equip armor for minecraft or runescape, or something from yahoo answers. Information that I don't find useful.
Thank you
Actual historical sources might be hard to come by; medieval people didn't really go in for measuring short periods of time. Even an 'hour' was a variable unit, usually defined as one-twelfth of the time between sunrise and sunset.
That said, I think you can probably rely on reenactors to be a fairly good source for this kind of thing.
The only really authentic armour I've tried is mail and that's pretty damn quick to put on. You basically just need to get it positioned so your arms are in the sleeves, then raise it over your head and drop it. Jump about a few times to settle it into position, then strap a belt on. It kind of holds it's shape a bit, which makes finding the sleeves pretty easy. Literally a matter of seconds to get the full hauberk on.