How long could a typical knight in armor actually engage in melee combat before exhaustion?

Hello Dr. Mondschein! Thanks for doing this.

It seems that many forms of high fantasy with ostensibly a 'medieval-ish' backdrop has served as a conduit for spreading specific ideas about the past to a large reading, and watching, audience. In your view, what has made the fantasy genre so prominent in this regard as opposed to other genres of fiction which are all heavy with historical inspiration (science fiction being one of them)?

Remember when Gregor Clegane decapitated his horse... Is that actually possible?

Is it true that swords were basically the side piece weapon of knights (kind of like a pistol for the modern soldier) and that sword play was no where near as important as it's shown in pretty much any tv show or movie?

1. If you had to train a fit but completely untrained peasant for 1v1 duel in a few weeks without knowing what will the oponent use, what weapon and equipment would you pick? (ranged weapons are prohibited and fight is to the death.

2. What are some unrealistic things in the GoT TV show that could be easily fixed without damaging or changing the story. (something like the stupid fire arrows against normal armored soldiers just because it's at night)

Hello! I don’t know if you have information regarding this question, but anyways.

Being a knight in heavy armory requires serious strength, alas serious food. What kind of foodstuff could a typically knight eat? Would it be the same as the aristocracy?

Hi Dr. Mondschein, thank you so much for the fantastic AMA! What I'm very curious about is the logistics of the joust. How much work and preparation would go into one? Presumably its not something you just decide to do one weekend, but would it take months? And is the lord who's hosting it footing the entire bill? That must have been expensive housing/feeding/looking after so many knights and their squires.

Based on portrayals of the middle ages and what Ive seen in museums, my understanding is that Roman-style short swords fell out of favor, with long swords being the preferred sword style. Is that accurate? And if so why did Roman-style swords fall out of favor?

Are there any fun historical examples of trials by combat?

Thank you for the AMA!

1. If you had to take a guess, what European century is GoT based on?

2. In case you had three months to train and condition peasants with pikes, could they have stood up to knights? Knights (or men at arms) in full plate are often depicted as somewhat invincible compared to the malnourished masses of their time, until they weren't. What changed?

Hey, thanks for doing this AMA!

What was the role of high ranking prisoners of war in medieval warfare? Would it have been worth it to take a risk to capture someone like Jaime Lannister, for example? What sort of treatment would prisoners expect during their captivity?

1: What did you think of the balance between drama and character on the one hand, and realism on the other, in GoT fight scenes? For instance, Jaime Lannister vs. Ned Stark, or Jaime Lannister vs. Brianne on the bridge before they're both captured?

2: What's your take on the Brianne vs. Arya sparring match, in which they're both more or less even despite a large size, weight and reach disparity?

Are there any interesting pieces of medieval technology that were used either in warfare or in preparation of weapons that lay people don't really know about?

I remember seeing a bronze age file and pincer tool that blew my mind because they're no different to the ones we use today.

Hi Dr. Mondschein!

I've always wanted to ask someone who could give a good answer this question.

In reference to books about time travel, like Timeline, a modern pro athlete, let's say a rower. 6'4 and lean at 210 lbs gets plopped down in a training ground in 13th- 15th century england or France, wherever had biggest events. They're given two weeks to train for the regional tourney, how well do they do and in what events?

Thanks!

How was ptsd due to warfare viewed in medieval times? Was there a term to describe it?

Please settle this for my friends:

In the first episode of House of the Dragon, we see the joust devolve into violence with several knights, presumably of some note, being killed.

I've always understood that jousting and other tournaments like it were a show of skill with a lot of effort going toward making it as safe for the participants as possible. My friends seem to think this kind of bloodshed would've been normal.

So who's right? Did Medieval jousts and melees often become grudge matches to the death?

I've heard of European sword fighting as something of a lost art as no one bothered to keep techniques and knowledge alive once the age of swordplay passed. Is there truth to this? Is what we see now just sort of guess work/estimations of techniques in how these weapons would be used?

What books do you recommend for a beginner with an interest in medieval history but no real knowledge of it?

How practical were Pyrrhic dances and sword dance rituals in general? Do swordsmen improve from this or is it more of just a dance for rituals and festivals?

In movies, battles are usually depicted in a way that makes you believe that everybody is fighting at the same time. I have two problems with that.

First, fighting as a unit is more effective than fighting as a group of individuals. This means that staying in a formation makes much more sense but that also means that you'd stack your soldiers in rows and columns. Only the soldiers in the front row would hence directly engage the enemy.

Second, the sheer brutality of medieval close combat must have shocked soldiers to the point where they would be ineffective on a medieval battlefield. My understanding is that standing armies, i.e. professional soldiers, were the exception rather than the norm during that age which I would assume would make shocked and hence ineffective soldiers a common problem.

I got the following questions from this:

1. Are there any reports from that age that tell us something about the performance of individual soldiers during battles?
2. Are there complaints about soldiers being ineffective due to shock?

How comparable are the siege warfare and tactics as portrayed in Game of Thrones to those used during the real Middle Ages? Did you recognize examples of real historical sieges in Martin's world?

Did lower class laborers in urban Renaissance Italy need self defense? If so, how did they defend themselves?

I have a picture of urban Renaissance Italian life as frequently violent, with not only frequent wars but also intra-urban power struggles. I've heard all kinds of stories of the upper classes carrying weapons (or wanting to restrict weapons in the city) and building fortress-like personal homes inside the city.

How about the lower classes? Would a bricklayer want to carry a weapon day-to-day? Were lower class homes also built defensively, on a lower budget? When there wasn't a full-blow war, what threats might a lower class person face and what options did they have for defense?

(edit: if Renaissance Italy is too far outside your expertise, I'd love to hear any more general points you have to make about self defense by the lower classes in places/times you're more familiar with)

Which country had the strongest knights and which one had the weakest in the Medival era?

Also which was the most interesting battle in your opinion of that era?

Hullo Dr. Mondschein! =3 I have a couple of questions.

1. Part of the mythos of GoT and ASoIF is the idea of the legendary swords, whether they're the various Valerian steel blades with their extra physical and mythical properties, or the Azor Ahai's (or Thoros of Myr and Beric Dondarrion's) fabled flaming sword. Are there any historical parallels with swords or other weapons gaining a name or renown? Maybe for interesting properties in their construction, or special designs or modifications by their owners?
2. Speaking of Dondarrion and Thoros. The Brotherhood without Banners was always cool part of the show too: a group of renegade knights and soldiers who take to rebellion and the protection of the common folk as the war they were fighting ramps up in brutality and the Lord they were sworn to at first is killed. Are there any groups like this in medieval history?

How would knights function in a battle (assuming that they don't have a horse)? Would they fight with their swords or pick-up a spear and join the infantry?

Hi! Thanks for doing this.

In Game of Thrones, most big battles are portrayed as ending with the losing side being absolutely massacred, with bodies strewn all over the ground. To what degree is that realistic? Was the average medieval soldier fighting with the expectation that if his side lost, he would almost certainly be killed?

If I can ask about the early medieval era: do you know what tactics allowed the early Muslims to be so consistently successful in warfare, even against much larger empires?

Being a medieval historian, What is your favourite sword fight ever depicted on TV/Movies? From a historically accurate point of view?

Mine is the one from Princess Bride but I’m assuming that was absolutely not historically accurate!

Thank you so much for doing this AMA, Doctor Mondschein! If I may I shall ask two questions:

1. In the world of Planetos technology seems rather mismatched, with most of Westeros being High/Late Mediaeval and parts of Essos like Slaver's Bay and the Dothraki seeming more ancient, even Bronze Age. Were there any wars in the Middle Ages where the belligerents had very different technology and/or materiel from each other?
2. Pirates/corsairs/sellsails feature a fair bit in ASOIAF/GoT, what were pirates like in the Late Mediaeval period? Were they often used in war, and what did they look like?

This is not super-focused on warfare, but how important were ideas about bonds between guests and hosts in the Middle Ages, and what kind of consequences did people face for violating those bonds? (Obviously inspired by the Red Wedding, the ultimate in bad hosting.)

Was Bonetti's defense fitting, considering the rocky terrain? Is Capo Ferro the natural response to Bonetti's defense? Does Thibaut cancel out Capo Ferro? Does a thorough knowledge of Agrippa mitigate the said canceling?

To what extent, if any, where throws and trips (like in Judo) used to take an enemy off of his feet and allow the standing combatant to kill or incapacitate the other from an advantageous position?

Were polaexe used in formal duels? I read in a website that they were.

Hello Dr. Mondschein! I have a question that might be a bit more on the political than the military side

Game of Thrones depicts a king ruling over several great houses, such as the Tyrells and the Lannisters, and they in turn rule over smaller houses such as the Hightowers, Tarlys, and Westerlings. Sometimes they would be more loyal to the King, other times more loyal to their local lord

My question is whether that would be accurate for Western Europe in the Middle Ages, and how different families balanced their allegiences to their King versus their local suzerain

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this AMA!

How important was Richard of Wallingford's clock?

Hello!

I see from your replies that you are a fellow equestrian! I’m curious about what kind of training medieval war horses would undergo? How long did they take to train? Did they even bother to give them any speciality training given the likely hood that the horses may be killed?

Without today's technology of electronic sound systems to amplify sound, how do they communicate during the war?

In movies, there is always pre-war speech, such as Theoden's "death" speech in LOTR. Did they do it in the medieval era?

I've been listening to the "Murder Hobo" podcast where they describe the 12th century tournaments that William Marshall participated in more like large scale 'wargames' where the aim was to 'capture' members of the opposite team.

​

Can you summarise how tournaments began and evolved? How many distinct varieties of tournament existed?

The first episode of HotD featured a lot of quick shots of tourney participants taking what seemed to be pretty fatal or at least enormously catastrophic injuries. I know within-universe this is supposed to depict an age of decadence, but it struck me that tourneys that end with a large portion of the nobility's fighting men dead or maimed would likely be quickly phased out if that were the case in our world.

How dangerous were tourneys to participants, and were there particular forms, events, or cultural/geographic locations that were particularly dangerous?

What is the error or misconception in films that you hate the most to see?

What would the differences be for martial training between nobles and the lower classes? Would peasant boys and burgher children also be taught how to wrestle and handle basic arms like nobility or would this just be something that would be drilled into them when they had to fight? Also how important was martial training to every social class during this time period?

What medieval show or movie is the most accurate that you've seen?

What do you think about the last season?

What the hell was up with long/dueling shields? They showed up when I got curious about how axes were used in trained combat and stumbled upon them when looking at dueling manuals. I couldn't find any real context on the W's of their use or whether they were brought into actual warfare.

​

I also never actually found good information on axe technique, which is a bit weird given that battle axes appear to have been a constant presence in world warfare at all levels from light infantry to elites. There was some direction for poleaxes and the like, but not anything up to a Dane axe. Were there guides on how to use an axe, by it bearded, tabar, Norwegian, bardiche, or generic? Considering the typical slashing blade and far balance, would its use have been like that of a katana or other sabers?

​

In a totally different direction, what place did Jews have in medieval warfare and combat? Were they ever allowed to hold real weapons, and what did they do for defense if they weren't?

This might sound stupid but…..

How could the king: trust his lords not to betray him. Considering that feudal Armies obeyed their feudal lord, what happens if they decided not to obey his call to arms and leave the king without an army and letting him get toppled.

Or worse the lords defect with their armies to other side?

During the Chinese war lord era, Mexican Revolution and Russian Revolution. Various warlords with personnel Armies would change sides various times.

In your opinion, what fantasy book or series best captures the medieval European experience of warfare? If it’s not game of thrones, how does game of thrones fall short of the mark?

How realistic is Westeros not having any independent cities etc? Compared to Europe, Westeros being essentially united under one Kingdom seems rather weird, especially taking into account institutions like the Hanseatic League (which admittedly I can't see being "transferred" into a Fantasy TV series in a way comprehensible to the viewers)

What was it really like when formations of pikemen (or other infantry with long, pointy sticks) fought each other?

Did scores or hundreds of people charge into a thornbush of long pikes pointing right at them? Did the formations become chaotic as they got closer to each other? Did other fighters neutralize the first few rows of piles before contact was made? How long would they engage in close combat before one side retreated?

What are your thoughts on Game of Thones/ASOIAF/other fantasy series attempting to depict what life was "really like" in medieval times?

What would of been the realities of fielding an all cavalry force like the Dothraki or the Knights of The Vale in a battle, and logistically on a campaign?

Should knights in GoT be using shields? It's my understanding that the advent of plate armour had made shields basically obsolete by the time period GoT is based upon

Someone else may have already asked this but did battles as they appear in movies, with both sides simply charging into each other and engaging in pockets of melee, actually happen? My gut tells me no, that there was a lot more maneuvering.

Wow, your book has been on my Amazon wish list, so cool you are doing an AMA!

I’ve read that the portrayal of sword combat on tv isn’t actually what it most likely looked like. The Last Duel was supposedly more accurate with utilizing the pommels and such during the melee. How accurately are combat scenes portrayed on GoT and other movies/shows at large?

Hey thanks for doing this! Which Movie or Tv show had the most realistic portrayal of sword and medieval combat in general ? And which has YOUR favourite?

Equine question. I learned to ride at a barn that gave group lessons. At summer’s end the lesson horses all got wormed, floated and put to pasture-unshod-for a month.

Did medieval mounts ever get vacation? Did they get their teeth floated on a regular basis? Bonus: what kinda of bits were used and what were they made of?

Thank you for this AMA.

Have you trained in Olympic fencing? If so, how extensively? Your thoughts on a modern fencer’s success in an historical duel?

Plate armor seems quite ubiquitous in Game of Thrones, and we rarely see scale armor. Was this the case in the high Middle Ages in Europe?

Was kicking, punching and hitting people with the knobbly bit of your sword commonly done in swordfighting?

Was there really all the punishment that happened in game of throne like cercei punishment have it existed ?

Is it true that we have lost the art of Great-sword fighting techniques? Was this style ever actually used in warfare?

Another question, Sir Mondschein

How did medieval armies replace the death’s of professional soldiers in peace time or during war. Considering that knights and soldiers had to learn their craft, hone their skills, buy and upgrade their armor?

Was a war hammer an actual effective weapon for war?

There’s a lot of drama in ASOIAF around tourneys and melees, like rigged lists, bribed contestants, and which high born lady is given the rose/named the winner’s queen of the love of beauty. How much of this type of thing actually happened?

In the first episode of the new show a character kills another character's horse during a joust. Would this actually be seen as a victory? It seems dubious as if this were an acceptable strategy they would kill a lot of destriers for no real gain.

How would swords on a battlefield really work? Would a medieval battlefield be taken up by lots of one on one sword fights or would altercations be quick I.e. over in a few strokes?

I ask because one of my least favourite cliches is to see main characters finish dispatching an enemy before stopping to look at a key plot point, while the rest of the fight goes on with no one bothering them.

So apologies If this has been asked and if this is the wrong time period. But I read Bernard Cornwell's grail quest series and they make mention that the English longbow was often called the devil's harp is that true or just a case of spicing up the story?

What is your favorite pizza place on Arthur Ave?

I’ve always wondered how much dexterity someone wearing all that metal would actually have. I know it was built to offer a wide range of motion, but geez—so much metal. How much would they actually have been able to move around and fight?

Hi Dr. Mondschein. With how labor intensive and expensive arms and armor were to produce, how long would say a family hold onto and use something like a longsword or armor? Would you ever see a knight in the mid 15th century wear great grandpas great helm for instance? Or did arms and armor become completely obsolete within a generation or so? Thanks!

Did George R.R. Martin intentionally change some of the cultural norms of the Middle Ages in his work? Like, obviously his series is set in a fictional fantastical counterpart to Europe in the Middle Ages, but a lot of it is grounded in conventions of the era. I’m just curious if there’s any specific convention from that era he purposely subverted or changed.

General weapons question: what is the max useful length of a long pointy stick as a weapon? People have used spears, pikes, and similar weapons for so long I’m wondering where is the length that they loose effectiveness either based on material strength or inability to wield the weapon.

How exactly did heavy cavalry charges work in the high middle ages?

1. I’ve often read that horses refused to charge into braced pikes, but would they charge into infantry with shorter spears? Can horses tell the difference?

2. My understanding is that barding was not ubiquitous on heavy horse. Without it, how did riders protect their mounts from missiles? Do we have an idea of what percentage of a heavy horse column was lost to missile fire during a charge? Would their riders run back and grab another horse and try again?

How likely was it that a peasant would be called upon for military service?

For example, I'm a middle aged male in England during the 100 years war. Was it a matter of when I'll be called on and not if?

Follow on, do we know the survival chances of levys? I'd imagine that fuedal lords would value their survival based on economics alone

Thanks!

Hi Dr. Ken! Thanks for doing this!!! I’ve watched a lot of videos about long weapons being ultimate arms in the middleages, specifically pikes and halberts being called “knight can-openers”. Also saw some demonstrations of halberts being used to trip legs and do all kinds of fancy pulls. My question is, was halbert really a sort of super weapon for the footman? How often was it that a footman was able to demolish a knight with a long weapon? 🤺⚔️🤺

How long would it take to build a warship or a fleet or them like the iron fleet ?

1. How exactly did a cavalry charge work, logistically? Were they lances "one and done", breaking after the initial impact? If so, what then - retreat, get another lance from your squire, charge again? Dismount? Pick a sidearm? Fiction seems to never really deal with this.

2. GoT and many other fictional works are full of these fabled duellists - Barristan the Bold, for example. Did such people exist in the real world, too? Fabled knights who could slay half a dozen armoured men?

3. How did the sword become the predominant weapon in our perception when it was more of an afterthought on the battlefield? Highschool was a decade ago for me, but I remember swords being mostly a status/class symbol and less important military.

4. Were "Hedge Knights" ever a thing?

Thank you!

Regarding HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) and similar type things. Why is it all so focused on medieval Europe?

Do we know anything of how a Macedonian would fight if the Phalanx broke ranks?

Bonus - Also, why do we have so little information on actual Chinese fighting left? It seems like most of the stuff we see is just really show-off type Wushu which isn’t pleasant to watch in my eyes.

In your view, during medieval battles were commanders able to make and implement tactical decisions?

Hello Dr Mondschein,

I know I may be late to asking this, but I did have a few questions about mercenaries in the Middle Ages that I would like to know since I hope to include them in my books.

1. When it came to mercenaries, how common was it for them to be hired? Was it whenever there was a war or would they sometimes be hired for other reasons such as an intimidation tactic?

2. When mercenaries were hired, would they have to pay for their own logistics or did their employers also deal with that as part of their payment?

3. Were there any notable mercenary groups that were often sought after even in lands that would be seen as far way from them? If so, was there a limit to how far they would be willing to travel?

4. Were there any notable states that used mercenaries in a large number often like Carthage during the Middle Ages?

I apologize if these are a lot of questions that you may not know, I just thought I’d ask and if you could answer one question, that would really be helpful to me.

Why were battles always so well documented? From formation, phases of the battle, unit types and losses on both sides. There are documentaries online about a lot of ancient and medieval battles that seem to be very well documented.

How were medieval commanders educated in the art of war? Did they use texts like De re militari or “newer” works, or was it more based on experience and tradition, like “I saw another Baron do this once so I’ll do it again here.”?

Which knight had the best K:D ratio?

Can you tell me about trials in the late medieval period? I'm mostly interested in the likes of Vinecian and Genoan trials in from 1300 to 1600. I realize those are very broad parameters; my interest is also broad.

Sorry if I'm coming in late. Thanks!

When two armies engaged in battle. Did the front lines actually mindlessly run into to each other like in movies? Or did they maintain the line, slowly approached the enemy's line, and kinda pushed and shoved until they won ground and routed the enemy? (And how do we know?)

How exactly did the methods of recording (paper/stone stele etc.) the calendar evolve and how did regular people use the Julian calendar in the early middle ages?

A past version of me which was very interested in timekeeping would have given better questions but details have left me.

In the event On Time more concerns keeping time within the day, when exactly did the 24 hour day with noon at the suns zenith emerge? How closely is it related to the canonical hours?

How long was the typical knight's "career" as an active combatant? Sounds like it would be a lot of wear and tear on the body even if he escaped serious wounds. Granted GoT treats Ser Barristan as an outlier, but even Jaime would be feeling the accumulated damage long before he lost his hand.

As someone who is writing a Fantasy book that tries to highlight the realities of Medieval warfare, this thread has been great, so thank you for it!

My question is: In your opinion, do you think it would ever be possible for arms and armor to advance to a point where the polearm-style weapon would fall out of use, assuming that gunpowder doesn't come around? This, by nature, doesn't have an answer that's not speculation, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. My story focuses on sword combat in close quarters (mostly because it looks cool, and most soldiers wear full or semi-full plate), and I've long wondered if there's any possible scenario where the sword (one or two-handed) would see a resurgence.

I really care about about paying respect to real history (while keeping it entertaining, of course), so I want to thank you again for doing this AMA. You've helped to educate me quite a bit!

In the first episode of House of the Dragon a joust tourney seems to degenerate into some of the nobleman involved just straight up killing each other after jousting is over. Is this closer to history or is it more that the joust and the melee were separate events and the armour allowed a vaguely professional survivable atmosphere with only the occasional accidental murder?

What kind of grip would a knight's footwear have in plate on a wet field? With mud, wet grass, etc?

It seems to me that javelins fell out of use during the medieval period. Is that true? And is that because of plate armor, or something else? In my mental image, a well thrown javelin would do a lot better job of piercing armor than arrows would, but maybe that’s totally wrong.

Was your work on time influence at all by Reinhard Koselleck’s intellectual history on time and if so how so?

In fiction, the line between tournaments, duelling and trial by combat are very blurred. Were tournaments /jousting ever used to settle disputes, or were they more distinct?

What’s the coolest sword in your opinion?

Getting Sir Dr. Mondschein!

I've always wondered how much size influences one's ability to fight properly.

So would giants like the Dog and the Mountain really be the unstoppable machines they're depicted as? Or would arthritis take them down long before a sword did haha.

A day good and safe travels to you!

Hey Ken! Thanks for taking the time to answer questions here, it’s great to see someone with so much passion, it’s incredibly aspirational! I have two questions if that’s alright:

1. Do you know of any resources on Italian knighthood pre the Risorgimento? I’ve long been fascinated by the Knights of Europe and here in Britain but, despite knowing they existed, Italian knights are the missing link in my knowledge, and I’ve had no luck digging anything up other than the cavalieri addobbati stub on Wikipedia, and the general knowledge that knightly orders existed in the Papal States and the Italian principalities.

2. is there a real-world analogue to the Reach from GoT we can point to as a comparable ‘medieval’ land of plenty? The high courtly life, abundant living, and beautiful surroundings have always made me think of the Duchy of Burgundy at its height

If jousting is a formalized sort of "game" tethered to combat, what was heavy horse cavalry combat like? Did a line of armored knights on horses clash against each other with lances? Or was the line of armored knights with lances directed at masses of foot soldiers?

What a topic. If I may - it's about horses and fighting. What is your opinion about Polish heavy cavalry - hussars? I've seen a lot of comments about their tactics and how different their fighting style was compared to others in their time. Would love to see what you think.

I don't suppose you would happen to be familiar enough with it to help me find the title&author of a fascinating old book (a practical guide to dueling) that I stumbled on in a library decades ago and have never found since...?

It's written (19th century I think) by an Englishman, who humbly apologizes to the reader (in the introduction) for the presumption of daring to imply he might know more than the reader, but later in the book is casually dissing Spaniards etc in a nationalistic and not-so-humble way.

He covers technique for pistol duels, which are what a duel almost always is at the time of writing, but includes sword dueling too because, while old fashioned, they sometimes still happen. He recommends a pistol technique of elbow bent such that the forearm shields the torso.

He makes some basic statistical analysis about things like risk of death, based on his compilation of all the examples of duels he has been able to find a record of. (That compilation is not included IIRC, just conclusions from it.) He uses that info to reassure a nervous duelist that they're almost certainly going to survive (pistols), though the odds with swords are not as good.

It was a physically old book in the library, but I'm guessing that copy probably wasn't older than a century so I think it must have been reprinted.

Does that ring any bells? I'd like to find the title/author so I can get a copy, but it's not an easy thing to find with online searching.

Thanks for the AMA Dr Mondschein.

What would be the character of sword duels? Would there be lots of parrying, counterattack, and feint like in movies or would it be more like the samurai kind of very quick fight, one strike and its over sort of thing?

As a follow-up to the question about ranking who had the best knights:

How were the Byzantines ranked? How were they perceived by their enemies, let's say between 900 - 1100? Were they better trained and organised than other European armies? Were they better trained and organised than their Arab and Turkic enemies? Were their enemies afraid to 'go against Rome'?

Who would win in a fight between Daemon Blackfyre and Arthur Dayne? (both in their prime)

I’ve always been curious about this. In A Knight’s Tale, they portray a Jousting World Championship. Now I find it unlikely that such a thing existed, but did people perceive jousting with such an interest that we have in sports today — following a favourite, arguing about who the best was, etc.? Was there ever some kind of attempt to crown a “champion of England” for example?

We see extremely different fighting styles and weapons in the show, like between the Mountain, Oberyn Martell, the Unsullied who are very antiquity looking, Arya and her short shortsword (side question, but what is exactly Needle?) and your average Joe sporting a two handed sword, I was wondering if there was any point in our history where all those styles actually overlapped like they do in the serie. Same question could apply to the armors, I always found it weird that every single man in the Lannister army wears plate armor, while Jon Snow barely ever wears anything beyond padded clothing and occasionally sports a chestplate.

You seem to be recommending On Killing. Are you aware of its wide critisism in academia and on this subreddit? https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/uzx8vx/comment/iaoytbl/ by u/abbot_x

https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/5jl117/in_his_book_men_against_fire_sla_marshall_alleges/ by u/georgy_k_zhukov

Canadians Against Fire by Engen.

Thank you for the AMA! I've read quite a few of the questions and your answers are really interesting and illuminating.

In GoT, Arya is given a fencing instructor while the Stark boys are shown training with the soldiers.

1. What do we know on the instruction women in fencing? I know that there were women who were skilled fighters, but did they learn how to fight in the same manner that men learnt?
2. What do we know about fencing instructors? When do they appear in record and in what contexts?

Not GOT but were medieval obstacle course "gauntlets" like in First Knight a thing? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1SXJh2f2ng Is such a contraption realistic? Would the real version have been for training purposes? A spectacle for "fun" like shown in the film

Could a jousting match in a tourney be finished on foot as depicted in the books and shows or was being dismounted an instant KO?

Also, was trial by combat real and if so, was their ever an instance of something close to a 7 vs 7 trial such as what goes down with Dunk and Egg?

Thanks for doing this, seems like you've got the coolest job in the world!

Thanks for doing this! What are some misconceptions about HEMA that you often come across in complete newbies? And, on that, do you think that it’s easy to narrow down a “best approach” to something like sword-fighting? For example, if you thrust a modern “Jack of All Trades” person who draws on techniques from multiple traditions against an experienced past practitioner of a single discipline, is the variety likely to negate the gap in experience? Or would they still get their ass kicked?

When would say the Middle Ages end? During the Renaissance? Did guns make plate armor redundant?

r/KenM

The messiah is here!

Were there actually tourney knights who were notable figures/minor celebrities in their time? Would people actually follow the lists like folks do with sports today? Do we have surviving records of Sir So-and-so unhorsing the Earl of Whatever in the spring tourney of 15XX? The movie ‘A Knight’s Tale’ got me thinking about this. Obviously the movie is not to be taken seriously re historical accuracy but it made me curious to what extent, if at all, tournaments and their participants were analogous to modern sport/athletes.

Thanks to Dr. Mondschein for joining us and to everyone who asked questions!

How accurate would you say game of thrones was at depicting everyday medieval life?

I have read that the battle of the bastards is close to a real medieval battle. What is your opinion about it? If you agree, could you give a more precise historical classification (e.g. early, high or late Middle Ages)?