Armour of the English Knight 1435-1500

This final part of Tobias Capwell's Armour of the English Knight trilogy, completes the story begun in Armour of the English Knight 1400-1450 (2015) and continued in Armour of the English Knight 1450-1500 (2021).

In this volume, he debunks the persistent notion that only kings and very wealthy nobles could afford complete armour.

Most of the visual and textual evidence suggests that foreign importers of armour focused primarily on the provision of cheap and mid-range equipment. As seen in the previous two books of the series, England’s own craftsmen were capable of fulfilling the requirements of the aristocracy, but they were probably never numerous enough to achieve the high-volume, low-cost output necessary to supply the ‘off-the-rack’ market. Therefore, the foreign (and primarily Italian) harness discussed in the pages of this third volume must have greatly outnumbered the distinctive armours of the domestic English style, thus playing a vital role in the story of armour in England.

Capwell’s authoritative trilogy comprises, Armour of the English Knight 1400–1450 (2015), Armour of the English Knight 1450–1500 (2021), and Armour of the English Knight: Continental Armour in England 1435–1500 (2022).

Reviewing the first volume in The English Historical Review, David Palliser wrote that it "...should revolutionise the study of early fifteenth-century armour, and it is one which document-based historians would neglect to their cost... [He] is that rare scholar, an internationally-renowned expert in his field, who is also a seasoned practitioner of combat in full plate armour, one who can speak with real authority on armour as a practical and functional aspect of medieval life".