Hi All for the fantastic response to this film, but remember it is actually the last of 8 films looking explicitly at how arrows and armour interacted at the battle of Agincourt. All of the equipment was made to the highest standards we could and funded by a very generous Kickstarter campaign (thank you backers). In 5 of the 8 films Joe Gibbs was shooting his 160lbs longbow, in this we used a crossbow that shoots his arrows with very similar numbers. We had so many questions we wanted answered and spent 3 years on and off thinking about them, so the chances are if you watch through the previous films most of your questions or observations will be answered. If you want to know why the distance was short, or what difference it makes or why the knight was not moving like on a horse or what quality is the armour, or why the arrow heads are that shape, or why I am using a crossbow - all the information is there. Failing all that you will a find a wealth of knowledge at todtodeschini.com/youtube-projects/arrows-v-armour-2/. The first Arrows vs Armour2 film that sets out the whole scene can be found here kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mtldeNlm0tndqqM.html. Just so we all know, I think a viewers suggestion for our knights name 'Sebastian' should stick.........a bit like the arrows.

Can we just pause to give homage to the fact, that's the first time anyone has put an arrow through the visor of a bascinet for hundreds of years!! Bloody good show Tod!

i love how the knight looks more and more sad and downbeat as he gets pummeled by arrows, slowly slumping forward

I think the main thing that I've learned from all these videos is that, perhaps unsurprisingly, both arrows and armor work.

A fun quick idea for a video which wouldn't require any more arrows, but which would still I think be an interesting thing to explore, is if you got someone into that harness, and explored how much mobility remained after so much abuse.

Apparently the secret to hitting a target is placing a gopro directly behind it. Nice work.

can we all have a moment of respect for Sir Pericaval Getshitalotwitharrows of Boulogne, he really is the MVP and will do anything for science. that eye shot ouch.

I dont know how, but I'm both impressed by how much punishment the armour could take and the destructive power of the arrow. That eye shot, while lucky, was also astounding to see.

This whole series has been incredible, fantastic work from everyone who participated. If you ever decide to do another one of these a few years down the road, I think it would be really cool to see how evolutions in armor design in the 50-100 years after Agincourt effects the outcomes, and I also think it would be really cool if the armor was placed on one of the more advanced human body analogues used in ballistic testing and had a medical professional weigh in on what kinds of injuries were caused by the hits. Great work though, it's been so interesting watching all of these tests!

This channel has become the pre-eminent source for practical historical research regarding archery and armor on the net, as far as I have been able to find. This kind of insight is vital to a more in-depth understanding of historical battles and, in combination with traditional historical research, should form the basis of our knowledge. I am impressed with your dedication to getting the details right, which is vital to getting the correct answers.

"Live to fight another day" seems to be the overall best way to describe this armor. Considering how many arrows you and Joe put into it and most of them resulting in bruises and maybe superficial flesh wounds, apart from the one (lucky) sure kill-shot, it seems to have achieved its goal spendidly.

This test confirms a lot of what historians have said about Agincourt. Bows were certainly effective in the battle but the terrain and conditions of the battlefield were a huge factor in the English winning. Really cool video.

I am consistently impressed by the plate armor especially the hounskull. You really need to cook up a scenario for it to fail, and that shows how much went into the design.

Seeing arrows fly towards the helmet from the GoPro view just gives a whole other reason to keep your head down, that was terrifying!

Tod, I'd suggest that a hardboiled egg would suffice in this kind of testing, as the shell will still crack visibly under moderate pressure, but it won't create the mess to cleanup afterwards.

Superb experiments. It really feel like the effectiveness of a longbow is a numbers game. Shoot as many as you can and some might do damage or kill. That's why they shot and kept shooting until they ran out. Luck seems to play a big part in what the outcome is for the target.

I'm so glad that the lockdown longbow was found to be a comparable analogue. This series has definitely been interesting, and I'm looking forward to what will come from this.

The fact that you shoot until you had no more arrows that you could shoot really says a lot about your commitment.

The helmet POV is what did it for me. Imagine hundreds of arrows flying at you every second as you try push an enemy position. Absolutely terrifying.

I love this video. Now for some math, or "maths" as it is said in the better educated parts of the world. I am going to start with the phase "Quantity has a quality all of its own." At Agincourt had Henry had about 8,000 men, 1-2,000 were men-at-arms and Knights with heavy armour, the rest were archers. This leaves 6000 to 7000 archers. I am selecting 6,500 archers for random reasons. I feel it to be a warm and friendly number. So 6500 archers shooting 12 arrows a minute equals 78,000 arrows a minute shot at each wave of the French attack. I have read there were 3 French waves. From a statistical standpoint these lucky shots were a guarantee to occur. There is art evidence that the arms and head were primary targets for the arrows, and now we see why. If the target can't move his arms or is blinded, those daggers come in real handy to finish off fairly defenseless troops. I have read that by the 3rd wave of French attack, the bodies of French dead from the previous 2 waves helped cause the third wave to falter and fail causing another massacre. And remember, each wave of attackers were not comprised of fully armoured knights, lots of folks in much less armoured states in the French waves. And remember, each wave was solely on foot. Ground was too muddy for cavalry of any type. That was a very slow march over a killing field that had been plowed and rained on on for a week. Yes, for those who were wondering, it was incredibly stupid for the French leadership to be goaded in battling on this day over this specific killing field that Henry V had chosen.

Congratulations Tod, people have guessed and speculated for years on this topic, and you have done the work of proving or disaproving it practically! Lovely to see so many chip in to fund your project, and doubely so that you have the curiosity to pull thru with it!!!

Oh you’ve been waiting for that shot for quite a while. Bravo Tod! Thanks so much for bringing us along for the ride!

Thanks Tod and the team this is really impressive work, and defiantly advances our knowledge in this area. What some people fail to grasp I think is that the French knights where hit how many times by arrows in the first minute of battle and consequent minutes. What is surprising is how many where able to survive and still fight after that hail of arrows. As demonstrated it only takes a lucky shot to stop a knight, but the rest were likely just pummelled into being non combat effective by the sheer volume of arrow strikes. Each little degradation of the armour in its mobility/flexibility or protection by each arrow strike reduces the wearers combat effectiveness and opens the wearer up the the next arrow strike been the one that takes them out of the fight. Think of the suit as been a tank of its day a thrown track prevents the modern tank from preforming to its full potential and makes it a sitting target, a lucky shot hitting the gun barrel stops it from been able to use the main gun. Same with a knight who is dazed/concussed/unable to move or use their arms to fight or defend themselves, they become a target. All I can say medieval combat must have been brutal.

Absolutely incredible work you've gives have done! Something that really shocked me was how terrifying the view inside the helmet is, and that is with a single person shooting. Can't imagine the terror they actually felt on the battlefield with thousands of arrows flying.

This is something that I keep thinking about but in the last few Arrows vs. Armor videos, it has all been about the "kill" shot. Personally I don't think that is a high priority or ever has been really. What you want is to take as many opposing soldiers out of the fight as you can. Or at the very least limit lessen their ability to fight. The armors job is to keep the soldiers fighting as long as possible. So that should be the utmost consideration. While these may not be "kill" shots they definitely caused damage and would very likely have taken the knight wearing the armor out of the fight, or by closing that eye gap, severely limiting his ability to fight effectively. I would like to thank you Tod and your associates for making these videos. I find them very interesting and informative.

That shot through the vision slit was amazing, I could've imagined a splinter making it through but for the shaft to break in such a "perfect" way and embed in the eye was incredible to see. Love it!

There are lots of questions put by readers here that remain unanswered. As Tod reminds us it is just an academic exercise in will an arrow penetrate armour in favourable circumstances. It is great copy but misleading as it gives the impression of Longbow and English supremacy at all times which is quite wrong. In real life the question has been answered in various battles where armour has overcome arrow here is one instance amongst many...(translated from Medieval French). “On 14 Aug. 1852 Bentley and Nesle met at Brenbili, a manor near the little town of Mauron, a few miles north of Ploërmel, the local base of operations of the party of John de Montfort." The French were advancing southwards, while the English, who had come out of Ploërmel, were marshalled facing the north. The Chronique Normande " thus describes the battle. After telling how the English dismounted, and took up a position in front of a hedge with archers on both flanks, it proceeds “Et Guy de Neelle, mareschal de France, descendi à pié, lui et toutes ses gens, devant les Englois, excepté le sire de Hangest, que il ordonna à demourer à cheval à tout bien VII«* hommes d'armes pour courre seure aux archiers.” Hangest's cavalry was on the left wing of the French, while the right wing, like the centre, was composed of dismounted men-at-arms. Nesle's efforts almost succeeded. His dismounted. main body, though much inconvenienced by their march up hill through long grass, pushed the English centre back to the hedge, when they rallied, and after a hard fight won a decisive victory over the French, in the course of which Nesle himself was slain. “The archers on the English left easily scattered the footmen set over against them, who soon fled in disorder. Some justification for employing cavalry against the bowmen of the English right was found in the complete success of Hangest's followers, who rode down their enemy and cut them up completely. Unable to prosecute their advantage by reason of the failure of their fellows, Hangest's victorious troopers retired in good order from the field. Geoffrey le Baker substantially confirms this by telling us that Bentley, who was wounded in the encounter, ordered thirty of the runaway archers to be beheaded for cowardice.” In cavalry against longbows?, longbows win according to those who never get past Azincourt. If you need further proof of real life not imitating art just look for battle of Patay on Utube where the Royal corps of archers were destroyed (2500 KIA) in one heavy cavalry charge for the loss of 150 French knights. It is estimated that 30.000 arrows were fired at them.

If you can picture yourself as a French Man at Arms: struggling through the sticky mud at Agincourt, gasping for breath, walking into a hail of arrows - it would have been a nightmare. Unless you had practiced what it felt like to take arrow hits, you would think each blow you felt would be followed by one that would get through your armour. After covering the last 20 yards: you would have several arrows stuck through arm and mail covered gaps in the plate. It's easy to picture a man with at least half a dozen of these hits between his neck and feet. Add to that a sharp blow to the Adam's apple. It's incredible to picture men that endured all of that and reaching the English counterpart with enough energy and ability to engage them at close quarters. Incroyable!

I love this so much, Tod. Thanks so much. It's more or less confirmed some of my suspicions that have developed after some of your previous videos (again, thanks) and it's so gratifying to see how the plate is pretty much working wherever it is, but not *overperforming,* meaning it's very well honed in to deal with the arrows being thrown it's way. If it were more invulnerable, it'd have to be heavier. The most interesting part to me is probably the arm defence (and presumably this applies for the legs too). If you imagine your archers have heavily bombarded the enemy men-at-arms, even without directly killing or incapacitating many of them, the efficiency of those men-at-arms could be dramatically reduced by the time they meet with your own men-at-arms. If your men-at-arms haven't suffered a similar hail of arrows, that's a much easier fight for them. I imagine that was a *huge* factor at battles like Agincourt!

I really like that you keep testing this armor because one thing I rarely see mentioned or tested with medieval armor is: Damage and repairs. Armors are gonna get dented and ad-hoc repaired for decades. In the end that will lead to a lot of weaknesses that wouldn't show up on a test of a new armor.

By the end of this video that poor chap was looking very sorry for himself. I have been watching this entire series of videos with avid interest. Fantastic, methodical work as ever. All the component parts of a battle broken down to the minutiae and investigated. Absolutely love your work, keep at it and thank you.

Amazing work! Interesting in so many ways. I was honestly surprised how effective the armour was. That's a serious heavy draw with heavy arrows at quite close range. The armor did an amazing job under that level of attack. With a shield as extra protection it gives me a sense of how frightening these combats must have been for the archers. Praying for a lucky hit as that weight of steel and flesh closed in towards them, and the knights under a withering fire trudging forward getting pummelled by shots and Praying their armor held. Thank you for all the hard work.

Another brilliant addition to the series. Given the volume of projectiles, and with the recently somewhat reinforced possibility of case-hardened tips, some of these hits are just statistically bound to happen. So you really seem to have answered the Agoncourt question - in that the Longbow couldn't defeat plate straight on, but still could take out knights quite readily given enough time and shots. Thanks for all that effort Tod. This is really valuable research.

In the DeSoto Chronicles, which is an account of the Spanish in the southeastern US in 1539=1541, one of the things mentioned was that when a rivercane (a type of bamboo) arrow hit mail, the stone point would be stopped but the shaft would shatter around the point and punch splinters through the mail for a very nasty wound.

Brilliant. That answers _everything_ I was in doubt about after the last videos. Great job, Tod. I wish you had more people there.

How excited this guy is makes this video special. Love to watch history type content. I like almost all narrators, hosts, creators because the conten is so interesting. However, what makes this stand out as top quality is how genuinely excited he is to be doing what he is doing. It's contagious. Great content. Thanks

Fantastic follow-up, that poor knight has definitely seen better days now!

That visor shot, assuming the splinter entered his eye, looked as though it penetrated enough to continue into the brain. That's an extraordinary way to go.

What a fantastic series. It's great that you went even deeper on a subject after A vs A part 1. The only thing I would like to see as an ending of a series is an edit of all of the shots one after another with fraction of a second Space between them to have an idea of how it would sound with the whole salvo of arrows hitting a charging heavy infantry on the battle field. That had to make a psychological efect on these soldiers.

Something to consider for AvA3: During a battle, one of those advancing knights would potentially face all of the individual shots from this or any of the films all within a few seconds. I was going to say volley, but I seriously doubt that volleys happened in a "fire, pause, fire, pause" way. In the heat of fire-at-will it was likely random and probably reactive to whichever groups of knights were presenting the most threat. "Those guys are scooting in around the side mates!", focus moves to the 10 guys on the left, each taking dozens of arrows every few seconds until they slackened, due to fatigue or tactics. Just trying to say don't forget that these are battle conditions, and a single archer vs a single target can only simulate something like duel conditions. Excellent work as always Tod. Your dedication to truth is always inspiring.

Big shout out to the knight who stand there in the rain of arrows and not bravely run away.

Wow amazing work Todd, what a lucky shot to the eye that was. Can’t imagine the feeling of you a rich soldier wearing an expensive armor and you get this unlucky in the battlefield. Your videos help me visualize how armor works and how the evolution of the arms race goes for my own future writing projects. Just amazing on this video series, congratulations and hope for part 3 later in the future

I read recently that an estimated seventy-two thousand arrows were shot within the first *minute* of the Battle of Agincourt. Even if it isn't a "one shot, one kill" type of situation with a longbow vs. armor, imagine the effect of that many arrows being shot at you. It's not hard to imagine that "lucky" shots were landing in all of that mix and cutting down knights despite their armor.

My biggest gripe about these armor vs videos anywhere on KZfaq is that they never show the quality of steel or talk about it. Also some don’t even talk about the thickness of the armor. So i appreciate that this guy has done it. This guy also has some good armor smiths. This stuff definitely seems to be HMB armor which is solid stuff

One of my favourite series of all time...well done!

Fantastic episode. That broken arrow through the eye slit was amazing and conjurs gruesome images. I've been thinking of a couple of things that I would still like to know. If you could get your hands on an accelerometer and a decibel meter it would be very interesting to find out what kind of damage an arrow could do to someone wearing armour in terms of a concussion or hearing loss.

I have not missed a Tod's Workshop video in at least 5 years and KZfaq knows it. Top of the page, every time. Clicked immediately. Every time.

Phenomenal job! You're providing answers to questions we've all been waiting for!

What? The large majority of knights at Agincourt were not killed on the battlefield and especially not by arrows. They were taken hostage and because they were so many (they actually outnumbered their captors) Henry was afraid they might not be able to manage their numbers. And so he ordered them killed when the English had to retreat. There is no need to imagine a hail of calmly fired arrows at last-shot-range, most of which still fail, to figure out how so many knights perished. They were slain while prisoners of war.

Outstanding strat to the New Year: another A v A II video! I'm glad it fell to you, Tod, to finally kill off the French Knight with those last arrows. This episode shows that yes, the English Longbowmen were rightly feared. It only needed one or two arrows to 'get through' - and there were thousands of them raining down on the French. Thanks - and a HNY to you, Tod, and to all who watch your videos and post comments!

MUCH appreciate the work you have put into this, and your other videos. MANY THANKS and a Happy New Year to you and yours.

Happy New Year Tod! Appreciate your content

That eye slot shot was very interesting. It shows that you dont quite necessarily need to get it -in- the hole for it to be devastating. It's certainly not something i'd have expected to have happened/

Thank you Todd and crew this series is absolutely fantastic and fascinating. To see a group of people come together and give such great equipment and shooting is really and truly touching. Thank you again and please continue to give us insight into the this period in history.

I don't think I could ever get tired of these videos. There is something immensely satisfying about watching arrows strike something in slow motion.

Just finished binging all the AvA2 videos, really great to see. Never get tired of experiments like this.

I remarked elsewhere that even if an arrow couldn't make it through the eyeslits, a splinter might, and there you have it, if not quite with the visual I expected. The repeat penetrations of aventail were interesting to see, given how surprised they were by the ones that pierced it in the prior video.

Absolutely fabulous stuff!

This is beyond excellent work, it is incredibly valuable for historians and I’d wager this will have more impact on our understanding of medieval armor and archery than most of the academic works written about it in the past several decades.

Fantastic series Tod. Thanks so much for doing this. Really have learned quite a lot and sparked my interest in this history.

Tod, incredible narration points here. Great distillation of the lessons. So many takeaways. First one that comes to mind for me is role of shields.

I find the splintering of the arrow shafts very interesting. It's like the arrow has two waves of attack, first the point and then the splinters. It looks like even if the arrowhead doesn't get through there's a half decent chance of a splinter going into an armour joint/gap or an eyehole. Multilpy that effect by a Crecy or Agincourt style arrow storm and as well as the arrowheads there must have been a cloud of wooden shrapnel flying around the French armies.

Amazing series. I find it quite fascinating to see what could have been. Also humbling to get an insight as to how it would have looked to be involved in warfare at this period. It's quite scary to think that the chances of recovery after being hit were small to none. Fantastic stuff Tod.

i love how much effort you and your team put into these tests :) ! thanks for sharing!

Excellent content as always. It would be interesting to see how fast a guy in full armor could close the distance and "kill" the archer, and how many arrows the archer could shoot in that time. In this test (and others) the archer is at a massive advantage because the target is stationary - and that’s fine given what you’re trying to demonstrate, I'm not criticizing your methodology or anything. But in a real-life situation where you have a fully armored man-at-arms (or a thousand) bearing down on you and every second counts, I don’t think it'd be all that easy to disable him before he skewers you 😊

Interesting that a splinter did for the poor chap, and great to see something go through the sight slit!! 😃 If you watch the documentary "A Knight's Tale" it's mentioned in there that jousters were afraid of splinters through the eye hole.

Just wanted to say your videos are one of those things that make internet a good place. For a month I've been absolutely hooked, I think I have gone through most of the content. Cant wait for more. Btw, one of the most ehem... striking things for me was to witness is how violent are those arrow hits. This thing would go right through you without the armour. PS. how about a catapulta vs armour video some time in the future? :)

Incredible video Tod. So much information. Love it.

Even if the arrow didn't penetrate the mail, I don't think getting shot in the throat would make for a good time or a highly motivated knight. The number of arrows left sticking out of the armour at the end makes me wonder what the French knights looked like at the end of Agincourt. Thanks for this additional video and Happy New Year!

That aventail is by far the most impressive piece of armor to me. What a fantastic design.

Keep up the great work always very interesting to watch all these videos! Great show Tod, that eye shot was epic !

Bloody hell I'm glad you reminded me this video existed, amazed I forgot. THanks to all of you on the team for such brilliant content.

Awesome content as always! I am curious if you are planning on testing arrow versus armor effectiveness with the armor moving as it would be with a person wearing the armor? I would hypothesize that movement of the armor (rather than simply a stationary/static armor target) may change the results significantly since the armor in motion will change the impact forces and angle of impact on armor itself. I've never seen anyone test armor in real motion and I think you would do an incredible job of such a test. Thanks for making such engaging content!

Even in armour, the thought of having hundreds/thousands of arrows raining down on you is legitimately terrifying...

I really enjoy these arrow vs armour films. They're really interesting to see as I practice archery myself. What really makes these videos gold is Tod's enthusiasm and passion.

Highly entertaining and enlightening! Awesome work. Love this channel.

I think it would be interesting if a statistical analysis was done on what % of the knight from the front could be penetrated. Then try to make a guess at how many times a knight would have been hit in the battle by an arrow. With that data you could make a guess at how many knights died or wounded from arrows.

Another brilliant video. I noticed that even the arrows that glanced off or shattered caused tiny bits of wood / splinters around the eye slits. Perhaps that would have caused a knight vision problems during battle?

Absolutely loving this series of videos. Subscribed as a result. Brilliant work and great presentation.

Tod- it’s just so damn good, this whole series. Well done.

Outstanding video Tod, congrats on the whole testing series. No matter if any of the arrows failed to full penetrate that knight would be having a really bad day. Any way to compare the impact of the arrows on the helmet with the effects of say a punch to an unarmored head?

The intro is already amazing! :o But this makes me wonder, were pierced armors repaired? Or completely rebuild/used as scrap?

Brilliant! Answered all the questions I[and perhaps dozens of others] posed, just fantastic! Thanks so much.

Splendid stuff Todd ... and most interesting! ... Thank You.

Could you do an overall count of all the shots you have taken throughout the series and how many of them managed to defeat the armor in any meaningful way?

Also interesting that on the helmet shots, the arrows seem to be going through the aventaille much easier. Like there was a point of degradation where after that the armour stopped working as a stop effectivelly. Makes sense as the disruption suffered by nultiple heavy hits will take its toll. Edit: this means that at 20-25m the crossbow hits more akin to a 180lb bow rather than a 160 one. Very interesting

excellent, well done Tod and team a fascinating revelation

Excellent video Tod! Thank you :)

Something's I learned from Goblin Slayer are that: 1. Always put padding like leather under your armor as secondary protection. 2. Even if your armor doesn't stop the penetration completely it can still reduce the damage, your survivability is still up for a magnitude of factors though. 3. Never underestimate your enemies, a lucky shot from an arrow, a sneak stab in your joints and or massive numbers of enemies weak or not can still pose a problem.

There are drop indicators for shipping that come in a variety of sensitivities. You should look into using them under the armour on various parts of the body as they are shot

Fascinating, Thanks for a Brilliant Video Todd..

This series has really showed a fantastic snapshot of history where full plate existed, but wasn't fully mature and what implications that can have on a battlefield. I've watched every video and loved every second of it.

I think it would be cool to do an Arrows VS Armor using modern body armor. I think those arrows would make it through lot more Kevlar than people would expect.

Hi Tod, excellent tests. Did you try to shoot arrows at the target which is moving toward you? This will simulate horsemen in charge. In that case, you have the velocity of the arrow plus the velocity of the horsemen, I would expect that this can increase the penetration power of the arrows ... now question is ... How this will change the results/conclusions from arrows vs armour tests you have done in the past?

Thank you Tod and everyone involved in the arrows VS armour.

that was incredibly interesting, nice work Todd!

Something that I've seen done in ballistics testing for body armor is using clay behind the vest. It helps show how much deformation and energy transfer the projectile causes on impact. It could work if you're testing things like chainmail.

Great work as always. There is one large, ignored elephant in the room. The armour is completely static. In an actual battle, once one is in arrow range, that armour will be moving. Movement will change the vectors and equations in addition to the increased difficulty in hitting at all. Given that, the armour is VERY effective unless one stands there and allows oneself to be a stationary target for multiple shots. The window of opportunity(s) for an archer against such a target are limited in battle conditions.

Great video again Tod! Thank you!

Avocado would've been a better throat analog. Decent toughness, not brittle, easy to see any dents.