And last,I always thought knights indeed used that full solid armo,but only very special classes or high rank noblemen after the 11th century.
What. Didn't we already discuss this above in this very thread?
Individual armour plates didn't even catch on in medieval Europe until the late 13th century, and full suits of plate were not in widespread use until the late 14th - early 15th century. (Yes, that means that most of the Crusades were fought in chainmail, NOT in plate!) But when it rains it pours, so as soon as it started to be possible to produce plate, there was an arms race to produce in it in as large quantities as possible. In the heyday of the plate in the 15th and 16th century, it was common for
entire armies to fight in full suits of plate armour, not just the "knights", which didn't even exist anymore as a separate social class because professional armies had already mostly replaced them by that time.
Now, a plate is handy in that it's practically invulnerable to swords. Which is why everyone and their dog started wielding maces, warhammers, and polearms which either caused indirect trauma through armour, penetrated due to heavy weight concentrated on a small point, or simply had enough momentum to not care. Or just used a powerful enough crossbow which did not require the lifelong training of an English longbowman. Of course, the development of firearms soon made full plate obsolete altogheter, so in the late 16th century infantry started getting rid of it, followed by cavalry. By the 17th century mostly only specialized heavy cavalry units used plate (note: professional soldiers, not noblemen playing "knights"), and after 30 Years War had shown light cavalry to be superior, plate armour went the way of the dodo by the 18th century. But in its final death throes, it did become the status symbol of a wealthy individual, without any practical purpose.
But history repeats itself, so nowadays we've got flak jackets, bulletproof vests, etc.
