Tobias Capwell is the curator of arms and armor at The Wallace Collection in London. Here, he reacts to 11 memorable scenes featuring medieval weapons and armor and rates them based on their historical accuracy.
Capwell looks at armor and weapons within fantasy franchises, such as Sauron’s armor in the battle of Orodruin in “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001). He addresses how helmets in “The Mandalorian” (2019) are influenced by Greek and Corinthian styles. Using artifacts from The Wallace Collection, Capwell addresses the realism of flails and maces as seen in “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003). And he rates how realistic shields and swords are in “Vikings” (2014) and “The Last Kingdom” (2015).
Is it possible to reforge swords, as seen in “Game of Thrones” (2011)? And how difficult would it be to fight in mud in full armor, like Robert Pattinson and Timothée Chalamet do in “The King” (2019)? Does knightly combat look anything like “Excalibur” (1981), “El Cid” (1961), and “Tale of Tales” (2015)?
Tobias Capwell is an author, lecturer, broadcaster, and the curator of arms and armor at The Wallace Collection in London. He has been a horseman and martial artist since childhood, is a founding member of the modern historical jousting community, and has fought in major international tournaments all over the world. Capwell has written many books and articles on weapons, armor, tournaments, and knighthood, including “Armour of the English Knight 1400-1450,” “Arms and Armour of the Medieval Joust,” and “Masterpieces of European Arms and Armour in the Wallace Collection.” In 2015 he had the honor of serving as one of the two fully armored knights who escorted the remains of King Richard III from the battlefield at Bosworth to their final resting place in Leicester Cathedral.
Find out more about The Wallace Collection here:
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Medieval Weapons Master Rates 11 Weapons And Armor In Movies And TV | How Real Is It?
L1L PL4GU3
23.04.2022Tell the Romans that rectangular shields are stupid. They conquered the world with them.
lucianofang
23.04.2022well, technically, Ragnar Lodbrok's "last name" (Lodbrok) tends to be translated to "shaggy breeches", so his clothing would make more sense to be the way it is portrayed
S Miller
23.04.2022⚔️ Love that he gives credit to the reality in the story such as LoTR and not just physics or historical reality! 10/10
TheRealHiesenberg
23.04.2022As far as speculation about arts that are thousands years old, this guy is really good. No disrespect, I'm being sincere. I would like to hear his take on the movie Outlaw King
Melting Autumn
23.04.2022Wouldn't a bigger sword hit harder if the blade was heavier? Yet being heavier it wouldn't be possible to rapidly strike unless the person wielding the weapon is strong?
Leo Perez
23.04.2022I take it he's a fan of the Mandalorian
Samuel Meier
23.04.2022In the early imperial times the romans did use rectangular shields, didn't they?
ababu magutu
23.04.2022Maybe it could not was normal, but "el cid" had a real big sword, called "Tizona", said to be done with damascus steel, and like 1,5 metres long (almost more than "el cid"), maybe he had much money or was like a hero gift or something
Amy Kay
23.04.2022When does this guy comment on monty python and the search for the holy grail?
Hush
23.04.2022He didn’t have to give the Mandalorian a 10/10 but he did and that’s good criticism
John Alot
22.04.2022He's wrong about the leather clothing. Julius Caesar chronicled his European conquest in "Gallic Wars." He writes about the German warriors wearing nothing but leather. Caesar even commentas that he is surprised that they wear it in winter.
LeoVomend
22.04.2022"nobody's allowed to be left handed in the middle ages" best quote
IHC Terra
22.04.2022Yes, bloomery steel isn't melted. However, crucible steel is melted to liquid, but it is done in a sealed crucible that keeps oxygen from combining with the steel.
Valerian steel is described like a real life specific crucible steel that came from Damascus, that has an intrinsic pattern without being pattern welded.
However, reforging crucible steel swords would never involve melting and casting. You could take a Damascus blade and reforge it and it would still retain the properties with a proper quench and temper. It would be reasonable to take that giant Valerian blade and cut it in 2 pieces to be reforged into 2 new swords.
He is right that melting and casting is just ridiculous.
Flightless Lord
22.04.2022you know what, poor Richard the 3rd
Chemistry Aficionado
22.04.2022Toby, where did you get to do all the medieval stuff? I have been wanting to do the same thing, but I do not know where to go.
Andreas Hecht
22.04.2022This dude loves Disney and LotR, holy s***
Juan Silva
22.04.2022I love how he gives 10 to the mandalorian and next thing he says is "vikings is fantasy" xD
merov merov
22.04.2022Sauron was feared because he was the only man wearing metal armor battling armies wearing plastic.
Andrew Galloway
22.04.2022no Kingdom of Heaven ? …. was really wanting that to be featured
Richard Stephens
22.04.2022"I'd give it a two because it's funny and it's Nicolas Cage." LOL!
valar
21.04.2022People wore boiled leather armour, however. I don't think it looked like how it looks on Vikings though.
Duker
21.04.202217:29 The roman scutum would like to have a word with you about rectangularity
Izzy2u
21.04.2022-You can’t block an arrow.
Pretty their is a whole video of someone doing it WITH BOW AND ARROW. Like he shot down an arrow flying at him.
Haxxor McBunny
21.04.2022Hate to brake it bud but just because a gun is bigger it doesn’t mean it does more damage. I assure you it’s worse getting shot in the gut by a 50AE handgun than a 5.56 rifle. Not to mention what kind of ammo and Caliber your dealing with. Also in the given example, yes that sword would be more damaging as a two handed (and highly telegraphed) downward strike with a bigger weapon will have more mass and thus energy to impact the target with. Granted damage against armour the effects is mostly nullified but you have reach and also the ability to use the sword as a club/hammer. But here again there aren’t any helmets so he has superior reach. Sorry but you making the argument and then dragging guns in really piped me off
iago novidelsky
21.04.2022you never go fully melted
Al
21.04.2022Honestly one of the best guests they've had. He really knows his stuff as a historian and as someone with real experience.
He respects that fantasy is all a bit silly and make-believe and that expressing story and character is genuinely really important in that medium.
He understands when some mistakes are inevitable and when the movie makers just tried to do something cool and is more than willing to call them out on it.
Wish we had more people like this coming on.
robertbos462
21.04.2022"You cant block arrows."
THIS HAS BEEN PROVEN! YOU CAN! Just not that close range lol.
Michael King
21.04.20223:15–3:18 Sallet, ahhh, Isn't that a Barbute?
ItssSnek
21.04.2022that first Mandalorian clip, is Beskar armor really the same premise as Medieval armor. I mean Beskar is made up to my knowledge for a fictional sci fi world.
Simone D'angelo
21.04.202220:54 I thought i was laughing at Nicholas Cage
Nex Gamez
20.04.2022"Nobody ever used rectangular shields. That ridiculous." Except for several historical examples of them being used. The Roman scutum was rectangular at one point. There are examples from 14th and 15th century Italy and Germany as well. Rectangular shields were used across a wide range of eras by a wide range of peoples. The only thing ridiculous here is your blatantly false statement. There are square and rectangular shields of nearly every type that appear in the medieval era in configurations of bucklers, pavises, cavalry shields, and more. So even if you were strictly commenting on the medieval period, you would still be wrong. Goes to show that even the "experts" can be wrong.
Swole Kot
20.04.2022I'd love to see him rip into the god-awful fantasy armour of the "Germanic" warriors at the beginning of Gladiator that were like black rags
Or the goofyblack armour of the "Vikings" in Pathfinder
Along with the black biker gear in Vikings, Hollywood likes to have germanic/norse warriors wear black for some reason, even though they wore colourful clothes and shields
Vain
20.04.20229:36 that is such a badass line, really speaks to how dangerous a knight was for the average person on a battlefield back then.
Lea S
20.04.2022I wonder when swords could not melt and remake a sword, did some kind of recycling still excisted? F.ex. did old swords were melted into pots & other items 🤔
Ishtvan Lojosh
20.04.2022I like this guy's consistency) He's like – this flail is awfully big and has a very long chain, and also knights rarely used something like that, but thats LoTR, thats fantasy: 10 out of 10. moment before you cant melt steel and make 2 swords! (speaks about fantasy steel that kills undead and creatures of the night) 0 out of ten!
Brady Nelson
20.04.2022Complains about being wrong by about 800 years… misses the bronze age by about 800 years. Brilliant.
Saffron Azrael
20.04.2022Thank you Toby, for what you said about The King. For those of us who know, the depiction of the battle of Agnicourt in that movie was infuriating. I enjoyed much of th acting itself in that movie but that battle…I can't forgive that battle scene.
Mythic Mario
20.04.202211:29
you've seen a 15th century knight get run over by a horse?
How old are you?
ScottyFox
20.04.2022I've done medieval reenactment & part of the training was to allow being hit & trust your armour. Once you have taken multiple hits you loose your fear of being hurt & begin to fight more effectively. Btw I completely disagree with his dismissal of leather armour as being used. It's nonsense that ppl wouldn't have used what was easily available.
SriLankan Guy
20.04.2022This guy is just brilliant….. I'm really disappointed that they didn't show him a knights tale
tommy otero
19.04.2022Couldn't agree more about his analysis on the King. I've been fascinated by the battle of Agincourt since reading Agincourt, by Bernard Cornwell a decade or so ago and when I saw the previews for the King and knew it was about Agincourt I was unbelievably excited. The movie was definitely entertaining and I'm sure if I knew less about the actual historic battle I'd have liked it even more, but as it were, I could only shake my head in disbelief. Defo a missed opportunity on this one :/
Azeem
19.04.2022Medival comment from medival expert. Very honest one. If it's dumb, it's dumb. I assume he has seen someone got cut in half with dull sword.
Gabriel Gajdoš
19.04.2022missed opportunity for not showing Knights Tale
Laughingpug
19.04.2022You can cast steel now but that's only because modern technology and techniques.
Myles Donovan
19.04.2022“You can be run over by a horse in full plate armor and be just fine. I’ve seen it happen.”
I have questions
Johan Fridtjof Vogensen
19.04.2022Over simplified
Richard Sanchez
19.04.2022Thumbnail: Alas poor yorick
Geronimo Hanson
19.04.2022Perfect
haloman5230
19.04.2022Melting down a literal magical metal that has different properties lore wise than normal steel “no that’s stupid 0/10”
Very next example
Guy using a flail which has almost no historical uses, and non ever looking like that “yeah gotta give that a 10/10”
Had a lot of credibility before that, gone now.
Rob Allister
19.04.2022BRING THIS GUY BACK