How a Man Shall Be Armed in the 14th Century
 
Hosted by the Royal Ontario Museum
ROMLife Program
 
2000: Dec 30-31
2001: Jan 6-7, Apr 14, Sep 8, Nov 24
2002: Feb 16, May 25
 
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The purpose of this program is to educate the audience on the arms and armour of the 14th century which includes a presentation of the arms and armour of the period along with commentary on the development of the arms and armour followed by an example armoured duel demonstrating the sophisticated swordsmanship skills of the period. The program is designed to be interactive with the audience, providing ample opportunities to field questions from the audience, especially questions from extremely curious children. At the conclusion of the program, the audience is invited to physically examine authentically reproduced historical arms and armour, opportunities for photos with the children are presented. This program is one of the most popular ROMLife programs offered by the ROM.

The following is a report on a specific presentation which occured on the weekends of December 30 - 31, 2000 and January 6 - 7, 2001, AEMMA, David Cvet and Brian McIlmoyle, along with assistance from other AEMMA students including Chris Armstrong, Tracey Snow, Lori Hall and Anton Cvet participated in the "ROM for the Holidays" event by delivering demonstrations on the arms and armour of 11th through 16th century warriors of medieval Europe, along with two fight demonstrations, based on King Rene's tournament. The fights encompassed both au'pleausance and o'otrance forms. The demonstrations were scheduled at 1pm and 3pm each day and were attended by 200+ people per demonstration.

A summary and videos are provided below for reference. The video file sizes range from 2.5MB - 3.9MB. The files will require QuickTime and are compatible with most Windows and Mac systems.

No. Segment Description Video
1 Intro by David Cvet: Opening remarks explaining the goals and objectives of the Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts, and a run down of the structure of the demonstration. click to view the video

(3.9MB)
2 Brian McIlmoyle MC'ing the demo: Brian provides an indepth historical account of each armour component as they are being assembled on the stage. click to view the video

(2.7MB)
3 How a man shall be armed in the 14c: Detailed examination of the armour components and their application to the defence of the human body is illustrated, with narrative from Brian. click to view the video

(2.9MB)
4 Period armour comparisons: Continuing with the demonstration, a detailed examination of a well "healed" knight of the 11th century is provided. Later, the harness is compared with that of the 14th century. click to view the video

(2.6MB)
5 Examining early 14c armour: Closer examination of 14c armour indicates the prevalence of plate that now covers much of the chain mail as compared to an 11c warrior. click to view the video

(2.6MB)
6 Eskermir à plaisance: A demonstration of un-scripted/non-correographed combat based on the rules of the tournament that governs combat à plaisance (to fight with pleasure). click to view the video

(3.3MB)
7 Eskermir à outrance: The conclusion of the demonstration ends with an un-scripted/non-correographed combat based on the rules of the tournament that governs combat à outrance (to fight with anger). click to view the video

(3.2MB)

 
Released: January 9, 2001
Updated: March 24, 2008