So What Does A Knight Wear Under That Armor?

Hosery. Presumably made from wool, so in full armour a knight would have been very warm! The screwdriver is a device invented for removing armour! If your knight is in full plate then no chain mail. all the best urban

Great question. Lets see. ( removes the top layer of plates , vambraces, greaves & helm ) First under the plates we have the mail halbark & arming coif. These protect the vulnerable joints while still providing flexibility. The arming coif holds the helmet off the head, acts as padding & covers the neck with mail. Under that we have the padded gambelson. This is about .25 to .5 inches of padding to lessen the force of the blows. Below that is a cotton tunic , trousers & thick boots. Below those are some basic boxer type briefs ( also cotton )

seems to me they had things like long johns on probably made of wol . Be that itched!

I would say nothing but I don't know if that fits in with your story. Of course, all that armor would chaff. LOL. He probably wore linen as another poster stated. As far as getting wounded it is possible if the blade slips in between his protective armor. Probably a shoulder wound or one near the top of his leg.

Lots of padding. Full plate mail armor was made specifically to fit a given individual. Even a slight difference in body type would yield it unwearable by any other than the intended recipient. However, it still required a bit of padding to protect against harm from the armor itself. Have you ever hit a baseball with an aluminum bat? Feel the shock from the contact on the metal? Well, armor is no different. The padding was needed to couch the blows a little bit. Until the late 1500's, the knight would wear what was called an 'arming doublet' - a padded sort of jacket. This would have been worn under either chain or plate mail. During the 1600's, they more commonly wore a 'buff-coat' made of heavy, stiff leather. The best resource I have found - and it happens to be one of my favorite places to visit within a two hour drive from my house! - is Higgins Armory Museum. You can find out quite a bit at http://www.higgins.org

Here is an interesting website describing the Knight of the Crusades. http://www.chronique.com/Kids/crusader.htm Anora

I would suspect linen, but surely there are historical sites where you can do research about this sort of thing. I think with writing historical novels, half the time revolves around research of just this sort. Horrible for the writer, but interesting for us readers. Good luck with your research...and your writing.

mostly linen I would say. Linen undershirt for sure. And if I'm not mistaken the medieval bries as underwear. If I remember correctly they would wear some sort of padding underneath the armor,both for the body and legs. But no matter what.. yeah they would still get wounded. Sometimes trough gaps in the armor or trough places where they joint, often in parts that were exposed. I guess a good blade really works .

Flax or linen. Not cotton because it wasn't grown over here. Poor people (so not a knight by definition) may have had to wear wool next to their skin. Itchy! I wonder also if they wore calf/sheepskin underclothing.