Why do you say that the plate armor of the British and French knights comes from Italy?

In the middle of14th century, plate armour was still a new thing. Not long after going to the battlefield, the technology is still immature. Many blacksmiths really don't know much about plate armour. Under such circumstances, no matter in Britain or France, there are very few workshops that can actually produce model A (note that "workshop" is not a "factory". Europe in this period was far from industrialization. )

Italy is still very good at producing armor.

But in Italy, the situation is different. In this place of Italy, there are many businessmen and craftsmen, many technical exchanges, large capital flows and many mercenaries running around all day. The technology and industry of plate armour production matured earlier here, and Italy became the largest plate armour production and export place at that time.

Mercenaries are, of course, big users of armor.

At that time, the British and the French could produce simple plate armor and some low-quality plate armor parts. Italians, on the other hand, are different. The plate armour they export is mainly a set of plate armour made of good steel and with strict design. At that time, there was a word in Britain called "Whiteboard A", which specifically referred to A imported from Italy. Why is it called whiteboard armor? Because looking around, among a lot of cloth plate armor and gloomy British plate armor parts, only Italian plate armor is smooth, decent, shiny and dazzling white.

I don't know what he is thinking, but his sun hat should be an Italian specialty.

Italian arms dealers have a habit of hoarding armor in peacetime and selling it once the war breaks out. Because the armor production cycle is long, it can't be sold much now. When the British and the French were fighting each other, Italian merchant ships were delivering armor to these two countries.

So there was a scene on the battlefield: the commanders of Britain and France went to the battlefield with their own Sineitai knights. Almost all the members of these two most distinguished knights wear exquisite white armor made in Italy and carry high-quality weapons imported from Germany.

A pile of Italian white nails.

Of course, with the passage of time and technological progress, Italy is not the only place that produces high-quality plate armour. After Italy, the Germans first opened their own plate armor industry, and all places under the rule of the Holy Roman Empire soon began to use plate armor produced in neighboring areas. Later, Gothic plate armour originated in Germany. The British and French also began to produce high-quality plate armour in the15th century.

An incomplete set of Gothic plate armour. Someone may have taken the armguard.

However, the plate and armor industry in Britain and France has always been almost boring, not comparable to Italy and Germany. Until the16th century, the British were still discussing buying more homemade plate armour to prevent imported plate armour from continuing to dominate the British market. In the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, Italian Milanese armor and German Gothic armor were still popular. The British made a kind of "mixed" armor, which has the characteristics of Gothic, Milanese and early plate armor. It only sells well in Britain, but people in other regions are not interested.

During wars of the roses's time, there were many mixed plate armour on the battlefield.

In today's era, plate armor is useless to the army. However, for enthusiasts, this is a good time, because plate armour can be produced in any area. For example, there is a small plate armor hidden under my bed.