Knights and armor

part of the reason I got into the SCA was because of a facination with medival weapons and armor.

In a nutshell, plate armor meant for 'normal' warfare was custom fitted and offered the bearer almost full range of movement while only being mildly encumbered. I've seen a demonstration where a man wearing an accurate recreation could drop, roll, and spring back to his feet without any difficulty.

That said, jousting armor was another thing entirely. Designed to protect the rider against the specific dangers of jousting, it was extra thick and gave the rider just enough movement to function during each run. The armor was very thick, and offered very little visibilty (due to trying to avoid a lance getting into it). In some cases, the helmet was rigidly mounted to the torso. In these cases, the knight was assisted by his squires/men-at-arms and was not expected to go into combat beyond the joust.

Another thing to note is that what most of us think as 'plate armor' is very late period, only existing for a couple of centuries before being discarded during the late renisance. Before that, most well to do warriors wore a combination of maile and assorted plates or scales over a heavily padded garmet. Even at the height of the plate era, only the top tier wore it, with the quality of armor for those below rapidly declining with the ranks.

So, when you see things like King Arthur running around in full shiny plate, that is simply Hollywood History.

One more thing, the suits you see in most museums never saw a battlefield. They, like the more extreme examples of great swords, were meant for show and normally only used in things like court functions and such.