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From what I've understood, reenforced leather, with rings or with studs, is a much later invention, probably invented somewhere in the height of the heavy metal era (1970-1980 or so). Most likely, this myth comes from old illustrations with shirts with large rings, but there are no preserved examples or archeological evidence, so the current theory is that the artist has just drawn a symbolical chain mail, somewhat like how the people in Dilbert are symbolical representations of people rather than accurate depictions of them.

To continue the theme of medieval armour and symbolical depictions of them creating myths, we have two more such myths:

* Helmet cleaving.
* Longbows piercing plate.

Both of these simple do not happen. The helmets where too strong to be cut by a sword or even an axe, and a longbow arrow will not pierce a plate armour.

Once again, this probably comes from artistic depictions from artists who were not there when the event happened. So, they get a description like "Our arrows rained down over the French and pierced them like roast pigs!" or "We cut their heads open with our swords!", the artist, who was likely getting paid for making it look impressive, painted what they told him.

Tests, however, has shown that evan an axe will only dent a helmet, although the hit might cause a concussion, hemorrage or a crushed spine. Tests have also shown that even under the best of conditions, the arrow from a long bow will not pierce plate armour. Even if it hits straight on, it will just splinter. Not even a modern compound bow with composite arrows will pierce plate, not even at practically point blank range. At the height of its popularity, the plate armour had around 5 mm thick chest plates and helmets, of high quality tempered steel, and it was rounded and sloped so that hits would glance off it. That's enough to stop many modern bullets.

So, how come that the longbow is such a devastating weapon, as shown at Agincourt? Well, for fighting army against army, formation is everything. Hold the line and the enemy will have problems attacking you effectively, while a disordered charged will be ground down against a well formed formation. So, while the sides are setting up their formations, preparing for battle, the arrows rain down over the troops. They are not devastating, as the troops can hide behind shields (one must also remember that most of the foot soldiers had little or no armour), but every now and then, someone (soldier or horse) gets hit. The troops see this and become restless. They don't want to just stand around and die, and they don't know that the rest of the army may not be ready. Once they get nervous enough, they will charge prematurely. Even worse, every arrow that missed is now a thin skewer sticking out of the ground, which will injure feet and hooves of anyone who steps on it as it breaks off, creating further confusion and disruptions. So instead of getting an ordered advance against the enemy, we get a disordered charge where the troops arrive a few at the time at the enemy lines, instead of all at once, and quickly get cut down.

I even have a friend who speculates that full body armour might be coming back, as more powerful weapons are becoming less practical and new materials make such armour viable. He imagined something not unlike a medieval armour, but made out of modern materials like composites, kevlar and ceramics. Think about something like a downhill skiing boot, but full body and tougher materials. It would protect the wearer not only from small arms fire, but would also give an excellent protection against shrapnel and even incendaries. Add to this the possibilities to add such modern things as communications, navigation, night vision, monitoring, breath masks and so on, and you'll soon have a modern knight.