This was posted in neworleanssword@yahoogroups.com. I thought it was interesting and am passing it along.

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This is from diary of the German knight Jorg von
Ehingen's adventures with the Portuguese, 1467. In the
diary, von Ehingen described single combat with an
armored Moorish champion. I'm wondering what this
armor would have looked like. This is the account of a
single combat with a moorish champion, i found it an
interesting of the brutal reality of combat in this
period:

"The infidel threw his shield in front of him, and
laying his spear on his arm he ran swiftly at me,
uttering a cry. I approached, having my spear at the
thigh, but as I drew near I couched my spear and
thrust at his shield, and although he struck at me
with his spear in the flank and forearm, I was able to
give him such mighty thrust that horse and man fell to
the ground. But his spear hung in my armor and
hindered me, and I had great difficulty in loosing it
and alighting from my horse. By this time he also was
dismounted. I had my sword in my hand; he likewise
seized his sword, and we advanced and gave each other
a mighty blow. The infidel had excellent armour, and
though I struck him by the shield he received no
injury. Nor did his blows injure me. We then gripped
each other and wrestled so long that we fell to the
ground side by side. But the infidel was a man of
amazing strength. He tore himself from my grasp, and
we both raised our bodies until we were kneeling side
by side. I then thrust him from me with my left hand
in order to be able to strike at him with my sword,
and this I was able to do, for with the thrust his
body was so far removed that I was able to cut at his
face, and although the blow was not wholly successful,
I wounded him so that he swayed and was half-blinded.
I then struck him a direct blow in the face and hurled
him to the ground, and falling upon him I thrust my
sword through his throat, after which I rose to my
feet, took his sword, and returned to my horse. The
two beasts were standing side by side. They had been
worked hard the whole day, and were quite quiet.

When the infidels saw I had conquered they drew off
their forces. But the Portuguese and Christians
approached and cut off the infidel's head, and took
his spear, and placed the head upon it, and removed
his armour. It was a costly suit, made in the heathen
fashion, very strong and richly ornamented."

Nice history lesson!

Real battles were somewhat different than the hollywood portrayals, huh? I'm glad that I never had to do that sort of stuff!