It seems to be an established fact that medieval armies used to strip their dead and captured enemies (dead comrades as well) of all armour and weapons. So what became of all that looted armour? Were there any rules on how to deal with the loot? Was the armour sold or kept and used by the looters themselves? Would e.g. english archers be wearing armour-parts picked up from dead french men-at-arms after Crécy 1346, or Swiss soldiers using armour taken from the vanquished austrian knights after the battle of Sempach in 1386?

/Mikael

[quote=\"Mikael Ranelius\"]It seems to be an established fact that medieval armies used to strip their dead and captured enemies (dead comrades as well) of all armour and weapons. So what became of all that looted armour? Were there any rules on how to deal with the loot? Was the armour sold or kept and used by the looters themselves? Would e.g. english archers be wearing armour-parts picked up from dead french men-at-arms after Crécy 1346, or Swiss soldiers using armour taken from the vanquished austrian knights after the battle of Sempach in 1386?

/Mikael[/quote]

Armour was used for several centuries in different european countries, under varying social conditions, so it is impossible to give a single canned answer.

Every period and country has its modern expert that could give you some sort of answer, even if I suspect that historians would not consider this an important issue.

Loot had to be divided under rules set by the winning lord, it was he who decided how to divide the spoils according to his political judgement.

Scavengers who acted against his will most likely could have a very hard time at looting what was to be considered a lordly booty, think of what would happen to poachers in the lord\'s land, death.

Interesting replies, thanks! What about captured weapons, would they be treated in a similar way to the armour?