Knights have mostly been depicted in period dramas, historical epics, or fantasy adventures as the noble warriors, tragic heroes, or some romanticized version of the ideal man during the Medieval Ages. But the truth is they were the elite soldiers of that time who constantly trained their bodies to their physical limits in order to protect their lords and realms.
It was extremely difficult to kill knights in a medieval battle. Although we have seen a lot of gory shows like Game of Thrones depicting knights being easily slain in battles or jousts, the reality is that knights generally avoided killing other knights in battle and because of their rigorous training and near-impenetrable armor, there were only two ways to actually kill medieval knights.
The two ways to kill medieval knights were (1) to break through their armor by brute force, and (2) to incapacitate the knight, and then attack the weak points in their armor.
The best weapons to crush a knight's full set of chainmail or plated armor were lances, maces, and warhammers. The second method, which was most often used by groups of regular soldiers since they could not beat a knight one-on-one, was for four or five soldiers to wrestle the knight to the ground while one would stab the knight through the armor's weak points.
Weak points in a knight's armor generally would be located in the groin area, the inside of the legs, the armpits, and the slits on the helmet. Or, if they were lucky enough to remove a knight's helmet, then the chances of killing the knight increased exponentially.
However, knights already knew that their armor was not invulnerable, so it was very difficult and dangerous to attempt to kill a knight, since it required one to get very close to the knight, at which point, the knight would have already killed the assailant.
One prime example, however, when knights had been killed en masse was at the Battle of Agincourt. That was an incredible feat accomplished by the English infantry who killed a lot of French knights. To do that, they killed the knights' horses with arrows, and falling off their horses, the knights were immobilized, and stabbed to death.
Learn more about medieval knight history on Neutral History.
(Image credit: Joseph Martin Kronheim/Wikimedia Commons)