One thing I always like to point out on any armor timeline is that the knight of 1525 in the full Maximilian style harness is separated in time from the Norman era knight at the beginning of the timeline by roughly as much time as we are in turn separated from the knight of 1525.
The Normans on the field at Hastings in 1066 are just as archaic to a Tudor era knight as a Tudor era knight is to us. I don't think enough people appreciate that. They tend to lump the middle ages in to one small period. That's why wearing a German Sallet of 1490 with a 1360's coat of plates is just as ridiculous as a Marine in Afghanistan going to battle with a matchlock rifle. So it wasn't that one knight chose maille, over plate, or conical helm over a pig-faced bascinet. These things were separated in time by sometimes hundreds of years. It certainly brings perspective to the Middle Ages and 'kit building.'
Kinda like how we are closer in time to Tyrannosaurus Rex than T-Rex was to Stegosaurus
But we often think of the Age of Dinosaurs as one lumped period...
Us to T-Rex = 65-67 million years
T-Rex to Stegosaurus = 83 - 88 million years before the first T-Rex, or 150-155 million years from us.
