Quote Originally Posted by baudib View Post
Not uncommon at all for medieval-era nobles to lead armies into battle. Notably, Richard the Lionhearted was more renowned as a warrior/soldier than politician. It was actually pretty difficult to kill fully armored knights, and certainly really damn hard with the melee weapons used in the Battle of Blackwater.
The fact that he was so renowned for it shows it was not common at all though. I do fully agree that it is a lot more forgiving to be more exposed in medieval times because it is harder to kill someone, in later times with the advance of ranged weapon technology people of note would not go anywhere near the front lines anymore because they would just get sniped.

But still there is a notable difference between being a strong warrior king who fights alongside his men, and actually leading the charge into ranged weaponry, that is tactically not very sound. Or be the first to climb up the ladder in a siege. He could have very easily been killed there by people throwing down boulders, it is simply not worth the risk given they are all there with the solo purpose to make him king.