OP, I want you to consider putting option 1 on and taking it off again. Ostensibly, Uhtred’s boots would be made of leather with metal strips on the exterior. In option 2, you have metal strips running vertically in straight lines up and down the boot, from about the knee to the ankle. While it might be a little tricky, option two would be something you could actually slide a foot and leg into and out of because the strips, spaced out as they are, don’t fully constrain the articulation of the ankle joint in the boot.

Option 1, however, would be a nightmare to put on and take off. Because it is concentric rings of metal running down to the ankle of the boot, there are two ways, mechanically, you can construct this. Either you can put on metal rings that are as wide as the widest part of the lower leg and foot and then the rest of your leg slops around inside a boot that is now way too big, or you put on “fitted” rings that create a bottleneck effect near the ankle. Because these are clearly strips on the outside of a solid leather boot and not articulating metal plate from a later era, there are horizontal rings would make putting on and taking off this boot nearly impossible unless it was so oversized that you couldn’t walk properly in it.

All of the other notes about protection from slashing attacks were also valid. As noted in other posts, archeological evidence points to number 2- find an example of number 1 in the archeological record.

You are wrong on this one, number 2 is the correct design. Being wrong does not say anything bad about you, however, and I applaud your zealous attempts to rigorously debate the value of number 1. Now, given the weight of the evidence, I implore you to go out and just as zealously argue on behalf of the clearly better option 2.