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HELMET (from an obsolete diminutive o...

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 248 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

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HELMET (from an obsolete diminutive of O. Fr. helme, mod. heaume; the English word is " helm," as in O. Eng., Dutch and Ger.; all are from the Teutonic base hal-, pre-Teut. kal-, to cover; cf. Lat. celare, to hide, Eng. " hell," &c.)

HELMET (from an obsolete diminutive of O. Fr. helme, mod. heaume; the See also:
ENGLISH
English word is " helm," as in O. Eng., Dutch and Ger.; all are from the See also:
TEUTONIC
TEUTONIC (GERMANIC) LANGUAGES
Teutonic See also:
BASE
base See also:
HAL
hal-, pre-Teut. kal-, to See also:
COVER (from the Fr. convert, from couvrir, to cover, Lat. cooperire)
cover; cf. See also:
LAT
Lat. celare, to hide, Eng. " See also:
HELL (0. Eng. hel, a Teutonic word from a root meaning " to cover," cf. Ger. Holle, Dutch hel)
hell," &c.) , a defensive covering for the See also:

head. The See also:

PRESENT

present See also:

ARTICLE (from Lat. articulus, a joint)

article deals with the helmet during the See also:

MIDDLE

middle ages down to the See also:

close of the See also:

period when See also:

BODY

body See also:

ARMOUR, PHILIP DANFORTH (1832-1901)

armour was worn. For the helmet worn by the Greeks and See also:

Romans see ARMS AND ARMOUR. The head-See also:

DRESS (from the Fr. dresser, to set out, arrange, formed from Lat. directus, arranged, dirigere, to direct, arrange)

dress of the warriors of the dark ages and of the earlier feudal' period was far from being the elaborate helmet which is associated in the See also:

IMAGINATION

imagination with the See also:

knight in armour and the tourney. It was a See also:

mere casque, a cap with or without additional safeguards for the ears, the nape of the See also:

NECK (O. Eng. hnecca; the word appears in many Teutonic languages; cf. Dutch ride, Ger. Nacken; in O. E. the common word was heals; cf. Ger. Hals)

neck and the See also:

NOSE (O.Eng. nosu, cf. Dutch neus, Swed. nos, snout; the Aix in Provence. Both at Aix and at Lyons he acquired great connexion with O.Eng. nasu is obscure, cf. Ger. Nase, Lat. pares, distinction by his labours during outbreaks of the plague. In nostrils,

nose (fig. 1). By those warriors who possessed the means to equip themselves fully, the casque was worn over a See also:

hood of See also:

MAIL

mail, as shown in fig. 2.

In See also:

MANUSCRIPTS

manuscripts, &c., armoured men are some- times portrayed fighting in their hoods, without casques, basinets or other See also:

FORM (Lat. forma)

form of helmet. The casque was, of course, normally of See also:

PLATE

plate, but in some instances it was a strong See also:

leather cap covered with mail or imbricated plates. The most advanced form of this See also:

early helmet is the conical See also:

STEEL, FLORA ANNIE (1847– )

steel or See also:

IRON [symbol Fe, atomic weight 55.85 (0=16)]

iron cap with nasal (fig. 2), worn in See also:

CONJUNCTION (from Lat. conjungere, to join together)

conjunction with the hood of mail.. This is the typical helmet of the i ith-See also:

CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

century See also:

WARRIOR

warrior, and is made See also:

FAMILIAR (through the Fr. familier, from Lat. familiaris, of or belonging to the familia, family)

familiar by the See also:

BAYEUX

Bayeux See also:

TAPESTRY

Tapestry. From this point however (c. moo) the See also:

EVOLUTION

evolution of See also:

war head-See also:

GEAR (connected with " garb," properly elegance, fashion, especially of dress, and with " gar," to cause to do, only found in Scottish and northern dialects; the root of the word is seen in the Old Tent. garwjan, to make ready)

gear follows two different paths for many years. On the one See also:

hand the See also:

SIMPLE

simple casque easily transformed itself into the See also:

BASINET (a diminutive of " basin ")

basinet, originally a pointed iron See also:

SKULL

skull-cap without nasal, See also:

EAR (common Teut.; O.E. are, Ger. Ohr, Du. oor, akin to Lat. auris, Gr. ovs)

ear-See also:

GUARDS, AND HOUSEHOLD TROOPS

guards, &c. On the other hand the knight in armour, especially after the See also:

FASHION (adapted from Fr. facon, agon, Lat. factio, making, facere, to do or make)

fashion of the See also:

TOURNAMENT, or TOURNEY (Fr. tournement, tournoi, Med. Lat. torneamentum, from tourner, to turn)

tournament set in, found the mere cap with nasal insufficient, and the heaume (or " helmet ") gradually came into See also:

VOGUE, EUGENE MELCHIOR, COMTE DE (1848- )

vogue. This was in principle a large heavy iron pot covering the head and neck. Often a See also:

LIGHT

light basinet was worn underneath it—or rather the knight usually wore his basinet and only put the heaume on over it at the last moment before engaging. The earlier (12th century) war heaumes are intended to be worn with the mail hood and have nasals (fig. 3).

Towards the end of the 13th century; however, the basinet See also:

GREW, NEHEMIAH (1641-1712)

grew in See also:

SIZE

size and strength, just as the casque had grown, and began to See also:

CHALLENGE (O. Fr. chalonge, calenge, &c., from Lat. calumnia, originally meaning trickery, from calvi, to deceive, hence a false accusation, a " calumny ")

challenge comparison with the heavy and clumsy heaume. There- upon the heaume became, by degrees; the See also:

SPECIAL

special head-dress of the tournament, and grew heavier, larger and more elaborate, while the basinet, reinforced with camail and vizor, was worn in See also:

BATTLE

battle. Types of the later, purely tilting, heaume are shown in See also:

FIGS

figs. 4 and 5. The basinet, then, is the battle head-dress of nobles, knights and sergeants in the 14th century. Its development from theloth-century cap to the towering helmet of 1350, with its See also:

long snouted vizor and ample drooping " camail," is shown in fig. 6, a, b, c and d, the two latter showing the same helmet with vizor down and up. But the tendency set in during. the earlier years of the 15th century to make all parts of the armour thicker. See also:

CHAIN (through the O. Fr. citable, chcene, &c., from Lat. catena)

Chain " mail " gradually gave way to plate on the body and the limbs, remaining only in those parts, such as neck and elbows, where flexibility was essential, and even there it was in the end replaced by jointed steel bands or small plates. The final step was the discarding of the " camail " and the introduction of the " See also:

ARMET (diminutive of Fr. arme)

armet." The latter will be described later. Soon after the beginning of the 15th century the high-crowned basinet gave See also:

PLACE (through Fr. from Lat. platea, street; Gr. IrAar6s, wide)

place to the See also:

SALADE, SALLET

salade or See also:

sand, a helmet with a See also:

low rounded See also:

CROWN

crown and a long brim or neck-guard at the back. This was the typical head-piece of the last See also:

HALF

half of the See also:

HUNDRED

Hundred Years' War as the vizored basinet had been of the first.

Like the basinet it was worn in a simple form by archers and pikemen and in a more elaborate form by the knights and men-at arms. The larger and heavier salades were also often used instead of the heaume in tournaments. Here again, however, there is a See also:

GREAT

great difference between those worn by light armed men, See also:

FOOT

foot-soldiers and archers and those of the heavy See also:

CAVALRY (Fr. cavalerie, Ger. Kavallerie or Reiterei, derived ultimately from late Lat. caballus, horse)

cavalry. The former, while possessing as a See also:

RULE

rule the bowl shape and the See also:

LIP (a word common in various forms, to Teutonic languages, cf Ger. Lippe, Dan. laebe; Lat. labium is cognate)

lip or brim of the type, and always destitute of the conical point which is the distinguishing See also:

mark of the basinet, are cut away in front of the See also:

FACE (from Lat. fades, derived either from facere, to make, or from a root fa-, meaning " appear "; cf. Gr. cbatvstv)

face (fig. 7 a). In some cases this was remedied in See also:

PART

part by the addition of a small pivoted vizor, which, however, could not protect the See also:

THROAT (O. Eng. protu, prote or }Prota, possibly from preotan, to press, whence threat, or, with loss of initial s, connected with strut, to swell)

throat. In the larger salades of the heavy cavalry the wide brim served to protect the whole head, a slit being made in that part of the brim which came in front of the eyes (in some examples the whole of the front part of the brim was made movable). But the See also:

CHIN

chin and neck, directly opposed to the enemy's blows, were scarcely protected at all, and with these helmets a large volant-piece or See also:

beaver (mentonniere)—usually a continuation of the body armour up to the chin or even beyond—was worn for this purpose, as shown in fig. 7 b. This arrangement combined, in a rough way, the advantages of freedom of See also:

MOVEMENT

movement for the head with adequate See also:

PROTECTION

protection for the neck and See also:

LOWER

lower part of the face. The armet, which came into use about 1475—1500 and completely superseded the salade, realized these requirements far better, and later at the See also:

ZENITH (from the Arabic)

zenith of the armourer's See also:

art (about 1520) and throughout the period of the'decline of armour it remained the See also:

standard See also:

PATTERN

pattern of helmet, whether for war or for tournament, It figures indeed in nearly all portraits of See also:

KINGS, FIRST AND SECOND BOOKS OF

kings, nobles and soldiers up to the See also:

time of See also:

Frederick the Great, either with the suit of armour or half-armour worn by the subject of the portrait or in allegorical trophies, &c. The armet was a fairly close-fitting rounded See also:

shell of iron or steel, with a movable vizor in front and See also:

COMPLETE

complete plating over chin, ears and neck, the latter replacing the mentonniere or beaver.

The armet was connected to the See also:

REST (O. Eng. rest, reste, bed, cognate with other Teutonic forms, e.g. Ger. Rast, Riiste, rest, and probably Gothic Rasta, league, i.e. resting or stopping place)

rest of the suit by the See also:

GORGET (O. Fr. gorgete, dim. of gorge, throat)

gorget, which was usually of thin laminated steel plates. With a See also:

GOOD, JOHN MASON (1764-1827)

good armet and gorget there was no weak point for the enemy's See also:

SWORD (0. Eng. sweord; ultimately from an Indo-European root meaning to wound)

sword to attack, a roped lower edge of the armet generally fitting into a sort of flange See also:

ROUND (O. Fr. rond, Lat. rotundus, the Fr. is the source also of Du. rond; Ger., Swed., Dan. and Nor. rond)

round the See also:

TOP (cf. Dan. top, Ger. Topf, also meaning pot)

top of the gorget. Thus, and in other and slightly different ways, was solved the problem which in the early days of plate armour had been attempted by the clumsy heaume and the flexible, if tough, camail of the vizored basinet, and still more clumsily in the succeeding period by the salade and its See also:

GROTESQUE

grotesque mentonniere. As far as existing examples show, the wide-brimmed salade itself first gave way to the more rounded armet, the mentonniere being.carried up to the level of the eyes. Then the use (growing throughout the 15th century) of laminated armour for the See also:

JOINTS

joints of the See also:

HARNESS (from O. Fr. harneis or harnois; the ultimate origin is obscure; the Celtic origin which connects it with the Welsh haiarn, iron, has phonetic and other difficulties; the French is the origin of the Span. arnes, and Ger. Harnisch)

harness probably suggested the gorget, and once this was applied to the lower edge of the armet by a satisfactory See also:

JOINT (through Fr. from Lat. junctum, jungere, to join)

joint, it was an easy step to the elaborate pivoted vizor which completed the new head-dress. Types of armets are shown in fig. 8. The See also:

BURGONET, or BURGANET (from Fr. bourguignote, Burgundian helmet)

burgonet, often confused with the armet, is the typical helmet of the See also:

LATE

late 16th and early 17th centuries. In its simple form it was worn by the foot and light cavalry—though the latter must not be held to include the See also:

PISTOL

pistol-armed chevaux-legers of the See also:

WARS

wars of See also:

religion, these being clad in half-armour and vizored burgonet—and consisted of a (generally rounded) cap with a projecting brim shielding the eyes, a neck-guard and ear-pieces. It had almost invariably a See also:

crest or See also:

COMB (a word common in various forms to Teut. languages, cf. Ger. Kamm, the Indo-Europ. origin of which is seen in yoµros, a peg or pin, and Sanskrit, gambhas, a tooth)

comb, as shown in the illustrations (fig. 9). Other forms of See also:

INFANTRY

infantry head-gear much in vogue during the 16th century are shown in figs. ro and which represent the See also:

MORION (the French form of a word occurring in Spanish as morrion, Ital. morione, usually connected with the Span. morra, top or crown of the head)

morion and cabasset respectively.

Both these were lighter and smaller than the burgonet; indeed much of their popularity was due to the ease with which they were worn or put on and off, for in the See also:

MATTER

matter of protection they could not compare with the burgonet, which in one form or another was used by cavalry (and often by pikemen) up to the final disappearance of armour from the See also:

field of battle about 167o. Fig. 9 b gives the See also:

general outline of richly decorated 16th-century See also:

ITALIAN

Italian burgonet which is preserved in See also:

Vienna. The archetype of the burgonet is perhaps the casque worn by the Swiss infantry (fig. 9 a) at the See also:

EPOCH (Gr. E7roxij, holding in suspense, a pause, from E1rxav, to hold up, to stop)

epoch of See also:

MARIGNAN, BATTLE OF

Marignan (1515). This was probably copied by them from their former Burgundian antagonists, whose connexion with this helmet is sufficiently indicated by its name. The lower part of the more elaborate burgonets worn by nobles and cavalrymen is often formed into a complete covering for the ears, cheek and chin, and connected closely with the gorget. They therefore resemble the armets and have often been confused with them, but the distinguishing feature of the burgonet is invariably the front See also:

PEAK, THE

peak. Various forms of vizor were fitted to such helmets; these as a rule were either fixed bars (fig. 9 c) or mere upward continuations of the chin piece. Often a nasal was the only face protection (fig. 9 d, a Hungarian type).

The latest form of the burgonet used in active service is the familiar Cromwellian cavalry helmet with its straight brim, from which depends the slight vizor of three bars or stout wires joined together at the bottom. The above are of course only the See also:

main types. Some writers class all remaining examples either as casques or as " war-hats," the latter See also:

TERM

term conveniently covering all those helmets which resemble in any way the head-gear of See also:

CIVIL

civil See also:

LIFE

life. For illustrations of many curiosities of this sort, including the famous iron See also:

hat of See also:

King See also:

Charles I. of See also:

England, and also for examples of See also:

RUSSIAN

Russian, Mongolian, See also:

INDIAN

Indian and See also:

CHINESE, JAPANESE AND

Chinese helmets, the reader is referred to pp. 262-269 and 285-286 of See also:

DEMMIN

Demmin's Arms and Armour (English edition 1894). The helmets in See also:

brass, steel or See also:

CLOTH

cloth, worn by troops since the general introduction of See also:

UNIFORMS

uniforms and the disuse of armour, depend for their shape and material solely on considerations of comfort and good See also:

APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear)

appearance. From time to time, however, the readoption of serviceable helmets is advocated by cavalrymen, and there is much to be said in favour of this. The burgonet, which was the final type of war helmet evolved by the old armourers, would certainly appear to be by far the best head-gear to adopt should these views prevail, and indeed it is still worn, in a modified yet perfectly recognizable form, by the See also:

German and other See also:

CUIRASSIERS

cuirassiers.

End of Article: HELMET (from an obsolete diminutive of O. Fr. helme, mod. heaume; the English word is " helm," as in O. Eng., Dutch and Ger.; all are from the Teutonic base hal-, pre-Teut. kal-, to cover; cf. Lat. celare, to hide, Eng. " hell," &c.)

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