are the helmets which we find on early seals and effigies, as will be seen from Figs. 571-574.
 Fig. 571.—Helmet of Hamelin, Earl of Surrey and Warenne (d. 1202). (From MS. Cott., Julius, C. vii.) |
 Fig. 572.—From the seal of Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford (d. 1262). |
 Fig. 573.—From the seal of John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey (d. 1305). |
 Fig. 574.—From the seal (1315) of John de Bretagne, Earl of Richmond. |
 Fig. 575. |
 Fig. 576. |
 Fig. 577. | |
 Fig. 578. |
The cylindrical or "pot-shaped" helmet of the Plantagenets, however, disappears in the latter part of the thirteenth century, when we first find mention of the "bascinet" (from Old French for a basin), Figs. 575-579. This was at first merely a hemispherical steel cap, put over the coif of mail to protect the top of the head, when the knight wished to be relieved from the weight of his large helm (which he then slung at his back or carried on his saddlebow), but still did not consider the mail coif sufficient protection. It soon became pointed at the top, and gradually lower at the back, though not so much as to protect the neck. In the fourteenth century the mail, instead of being carried over the top of the head, was hung to the bottom rim of the helmet, and
