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CHAPTER VIII

THE BASCINET HEAD-PIECE FROM THE EARLY YEARS OF THE XIIITH
CENTURY TO THE CLOSE OF THE XVTH CENTURY

The first, but necessary break in our chronological survey—The bascinet head-piece—Our
return to the early years of the XIVth century—First mention, by Guillaume Guiart in
1214, of the bascinet helmet—The probable derivation of the name—The representation
of the bascinet in the XIIIth century; the extant examples to-day—The attachment to
its camail or tippet of chain mesh, as portrayed in effigy—The first face guard of the
bascinet—The lifting nasal protection attached to the camail; the evidence of this in
contemporary sculpture—Decorations in gold and jewels, with a record of contemporary
expenditure on the indulgence of this fashion—A reference in 1270 to the visor of the
bascinet—What it may have been—The first acknowledged visored bascinets—The
visor lifting on a hinge attached above the face-opening of a skull-piece—Some known
examples—The process of evolution; the visor hinged at the sides of the skull-piece,
as in helmets of later date—Some known examples—The crest of the bascinet head-piece;
an extant example—The advent of the XVth century; the disappearance of the
neck protection of chain mail, and its supersession by lames of metal—The evolution of
the "great bascinet" of the XVth century from the bascinet head-piece of the latter years
of the XIVth century—Some notable extant examples—The latest development of the
bascinet head-piece in the third quarter of the XVth century—The great difficulty in
differentiating between the head-piece of the helm type for fighting on foot, and the
"great" visored bascinet of the same epoch 225


CHAPTER IX

THE HELM FROM THE EARLY YEARS OF THE XIIITH CENTURY TO THE
END OF THE XIVTH CENTURY

The second distinctive family of head-pieces—The helm in its primitive form; its first
appearance in painting and sculpture in the early years of the XIIIth century—The most
trustworthy evidence for its form and make derived from its representation on the
aquamaniles of this century—The barrel-shaped outline of the XIIIth century helm—The
gradual change in the form of the helm—Two famous Continental types of the early
XIVth century helm—The only extant helms of the XIVth century known to the
present writer—The Edward, Prince of Wales' helm; the Sir Richard Pembridge helm;
the helm of the Pranck family; a helm from Schloss Tannenberg; and a helm found
in the River Traum—The probable method of attaching the XIVth century helm to
the wearer—The helm made solely for funerary use—Some extant examples 226