Why Medieval Knights OFTEN Did Not Bother with FACE PROTECTION 

A petition for Matt to make an hour long video about England and Burgundy 👇

As an ex-army guy I spent a lot of time doing maneuvers fully kitted out in my protective gear (MOPP level 4). While you get used to wearing a protective mask and hood for extended periods, you are absolutely operating in a diminished capacity while doing so, and your always aware that your face is being touched by the mask. Breathing isn't bad until you reach a heightened activity level, and then it's quite noticeably more difficult to draw air through the mask's filter than it is without it. Even with the relatively large eye slots found in modern pro masks, those apertures rest a short distance forward of the eyes, and that means the angles in one's line-of-sight wearing the mask provide less peripheral vision acuity. Getting hot and sweaty with a pro mask on is quite unpleasant. I imagine that most of these factors would be multiplied in a visored/masked steel helmet, even more so when taking the added burden of weight into account.

A king should wear an open face helmet, so his vassals can see that he is alive and not a zombie raised by necromancers.

At our last HEMA open hall we had some people in armor. What impressed me, was a guy with an open helmet and a rather high gorget. He could basically turtle up by lowering his head and raising his shoulders, so that the gap between helmet and gorget became quite minuscule. That was a really good compromise in my view to have the advantages of an open helmet with the option to increase protection quite quickly if needed. Practically a medieval hero turtle.

As a motorcycle rider, yes, closed helmets rea really inconvenient. But having the helmet be covered in bugs is better than me being covered in bugs. Like really. My head is not that big of a target. Please stop running into it.

Modular plate armor has always been an attractive prospect to me. Being able to easily swap helms, visors, gauntlets, greaves etc. to suit various tasks but all seamlessly working together as needed.

Only a man as dedicated as Matt would take an arrow to the dome just for the thumbnail.

There are no solutions, only trade-offs. - Thomas Sowell. I think I would feel quite claustrophobic in any of these closed face helmets except maybe the Salet and Bever. I worked in Construction most of my life and had to wear a plastic "hard hat" all the time. Trying to get the helmet to work with hearing protection (muff style), safety goggles, breathing protection, face shields for grinding and managing a home made cape to protect the back of my head can be a huge pain. Even worse, I once had to work in a hazmat suit with hard hat, hearing protection, safety goggles while wearing a breathing hood with a remote fresh air supply. It was horrible - hot, difficult to move and see - which is dangerous when using power tools - VERY claustrophobic and it took all the discipline I could muster to quell my emotions. Seems to me the hazmat arrangement is the best modern equivalent for a civilian to experience the challenges of full harness and a closed face helmet. Anyway, as always, another excellent discussion. BTW I LOVE that open faced Salet. What a beauty! The studs around the brim are marvelous and it just looks great! Cheers!

The "klappvisor", where you could remove the visor, seems in line with this "how to have options."

Being able to see and breathe properly beats the additional protection of a full closed helmet.

Last time I was this early the English knights still spoke French

Another tactic for not getting arrows, spears or other pointy, sharp bits of steel shoved through any potential opening in your armor is to never fight on a medieval battlefield. I've used it all my life to great effect.

I was an adventurer like you but took an arrow to the eye 😂

Over the centuries we’ve seen a tremendous variety of headgear. Alas, today protective headgear is far more likely to be found on construction sites than battlefields. Imagine finding a survey crew wearing modern OSHA rated “Zulu” pith helmets; carpenters wearing Adrian WW1 French hard hats; welters with bassinet helmets incorporating not just eye protection but respirators as well!

Context and Compromise is going to be my next RPG published

distracted by realizing I could see the other side of the garage in the visor. great job on the polish

WOW that tournament visor is gorgeous

That tourney visor is great, like a portcullis for your face!

Additionally you can use a shield, an armoured arm or armoured comrade to protect your face if you are particularly worried about projectiles. With a kettle helmet looking at the ground and using the brim to cover your face may also work.

Excellent video. What I find really interesting here that the Romans made a similar choice. They had the technology to cover themselves completely in plates, they chose not to do so for the most part. The only exception at a rather late stage where the Cataphractes. Who had a similar development comparable to medieval knights - fighting on horseback. Anybody else - not as much metal on their body. Although they could even at an earlier stage.

you know, that last visor looks quite similar to an old lego helmet from the late 80ties... I think it had just the vertical bars but the same bulge :)... nostalgia

I can understand it. If you can’t see (or breathe) you can’t fight.

War is 99% wearing your gear while walking or standing around and waiting. I would bet that on many medieval campaigns, heatstroke was a far greater threat than the enemy.

on art as evidence, my first thought is that artists will want people's faces to show to make the art better. a figure will look more heroic and relatable when you can see their face, which is also why fantasy settings like warhammer will regularly have warriors in full suits of plate armour and no helmet

I am fairly certain that the very same Tod, has put an arrow through a breathing hole with his "Lockdown Longbow".

There is a choice between some additional protection against damage vs hearing and actually seing it coming.

@scholagladiatoria I'd love to see ways people with open faced helms might have mitigated the extra exposure during combat. Some potential ways off the top of my head is 'Being behind someone', 'tilting your head down for longer range arrows', 'holding a armored arm in front of your face' and 'holding a weapon in front of your face'. Obviously, they wouldn't be as good as a full face helm but I think some of these could really counter a decent amount of exposure.

It reminds me of the Medieval meme of one armoured warrior, holding his companion who has an arrow in his eye, telling him: "You're fine! Don't tell Mom!".

If you’ve ever worn a closed faced helmet for any length of time you know why

I like how the helmets from the Lego castle figures looks. Those old Lego sets in the 90s were the first contact I ever had with medieval history. The helmets looked like your sallet, but they had some sort of a point protecting the nose. I don't know if they were trying to actually depict sallets, it kind of looks like a sallet but they might be representing some older style of helmet. I don't know. Skull cap, or something like this? They also had a pointy visor helmet with holes in it similar to the mask you got there.

Very interesting - looking forward to seeing your full armour.

I came here right from re-playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance - very topical 😁 Are you planning on filming a reaction to the trailer of Kingdom Come : Deliverance 2? They are introducing pistalas and crossbows 😊

You have touched on this before, but I'm open to hearing about it again. Thank you.

Just hoods (or hoodies) cause enough reduction in situational awareness that I don't like wearing them even in very low danger environments. Even modern military helmets are annoying when crap is not very likely to hit your head. Peripheral vision and unhampered hearing is worth a lot.

Hey Matt, have you thought of making a coop with Schwerpunkt? The guy makes seriously top notch Medieval warfare content and it would be great to see you "fencing"

I feel like a wide brim on the helmet would help with projectiles, while still giving open faced helmets that preferred visibility and breathability. Even something like a narrow brim just on the front of the helmet like a lobster helm would be nice

Great video. I love the discussion about how varied equipment usage was. Everyone had their own individual preference and had the autonomy to choose, unlike modern militaries which are regulated (although even then we see individual modification).

Context, compromise and comfort...... Interesting, as always 👍👍👍

Thx for the perspective.

One thing I think Hollywood and books gloss over is there would have been an awful lot of slow travel to get to various battles. Most of your troops have to walk there on hiking trails. And as you get closer, you want your mounted troops to be scouting: looking and listening for the enemy. And once in battle, knights are often leaders or special forces troops. Talking to messagers, looking at banners, coordination of or with other troops is extremely important. And of course after the first battle in a campaign, perhaps your best helmet gets lost or broken.

Thanks for the video

Good insight. A soldier is more than just a fighter and cover a range of duties as you say. It's just so much more convenient to have the open-faced helmet. In combat the visor would impede breathing, vision, and communication. If those three things are diminished so is your combat effectiveness. Sometimes too much armour is detrimental. I'd imagine your great bascinet would be perfect to advance on the enemy while getting showered by arrows and when you're close enough you'd lift up the visor. You definitely don't want to lose vision and overextend or get caught on the sides in a big melee.

I’m looking forward to seeing your full armor hopefully soon

As a motorciclist I came to a similar conclusion. A full face helmet is definitively more protective (in fact, it once saved my life AND my face) but is often a pain in the rear to use. I have to take off my eyeglasses to put it on, and in general is more cumbersome to lug around when I'm not riding, whereas a open helmet is quicker to put it on and off and I can take it with me more easily. I even tend to leave a spare half helmet strapped to the bike just in case. So the open face is the one that gets used the most when commuting, and the full face is my choice for longer / more technical rides. It's all about compromises.

I just wish we had good enough high-impact plastic to make a visor to simulate an open-faced helmet for HEMA. I know many use mesh like fencing masks, but a clear face place is just more aesthetic to me and appears to blur vision less.

The title made me immediately think of ergonomics, and that helmet instantly shouts comfort to me. The brass studs are a bit fancy (though they don't get in the way of anything either), but other than that this looks like maximum optimization for helmet design.

The Royal Armouries in Leeds has an exibit with full helmets set into a stand, with a video of a (reenactment) battle playing in front of the eye slits. It really did become clear just how little of what's going on you could see through one! Highly recommend the trip if anyone is interested, there's tons of hands on stuff like that, and nothing quite compares to seeing a model war elephant in full armor in person!

*C&C - **_context and compromises._* Awesome catchphrase! Here's a another consideration: In my understanding, when the close combat has started on the medieval battlefield, the danger of incoming random ranged missiles from bows or crossbows hitting you drop down exponentially - most leaders wouldn't have ordered their bowmen to shoot away because of the risk of friendly fire, would they? So it makes sense for them to raise their visors in closed combat to gain the advantages of breathing and a better oversight. Furthermore, if shields are still in play, they seem to be very good at protecting the face from thrusts or slashes from below. That might be a reason as well to go for better breathing and sight. What do you think?

There’s something about seeing that dagger easily slide through the visor. Like it just clicked how brutal and nasty a proper armored fight would be, eesh.

Never block projectiles with your face

The french king Henri ll accidentaly died from his wound in 1559, from the splinters of his opponent's broken lance which went through his helmet's visor. He was jousting and wearing a face covering helmet. Thanks for that informative video :)

Many 17th century cavalry helmets like the 'lobster-tailed pot' (best known from the English Civil Wars) had a mostly open face, but often with cheek guards and a nasal bar or cage. As far as I can tell, the idea behind these helmets is that although they're not going to stop a bullet or a well-aimed thrust to the face, they'll provide a really good defence against slashing attacks and protect the top of the head as well as other helmets. They've always seemed like a really good compromise between defence and situational awareness to me.

If you've ever worn a full face helmet to do anything physical for an extended duration then you'll soon understand. There is a chance an arrow or blade might get you in the face but it's a certainty that you'll start to boil like a cabbage once the blood gets pumping and the breathing gets heavy

Your collection of arms and armor has made me drool for so long. Damn, I am always impressed by your gear ! Men would kill for all of this, and I know many of you history-lover peeps would agree :P

I would like to direct your attention to the Foot-Combat Helm of Sir Giles Capel. You can indeed "have it all" so to speak. It was so good, he had it hung above his tomb. =D

Fun fact: If you see a Kolbenturnier-helmet on a coat of arms, then it's pretty much always a nobility coat of arms. If it has a frogmouth helmet, it's probably a non-nobility coat of arms (from a city patriciate). Because contrary to modern perception the tournament with lances (Rennen) want the most noble type of tournament, group fighting on horseback with clubs (Kilbenturnier) was way more prestigious. Lance tournaments were often held by city's to

What I was interesting in: Is how the light horsemen used a lance - was it simply a stabbing weapon? How'd they get amongst soldiers and fight? Border surnames, anachronistically known as the 'Border Reivers', used a leather coat - sometimes reinforced with metal - and a steel cap. They also fired their arrows on horseback.

Having a full field of vision is quite useful.

Slightly off topic, but are those spikes on your helmet? If so what are they for?

Could you show us what's inside the helmet next time? How does it protect a warrior's head from concussion?

4:00 thats a grudgin that we shall not forget.

9:54 "Kolbenturnierhelm" for anyone interested. To my perception "Spangenhelm" is the more common name of such a helmet. It could be that there's been a shift in naming tradition over the centuries, though.

I would probably have choosen the salet and bever the best vision/air for good protection

There's also the fact that rthe face plate generally onet do that much against an aimed swim from something like an axe or halberd... There was also the option of shields.

Hoping for a video on voiders and mail protection for the shoulders and arms

Another important factor, metal was expensive (from mining to forging), this only changed with the Industrial Revolution, the common warrior would resort to other more accessible materials (leather), greetings from Brazil

For roleplaying, the chapel de fer/kettle helm is my main go-to head protection, and I have another character who uses a burgonet.

For the German speakers, wondering how the helmet at 9:54 is called: "Kolbentunierhelm", a.k.a. "Spangenhelm"/ "Bügelhelm"

Plus the back spike from both warhammers and poleaxes. could go right through the visor hole by brute force.

I wonder if anyone ever developed a periscope helmet that gave complete coverage by using reflective lenses?

Matt, whats with the protruding bits on the salet? Looks like where the suspension is held, but on the exterior, looks like its just to be fancy? Wouldnt weapons catch on them?

Tank commanders mostly operate hatch open and head outside the tank too. Visibility is critical to survival on the battlefield. you can't protect yourself from a threat you don't see coming. By the time we are dealing with full plate harnesses the tournament is no longer a wild roving battle, but jousting, combat at the barriers and other controlled fights. Visibility is a lot less important when you know where your opponent has to come from. Also no one is trying to kill you in the tournaments. On the battlefield, the enemy really is trying to kill you. If you don't see him coming, you're a lot more likely to end up flat down in the mud with some archer sticking his dagger through your less protected bits.

Hello, love the content😊, I have several questions, can you detail the Lion sword of Africa? And in related note at 200 BC what were the manufacturing centers for the most detailed highest quality blades for royalty or equivalent around the world? Also, in regards to the tang, is there, or were there swords with a fully developed tang as the grip and gaurd? Or is the phrase full tang a misnomer? Also is there, or are there facilities to commission a blade design to be made?😮

In a close formation, or on horseback, a closed helm's disadvantages are a bit less prominent. In a general melee, you're absolutely wide open to any sort of attack from your blind spots. Even in the best plate armor, someone taking your leg out from under you and dropping you to the floor is always a risk.

Love this video. Any thoughts on the best protection that you could do yourself as a total armor? I feel like the Brigandine is best for the man at arms but maybe you have another opinion 🤔

There's also the shield which they would be actively using to protect their face especially if you have gauntlets and better armor protection for the rest of the body.

I like when the lower half of a helmet is chainmail.

I imagine that if I was wearing armour with an open face helmet, then my face would be the only exposed part of my body and I could therefore easily focus on defending against strikes aimed at it.

I've worn a cage style hockey helmet, whichhas more airflow and vision than Matt's tournament helm. Even that restricts breathing and vision. So I can see why soldiers might want the trade off(besides, you can always duck your head down if you can see the arrow stream, and time it right)

Plus you could just bring a heater or calvary shield if you're worried about large face gaps and arrow volleys.

Could you do a video on how you keep armour clean and so shiny it must take a lot of work to clean them and why they would be worn like that

Situation awareness is both offensive and defensive. Being able to hear orders, cooperate, locate enemies and see incoming blows better far outweighs the benefit of full face protection for most troops. Only for the heaviest cavalry tasked with only delivering shock do wee see enclosed helmets.

I would add that a shield theoretically is protecting your face under your eyes. so a visor and shield is redundant.

quick shoutout to the Italian "Compagnie della morte" or "Arditi", first special corps and were still wearing armour in WWI

Thank you for this video. I have just two questions, at 7:24, is it "fausa" or "fasa"? and what is the battle mentioned? It sounded to me like "por ti a".

The part about modern hamlets and open face. My brother was SWAT Team here in New Orleans and they tried to use the Kevlar and ceramic face guards and found the only person who could possibly wear it is the initial man who was breaching the door, but was pretty useless and breaching with shield and pistol was by leaps and bounds better then the face mask.

Unlike arms, chest, etc, there's an incredibly strong, fast reflex to avoid things coming at your face as well.

For the same reason tank commanders ride head up sometimes, I'd expect - sometimes you get more protection from being able to see a threat than you do from armour.

Interesting for sure! I agree with you on the practical arguments. This is pure speculation, but we might see an overrepresentation in medieval art of open faces, just as we see this in current day movies for stylistic reasons right? Clearer identification of the person depicted, or showing emotion etc. Are there other sources that mention what one should do in a battle, probably even depending on your role?

Switching to a full helmet in battle makes sense, the thing with helmets is that it was kinda like wearing a helmet in a construction site

If you protect your forehead from blunt force and neck from slashing or piercing attacks it is actually quite hard to kill a person with a strike in the face region. Even damage given to the face isn't likely to stop your opponents if they don't yield. The eye socket is perhaps a tad easier to break tru due to it "catching a point" but even today with thousands of documented workplace injuries (without) goggles that people seldom die from face injuries, they are gruesome and disfiguring and you might lose senses but compared to the rest of the body the force needed to kill a person generally makes possible armour inefficient to. For conext 😊 Horsemen is a bit of a exception since objects entering the eye socket from a low angle are much more likely to kill you. But the point is if you are grappling with a knight on the ground and you needed to kill them fast, going for their face wouldn't be your best option and a hit that doesn't kill them immediately will probably not kill them later either.

You really should do a video on kettle helms.

Unrelated question: can we get a video about the cinquedea at some point in your obscure weapon playlist? Did you already do one and I missed it?

Best helmet lets you do your main job, now I understand Sir Matt lord of Context, thank you.

What's the idea behind the spikes around the helmet. Seems to make the protection much worse. Is it just too look cool? My thinking: + Might protect shoulders from some downward slashes that would otherwise glance off the helmet with preserved force. + Might increase damage to some enemy weapons, at the cost of more damage to the wearer that the helmet should protect. - Increases the risk of neck injuries, as blows don't glance off the helmet, but hook on to it and twist the head of the wearer. - Makes force distribution much worse.It's literally like hitting a hammer on the head of a nail. E.g. an enemies blunt club, become like a spiked club, when it hits the head on one of the spikes. Or you get a spike driven into your head, just by falling head first onto a hard ground.

It's easy to see that in infantry (or, rather, in specialized combat on foot) open helmets were more a rule than an exception. Face protection apparently was critical for horseback lance charges (the main specialty of European knights) - that's how the topfhelm came to existence, and then more convenient designs with visors and possibly bevors were developed, allowing a knight to be tactically flexible without the need to put the whole helmet off every time. Still, if you're positive that you won't face such situations, then all that face protection, even if removable, turns into dead weight on your shoulders - or, more typically, on your head, which is even worse, while you still could use even better vision and hearing in combat (because helmets with visors, like late bascinets or armets, only provide a compromise anyway). As for types of visors, blindly relying on illustrations may be dangerous here, as there's always a chance that the artist (likely a monk) couldn't tell apart a combat visor from a tournament (buhurt) visor even if his life depended on it.

Is that real gilding on your tournament configured helmet?

Are the spikes around the brim of your sallet purely decorative or is there an element of functionality there? Not just in combat, but if this was something worn day to day campaigning, perhaps some thing like points to attach a cloth cover or drapery to shield from the sun or weather?

I wanna see the new armour! 😁

"Noseguard, and that's it!" -- Some footman, 11xx