Maybe improving ventilation without compromising the construction of the helmet?. Matt commented that the tiny holes make the visor weaker by design, so I'm guessing those little gaps are a way to overcome this trade-off
+Karl Toth I think it might have something to do with breathing. When the air and sweat fumes that fill the nose cone condense into salty water it may corrode the helmet. The corrosion is toxic and perhaps it can weaken the helmet over time. Just a guess, i might be wrong :)
+Bronhitis I doubt that would be the problem as your good page should clean and oil the helmet when stored, but the build up of moisture and spittle during battle, dribbling down your neck would not be comfortable so maybe they let that out. More likely in my opinion is that they are for speech and breathing. Without holes around your mouth your voice and shouts would be much muffled and much louder to oneself. So with holes you can communicate better which is vitally important on the battlefield and you can breathe better and probably be cooled better with he air being drawn from below!
The holes on the skullcap look like they were made from the inside, with metal pushed outside, so it's pretty obvious why they're there. That soldier was infected with alien spawn, which ate his brain and then burst out of his scalp.
+Why Jay or a victorian did it with a shot gun, and he turned it upside down to avoid squashing the helmet inwards with the blast. Maybe he then made up a story about it belonging to an unlucky frenchmen to increase it's appeal at auction.
+Why Jay It could also be a time traveller. Someone with a personal rifle that can shoot out HEAT round! The bullet pierced through the skullcap and then exploded, causing the hole to expand!
Have a feeling after the helmets effective time was over, it was shot for fun. When I was in the military we shot lots of stuff for fun like helmets and vests. Ya sounds silly but we never trusted any of it was bullet proof as told, so we tested. Maybe this was a test helmet? Shooting the inside gets a better grip than the outside with an arrow.
@@rchave Depression is quite a hereditary disease. Though miraculously Kurt's brains weren't blown out in the blast - his head was just ballooned up slightly at his crown.
Good news on the metallurgy of the ex-Higgins skullcap. Also an excellent point on the visor hinges. Asymmetry which is often seen as a flaw is actually a design feature. Who would have thought?
Amazing. This series is probably some of my all time favourites among your videos. Since you both are very knowledgable you can bounce off, and add to eachother that leads to great info and discussion.
I've really enjoyed this series of videos, it's so interesting to watch two intelligent people discuss a subject that they're very knowledgeable and passionate about.
I love how you guys so obviously both sit on both sides, knowing the history (and proper history with an understanding of periods and uncertainty) and the development wearing and engineering aspects of arms and armour. Sitting down to watch you without having to brace myself to scream at the screen is a joy :-D
Matt, thank goodness you put out another video! I was getting worried. I thought something terrible had happened. (like you went on a holiday again) Seriously thank-you for the video, I Know I'm going to really like this one. (worth the wait). Dante.
Nice and very educational video. Also I think that Mr Capwell made very good point in saying that it's the high-end equipment that usually survives past many generations while the more common stuff does not.
+scholagladiatoria I'm really interested about the german bascinet visor. Had it also some kinde of a jamming funktion or would it flatter around like modern reproductions would do without some kind of locking mechanism. Also what's about the attachment of the aventail? how was it covered up with decoration?
Mike's one of the few people still on the History Channel (US) who doesn't sound full of bs (at least when he's sticking to European Medieval history and warfare). I'd be curious to see how you two agree/disagree on various HEMA interpretations. Would make for a lively discussion at the pub. :-)
Great video, fascinating stuff. When the book comes out I think I am getting it. The French army museum in Paris is an amazing place. If you can do vide there talking about things they have it would be pretty neat.
Off topic, but on a personal level, there is no armour more visually appealing to me than gothic plate armour (ties with samurai armour). Just so unbelievably beautiful.
There is a manuscript by Rudolph von Erlach made in 1485-86 that is filled with images of bascinets. The events described are from the mid 15th century, so I guess that, at least in Switzerland, bascinets remained in use for quite a long time.
Good point about using a recognisable artefact to describe a particular era despite it not quite matching. This is a device used by mainstream TV production companies constantly and called out as wrong by the anoraks amongst is. The “Peak-time Family Viewing Nostalgia” genre British TV schedules are packed with such tricks, programmes like Heartbeat, blimey the music, vehicles and fashions cover around 2 decades in each episode but the makers rarely tie anything down to a specific date in their narratives.
I was so disappoint Matt didn't try on the skullcap
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I thought that this video was from you 2022 trip to the wallace collection and was a bit surprised how young you guys look by comparison to the saddel video I just watched :)
Somewhat of comparison can be made to modern firearm shooting, in which hearing protection must be selected that allows the stock and/or shoulders to be able to flex upwards in a certain way, which mandates low profile cans or earplugs. Certainly super effective ear pro can be worn that cuts down on noise levels tremendously, but it isn't particularly useful when it interferes with proper gun grip and/or stance.
This stuff is great, but every part, I'm newly shocked that the curator of this historical collection at a great British museum has an American accent. If my expectations held, he would be the most British man imaginable.
+Alan E Well, if you were American and super into medieval arms and armour, you wouldn't have a whole lot of options in the US would you (although you would have some)? And England speaks English, so it's possibly one of the better choices for an American.
+Alan E I know, somewhere some English gentlemen just had their monocles drop into their tea, and are now marching on the Wallace Collection with their cricket bats and polo clubs raised in righteous fury! :-P
When reading about The Hundred Years War I've come across mentions, kind of in passing, of soldiers referred to as "knife-men." They don't sound like they were well regarded or important because their battle actions and equipage aren't described and explained the way the archers and men-at-arms are. Any info on these soldiers would be appreciated.
Great video Matt. Definitely want to see more about armoured combat etc. Specifically how would lower class people deal with such heavily armoured foes if and when the situation occurs?
Well remember there was no standard issued equipment for the military during the medieval era; men were required to, for the most part, purchase their own arms and armor. I imagine, therefore, that the average medieval peasant would likely have fought as an archer, crossbowman, or some other auxiliary role which required only minimal protection. Many would have likely been equipped with nothing more than a steal helmet, an arming doublet, and maybe a mail shirt. I doubt these men would ever have been expected to fight men-at-arms or knights in close combat as it would have been entirely pointless. If it did ever happen, I imagine they would have quickly broken and routed. Although there are ways of defeating armor, armor gives you a truly tremendous advantage in melee combat. It's a bit like a modern tank - yes there are ways of destroying them, but if you have tanks and your opponent doesn't then you are at a tremendous advantage.
Very awesome video. Its the first one which actually touches the topic of close combat: Visor up or down. Lindybeige mentioned it, but basically just said he didn´t like visors very much. Using them just for jousting (with only one opponent who comes from a set direction) and against missles sounds pretty reasonable. Do you have any experience fighting with visor closed?
The last one totally looks like a modern military helmet. Including the fact that it's not bulletproof-most people don't know, but although there are bulletproof helmets, they are not issued in militaries.
Nice vid, nice vid. I'm curious as to whether the open-visors in artwork may be more akin to movie heroes these days often going into battle helmetless or with a very open faced design? More of an artistic nuance for allowing the viewer to see expression. Closed visors with a complete harness ARE pretty dehumanizing :P
+SerAlgernop BlitzKrieger Closed visors are also quite suffocating. Air exchange in a visored helmet is a real problem. Stale air has less oxygen en more carbon dioxide. Walking towards the enemy with your visor down is not that big a deal, but hand to hand combat IS. I have been diving and snorkeling for most of my life, stale air in a snorkel is pretty much the same kind of problem, especially when children use a grown up's snorkel. too much stale air that wont get exchanged. Mr Capwell tells about turning into the breeze to get ventilation in his helmet and he knows what he is talking about considering his jousting experience.
If the padding underneath the aventail is quite stiff, and the mail there being of especially dense weave too, I don't imagine its possible to turn your head a great deal while having it on? Although perhaps a few degrees more so than with a great bascinet on?
Matt and Toby, thanks for an interesting vid. Was this skullcap also referred to as a pot helm? I have heard that term used in stories, but have never seen an example of one.
Where did those seven years go? Looking at the form of the skullcap helmet it is very reminiscent of the latest military helmet developments compared with those of a hundred years ago. Perhaps the same lessons were learned during that period as defensive requirements evolved?
Most opponents are right handed. Therefore, more attacks will come from your left. Therefore, the ventilation is on the right because the holes would (a) slightly weaken to armour and (b) catch the point of a weapon instead of letting it glance off.
I got a question about helmets and grappling: are helmets causing a significant disadvantage for the wearer?I once heared about WWII helmets for instance that when the rim of the helmet was grabbed from behind and pulled back the back part of the rim would be driven into the neck severing it.Some helmets would give a considerable lever, moreover if the helmet turns a bit the visor would no longer allow clear vision.
I thought that skullcaps were used under other helmets, both as a reinforcement, but also if you have to ditch the other helmet (like the pott-helmet) that you still have something. In that context I wonder why knights were wearing mail on their head. The little padding does not seem to protect much from the impact of a sword blow not to speak of anything tip-heavier.
It would be interesting to know how they derived at the design, like research notes or something. One can hear the waffleDo and the imaginnery hand modelling to show off the bascinet in the best possible way. 😜
Full encasement being an 'English' thing matches very strongly with the English way of war being so heavily reliant on warhammer and warbow - both devastating against lighter armours.
pretty sure it's gorget with a 't' sound on the end. sort of, 'gorzshett,' just the same as bascinet or um, baronet, or any of those other older formally french words.
Is it possible to use radiocarbon dating on steel artifacts? Charcoal would have been the main source of carbon in pre-industrial steel, so carbon-14 content should bear some relation to when it was smelted. Perhaps it isn't possible to get a large enough sample to minimize error?
+Nelumbo Nucifera the c-14 method can be used on steel or iron, but they contain less carbon than organic materials and would require more to be removed, damaging the artifact. the tests also have to be paid for, and the results might just tell you the century of manufacture or maybe not even that. it just isn't all that useful for objects like these helmets where we can tell their approximate age from other factors.
Is the possibility of plate replacing mail due to simply economic factors ever considered a MAIN driving force rather than protection? As metallurgy progresses, making a plate takes far less time than weaving mail. The added protection is simply a happy coincidence. Even for Brigandines, replacing portions of mail with plates must have saved a lot of labor hours. It is not unusual that once replacement to save labor starts, and the product offers similar or better performance, they just kept on replacing mail with pieces of plate till a fully evolved Brigandine formed. Then to save more labor, instead of making a lamellar armor style with many small plates, they just used a single large plate.
I'm writing well after this video was released (four years after). This book Tobias speaks of, anyone able to tell me which book it is? I really wanna check into getting it! But of course I need to know the title so I order the correct book.
I’m assuming it is this book. It was released in 2015 by The right Tobias capwell wallacecollectionshop.org/products/armour-of-the-english-knight-1400-1450
I wonder if the more covering English armour is was due to doctrine? After all if your knight's and Billmen's primary infantry role is to protect your archers, mobility may be a lesser consideration.
Likely because they fought on foot a lot. Fighting on foot allowed you to place your attacks more accurately and use more powerful two handed weapons, and also exposed more body parts that on horseback would be automatically covered (back of the thigh, groin), so unless mobility was very important you wanted more protection.
I've never come across a clip on a modern reproduction helmet that has not been a complete pain in the arse to use. Once locked they are almost impossible to undo with gauntlets on and more often than not you end up just taking the flippin helmet off. Asymetrical pivots is a genius design that, as Toby says, modern reproductions just don't do.
It sounds to me like the main purpose of the visor was as protection against arrows. With the threat of archers past, or nonexistent, the Knights fought with it up for better vision.
Does anyone know the inner diameter of the rings (and also the diameter of wire) used to make a historically acurate aventail for this type of helmet? I was guessing around 6mm inner diameter en wire of 1.3-1.4mm thick? maybe less
Erik D. Schmid suggests that overall a wire diameter of 1-1.4mm and link ID of 6-8mm is a tenable place to start. This assumes you are riveting your links shut -- or doing half and half riveted wire and solid punched-out links made from spacer rings much lighter than modern-made washers, which are thick and heavy -- too heavy in quantity. Tumble the spacer rings in a fairly aggressive medium to round off their squared corners, softening their appearance somewhat, as well as wearing your liner or doublet less.
As a direct patrilineal descendant of a man knighted on the field of Agincourt, and who subsequently married a woman whose first husband died at Agincourt (and whose father also was killed at Agincourt), I have thoroughly enjoyed this little trilogy. Thank you.
+Nick M I'm afraid that I receive dozens of messages every day, but given that I have several jobs, including making videos for this channel, I do not have time to read them unfortunately.
is there some more french here? ahah I would be happy too help for prononsiation there is alote a object that are name in french like here (cervelière)
