I love how you can illustrate most of the helmet types from 1170 onwards just by using pictures of Thomas Beckett getting murdered. Medieval folk loved themselves a good picture of Tommy B getting the chop in Canterbury.
I love those face plates with mustaches. I can so easily imagine he conversation between the customer and the armorer. - This will protect your face, my lord! - It'll hide my marvelous mustache! - Yes, but it'll keep safe your beautiful visage, my lord! - But it'll cover my fabulous mustache! - Yes, but it'll save your precious life, my lord! - But it'll conceal my majestic mustache! - Yes, but... /*groan*/ What if I decorate it with an image of your marvelous, fabulous, majestic mustache, my lord? - Perfect! Then there's just the issue of my marvelous eyebrows and majestic nose. Suggestions?
@@sir_humpy many, for tradesmen were often freemen and you couldn’t just spear them; you had to spear foreigners, hence why the Lord needed the helmet 😉
Gen. Melchett's privet hedge quality moustache (according to Capt. Darling) would certainly have deserved an extra special face plate. The English on the Bayeaux tapestry are actually distinguishable from the Normans in that they sport handsome moustaches (whereas the Normans are clean shaven).
Can you make a similar video about renaissance helmets?? There's already ALMOST Too much medieval content out there lol and comparatively little attention given to the post 1500s Edit: I was literally asking myself about those strange classical looking Frankish helmets Yesterday!!
Fascinating and excellent video. It is interesting to me that the early Middle Ages see a little more facial protection, which disappears a little in the Viking/Norman era and then facial protection gets reintroduced gradually again by the later part of the High Middle Ages. Is there a link to Part 2, or has it not been made yet?
what about the apparently transitional “faceplate helms” that are somewhere between nasal helms and great helms? Like the ones famously associated with sicilian norman knights and in the third crusade?
Can you do a study and presentation on First Crusade swords like the one just found in Israel…? I always wondered about how ponderous they look for one-handed designs and theorize that they must be a sort of evolution of Viking swordsmanship with the large kite-shaped body shield - either used like an axe with a revolving cut and rested on the shoulder, or locked with the shield and/or boss for angled thrusts or ramming attacks. The arming sword and kite shield seemed to shrink with heavier armour.
The rather simple helmet, which was worn under mail hood, is in Germany called ,Hirnhaube' about ,brain hood'. And the ,iron hat' is in Germany also called ,Eisenhut'.
Loved this video, was just looking in to information about helmets and this felt like a gift from the heavens! I still have a questions though, what were the main causes driving the changes in the helmets? Resource availability? Metallurgical technology? Simple evolution of warfare? Why did they move from more covering helmets, to just the top of the skull (and nasal) and then back to facial protection?
That's not generally how loanwords work in English. Since we'd say helms to pluralize helm, the correct English pluralization is spangenhelms. I realize this probably sounds very weird (downright wrong) to a native German speaker.
How would weapon sets compare to different helms? Would a spearman tend towards ocular slots over a cavalry man or axeman? As Matt has said before, weapons and armor are a set and work together.
Really hooked on your show lol. You have now gifted me hours and hours of knowledge and entertainment! (more than I would like to admit to myself at the moment lol) I felt suddenly motivated to express my gratitude for your effort, my recognition and appreciation of your talent, and to just let you know I’m a fan. That’s all 😄. Good day. 🙏👍🏻👏🏻
You do not want mail directly over your hair. And using metal instead of leather makes it more easy. And if there is a solution with a plate anyway, why ...
When you talking about Viking age helmets are you including the Rus/Varangian/Norman/Frisian/Arab(emirate of Sicily) etc styles likely used by Vikings settled or operating out of those areas in the 9th century?
I just watched Hogfather and noticed two members of the Guard ("police" of Ankh-Morpork) wearing oddly familiar helmets- iron hats! Not that places, people and events on the Discworld in any way resemble those on the real Earth...
I know I'm very late to this video and propably nobody will read this. However, I'm researching (as a hobby, although I've studied several semesters of archaeology too) the Merovingian era with a focus on the Alamannic area of southern Germany, specifically around the turn of the 7th century (600 +/- 50 years mostly, although I also look at before and after that focus time). There are very few helmets in that time and area archaeologically. Before 600, those were "Baldenheim" Spangenhelms, which were always at least partially gilded. Some have suggested that they weren't used for fighting, however at least one has clearly identifiable battle marks, so that's not true. Around and after 600, there were lamellar helmets which were apparently influenced (or imported, or looted) from the Avars of southeastern Europe, along with lamellar armor and Avar composite bows. We know that the Byzantine army employed Frankish (and propably also Alamannic, Baiuvar and Langobard, Saxon and others) mercenaries, which is one reason these pieces got to central Europe, the other being direct confrontation. All in all, it's estimated that only about 1% of all burials (at least of high status) have been found. Additionally, there's at least one Baldenheim helmet which was made by the same craftsman as another one, but there were 75 years between the two burials - so clearly, those helmets weren't always buried with their owners. All in all, if we extrapolate, there's an estimated 3000 helmets that were around in the 6th century, with only about 40 that have been found. I think there's a pretty good argument to be made for more simple helmets (pure iron versions of Baldenheim helmets, more lamellar helmets, and possibly also nordic/late roman crested helmets) that either corroded beyond recognition, or weren't buried at all: Iron may have been reused rather than buried, especially if the deceased's family wasn't too rich. There is little evidence to prove this, but I find it quite illogical that apart from the highest of lords and some other rich folk, nobody thought to put some metal caps on. And I find it even more illogical that those men that travelled to Byzantium, or Scandinavia, or Britain (which we know from both archaeological as well as written evidence they did), didn't think to bring back some armor pieces they earned or looted there.
To protect the cheek or not to protect the cheek that is the question....... Seriously though, why did cheek protection repeatedly fall in and out of favor?
Why did cheek plates were not seen in the high middle ages like the nasal helmet? It looks like a no brainer to have them on you head protection. No disadvantages as far as i see Edit: 18:20 probably because of mail coifs worn beneath
Happy to hear that nazels with cheek plates were around in the 9 century. Also for the sugerloof style great helm were skull caps still used underneat them?
I suspect that few surviving helms exist because they were reused so often. In combat I'm only gonna take what is harder for me to obtain. In the US today, rifles and body armor are available everywhere, but helmets are expensive and less common. I suspect this was the case back then too. If civil war broke out today, machine guns and helmets would be high on my list to pick up from the dead.
It makes sense to me that the simple, bowl helmet was one of the commonest helmets people worn. From the obvious point of affordability, if provided good protection and could (in the case of the spangenhelm) be potentially modular with the cheek flaps and neck protection potentially added on at a later point when the wearer was able to afford it. Additionally, protection is often a trade-off against other elements; with the various additional pieces likely to impede hearing, vision, etc. Meaning, people might actively choose against having those pieces on their chosen helmet. Taken together, this creates a selection pressure that make it likelier that a given soldier/person would choose a simple, bowl helmet over a more complex one with all the bells and whistles.
This is what you see in ancient Greece in the Iron age as well. Earlier on, the fully armed and armored fighter was only ever a very wealthy class, and bronze armor covering forearm, bicep, shoulder, thighs and even feet existed. As populations grew and average wealth increased, new, slightly less elite wealthier citizens applied for the hoplite class too, and you see with it a change in style of warfare and far more common forms of more open helmets and organic armor, as well as foregoing extra limb armor. Later on, states often formed levies too and there you finally see truly cheap, cost-effective munitions grade helmets that are basically a bronze cone with varying levels of roundness. In their latter existence, Greek hoplites on average would have had helmets just as open as the Romans that would come to dominate the mediterranean. From 'Men of Bronze' decked out in metal from head to shin, to a perfectly status quo average that looks and fights not very differently from any in Western Europe at the time.
The greathelm is my go-to helmet for reenactment, I built my first one too big and so it actually fit entirely over the later one which then became my party piece, I would remove my helmet when commanded to only to reveal another one under it. I also have a WW2 Kettle Hat which I have converted into a brimmed 'Iron Hat' and I have plans to make myself a version of a Spangenhelm which I plan to wear under the great helm. Admittedly this limits me to the 1300's but I don't mind that as there is lots of advancments around that time and gives us plenty of scope for personalisation of our kit. Looking forward to part two :D
i like this video can't wait for part 2. helmets have always been interesting to look at for me as it's one of the first things you naturally look at (at least for me) when looking at a suit of armour and the diversity even within a short period is interesting. I also came across a video on IGN's channel with you looking at some star wars fights, good to see you helping other channels out and showing how films can make their fights better while also showing what they do right.
I have never understood why helmets suddenly started developing flat tops in the high middle ages, before then reverting back. It seems a straightforwardly inferior design. Is there any explanation?
Simplicity of manufacture when creating larger, more covering helmets likely plays a part. The size of the blooms from smelting meant the starting size of a billet was not large enough to create the monopiece styles present in the later medieval, or at least to a sufficient thickness when hammer out, thus they were made of multiple, smaller parts then rivets together. This allows some simplicity of manufacture as parts can be made, or in the case of a great helm entirely, from simple bending of sheets without the need to create compound curves that require more work. These flat tops even show up in later armour, albeit for different reasons, with black sallets having much more distinctly flatter tops than their more laboriously worked upon and more expensive cousins. Getting a properly domed shape when raising was less of a concern than just churning out cheap helmets as quickly as possible.
@@docholiday7975 Thanks, that's fascinating. So what changed from previously, that made it desirable to churn out cheap helmets as quickly as possible?
@@Davetheslave3 With regards to the first paragraph: Experimentation with conical helmets in the 12th C saw different forms such as the Phrygian and flat top styles with the later becoming quite popular. This may have been a purely aesthetic choice at this point as some of these were still of monopiece construction. However with the addition of protection to the front, sides and back made multipart construction necessary, which lead to designs made entirely of plates rivetted together. It wouldn't be until the early 14th C that domed skulls for these exterior helmets resurfaced outside of kettle helm and conical helm that had been relegated to mostly common soldiers. With regards to the second: Armies of the time were becoming larger, more professional and better equipped. Soldiers were required to have more armour than their predecessors, even the levies, which meant a major surge in the number of and output of armourers. But this was also expensive, a lord for example mightn't be able to afford the best custom plate armour of the time for his men at arms so simpler and cheaper options were popular. Fittings would be simple, having minimal or no decoration to them, edges where they could would be left plain and the end product unpolished. Whilst this wasn't quite the munitions plate of the 16th C, this incorporated a lot of the concepts of how to do full armour as quickly and cheaply as possible.
Sometimes when watching your vids I start to wonder what people will think of us 1000 years from now. Will they see what media we left behind and wonder if it reflected our reality, or will high literacy rates and computer storage allow them to just google _21st century_ and know almost exactly what life is like now.
Did helmets usually have chin straps to secure them to the head? Some artwork depicts them with straps, but some art does not show them. If they did use them, was it standard or uncommon?
After my own experience as (late medieval) a re-enactor I can tell you that it is possible to wear a helmet without using a chin strap, but it is tedious: even a very close fitting helmet moves and shifts while fighting, so I personally think they were commen, though maybe not all were made of leather like in modern era replicas, but maybe from textile. That's just my assumption according to my own experience and research on art.
Signup for your FREE trial to Wondrium here: ow.ly/D8Qf30rNQ0Z
Yo
Tell us about the mudflood reset videos
The Great Courses Plus is great... and "Wondrium" is a terrible name.
@@Robert399 It's bizarre, but I guess it made me watch the ad?
Is the Part 2 video out yet? Can't seem to find it 🙂
I love how you can illustrate most of the helmet types from 1170 onwards just by using pictures of Thomas Beckett getting murdered. Medieval folk loved themselves a good picture of Tommy B getting the chop in Canterbury.
am I blind? Where is part 2?
I love those face plates with mustaches. I can so easily imagine he conversation between the customer and the armorer.
- This will protect your face, my lord!
- It'll hide my marvelous mustache!
- Yes, but it'll keep safe your beautiful visage, my lord!
- But it'll cover my fabulous mustache!
- Yes, but it'll save your precious life, my lord!
- But it'll conceal my majestic mustache!
- Yes, but... /*groan*/ What if I decorate it with an image of your marvelous, fabulous, majestic mustache, my lord?
- Perfect! Then there's just the issue of my marvelous eyebrows and majestic nose. Suggestions?
I wonder just how many "buts" can suffer a noble lord from an armourer before spearing the latter?
@@sir_humpy many, for tradesmen were often freemen and you couldn’t just spear them; you had to spear foreigners, hence why the Lord needed the helmet 😉
Gen. Melchett's privet hedge quality moustache (according to Capt. Darling) would certainly have deserved an extra special face plate. The English on the Bayeaux tapestry are actually distinguishable from the Normans in that they sport handsome moustaches (whereas the Normans are clean shaven).
Matt, please, be so kind and make part 2!
Sincerely your fans of medieval period, reenactors etc.
+][+
Can you make a similar video about renaissance helmets?? There's already ALMOST Too much medieval content out there lol and comparatively little attention given to the post 1500s
Edit: I was literally asking myself about those strange classical looking Frankish helmets Yesterday!!
Yeah that's a good idea. Why stop at 1500? Let's go all the way to 1900
@@not-a-theist8251 : Compare a 1900 heavy german cavallry helmet to a heavy cavallry , Zischägge' of late 17th century . Looks rather similar.
@@brittakriep2938 true. And the Zischägge has cheek pieces like some of the early mediaval designs that we saw in this video.
I always really liked burgonets
Fascinating and excellent video. It is interesting to me that the early Middle Ages see a little more facial protection, which disappears a little in the Viking/Norman era and then facial protection gets reintroduced gradually again by the later part of the High Middle Ages.
Is there a link to Part 2, or has it not been made yet?
I think you may have forgotten to post part 2! I am very interested to see the continued evolution.
Can't wait for the second part. This first part already was enlightening and entertaining, so I'm thrilled to see what comes next.
The Dargen Great Helm and the German Sallet Are my absolute favorites. Great video, really enjoyed it 👌🏻
Sir i just conquered jelkala alone who will you grant the fief?
@@grailknight6794 im sorry, I can’t grant you Jelkala, since you already hold a formidable fief, but here are 900 denars.
@@grailknight6794
For your services, King Harlaus has gifted you 1x “Lame Courser”.
24:02
That mule sure is angry...
Superb. Now similar about shields. Maybe with Tod - something practical?
Your videos influenced a 6 hour conversation at work last night, thanks for keeping us occupied between customers
what about the apparently transitional “faceplate helms” that are somewhere between nasal helms and great helms?
Like the ones famously associated with sicilian norman knights and in the third crusade?
Great work Matt. I and many others I think would love to see you talk about the arms and armour of the Eastern Roman Empire.
24:46 when you in a battle but the enemy horse is telling great joke.
BRING ON PART II!
Let us not forget the noble cooking pot. Truly a wonderful helmet in its own right, and also one of the only ones I can afford right now.
Awesome video!!
what a great series, waiting for part 2 matt, thank you
I've gotta say, aesthetically nothing beats flat top great helmets and korinthian helmets if we look outside the middle ages!
Carolingians comes from one of the names of Charlemagne, Carolus Magmus, he was also known as Charles Martel
Not quite. Carolingian is the name of the period of Charlemagne's reign. Charles Martel was a different person - that was Charlemagne's grandfather!
Could you talk about the equipment of the Lewis Chessmen? I am interested in the variety of helmets and shields in the different sets.
Did you ever make a part 2?
Can you do a study and presentation on First Crusade swords like the one just found in Israel…? I always wondered about how ponderous they look for one-handed designs and theorize that they must be a sort of evolution of Viking swordsmanship with the large kite-shaped body shield - either used like an axe with a revolving cut and rested on the shoulder, or locked with the shield and/or boss for angled thrusts or ramming attacks. The arming sword and kite shield seemed to shrink with heavier armour.
Mate could you do something on the Irish Kerns my ancestors cheers.Love your work.
Thanks! Great video and I enjoyed it
The rather simple helmet, which was worn under mail hood, is in Germany called ,Hirnhaube' about ,brain hood'. And the ,iron hat' is in Germany also called ,Eisenhut'.
This Matt guy really has a head for helmets
Why wear a good helm, when you can wear a Great Helm!!
Too bad there's no part 2...
Loved this video, was just looking in to information about helmets and this felt like a gift from the heavens!
I still have a questions though, what were the main causes driving the changes in the helmets? Resource availability? Metallurgical technology? Simple evolution of warfare?
Why did they move from more covering helmets, to just the top of the skull (and nasal) and then back to facial protection?
Since "Spangenhelm" is german, the correct Plural would be "Spangenhelme". Like the Video by the way.
That's not generally how loanwords work in English. Since we'd say helms to pluralize helm, the correct English pluralization is spangenhelms. I realize this probably sounds very weird (downright wrong) to a native German speaker.
yo let's goooo
Y'know Matt, you don't have to spoil us like this ^///^
trying to build up my immersion before i play total war lmao
Would love to see this series covered for other arms and armour. Swords, daggers, etc.
i am slowly approaching my middle ages and polearms are getting more and more problematic
Lovely stuff, do you plan on looking at other different types of armour or weapons throughout history? Swords, torso and leg protection, etc?
Comment
I'm watching this 2 years after the release and can't find part II anywhere 😢
How would weapon sets compare to different helms? Would a spearman tend towards ocular slots over a cavalry man or axeman? As Matt has said before, weapons and armor are a set and work together.
Where is part 2?
Whatever happened to part two? I’m I just missing it?
could one reason for less helmets being discovered during the migration period be the use of soft/cloth headwear?
Is there a part 2 to this video?
Really hooked on your show lol. You have now gifted me hours and hours of knowledge and entertainment! (more than I would like to admit to myself at the moment lol) I felt suddenly motivated to express my gratitude for your effort, my recognition and appreciation of your talent, and to just let you know I’m a fan. That’s all 😄. Good day. 🙏👍🏻👏🏻
Top notch work as usual, Matt. Has Part 2 ever been made? I have searched for, but never found it.
I don't think so
Unrelated comment but anyone know anything about the norman/crusader sword replica featured in the replica vs antiques video? Thanks in advance.
This!
Should also add, love this video, very informative.
part two?
I love these video's. Thanks for making them Matt, they are super interesting. Regards from Malta.
17:53 i think helmets with viking-like face protection still existed in east europe, since there finds deated to the 12th-13th century
Also in 16/17 th centuries, in Poland, Hungary or Croatia, armour was a mix/ ,between' of West European and Oriental armour style.
Where is second part?
Still no part 2?
You do not want mail directly over your hair. And using metal instead of leather makes it more easy. And if there is a solution with a plate anyway, why ...
Is there no part two? What a f-ing jip, Matt
uuuuh nice. This is going to be good. Loved the polearm video that you did a while back
When you talking about Viking age helmets are you including the Rus/Varangian/Norman/Frisian/Arab(emirate of Sicily) etc styles likely used by Vikings settled or operating out of those areas in the 9th century?
you ever going to get on to part 2?
Wheres part 2 ?
Ah! Make room for me on your pole arm and thrust me through a journey of history, Matt!
PART 2!!!! Go to 1600 as well and cover burgonets and morions!!!
I just watched Hogfather and noticed two members of the Guard ("police" of Ankh-Morpork) wearing oddly familiar helmets- iron hats!
Not that places, people and events on the Discworld in any way resemble those on the real Earth...
Yup. Fourecks totally isn't Australia. There is absolutely no relation between Uberwald and Transylvania. :P
I have so many of your videos on my watchlist that I could be watching them every day for the next year.
I know I'm very late to this video and propably nobody will read this.
However, I'm researching (as a hobby, although I've studied several semesters of archaeology too) the Merovingian era with a focus on the Alamannic area of southern Germany, specifically around the turn of the 7th century (600 +/- 50 years mostly, although I also look at before and after that focus time). There are very few helmets in that time and area archaeologically. Before 600, those were "Baldenheim" Spangenhelms, which were always at least partially gilded. Some have suggested that they weren't used for fighting, however at least one has clearly identifiable battle marks, so that's not true. Around and after 600, there were lamellar helmets which were apparently influenced (or imported, or looted) from the Avars of southeastern Europe, along with lamellar armor and Avar composite bows.
We know that the Byzantine army employed Frankish (and propably also Alamannic, Baiuvar and Langobard, Saxon and others) mercenaries, which is one reason these pieces got to central Europe, the other being direct confrontation.
All in all, it's estimated that only about 1% of all burials (at least of high status) have been found. Additionally, there's at least one Baldenheim helmet which was made by the same craftsman as another one, but there were 75 years between the two burials - so clearly, those helmets weren't always buried with their owners. All in all, if we extrapolate, there's an estimated 3000 helmets that were around in the 6th century, with only about 40 that have been found.
I think there's a pretty good argument to be made for more simple helmets (pure iron versions of Baldenheim helmets, more lamellar helmets, and possibly also nordic/late roman crested helmets) that either corroded beyond recognition, or weren't buried at all: Iron may have been reused rather than buried, especially if the deceased's family wasn't too rich.
There is little evidence to prove this, but I find it quite illogical that apart from the highest of lords and some other rich folk, nobody thought to put some metal caps on. And I find it even more illogical that those men that travelled to Byzantium, or Scandinavia, or Britain (which we know from both archaeological as well as written evidence they did), didn't think to bring back some armor pieces they earned or looted there.
As a compliment..
You’re a Fighting Professor...
For the Algorithm!
To protect the cheek or not to protect the cheek that is the question.......
Seriously though, why did cheek protection repeatedly fall in and out of favor?
Why did cheek plates were not seen in the high middle ages like the nasal helmet? It looks like a no brainer to have them on you head protection. No disadvantages as far as i see
Edit: 18:20 probably because of mail coifs worn beneath
I would love to see a video about Carolingian armor and how it differs from artistic depictions to what was actually worn.
Happy to hear that nazels with cheek plates were around in the 9 century. Also for the sugerloof style great helm were skull caps still used underneat them?
Part 2? Please?
I suspect that few surviving helms exist because they were reused so often. In combat I'm only gonna take what is harder for me to obtain. In the US today, rifles and body armor are available everywhere, but helmets are expensive and less common. I suspect this was the case back then too. If civil war broke out today, machine guns and helmets would be high on my list to pick up from the dead.
Great video but you missed the opportunity to call it a brain bucket
Cant wait for part 2!
My favourite is the Mamluk Mighfar helm
Great topic ..Well Done..thank you...
Excellent. Part 2 please.
Thanks for sharing 👍
i can't find part 2 anywhere
Only part 1 of the intro. 😆
Is there a part 2? can't seem to find it...
Love this videos🤠👍🏿
Dude! Absolutely loved this video. Looking forward to part 2. Cant wait to here your take on the kettle helm sallet
It makes sense to me that the simple, bowl helmet was one of the commonest helmets people worn. From the obvious point of affordability, if provided good protection and could (in the case of the spangenhelm) be potentially modular with the cheek flaps and neck protection potentially added on at a later point when the wearer was able to afford it. Additionally, protection is often a trade-off against other elements; with the various additional pieces likely to impede hearing, vision, etc. Meaning, people might actively choose against having those pieces on their chosen helmet. Taken together, this creates a selection pressure that make it likelier that a given soldier/person would choose a simple, bowl helmet over a more complex one with all the bells and whistles.
This is what you see in ancient Greece in the Iron age as well. Earlier on, the fully armed and armored fighter was only ever a very wealthy class, and bronze armor covering forearm, bicep, shoulder, thighs and even feet existed. As populations grew and average wealth increased, new, slightly less elite wealthier citizens applied for the hoplite class too, and you see with it a change in style of warfare and far more common forms of more open helmets and organic armor, as well as foregoing extra limb armor.
Later on, states often formed levies too and there you finally see truly cheap, cost-effective munitions grade helmets that are basically a bronze cone with varying levels of roundness. In their latter existence, Greek hoplites on average would have had helmets just as open as the Romans that would come to dominate the mediterranean.
From 'Men of Bronze' decked out in metal from head to shin, to a perfectly status quo average that looks and fights not very differently from any in Western Europe at the time.
Excellent overview. I look forward to part II. WELL DONE!
The greathelm is my go-to helmet for reenactment, I built my first one too big and so it actually fit entirely over the later one which then became my party piece, I would remove my helmet when commanded to only to reveal another one under it. I also have a WW2 Kettle Hat which I have converted into a brimmed 'Iron Hat' and I have plans to make myself a version of a Spangenhelm which I plan to wear under the great helm. Admittedly this limits me to the 1300's but I don't mind that as there is lots of advancments around that time and gives us plenty of scope for personalisation of our kit.
Looking forward to part two :D
2:09 always liked that helmet
i like this video can't wait for part 2. helmets have always been interesting to look at for me as it's one of the first things you naturally look at (at least for me) when looking at a suit of armour and the diversity even within a short period is interesting.
I also came across a video on IGN's channel with you looking at some star wars fights, good to see you helping other channels out and showing how films can make their fights better while also showing what they do right.
Like Muhammad Ali...
Where is part 2?
What happened to part 2??
Was there ever a part 2?
Damn, I love helmets!
So good i had to watch it again
where is part 2?
I have never understood why helmets suddenly started developing flat tops in the high middle ages, before then reverting back. It seems a straightforwardly inferior design. Is there any explanation?
Simplicity of manufacture when creating larger, more covering helmets likely plays a part. The size of the blooms from smelting meant the starting size of a billet was not large enough to create the monopiece styles present in the later medieval, or at least to a sufficient thickness when hammer out, thus they were made of multiple, smaller parts then rivets together. This allows some simplicity of manufacture as parts can be made, or in the case of a great helm entirely, from simple bending of sheets without the need to create compound curves that require more work.
These flat tops even show up in later armour, albeit for different reasons, with black sallets having much more distinctly flatter tops than their more laboriously worked upon and more expensive cousins. Getting a properly domed shape when raising was less of a concern than just churning out cheap helmets as quickly as possible.
@@docholiday7975 Thanks, that's fascinating. So what changed from previously, that made it desirable to churn out cheap helmets as quickly as possible?
@@Davetheslave3 With regards to the first paragraph: Experimentation with conical helmets in the 12th C saw different forms such as the Phrygian and flat top styles with the later becoming quite popular. This may have been a purely aesthetic choice at this point as some of these were still of monopiece construction. However with the addition of protection to the front, sides and back made multipart construction necessary, which lead to designs made entirely of plates rivetted together. It wouldn't be until the early 14th C that domed skulls for these exterior helmets resurfaced outside of kettle helm and conical helm that had been relegated to mostly common soldiers.
With regards to the second: Armies of the time were becoming larger, more professional and better equipped. Soldiers were required to have more armour than their predecessors, even the levies, which meant a major surge in the number of and output of armourers. But this was also expensive, a lord for example mightn't be able to afford the best custom plate armour of the time for his men at arms so simpler and cheaper options were popular. Fittings would be simple, having minimal or no decoration to them, edges where they could would be left plain and the end product unpolished. Whilst this wasn't quite the munitions plate of the 16th C, this incorporated a lot of the concepts of how to do full armour as quickly and cheaply as possible.
Sometimes when watching your vids I start to wonder what people will think of us 1000 years from now. Will they see what media we left behind and wonder if it reflected our reality, or will high literacy rates and computer storage allow them to just google _21st century_ and know almost exactly what life is like now.
Did helmets usually have chin straps to secure them to the head? Some artwork depicts them with straps, but some art does not show them. If they did use them, was it standard or uncommon?
After my own experience as (late medieval) a re-enactor I can tell you that it is possible to wear a helmet without using a chin strap, but it is tedious: even a very close fitting helmet moves and shifts while fighting, so I personally think they were commen, though maybe not all were made of leather like in modern era replicas, but maybe from textile. That's just my assumption according to my own experience and research on art.
A unique pictorial collection first time I’ve ever seen. Then again I don’t know
Much... very cool explanations and
Evolutions