Bascinet

It evolved from a type of iron or steel skullcap, but had a more pointed apex to the skull, and it extended downwards at the rear and sides to afford protection for the neck.

A mail curtain (aventail or camail) was usually attached to the lower edge of the helmet to protect the throat, neck and shoulders.

Early in the fifteenth century, the camail began to be replaced by a plate metal gorget, giving rise to the so-called "great bascinet".

[1] It is believed that the bascinet evolved from a simple iron skullcap,[2] known as the cervelliere, which was worn with a mail coif, as either the sole form of head protection or beneath a great helm.

[9] This illustration shows a bascinet with a type of detachable nasal (nose protector) called the bretache or bretèche made of sheet metal.

It was particularly favoured in Germany, but was also used in northern Italy where it is shown in a Crucifixion painted in the chapter hall of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, c. 1367.

A minority, including De Vries and Smith, class all smaller visors, those that only cover the area of the face left exposed by the aventail, as klappvisiers, regardless of the construction of their hinge mechanism.

However, they agree that klappvisiers, by their alternative definition of 'being of small size', preceded the larger forms of visor, which almost exclusively employed the double pivot, found in the latter part of the 14th century.

One of the early depictions of a doubly pivoted visor on a bascinet is the funerary monument of Sir Hugh Hastings (d. 1347) in St. Mary's Church, Elsing, Norfolk, England.

From around 1380 the visor, by this time considerably larger than earlier forms, was drawn out into a conical point like a muzzle or a beak, and was given the names "hounskull" (from the German hundsgugel – "hound's hood") or "pig-faced"[2] (in modern parlance).

Plate gorgets were introduced from c. 1400–1410, which replaced the camail and moved the weight of the throat and neck defences from the head to the shoulders.

At the same time a plate covering the cheeks and lower face was introduced also called the bavière (contemporary usage was not precise).

[20] In the view of Oakeshott the replacement of the camail by a plate gorget gave rise to the form of helmet known as the "great bascinet".

[17] Many other scholars consider that the term should be reserved for bascinets where the skull, and baviere – if present, was fixed to the gorget, rendering the whole helmet immobile.

[25][26] The basic design of the earlier, conical version of the helmet was intended to direct blows from weapons downward and away from the skull and face of the wearer.

[27] It is thought that poorer men-at-arms continued to employ lighter bascinets with mail camails long after the richest had adopted plate gorgets.

[28] Soon after 1450 the "great bascinet" was rapidly discarded for field use, being replaced by the armet and sallet, which were lighter helmets allowing greater freedom of movement for the wearer.