I think people often forget, or just don't think about, when bringing up scenarios on how armor can be defeated, is the fact that although your armor has weaknesses, so does your opponent's armor. And being competent knights or men-at-arms, you both know your armor's weaknesses, and defend against them being exploited, while trying to exploit the other's weaknesses. Just like any other fight.
+Knyght Errant Somehow I doubt that in most cases you'd spend too much time focusing on the other bloke's armor and its (particular) weaknesses. You don't have time for that in a big brawl. If you were GoT-style dueling and you had time to break apart and circle, then yeah. But really you'd rely on techniques which would work against any armor configuration or at least the majority of them. Also, tehre probably weren't as many varieties of helmet at that time. We can look in history books and see thousands of different helmet designs, but only a few were probably in fashion in one area of the world, at one time, in one certain conflict. So when armets were popular, you might be taught by your instructor what the weaknesses of armets are and that would be it. You wouldn't be looking at it and saying "Hmmm, that's an armet, isn't it? What was I told about armets?" You're probably more interested in the state of his visor and his weapon. These are logical guesses supported by zero real-world experience, near-zero theoretical experience, and zero historical sources other than TH-cam videos. Please correct me if (when) I'm wrong.
That's part of the whole "armor isn't amazing" debunk. People often forget anyone with the money to afford one of these suits is going to be trained and prepared for a fight
@@realdragon just that modern helmets dont "greatly reduce" chances from being shot in the head.. what are you talking about.. When a modern helmet stops a bullet, it is considered a "freak happening", what usually happens is that you get your head blown off anyway..
The funniest description of fate aligning for an armor failure. . . LOL!!! "The Moon is in the Seventh House, and Jupiter is aligned with Mars" Priceless. . .
Best quality armour videos on the net, hands down. Production and information quality is perfectly delivered. Its really a shame, you should have as many views as Matt at least. I guess armour isn't as sexy a topic as swords.
+Battam Dude, he's not that well known yet, give it some time. When I subscribed to him, he only had 5k subscribers, now he has double that. Heck, when I subscribed to Matt, he had 30k subscribers, now he has triple! Also, Ian tends to make relatively long and scholarly videos, which tends to put off some people.
+Battam Spread the word, the more this stuff gets shared around, the more it helps! :) I certainly appreciate it! Yeah, I have kind of chosen a very niche area to drone on about, so I never expected the wide appeal of say a Lindybeige or Skallagrim, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised one day. I'll keep making videos as long as people keep finding them useful! I find it hard to make short videos on these topics because there's so much information and I don't want people to draw bizarre conclusions or misunderstand what I say so I try to get as much detail out as I can. Unfortunately, a lot of people see a 25 or 30 min video and go somewhere else, but I feel like I would be doing a disservice to some of these topics by cutting them too short. Thank you for your support!
I always love those little details that tell a story, like the extra plate at 13:50 It shows that getting your forehead caved in was at least a reasonable enough danger to warrant the expense and weight of adding another plate. What people often seem to forget is that every bit of these design evolutions is a response to some problem that the wearer would face. It is not a haphazard process, but somebody paying a lot of money for a vital piece of protective equipement.
With these restrictive helmets, I suspect that you'd be raising visors / opening plates pretty much immediately after the lance charge is resolved, especially if you're in any kind of melee.
+DushinSC Indeed Kaptein! An added bonus is that the tilted sallet acts as a brim, protecting the "exposed" face from downwards attacks from above. Kinda like the brims of some of the Hellenistic "Thracian" style helmets, which I really like :)
DushinSC I figure this was the norm with those big barrel helms over the sallet, as well - especially with the chain. As soon as you're past all the lances, off that thing comes. If it goes to the ground, oh well, get a new one later.
+Michael Eversberg II You'd be surprised actually. I've been doing some work with a HEMA group and it's amazing how many techniques don't require you to see very much.
It's not so much vision as breathing. People tend to underestimate the effect of rebreathing your own co2. Considering fitness is largely about being more efficient with oxygen, a lower % of it is pretty much a direct reduction to your cardio.
The thorough discussion of armor designs overall and specific components, really gives me a great appreciation of the maker's skills. Really amazing. Keep up the excellent work!
I get excited everytime I see you've made a video and I've been looking forward to an armet video in particular. Thanks for all your hard work. Your armor videos are the best on youtube.
+Eliot Childress So what you're seeing there is bleed through of ink from the opposite side of the folio. The images are from MS Ludwig XV 13, or Fiore dei Liberi's "Fior di Battaglia," an early 15th century fighting treatise now housed at the JP Getty Museum. Here's the plate where the bleed-through image actually is (wiktenauer.com/wiki/Page:MS_Ludwig_XV_13_33r.jpg), but the rest of Fior di Battaglia includes lots of images of the fencers wearing gilt crowns ( wiktenauer.com/wiki/Fior_di_Battaglia_(MS_Ludwig_XV_13) ). They represent the 'masters' of the art, teaching the techniques to the students.
Subbed last night, Thought I would post today: My major was history, minor was anthro(archaeology focus), and you sir would do well teaching at a collegiate level if you do not already. Your videos are well made, historically grounded, but also engaging and entertaining, and layed out in an expected and welcomed format. My interest was far more into nautical and mairtime topics, and I've recently begun putting together a roughly 16th century harness(unfortunately I'm having to make some concessions, as the armor is being used in SCA combat), and have found what you're presenting very helpful. So thanks, and I will be following you long term.
I second that! I also just subscribed. I am a 58 year old history nut and I find these videos fascinating and well done. I wish history classes in college were that well presented. Attendance would have been much better.
A lot of surviving armets tend to be in the 6-8 lb range, give or take. Other styles of similarly sized helmets are pretty close to that range as well. There are of course exceptions.
Hi Ian, I read a book about medieval weapons and armor in my HEMA-club a few months ago and besides the armet and great bascinet there were another 2 styles of helmets depicted among the helmets of that time, one of which was called "Bicoque": 41.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m72bgafdfq1ryohhxo1_250.jpg Is that basically a variant of the armet?
6:11 I believe the technical term for this faceplate design is called the _toilet bowl_ design. The one you own is known as a _picket fence toilet bowl_ armet.
Great video, as always. Lots of stuff I didn't know about. I'd love to see you compare the armet with the later similar-looking but distinct close helm.
+Ben Kirkby Buy me a sallet and I'll do a video on it! :) I'm just kidding of course. I intend to make videos on anything I can get my hands on in the future. I find the show-and-tell portion of my videos is one of the strengths of my presentation so I'm trying to only cover pieces of armor I can show you firsthand right now. Sallets are on the list as soon as I can find a high-quality example to demo.
23:00, you mention that the holes wouldn’t be as effective at reinforcing the picket fence as a solid plate, but I feel like the combined strength of the pickets and holes together would probably make up for that, being at least as strong together as a solid plate would be.
Is there a mechanism to hold the visor in place when it's turned up, to keep it from randomly falling down in battle (assuming the wearer wanted more visibility)?
+DeadCamper No mechanism that I've ever seen. One interesting feature that occurs in a lot of historical helmets with side-pivoting visors (in high enough frequency that it's hard to ignore) is that the pivots are not perfectly aligned. The slight offset between the pivots almost locks the visor in the up position when it's raised because of the twist it applies to the arms of the visor. Some try to say this is just a happy biproduct of imprecise smithing, but my personal opinion is that even if this did start as an accident, it probably became intentional. Medieval smiths were capable of aligning holes, that I can't believe it's purely accidental for over a century.
Do you know of anyone that does videos about later eras of arms/armors/military history as good as yours, but for the later eras, like the 17th or maybe even the 18th century? A lot of people talk for as long as you do about such things, but don't say nearly as much.
how much would the breaths in the visor weaken it, obviously there would be some weakening but that portion of the visor is supported by the picket fence wich alone does provide some protection. I would have expected these 2 weakened sections of armor together to still provide comparable protection to the single solid plate of the top of the visor or the left cheek. assuming the breaths and gaps in the picket fence line up (not clear on video if this is the case) then it can mitigate the very narrow vertical field of vision through the eye slits. also relevant would be whether such breaths are seen in historical sources, wich I don't know how/where to check.
Great work Ian. Could you ever make one about the feathers and the crests in the helms? I just cant figure out how crests are put toguether over the helm.
This series is absolutely amazing, fascinating topics and stunning reconstructions. I have a question, too. Do you know of any examples with helmets that had no vision slits, but all vision their visor offered would be holes similar to breaths? A noodle strainer visor, so to say :D
+Knyght Errant i know that, but do you think (or have you found) any evidence of an armet matching a gothic styled armour (I know this is very specific but I'm considering getting some armour, for the mid to late XVth century era and I've always been in love with both the gothic fluting and the armet)
nice! as always :p I have a question Involving Armets. In terms of useability in on foot fighting, how would a say "late 15th century" armet (without the extra whrapper plate) hold up against a sallet or kettle hat with a bevor? And would it be a "historically viable" choise for a man at arms mainly fighting on foot. And please add any other thoughts you have about this topic ;) Kind regards
I wonder if any armet aventails or mail borders survive? I would think a small hook, like we see on standards, used to close the front split would be a desirable feature.
+Mart Shearer Agreed. It seems like a spot you wouldn't particularly want gapping open during a fight. I've seen reproductions that use lining and padding of the aventail to provide some structure to mitigate that risk, but a small hook would go a long way in protecting you there.
Ever wonder what a modern Version of this would look like? If you had a modern engineering team design the perfect medieval armor with whatever modern material they like?
24:45 pretty good is an understatement. That degree of peripheral vision is almost the complete 170 degrees expected without a helmet at all isn't it? Considering it's still a helmet, it's practically ideal.
I just bought myself one of these helmets, would the kit that goes with it look more like 1390 (with fabric garment over the torso and/or sleeves) or with the later style of exposed armor?
On the note of reinforcing weak spots: Wouldn’t the visor, with or without breaths/sights, be plenty of reinforcement? The added visibility and breathability (which is a relatively significant addition given the other holes being rather small as well) seems a very good trade off, especially as the visor isn’t resting solely on the teeth.
+warfilgames The cheek pieces themselves actually provide considerable outward tension on the locking mechanism. Later armets would often feature a small hook and eyelet to lock the cheek-plates closed, so perhaps they moved away from this turn-pin for that very reason. I can attest to the fact that I've seen the owner of this helmet take poleaxe shots to the armet and he's had no failures of the lock so far that I'm aware of, but it's a distinct possibility.
Well made video! But "Churburg" is pronounced "Koorboorg". Little hint: The German "u" is always pronounced like the English "oo" (exept for the diphtongs "eu" and "äu" which sounds like "oy"). :)
Something I've always wondered about helmets with hinged visors: How do you make sure the visor stays up when you want and doesn't fall back closed? Is it just that the hinges are tight enough for friction to keep it in place?
+John Erickson A lot of historical visor pivots are not perfectly in line with each other. They're offset just slightly. Whether this was intentional or not is a matter of debate, but the result is that when the visor is raised, it puts enough strain on the visor arms to hold it up. Most modern reproductions just use tight pivots.
i have a question, is such a close fit really beneficial in a helmet ? From what i learned about helmets, the really good ones were somewhat floating on your head, not directly transfering the blows to it, therefore reducing blunt force and sudden acceleration of the head due to blows.
Again a very excellent video! I really appreciate your channel. I have one question regarding the sort aventail on the example you have showed: as it is attached to the movable pieces at the sides of the helm, even when you fully close the helmet it seems to me that there is a small, but considerable gap in the mail right in front of your throat. Wouldn't it be easy to design the mail in a way that there is a higher amount of overlap of the mail coming from each side?
+Thomas Heydenreich Yeah, it's a weakness in the design. I've seen modern reconstructions try to get around this by backing the mail with a full lined and padded textile that provides more structure and closes the gaps more completely when it's on. I think the aventail on the particular one I show in this video is a little too short as well to really be effective. Here's a speculative attempt to correct what you're talking about (www.gambeson.pl/medieval-on-line-shop/14th-16th-century/armet.html) I would take it one step further though and add some small hooks to close that gap completely. Small hooks were used commonly on things like collars of mail, and I think they would go a long way here to protect the wearer and ensure overlap.
+Knyght Errant I totally agree with you, that there are for sure some fixes to this problem which wouldn't need a lot of tweaking. However, it is very interesting that in those times they probably did not see this to be an important enough problem to fix, which they otherwise would probably have done (as seen in general in the evolution of armor). Thanks for your answer!
So since this helmet is so close fitting, does it still have the same principle as for example the smaller where the helmet sort of hangs and the head is actually wearing the liner, so that the force of the blow doesn't go directly into the head?
That was a really interesting helmet, you don't really see anything quite like it in any of the armor from movies or shows. Instead of the visor being completely solid, do you think the air-holes might have just matched up with the ones on the right side plate?
+zarbran The visor doesn't extend much lower than the 'picket fence' so it's likely it just would have been completely solid, even on the right side. That's how most contemporary visors were made (in art and on similar helmets, like the Venetian great bascinets), and then again on future armet designs. It's possible though!
Some do, some don't. It seems that many of the early armets did have breaths, as did many of the late period ones, but the archetypal armets of the mid to late 15th century mostly omit them. It's also during that point where they seem to be serving primarily as a heavy cavalry helmet, and perhaps the expected risk of an open field charge against heavy lance was too great to have breaths on the visor and it was easier to just raise the visor if you needed more air. Even with the visor up, a lot of later armets still cover a lot of the face, especially with the wrapper in place (which would have made the breaths all but useless anyway), so you're still protected pretty well with the visor up. That's a possible explanation anyway...
Speaking of wrappers, have you seen the sallet in the Wallace Collection which has a buffe held on with a giant wingnut? wallacelive.wallacecollection.org:8080/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=60680&viewType=detailView
You showed some images of horses, how much armor would have heavy cavalier horses worn? I have seen some pictures of basically plate armor for horses, is that combat armor or is it Jousting basically 'sports' armor?
IDK why the picket fence has to be that sharp looking when the more squared off or rounder tips are more serviceable.If I was a knight, even with the chance someone can hit me in the face is very low, it's a bit damming for my mental health to know that I have tiny blades on my face that can turn on me and into my eyes. Better yet, why it not a cage with tiny bars instead?
You didn't say whether or not the extra holes in the bottom of the visor aided in expanding your field of vision. If the holes in the visor lined up with the gaps in the picket fence then they might be more for vision than for ventilation. True, they make the visor weaker, but the tradeoff may be worth it, at least in the opinion of the man who is wearing it.
Hi Ian,l had a couple visits to the imperial war museum (Leeds) last year,most interesting.I was wondering if you had managed to visit the UK or to Europe.keep up the good work,cheers.
+Paul and Sue Roberts I took a school trip to Europe (A few days each in England, France and Italy) when I was in high school many years ago, but I was far too young to appreciate it and the stay was far too brief in each location. I would love to go back now!
Without punched holes, how would they breathe in the armet? Also, what's your favourite helmet and why? Will you ever do a FAQ? What's your life story? (jk on the last one)
+No Free Will If you needed a full breath you would lift your visor. With the visor up you have pretty good breathing. With the visor down, air exchange will occur through the sight in the visor and from the bottom of the helmet. It's restrictive for sure, but it's not going to suffocate you. It would take some getting used to though, and if you weren't in immediate danger, I'm willing to bet people popped their visors up when they had the opportunity. My favorite helmet is the side-pivoting houndksull bascinet. I love the way it looks, and I love the period of history it belongs to. The armet is a close second. As far as FAQ goes, I try to take the most frequent questions I get and use them for individual video ideas.
Is it okay to think of armor technology improving over time as a general rule? Adapting, always. Filling out niches, always. But improving always? Or sometimes is it just an issue of fashion?
+Prometheus720 Fashion plays a role, it would be dishonest for me to say otherwise. Fashion aside though, armor technology over time is definitely trending toward improvements. Plate armor especially improves quite substantially over time.
I wonder how would you compare armet with close helmet? They look vewry similar - only noticable difference is the way they open. Have you thought about making a video about close helmets?
Regarding visors, how do you keep them up? It seems like you'd want them up most of the time, but when you're riding or running around your head's going to be bouncing up and down a lot and it seems like the visor would keep falling down, which would be really annoying.
+Bananadoom Either make sure the pivots are very tight, or what we see on a lot of historical side-pivoting helmets is that the pivots are not perfectly aligned. With the pivots being slightly offset and out of alignment, when you raise the visor it torques the arms of the visor enough to sort of lock it in place. Some people think this is a happy accident of imprecise medieval handwork, others think it's far too common to be coincidence.
That easy to open pin mechanism makes me nervous. If it's easy for you to open, it might be just as easy for your opponent and all of a sudden all of your excellent custom made head protection disappears! I wonder if the pin connecting the cheek pieces could be flattened a bit and made more fiddly to open. It might become a real nuisance real fast but it may save your life.
For what it's worth they probably thought the same thing. That particular closure method is only known from one or two examples. After that a small spring pin became the standard closure for armets.
If someone hit you in the chin area would you not be at possible risk of their weapon knocking the opening mechanism and either popping the cheek plates open or jamming them shut. I'm surprised they would put what seems like a fairly delicate and rather important piece in a place that seems sort of exposed. Thanks for the videos. They are great. You have done quite a few styles of helmet, do you have any plans for more in-depth looks at various kinds of cuirass etc.
+KunoSA1 It wouldn't surprise me if that's why later armets feature a hook locking mechanism instead of a turning pin. But it must have worked in this form at least for a while, as it was in use for a couple decades. I'd love to do videos on any piece of medieval armor I can get my hands on. I find one of the strengths of my presentation is the 'show-and-tell' portion, so I'm limited right now by what I have physical access to show.
I have a question: can the hinges on the side cheeks be damaged if you take a hit in a cheek(not hinges themselves) and be disabled, blocking your head within the helmet? How robust are they? The whole systems looks like an overcomplication compared to a bascinet.
It is more complicated than the bascinet, but the change in mobility and weight is very significant. I've never heard of an armet failing in the way you describe. They were popular for 2 centuries (much longer than the standard bascinet) so it must have been a solid design. Even after close helmets became popular in the 16th century, the true armet with hinged cheek plates does not go away.
These are horrible, could be used to torture people with cloister phobia. I always enjoy your videos, but I would not wear this helmet, most terrifying one i have seen so far.
Yeah, medieval helmets in general probably aren't the greatest for people who suffer from claustrophobia. On the armet specifically, I would actually be interested to see how people react to wearing it compared to other designs. Even though it's one of the most closely fitting helmets in the physical sense, the way it's engineered actually makes you feel pretty open to the environment. I felt really mobile in this helmet, and could see with far less obstruction than my bascinet. Other, larger, less closely fit styles of helmets can actually feel much more restrictive and limit your vision more. They might ultimately feel more claustrophobic despite being less closely fit.
hey Ian! I've got question for you! What type of fight do you prefer? I mean, whitch style do you fighting? Simple European duel 1 vs 1, bohurts, HEMA, or SCA? Thank you for answer ;) BTW Im form Poland, so please don't kill me for grammatical errors :)
"Caving in his buddy's face with a pole axe," I'm pretty sure that buddies don't do that to each other.
+Mason Rudesheim Maybe they weren't very close. :)
True, very true.
tis just a prank, brethren
You sure about that buddy?
"I can't believe you've done this!"
I think people often forget, or just don't think about, when bringing up scenarios on how armor can be defeated, is the fact that although your armor has weaknesses, so does your opponent's armor. And being competent knights or men-at-arms, you both know your armor's weaknesses, and defend against them being exploited, while trying to exploit the other's weaknesses. Just like any other fight.
+The Devil Precisely.
+Knyght Errant Somehow I doubt that in most cases you'd spend too much time focusing on the other bloke's armor and its (particular) weaknesses. You don't have time for that in a big brawl. If you were GoT-style dueling and you had time to break apart and circle, then yeah. But really you'd rely on techniques which would work against any armor configuration or at least the majority of them.
Also, tehre probably weren't as many varieties of helmet at that time. We can look in history books and see thousands of different helmet designs, but only a few were probably in fashion in one area of the world, at one time, in one certain conflict. So when armets were popular, you might be taught by your instructor what the weaknesses of armets are and that would be it. You wouldn't be looking at it and saying "Hmmm, that's an armet, isn't it? What was I told about armets?" You're probably more interested in the state of his visor and his weapon.
These are logical guesses supported by zero real-world experience, near-zero theoretical experience, and zero historical sources other than TH-cam videos. Please correct me if (when) I'm wrong.
That's part of the whole "armor isn't amazing" debunk. People often forget anyone with the money to afford one of these suits is going to be trained and prepared for a fight
Exhaustive, crystal clear explanations, no sparing on the details, it's perfect! Everything any curious soul could ask for, ty buddy \o
I like what you said, that armor isn't invulnerable, but most people don't realize that armor would greatly reduce a person's chances of dying.
Look at modern helmets, they don't prevent you from being shot straight in the face but greatly reduce chances from being shot in the head
@@realdragon just that modern helmets dont "greatly reduce" chances from being shot in the head.. what are you talking about.. When a modern helmet stops a bullet, it is considered a "freak happening", what usually happens is that you get your head blown off anyway..
@@Trikipum What I mean is helmets save lives and they always did
I came here after watching Lindybeige’s video about his sallet/armet frankenarmor. I like this video better, it has sources.
The picket fence is pretty useful. You could impale a small piece of fruit on it for a handy snack.
Nothing beats a bevor full of jelly babies.
(actually, hot weather and/or forgetting them does)
The funniest description of fate aligning for an armor failure. . . LOL!!!
"The Moon is in the Seventh House, and Jupiter is aligned with Mars"
Priceless. . .
beautiful helmets, proably my favourite design with the sallet + visor as a close second place
Best quality armour videos on the net, hands down. Production and information quality is perfectly delivered. Its really a shame, you should have as many views as Matt at least. I guess armour isn't as sexy a topic as swords.
+Battam
Dude, he's not that well known yet, give it some time.
When I subscribed to him, he only had 5k subscribers, now he has double that.
Heck, when I subscribed to Matt, he had 30k subscribers, now he has triple!
Also, Ian tends to make relatively long and scholarly videos, which tends to put off some people.
+Battam Spread the word, the more this stuff gets shared around, the more it helps! :) I certainly appreciate it! Yeah, I have kind of chosen a very niche area to drone on about, so I never expected the wide appeal of say a Lindybeige or Skallagrim, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised one day. I'll keep making videos as long as people keep finding them useful! I find it hard to make short videos on these topics because there's so much information and I don't want people to draw bizarre conclusions or misunderstand what I say so I try to get as much detail out as I can. Unfortunately, a lot of people see a 25 or 30 min video and go somewhere else, but I feel like I would be doing a disservice to some of these topics by cutting them too short. Thank you for your support!
I always love those little details that tell a story, like the extra plate at 13:50
It shows that getting your forehead caved in was at least a reasonable enough danger to warrant the expense and weight of adding another plate.
What people often seem to forget is that every bit of these design evolutions is a response to some problem that the wearer would face. It is not a haphazard process, but somebody paying a lot of money for a vital piece of protective equipement.
With these restrictive helmets, I suspect that you'd be raising visors / opening plates pretty much immediately after the lance charge is resolved, especially if you're in any kind of melee.
+Michael Eversberg II That is what a lot of period sources suggest. The sallet + bevor combo is good for this too since you can tilt it back a little.
+DushinSC Indeed Kaptein! An added bonus is that the tilted sallet acts as a brim, protecting the "exposed" face from downwards attacks from above. Kinda like the brims of some of the Hellenistic "Thracian" style helmets, which I really like :)
DushinSC
I figure this was the norm with those big barrel helms over the sallet, as well - especially with the chain. As soon as you're past all the lances, off that thing comes. If it goes to the ground, oh well, get a new one later.
+Michael Eversberg II You'd be surprised actually. I've been doing some work with a HEMA group and it's amazing how many techniques don't require you to see very much.
It's not so much vision as breathing. People tend to underestimate the effect of rebreathing your own co2. Considering fitness is largely about being more efficient with oxygen, a lower % of it is pretty much a direct reduction to your cardio.
The thorough discussion of armor designs overall and specific components, really gives me a great appreciation of the maker's skills. Really amazing. Keep up the excellent work!
I get excited everytime I see you've made a video and I've been looking forward to an armet video in particular. Thanks for all your hard work. Your armor videos are the best on youtube.
+jaysbob Thank you!
What is the story behind the background image at 5:10? It looks like one of the fighters is wearing a crown.
+Eliot Childress So what you're seeing there is bleed through of ink from the opposite side of the folio. The images are from MS Ludwig XV 13, or Fiore dei Liberi's "Fior di Battaglia," an early 15th century fighting treatise now housed at the JP Getty Museum. Here's the plate where the bleed-through image actually is (wiktenauer.com/wiki/Page:MS_Ludwig_XV_13_33r.jpg), but the rest of Fior di Battaglia includes lots of images of the fencers wearing gilt crowns ( wiktenauer.com/wiki/Fior_di_Battaglia_(MS_Ludwig_XV_13) ). They represent the 'masters' of the art, teaching the techniques to the students.
Subbed last night, Thought I would post today:
My major was history, minor was anthro(archaeology focus), and you sir would do well teaching at a collegiate level if you do not already. Your videos are well made, historically grounded, but also engaging and entertaining, and layed out in an expected and welcomed format.
My interest was far more into nautical and mairtime topics, and I've recently begun putting together a roughly 16th century harness(unfortunately I'm having to make some concessions, as the armor is being used in SCA combat), and have found what you're presenting very helpful.
So thanks, and I will be following you long term.
Thank you for the kind words. I'm glad that you're finding the content so enjoyable and helpful!
I second that! I also just subscribed. I am a 58 year old history nut and I find these videos fascinating and well done. I wish history classes in college were that well presented. Attendance would have been much better.
What do these things weigh, no one mentions the weight of these helmets.
A lot of surviving armets tend to be in the 6-8 lb range, give or take. Other styles of similarly sized helmets are pretty close to that range as well. There are of course exceptions.
Hi Ian, I read a book about medieval weapons and armor in my HEMA-club a few months ago and besides the armet and great bascinet there were another 2 styles of helmets depicted among the helmets of that time, one of which was called "Bicoque": 41.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m72bgafdfq1ryohhxo1_250.jpg Is that basically a variant of the armet?
+Al-Malik Al-Ashraf Khalil Yes, and variants that look similar appear in artwork as well.
Knyght Errant okay thanks for the answer and great video as always!
mOOT HOUSTON hur hur, of scrobblefloppertonks, I ken now fooly apporve uf dis chunnel
How the shit have I never met this guy before?
+Mett Euston r u tha reel mett eUst0n? da 1 form scholacafeteria?
donacdum
Woah now, calm down tard. Someone pin him him down while I fetch the tard wranglers.
Can you make a video about armour fluting/fluted armour?
6:11 I believe the technical term for this faceplate design is called the _toilet bowl_ design. The one you own is known as a _picket fence toilet bowl_ armet.
Great video, as always. Lots of stuff I didn't know about. I'd love to see you compare the armet with the later similar-looking but distinct close helm.
You know what i like more than helmets? Knowledge. I mean like seriously look at those books
Armets are nice, I still prefer sallets or burgonets though. Any chance we'll see a video on either of those?
+Ben Kirkby Buy me a sallet and I'll do a video on it! :) I'm just kidding of course. I intend to make videos on anything I can get my hands on in the future. I find the show-and-tell portion of my videos is one of the strengths of my presentation so I'm trying to only cover pieces of armor I can show you firsthand right now. Sallets are on the list as soon as I can find a high-quality example to demo.
+Knyght Errant Worst case scenario, make one out of duct tape.
+Knyght Errant Sallet! Sallet! Sallet!
+Ben Kirkby I vote for sallet next. It was so common
Knyght Errant if I could afford a good quality sallet or two I would!
That helmet looks friggin' awesome.
23:00, you mention that the holes wouldn’t be as effective at reinforcing the picket fence as a solid plate, but I feel like the combined strength of the pickets and holes together would probably make up for that, being at least as strong together as a solid plate would be.
Not gonna, lie, those teeth make that Armet look badass.
Is there a mechanism to hold the visor in place when it's turned up, to keep it from randomly falling down in battle (assuming the wearer wanted more visibility)?
+DeadCamper No mechanism that I've ever seen. One interesting feature that occurs in a lot of historical helmets with side-pivoting visors (in high enough frequency that it's hard to ignore) is that the pivots are not perfectly aligned. The slight offset between the pivots almost locks the visor in the up position when it's raised because of the twist it applies to the arms of the visor. Some try to say this is just a happy biproduct of imprecise smithing, but my personal opinion is that even if this did start as an accident, it probably became intentional. Medieval smiths were capable of aligning holes, that I can't believe it's purely accidental for over a century.
+Knyght Errant Thank you. That indeed seems like a clever and practical way of doing it, no need for fiddly pins and hooks etc.
I love this style of helmet. Great video!
I'd love to see a video on the close helm.
GC Knives ikr
Great video.
Seconding an episode on the sallet.
Thank you for going to so much effort dude. The amount of detail in your videos is amazing!
Thank you, and you're very welcome!
25:46 praise the sun!
My favorite helmets! I literally did not even know that these existed until I watched this a while back.
Do you know of anyone that does videos about later eras of arms/armors/military history as good as yours, but for the later eras, like the 17th or maybe even the 18th century?
A lot of people talk for as long as you do about such things, but don't say nearly as much.
+WARLog403 Hi, thank you. No, I'm not familiar with anyone doing anything similar for the early modern era.
how much would the breaths in the visor weaken it, obviously there would be some weakening but that portion of the visor is supported by the picket fence wich alone does provide some protection. I would have expected these 2 weakened sections of armor together to still provide comparable protection to the single solid plate of the top of the visor or the left cheek. assuming the breaths and gaps in the picket fence line up (not clear on video if this is the case) then it can mitigate the very narrow vertical field of vision through the eye slits.
also relevant would be whether such breaths are seen in historical sources, wich I don't know how/where to check.
Great work Ian. Could you ever make one about the feathers and the crests in the helms? I just cant figure out how crests are put toguether over the helm.
So this is the helmet that the typical fictional knight wears right?
This series is absolutely amazing, fascinating topics and stunning reconstructions. I have a question, too. Do you know of any examples with helmets that had no vision slits, but all vision their visor offered would be holes similar to breaths? A noodle strainer visor, so to say :D
Thank you for this incredible series.
I seriously feel like this type of helmet is the BEST one for everythimg.
I love me some Armet ! Do you think it would go well with a more gothic style armour ? :)
+hacheurdepoulet In the later 15th century when gothic armor existed, armets are usually paired with Milanese style harnesses.
+Knyght Errant i know that, but do you think (or have you found) any evidence of an armet matching a gothic styled armour (I know this is very specific but I'm considering getting some armour, for the mid to late XVth century era and I've always been in love with both the gothic fluting and the armet)
+hacheurdepoulet Not that I've seen.
thanks anyway, great video, as per usual :)
nice! as always :p I have a question Involving Armets. In terms of useability in on foot fighting, how would a say "late 15th century" armet (without the extra whrapper plate) hold up against a sallet or kettle hat with a bevor? And would it be a "historically viable" choise for a man at arms mainly fighting on foot. And please add any other thoughts you have about this topic ;)
Kind regards
I wonder if any armet aventails or mail borders survive? I would think a small hook, like we see on standards, used to close the front split would be a desirable feature.
+Mart Shearer Agreed. It seems like a spot you wouldn't particularly want gapping open during a fight. I've seen reproductions that use lining and padding of the aventail to provide some structure to mitigate that risk, but a small hook would go a long way in protecting you there.
Ever wonder what a modern Version of this would look like? If you had a modern engineering team design the perfect medieval armor with whatever modern material they like?
I like the way you present the evolution of the armour and I simply can't help marvelling at the beautiful design of the helmets. Great work!
Ahhh, armets. My favourite helmet of them all. I'm more of a late 15th to early 16th century guy myself, but there aren't many ugly armets out there.
Hi guys I'm ian laspina thanks for tunning in to another video on forgottenweapons.com and today let's look at this armet
Armor Jesus approves.
24:45 pretty good is an understatement. That degree of peripheral vision is almost the complete 170 degrees expected without a helmet at all isn't it? Considering it's still a helmet, it's practically ideal.
how can you get dislikes on these videos? damn flanders...
Just watching him with the helmet on gives me claustrophobia
Just a thought: maybe poleaxes and warhammers were designed to damage components like the hinges in order to expose it's wearer.
+Rasgonras A poleaxe doesn't even necessarily need to expose the wearer to hurt them :)
Knyght Errant
That's true, maybe it would be a nice, unintended side effect? (for the attacker, that is ...)
Without the visor, cheek pieces, or tail, and with a two-piece riveted-construction, this could also easily be sold as a helmet for the Yoaman Class.
This is a really great and informative video. Love the design of this helmet, both aesthetically and practically.
I just bought myself one of these helmets, would the kit that goes with it look more like 1390 (with fabric garment over the torso and/or sleeves) or with the later style of exposed armor?
On the note of reinforcing weak spots:
Wouldn’t the visor, with or without breaths/sights, be plenty of reinforcement? The added visibility and breathability (which is a relatively significant addition given the other holes being rather small as well) seems a very good trade off, especially as the visor isn’t resting solely on the teeth.
would the lock in front not open easely in fights (hand to hand fights?)?
+warfilgames The cheek pieces themselves actually provide considerable outward tension on the locking mechanism. Later armets would often feature a small hook and eyelet to lock the cheek-plates closed, so perhaps they moved away from this turn-pin for that very reason. I can attest to the fact that I've seen the owner of this helmet take poleaxe shots to the armet and he's had no failures of the lock so far that I'm aware of, but it's a distinct possibility.
Well made video! But "Churburg" is pronounced "Koorboorg". Little hint: The German "u" is always pronounced like the English "oo" (exept for the diphtongs "eu" and "äu" which sounds like "oy"). :)
Something I've always wondered about helmets with hinged visors: How do you make sure the visor stays up when you want and doesn't fall back closed? Is it just that the hinges are tight enough for friction to keep it in place?
+John Erickson A lot of historical visor pivots are not perfectly in line with each other. They're offset just slightly. Whether this was intentional or not is a matter of debate, but the result is that when the visor is raised, it puts enough strain on the visor arms to hold it up. Most modern reproductions just use tight pivots.
i have a question, is such a close fit really beneficial in a helmet ? From what i learned about helmets, the really good ones were somewhat floating on your head, not directly transfering the blows to it, therefore reducing blunt force and sudden acceleration of the head due to blows.
A Venitian bassinet like the one you show there is visible in the Chronicon pictum representing the battle of Rozgony.
Again a very excellent video! I really appreciate your channel.
I have one question regarding the sort aventail on the example you have showed: as it is attached to the movable pieces at the sides of the helm, even when you fully close the helmet it seems to me that there is a small, but considerable gap in the mail right in front of your throat. Wouldn't it be easy to design the mail in a way that there is a higher amount of overlap of the mail coming from each side?
+Thomas Heydenreich Yeah, it's a weakness in the design. I've seen modern reconstructions try to get around this by backing the mail with a full lined and padded textile that provides more structure and closes the gaps more completely when it's on. I think the aventail on the particular one I show in this video is a little too short as well to really be effective. Here's a speculative attempt to correct what you're talking about (www.gambeson.pl/medieval-on-line-shop/14th-16th-century/armet.html) I would take it one step further though and add some small hooks to close that gap completely. Small hooks were used commonly on things like collars of mail, and I think they would go a long way here to protect the wearer and ensure overlap.
+Knyght Errant I totally agree with you, that there are for sure some fixes to this problem which wouldn't need a lot of tweaking. However, it is very interesting that in those times they probably did not see this to be an important enough problem to fix, which they otherwise would probably have done (as seen in general in the evolution of armor). Thanks for your answer!
Might I ask what the song is called that begins playing at 0:12?
Le Jugement du Roi de Navarre: Ballade "Esperance"
8 years late but anyway
Armets will always be my favourite helmet
So since this helmet is so close fitting, does it still have the same principle as for example the smaller where the helmet sort of hangs and the head is actually wearing the liner, so that the force of the blow doesn't go directly into the head?
Yes, in general armets would also utilize a suspension-type liner to keep the steel of the helmet off the top of the cranium.
That was a really interesting helmet, you don't really see anything quite like it in any of the armor from movies or shows. Instead of the visor being completely solid, do you think the air-holes might have just matched up with the ones on the right side plate?
+zarbran The visor doesn't extend much lower than the 'picket fence' so it's likely it just would have been completely solid, even on the right side. That's how most contemporary visors were made (in art and on similar helmets, like the Venetian great bascinets), and then again on future armet designs. It's possible though!
Why didn't Armets have breaths
Some do, some don't. It seems that many of the early armets did have breaths, as did many of the late period ones, but the archetypal armets of the mid to late 15th century mostly omit them. It's also during that point where they seem to be serving primarily as a heavy cavalry helmet, and perhaps the expected risk of an open field charge against heavy lance was too great to have breaths on the visor and it was easier to just raise the visor if you needed more air. Even with the visor up, a lot of later armets still cover a lot of the face, especially with the wrapper in place (which would have made the breaths all but useless anyway), so you're still protected pretty well with the visor up. That's a possible explanation anyway...
Being italian, it is quite funny to hear him pronouncing italian words.
Great vid, I love your channel❤
Could you do more on the venetian bascinet? Why don't they have any breathing holes?
Speaking of wrappers, have you seen the sallet in the Wallace Collection which has a buffe held on with a giant wingnut?
wallacelive.wallacecollection.org:8080/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=60680&viewType=detailView
You showed some images of horses, how much armor would have heavy cavalier horses worn? I have seen some pictures of basically plate armor for horses, is that combat armor or is it Jousting basically 'sports' armor?
This was an insanely good video. Answered all of my questions. Thank you!
IDK why the picket fence has to be that sharp looking when the more squared off or rounder tips are more serviceable.If I was a knight, even with the chance someone can hit me in the face is very low, it's a bit damming for my mental health to know that I have tiny blades on my face that can turn on me and into my eyes. Better yet, why it not a cage with tiny bars instead?
You didn't say whether or not the extra holes in the bottom of the visor aided in expanding your field of vision. If the holes in the visor lined up with the gaps in the picket fence then they might be more for vision than for ventilation. True, they make the visor weaker, but the tradeoff may be worth it, at least in the opinion of the man who is wearing it.
Late 15th century armet with a wrapper? Ask Jeff Wasson to loan you his!
Can we get a brief overview of liners in armets and close helmets?
Hi Ian,l had a couple visits to the imperial war museum (Leeds) last year,most interesting.I was wondering if you had managed to visit the UK or to Europe.keep up the good work,cheers.
+Paul and Sue Roberts I took a school trip to Europe (A few days each in England, France and Italy) when I was in high school many years ago, but I was far too young to appreciate it and the stay was far too brief in each location. I would love to go back now!
Without punched holes, how would they breathe in the armet? Also, what's your favourite helmet and why?
Will you ever do a FAQ?
What's your life story? (jk on the last one)
+No Free Will If you needed a full breath you would lift your visor. With the visor up you have pretty good breathing. With the visor down, air exchange will occur through the sight in the visor and from the bottom of the helmet. It's restrictive for sure, but it's not going to suffocate you. It would take some getting used to though, and if you weren't in immediate danger, I'm willing to bet people popped their visors up when they had the opportunity.
My favorite helmet is the side-pivoting houndksull bascinet. I love the way it looks, and I love the period of history it belongs to. The armet is a close second. As far as FAQ goes, I try to take the most frequent questions I get and use them for individual video ideas.
The most beautiful and practical helmet ever.
Picket fence visor is run the tip of sword down or up visor and picket fence does the rest IMO
So is this the type of helmet that is often depicted in shows and movies with 3 bars going vertical on the visor
poor guy getting hammered in the face wile inventing air-guitar tragic ...
am I the only one who thinks armets are kinda feminine looking compared to other helmets?
Armet sallet great helmet they are all bascinet to me basically same faceless head bucket
931-0 ohh well...its not gonna be me
932-0
TIL that this is the correct pronunciation of "armet".
Is it okay to think of armor technology improving over time as a general rule? Adapting, always. Filling out niches, always. But improving always? Or sometimes is it just an issue of fashion?
+Prometheus720 Fashion plays a role, it would be dishonest for me to say otherwise. Fashion aside though, armor technology over time is definitely trending toward improvements. Plate armor especially improves quite substantially over time.
The later ones may not have breaths but they have Romelyn Dreths. 👍
I wonder how would you compare armet with close helmet? They look vewry similar - only noticable difference is the way they open. Have you thought about making a video about close helmets?
th-cam.com/video/42oEPWVGNBw/w-d-xo.html
Regarding visors, how do you keep them up? It seems like you'd want them up most of the time, but when you're riding or running around your head's going to be bouncing up and down a lot and it seems like the visor would keep falling down, which would be really annoying.
+Bananadoom Either make sure the pivots are very tight, or what we see on a lot of historical side-pivoting helmets is that the pivots are not perfectly aligned. With the pivots being slightly offset and out of alignment, when you raise the visor it torques the arms of the visor enough to sort of lock it in place. Some people think this is a happy accident of imprecise medieval handwork, others think it's far too common to be coincidence.
That easy to open pin mechanism makes me nervous.
If it's easy for you to open, it might be just as easy for your opponent and all of a sudden all of your excellent custom made head protection disappears!
I wonder if the pin connecting the cheek pieces could be flattened a bit and made more fiddly to open.
It might become a real nuisance real fast but it may save your life.
For what it's worth they probably thought the same thing. That particular closure method is only known from one or two examples. After that a small spring pin became the standard closure for armets.
If someone hit you in the chin area would you not be at possible risk of their weapon knocking the opening mechanism and either popping the cheek plates open or jamming them shut. I'm surprised they would put what seems like a fairly delicate and rather important piece in a place that seems sort of exposed. Thanks for the videos. They are great. You have done quite a few styles of helmet, do you have any plans for more in-depth looks at various kinds of cuirass etc.
+KunoSA1 It wouldn't surprise me if that's why later armets feature a hook locking mechanism instead of a turning pin. But it must have worked in this form at least for a while, as it was in use for a couple decades. I'd love to do videos on any piece of medieval armor I can get my hands on. I find one of the strengths of my presentation is the 'show-and-tell' portion, so I'm limited right now by what I have physical access to show.
I have a question: can the hinges on the side cheeks be damaged if you take a hit in a cheek(not hinges themselves) and be disabled, blocking your head within the helmet? How robust are they? The whole systems looks like an overcomplication compared to a bascinet.
It is more complicated than the bascinet, but the change in mobility and weight is very significant. I've never heard of an armet failing in the way you describe. They were popular for 2 centuries (much longer than the standard bascinet) so it must have been a solid design. Even after close helmets became popular in the 16th century, the true armet with hinged cheek plates does not go away.
I have a an armet and my blood god... its a pain the arse to put on XD
Very cool. I hope you are still around?
where can I get that manequin head?
Hope you read this.
Isnt the rondell aso for giving you fixation on the saddles of the time, since they where mire like big chairs on horseback.
+blastmaster211 I'm not sure I follow what you're suggesting.
These are horrible, could be used to torture people with cloister phobia. I always enjoy your videos, but I would not wear this helmet, most terrifying one i have seen so far.
Yeah, medieval helmets in general probably aren't the greatest for people who suffer from claustrophobia. On the armet specifically, I would actually be interested to see how people react to wearing it compared to other designs. Even though it's one of the most closely fitting helmets in the physical sense, the way it's engineered actually makes you feel pretty open to the environment. I felt really mobile in this helmet, and could see with far less obstruction than my bascinet. Other, larger, less closely fit styles of helmets can actually feel much more restrictive and limit your vision more. They might ultimately feel more claustrophobic despite being less closely fit.
I wonder why they stopped putting breaths in
forgotten weapons...but really forgotten
hey Ian!
I've got question for you!
What type of fight do you prefer? I mean, whitch style do you fighting? Simple European duel 1 vs 1, bohurts, HEMA, or SCA?
Thank you for answer ;)
BTW Im form Poland, so please don't kill me for grammatical errors :)
+Młody Rymcymcerz As far as modern fighting goes, I prefer HEMA-based armored fighting and Historical Deeds of Arms.
Ok, thank you ;)