The armet is a type of combat helmet which was developed in the 15th century. It was extensively used in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

and

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. It was distinguished by being the first helmet of its era to completely enclose the head while being compact and light enough to move with the wearer. Its use was essentially restricted to the fully armoured man-at-arms.

Appearance and origins

As the armet was fully enclosing, and narrowed to follow the contours of the neck and throat, it had to have a mechanical means of opening and closing to enable it to be worn. The typical armet consisted of four pieces: the skull, the two large hinged cheek-pieces which locked at the front over the chin, and a

visor A visor (also spelled vizor) is a surface that protects the eyes, such as shading them from the sun or other bright light or protecting them from objects. Nowadays many visors are transparent, but before strong transparent substances such a ...

which had a double pivot, one either side of the skull. The cheek-pieces opened laterally by means of horizontal hinges; when closed they overlapped at the chin, fastening by a spring-pin which engaged in a corresponding hole, or by a swivel-hook and pierced staple. A reinforcement for the bottom half of the face, known as a ''wrapper'', was sometimes added; its straps were protected by a metal disc at the base of the skull piece called a '' rondel.'' The visor attached to each pivot via hinges with removable pins, as in the later examples of the

bascinet The bascinet – also bassinet, basinet, or bazineto – was a Medieval European open-faced combat helmet. 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 an ...

. This method remained in use until c. 1520, after which the hinge disappeared and the visor had a solid connection to its pivot. The earlier armet often had a small

aventail An aventail () or camail () is a flexible curtain of mail attached to the skull of a helmet that extends to cover the throat, neck and shoulders. Part or all of the face, with spaces to allow vision, could also be covered. The earliest camai ...

, a piece of

mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sys ...

attached to the bottom edge of each cheek-piece. The earliest surviving armet dates to 1420 and was made in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. An Italian origin for this type of helmet therefore seems to be indicated. The innovation of a reduced skull and large hinged cheek pieces was such a radical departure from previous forms of helmet that it is highly probable that the armet resulted from the invention of a single armourer or soldier, and not as the result of evolution from earlier forms. However, a number of Italian bascinets dating to c. 1400 (sometimes termed 'Venetian great bascinets') were discovered in Chalcis, Greece; these possess a single hinged cheekpiece (the other being immobile). This may have had some influence on the development of the armet.Ffolkes, C. (1911) ''On Italian Armour from Chalcis in the Ethnological Museum at Athens'', ARCHEOLOGIA 62, Part II Feb., 1911

Use and variations

The armet reached the height of its popularity during the late 15th and early 16th centuries, when western European full plate armour had been perfected. Movable face and cheek pieces allowed the wearer to close the helmet, thus fully protecting the head from blows. The term armet was often applied in contemporary usage to any fully enclosing helmet, however, modern scholarship draws a distinction between the armet and the outwardly similar

close helmet The close helmet or close helm is a type of combat helmet that was worn by knights and other men-at-arms in the Late Medieval and Renaissance eras. It was also used by some heavily armoured, pistol-armed, cuirassiers into the mid-17th century. I ...

(or close helm) on the basis of their construction, especially their means of opening to allow them to be worn. While an armet had two large cheekpieces hinged at the skull and opened laterally, a close helmet instead had a kind of movable

bevor A bevor ( ) or beaver is a piece of plate armour designed to protect the neck, much like a gorget. Etymology The word “bevor” or “beaver” is derived from Old French ''baver'', meaning ‘to dribble’. This is a reference to the effect o ...

which was attached to the same pivot points as its visor and opened vertically. The classic armet had a narrow extension to the back of the skull reaching down to the nape of the neck, and the cheekpieces were hinged, horizontally, directly from the main part of the skull. From about 1515, the Germans produced a variant armet where the downward extension of the skull was made much wider, reaching as far forward as the ears. The cheekpieces on this type of helmet opened sideways, on vertical hinges on the edges of this wider neck element. The high-quality English

Greenwich armour Greenwich armour is the plate armour in a distinctively English style produced by the Royal Almain Armoury founded by Henry VIII in 1511 in Greenwich near London, which continued until the English Civil War. The armoury was formed by imported maste ...

s often included this type of armet from c. 1525. Greenwich-made armets adopted the elegant two-piece visor found on contemporary

s; armets of this form were manufactured until as late as 1615. The lower edge of such helmets often closed over a flange in the upper edge of a gorget-piece. The helmet could then rotate without allowing a gap in the armour that a weapon point could enter. Close helm armet open

The armet is found in many contemporary pieces of artwork, such as

Paolo Uccello Paolo Uccello ( , ; 1397 – 10 December 1475), born Paolo di Dono, was an Italian (Florentine) painter and mathematician who was notable for his pioneering work on visual perspective in art. In his book ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, S ...

's '' The Battle of San Romano'', and is almost always shown as part of a

ese armor. These depictions show armets worn with tall and elaborate crests, largely of feathered plumes; however, no surviving armets have similar crests and very few show obvious provision for the attachment of such crests. The armet was most popular in Italy, however, in England, France and Spain it was widely used by men-at-arms alongside the

sallet The sallet (also called ''celata,'' ''salade'' and ''schaller'') was a combat helmet that replaced the bascinet in Italy, western and northern Europe and Hungary during the mid-15th century. In Italy, France and England the armet helmet was also ...

, whilst in Germany the latter helmet was much more common. It is believed that the

resulted from a combination of various elements derived from each of the preceding helmet types.

References

Bibliography

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Appearance and origins

Use and variations

References

Bibliography

Further reading