A Helmet in the Church of St. Mary, Bury St. Edmunds

A Helmet in the Church of St Mary, Bury St. Edmunds1 by TOBIAS CAPWELL 1 2 T he English tradition of setting helmets, swords and Despite the comparatively large number of highly other pieces of armour up above the funerary composite oddities which, though they will always monuments of members of the knightly class has stimulate the curiosity of enthusiasts, are of little historical allowed many important examples of the armourer’s art to importance, a considerable number of highly significant survive when otherwise they would almost certainly have helmets come from or still inhabit English churches. They been lost. Nearly all of the most famous examples of English represent many key stages in the evolution of knightly armour dating from before 1500, pieces made or at least used armour in England which would otherwise be known only in this country, have been preserved as funerary through the pictorial and documentary sources. The great ‘achievements’. Most, but not all, are helmets. The helmet helms of Edward, the Black Prince2 and Sir Richard was of central importance to heraldic display, mounted Pembridge3 (Fig. 03) are icons of the Hundred Years War above the shield and carrying the owner’s crest and mantling. period and were almost certainly made in England. Those of Some church helmets have recently found their way Sir Nicholas Hauberk4 and King Henry V5 illustrate into public museum collections, others are now in private perfectly the genesis of the so-called ‘frog-mouthed’ hands, and yet more have unfortunately been stolen or lost jousting helm, while the ‘Barandyne’6 and ‘de Vere’7 helms and cannot presently be located. However a majority remain represent it in its fully-fledged and highly successful form in the care of the churches in which they were originally which remained in use, largely unchanged, for over a deposited. Many of the helmets associated with later century. The monumental use of helmets has also brought us monuments have been found to be odd assemblages of a much greater knowledge of the ways in which jousting disparate elements, often of incongruent origin, put together and tournament armour became more diversified in the late in the seventeenth century, or later, when the practice of fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, with such fine pieces setting up achievements was still flourishing while the art of as the ‘Browning’8 helm (Fig. 04), made for the English the armourer was in rapid decline. Mounted high on a spike joust of peace or ‘joust royal’9 and the ‘Beaufort’10 great driven into the wall of the church, a funerary helmet was bascinet (Fig. 05), an outstanding example of the specialised not intended to stand close inspection, and many look rather helmet worn in the tourney and for foot combat in the less impressive when they are taken down from their champ clos.11 Many fine helmets for war have also been perches for examination. preserved in churches, including some of the very best mid- 1  3 8 4 5 6 7 to late fifteenth-century sallets in the west European and Italian export fashions, including those from the churches at Witton-le-Wear12 (Fig. 06) and Blithfield13. Especially well- represented are Italo-Flemish armets dating from the end of the fifteenth century and beginning of the sixteenth, when armour of this style appears to have become fashionable in England. The Italo-Flemish armets at Wooton St Lawrence14 and Bury St. Edmunds15 (Fig. 07) are representative of the numerous notable examples. 9 However it is another earlier helmet, also remaining at the Church of St. Mary in Bury St. Edmunds, that deserves greater attention (Figs. 01-02, 08-09). Although it was Its earlier elements make it an exceptionally rare, if not mentioned by both Laking16 and Cripps-Day17, its special unique, piece of physical evidence for a stylistic group of points of interest have never been discussed. This helmet, mid- to late fifteenth-century armets exhibiting certain hung over the funerary monument to Sir William Carewe design features more commonly associated with the sallets (d.1501), but which actually has a somewhat older origin, is of the same period. Representations of such helmets in art notable for three reasons: can only be described as sallet-armet hybridisations. It is a working lifetime composite, a functional helmet Its later parts are themselves extremely uncommon, put together for combat use sometime in the last quarter of belonging to a small group of little-known early close- the fifteenth century. The composition appears to have helmets, apparently of a distinctly Flemish style. This group involved the marriage of an unfinished armet skull and embodies what is perhaps the earliest form of an iconic cheek-pieces dating from c. 1460-85, with a pivoted bevor, helmet concept which became ubiquitous throughout single falling buffe plate, and visor of c. 1485-1500. Europe in the sixteenth century. 2  10 12 completed and fully-functional armet which was then converted at a later date, is evidenced by the absence of any sign of the hinges that would have secured the cheek-pieces to the sides of the skull. The pieces themselves had been roughly formed but never advanced beyond that point in the process of manufacture. The holes for the rondel, at the nape of the neck, and for the lining and aventail bands, along the helmet’s lower edge, remain unfilled. The skull was also roughly punched, probably at a later date, with pairs of holes on either side, for the attachment of a funerary crest, now missing, and with a larger hole or ‘key-hole slot’ placed centrally on the medial ridge at the apex (Fig. 11). This slotted hole is almost certainly original to the earliest intended form of the helmet, being the anchor point for the original crest, pomme, and/or plume. Almost all contemporary sallets and armets of Italian or west European origin display holes of a comparable size and location. The front of the skull has been strengthened by the addition of a reinforcing brow plate. Although such ‘double’ plates18 are typically found on Italian armets, their form is 11 quite different. This important stylistic detail is further discussed below. Although the medial ridge of the skull is quite sharp, the sides of the skull curve steeply up from the sides of the Construction head in the front elevation; this allows the medial ridge to The original intended form of the helmet, an armet with be sharp without forming a sudden, angular ‘keel’ in an hinged cheek-pieces, is still quite apparent when examining otherwise rounded bowl. The more ovoid form of the skull the piece in its present state. The rear portions of the cheek- suggests, that the skull, and by association the cheek-pieces, pieces remain, having been riveted solidly to the skull with were made in the 1460s or 70s, rounder skulls with sharper three stout rivets each (Fig. 10). The front parts have been medial ‘keels’ being more characteristic of the last fifteent cut away, producing a rather makeshift close-helmet skull of to twenty years of the fifteenth century19. the correct form to take a bevor pivoting on the same points The altered leading edges of the cheek-pieces, which as the visor, the defining feature of any close-helmet. The are angled back towards the nape, have both been punched fact that the armet skull and cheek-pieces were unfinished with a set of holes for the attachment of a lining band (Fig. at the time of these alterations, rather than having been a 12). This strongly suggests that the helmet was converted 3  15 13 16 for active fighting use, rather than for funerary use only. These would have been used in conjunction with the rear lining holes already present on the cheek-pieces and on the tongue of the skull. After the armet bowl and cheek-pieces had been riveted together and cut back to form the close-helmet skull, a new pivoted bevor, falling buffe plate and half-visor were added to complete the conversion. The bevor covered the chin to a level just below the wearer’s mouth, in the typical fashion of the last quarter of the fifteenth century20 (Fig. 13). The bevor has been closely tapered to embrace the throat, and then flared out again to form a flange designed to support a set of articulated neck lames; the pivot holes at the sides and the internal leather holes in the middle of the plate’s lower edge are presently unfilled. However the original rivets that held the internal lining bands mounted inside the bevor are still present and undisturbed, though the leather or textile bands themselves have long since disintegrated (Fig. 14). The close family relationship between this early close- 14 helmet and armets of the same period is quite apparent in 4  At first glance the visor appears to be a cut-down fragment of an armet visor of the so-called ‘sparrow’s beak’ form. However upon closer inspection it is clear that it has not been altered in any way, and instead is of precisely the same form now as it was when newly made (Fig. 16). The upper lip of the visor, which forms the lower edge of the helmet’s sight, (the sight’s upper edge being formed by the lower edge of the brow reinforce) has been skilfully boxed out to form a pronounced stop-rib. The lower edge of the visor is similarly treated, with a bold and slightly box- turned edge. Visors of this precise style, which combine the idea of the ‘demi-visor’ so commonly applied to sallets with the sharply pointed profile usually associated with armets, are closely linked to early close-helmets of the west European fashion (see below). An Armet-Sallet Hybridisation Although the armet helmet-form is, rightly, strongly associated with armour of the Italian style, there is some evidence that west European armets sometimes had distinct and decidedly un-Italian design features. French and Netherlandish pictorial sources suggest that by the 1440s, helmets were being made that were essentially armet-sallet hybrids, armets in their basic construction but having marked sallet-like qualities, particularly in the form of the visor and brow reinforce. The earliest appearances in art known to the author of such helmets (Fig. 17) occur in the fascinating group portrait of Jean Jouvenal des Ursins (1360-1431) and his family21, dated 1445-9, was created for display in the Jouvenal des Ursins chapel in Notre Dame de Paris (where the effigies of Jean and his wife Michelle de Vitry can still be seen) and is now in the Musée de Cluny, Paris (Inv. 9618). The senior Jouvenal des Ursins and five of his six sons are shown in armour (the eldest son, also named Jean, the famous historian and chronicler of the battle of Agincourt, was Bishop of Laon when the picture was painted), kneeling in prayer with their helmets placed in various prominent locations. Two of the sons are 17 Details from a portrait of Jean Jouvenel des Ursins and his Family, dated 1445-9. Musee de Cluny, Paris, Inv. 9618. represented as knights, with gilded armour, swords and spurs, while the other three wear the plainer armour and the form of the falling buffe plate, which serves essentially accoutrements appropriate to esquires. The father and his the same function as the separate wrapper worn with armets second and third sons (the two eldest of the sons in armour) since the early fifteenth century. This thick, heavy plate, all have their knightly heavy cavalry helmets close by. Two typically worn by heavy cavalrymen, protected the face are armets fitted with high wrappers and visors of the form almost to the level of the eyes and was designed so that the most typically found on west European and Italian export visor would nest closely behind it when lowered (Fig. 15). sallets of the same period; the third appears to be a great In this way the visor was well-guarded and could not be bascinet with pivoted bevor (strapped around the back of flung open by a lance blow striking it at the slight upward the skull in the manner of a wrapper) and sallet visor of angles typically encountered in armoured cavalry combat. similar form to the other two helmets. This system, though apparently simple and practical, Such visors are characterised by a very strong form the nevertheless required considerable skill to ensure a good, lower lip of the sight boldly boxed out and protruding close fit. Here we find the wrapper system taken an forward of the area below it, which drops down to protect additional step- rather than being a separate element secured the middle of the face. Also typical of this visor type is the to the face by means of a strap around the back of the head, cusped brow reinforce extending above the sight and the chin-plate of the wrapper has been riveted onto the jaw generally drawn out into a sharp point along the line of the area of the bevor, while the articulated neck lames, which medial ridge. Two of the best surviving visors of this type would have been attached to the lower edge of the wrapper, are those on Italian export sallets in the Royal Armouries22 would have also been moved onto the bevor and riveted onto (Fig. 18) and Churburg Castle23 (Fig. 20). The main it in the same location. difference between the sallet and armet variants of this 5  18 Sallet, Italian, made for export, c. 1460. Royal Armouries, 20 Sallet, Italian, made for export, c. 1460. Churburg Castle, Leeds, II.168. Sluderno, Italy, No. 23. 19 Detail from a stained- 21 Detail from a miniature glass window donor portrait depicting a paladin of of a man in armour, by Charlemagne and a farmer, Hendrik or Jan van from The Romance of Ogier Diependale of Brabant, the Dane, by Antoine Vérard, Flemish, c1480-1500. Paris, 1498-99. Biblioteca Victoria and Albert Museum, Nazionale Universitaria, London, Inv. 6914-1860. Turin. visor-type seems to have been that when mounted on an combines with the boxed lower edge of the sight of its visor armet, the visor was attached to the skull by means of loose- to give the Bury St. Edmunds helmet a distinctly sallet-like pin hinges or clasps at the pivots, so that it could be appearance- not at all what one would usually expect of an removed, in the way typical of armets. This detail is Italianate armet of this time. especially clear in the Jouvenal des Ursins group portrait. Alternatively Italian export and western European An Early Flemish Close-helmet sallets of this period could have a separate brow reinforce Finally, the Bury St. Edmunds helmet is important also as riveted to the skull, instead of the integral type incorporated an example of an early west European close-helmet, the into the visor. In these cases the helmet was fitted with a form into which it was converted late in the fifteenth half-or demi-visor, which covered the area of the cheek- century. It is not however the only known example of its bones and nose but which did not extend above the sight. type- several others survive24 and as a group represent the Perhaps the most famous surviving example of a sallet of earliest manifestation of the close-helmet design, which this type is that in the Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry (Fig. would become ubiquitous in a very wide range of stylistic 22). Here the brow reinforce has been drawn up into a point variations in the sixteenth and seventeen centuries. This along the medial ridge, with shallow secondary cusped earliest of close-helmet forms probably appeared in the points on either side. One of the most immediately striking early 1480s. At that time a new method of wearing the sallet aspects of the Bury St. Edmunds helmet is the fact that it and bevor may be observed in Flemish and German art. Up carries a separate brow reinforce which much more closely until this point, the chin-strap of the sallet was under the resembles those found on contemporary sallets and which is bevor, allowing the head to turn from side the side while the quite unlike the brow plates of Italian armets of the same bevor remained fixed, being strapped or tied to the period (Fig. 23); these always extend much farther up over breastplate. However in the early 1480s depictions appear of the skull, in the front but especially at the sides. This detail the chin-stap worn over the bevor, and the breastplate 6 22 Sallet, Italian, made for export, c.1475-90. Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry, Inv. No. 1962-54 fastening omitted. This method allowed the bevor to move with the sallet as a single unit, and represents the genesis of the close-helmet idea. One of the best illustrations of this configuration is found in a Flemish tapestry of c. 1477-81 24 Jean de Daillon, Seigneur de Lude, made in Arras, c. 1477-81. depicting Jean de Daillon, Seigneur de Lude (1413-81), Montacute House, Yeovil, Somerset (National Trust). who was appointed Lieutenant du Roi in the tapestry- making city of Arras after it fell back into French hands Although all but one example known to the author are after the death of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, in in or come from English churches, the pictorial evidence 147725 (Fig. 24). He is shown fully armoured in the Flemish for such helmets comes entirely from the Low Countries. style, his harness closely comparible to those accompanying This suggests that these helmets were a characteristically early close-helmets in pictorial representations (see below Flemish concept which was then exported to France, Figs. 28-30). England and perhaps also the Iberian Peninsula. The typical 23 Armet, Italian, probably made for export, c. 1470. Wallace 25 Close-helmet, probably Flemish, c. 1480. Royal Armouries, Collection, London, Inv. No. A152. Leeds, Inv. IV.1879. 7 26 Early close-helmet skull, French or Flemish, c. 1470-80. Paris, Musée National du Moyen Âge - Thermes de Cluny, Inv. H34. Note the heavy corrosion on the brow, which follows the outline of the missing brow reinforce. 28 Detail from The Assault on Asilah, 'Arzila' Tapestries, Workshop of Passchier Grenier, Tournai, c. 1475-85 Museum of the Collegiate Church of Nuestra Senora de la Asunción, Pastrana sallets, being drawn straight downwards and closely shaped to the sides of the neck. Another close-helmet skull of the 27 same form, but having an ‘onion’ shaped apex rather than the ‘almond’ form observed on the Pluckley and Godshill examples, is now in the collection of the Musée de l’Armée, close-helmet of this type was comprised of a skull, often Paris and on display at the Musée National du Moyen Age30 resembling a sallet in its form26, having either an ‘almond’ (Fig. 26). or ‘onion’ shape27, visor or demi-visor, and pivoted bevor, The Pluckley helmet could conceivably have once been sometimes fitted with a bevor reinforce or single falling- fitted with a simple ‘sparrow’s beak’ visor, not unlike that of buffe plate like that found on the Bury St. Edmunds helmet. an armet. Such visors are found on two other surviving The most famous of the surviving early close-helmets close-helmets of the group, both converted sallets31. originally hung over the monument possibly of Richard However, it is perhaps more likely that the Pluckley helmet Dering, (d. 1481)28, in Pluckley, Kent.; it now in the Royal originally carried a bevor reinforce and demi-visor of the Armouries29 (Fig. 25). It is now missing its visor and same or similar form to those of the Bury St. Edmunds additional chin and neck plates, but the holes for the helmet (Fig. 27). The bevor of the Pluckley helmet carries attachment of these pieces are present, as is one at the back holes on either side, in the locations a bevor reinforce would for a rondel, above the line of holes for the lining band. require. Additional holes may have held a locking Despite these losses, the Pluckley helmet is, significantly, mechanism of some kind. one of only two members of the group which are not sallet The original appearance of the Pluckley helmet is or armet conversions, the other being that at Godshill on the evoked in a detail from the third of the Flemish ‘Arzila’ Isle of Wight (see below). These two were originally made tapestries, a series of four epic depictions of episodes from as close-helmets. The skulls are deeper than those for one of the North Africa campaigns of King Afonso V of 8 29 31 Portugal, which culminated with the capture of the city of Asilah (Port. Arzila) in 147132. Here the King’s standard bearer, Duarte of Almeida, carrying the King’s distinctive rodízio espargindo gotas (wheel spraying drops) banner, wears an early close-helmet having a pointed skull and cusped brow reinforce very much like those of the Pluckley helmet (Fig. 28). The distinctive close-helmet half-visor is also present, looking very much like the surviving visor of this form on the Bury St. Edmunds helmet33. The bevor carries two articulated neck plates in the front, while some kind of pivoted upper bevor plate is also present, although the artist seems to have misunderstood the precise construction. Duarte’s helmet is also fitted with a mail aventail around its base. The line of holes around the base of the Pluckley helmet probably once supported a similar mail mantle. Finally the helmet in the tapestry also carries a rondel at the nape of the neck; as mentioned above the Pluckley helmet seems also once to have had one. A rondel is also included on the early close-helmet worn by St. George in a drawing attributed to Hugo van der Goes34 (Fig. 29, 30). Here however it is mounted higher up over the back of the head, in much the same location as the rondel remaining on the English or Flemish jousting helm in the Dorset County Museum (Fig. 04). The van der Goes 30 drawing is one of the most important pictorial comparisons 9 32 Funerary helmet of Sir John Leigh (d. 1522), probably Flemish, 41 c. 1480-1500. All Saints, Godshill, Isle of Wight. 33 42 for the early close-helmet group because it illustrates the numerous breaths, a detail not found elsewhere in the entire armour of the wearer- a fine Italo-Flemish armour of relevant source material. c. 1475-90, one very similar in fact to the armour worn by The other extant early close-helmet of this group that is the armoured Saint in one of van der Goes’ four ‘Trinity’ not a conversion was set up as part of funerary monument, altar panels in the Royal Collection35 (Fig. 31). at the church of All Saints in Godshill on the Isle of Wight36 Here again the form of the helmet resembles the (Fig. 32). At some point this helmet was mounted with a Pluckley close-helmet, with the addition of a plume stalk wrapper from an armet, which does not fit and would not from which issues a long trailing streamer, perhaps a lady’s originally have been worn with it. Underneath the wrapper veil or ‘wimpole’. St. George’s close-helmet is also fitted however is a near complete Flemish early close-helmet, with a visor of the distinctive form associated with this made up of a pointed, ‘almond’-type skull, drawn down into helmet style, and a falling buff plate, the form of which here a short tail at the back, sallet-like brow reinforce, pointed seems essentially to be a slightly reduced and inverted demi-visor, pivoted bevor, and falling upper bevor plate version of the visor itself. Both are, unusually, pierced with (Fig. 33). The rondel post remains at the nape of the neck. 10  43 Detail of a parade shield, Flemish, c. 1480-1500. British 44 Close-helmet, incorporating a sallet skull and brow reinforce, Museum, Inv. M&LA 63, 5-1, 1. probably Flemish, c. 1480-1500. From the church of St. Peter, Stourton, Wiltshire, on loan to the Royal Armouries, Inv. no. AL.50. One of the most interesting aspects of the Godshill former, although it must be said that both helmets are helmet is the form of the visor. After rising up on a distinctly west European in form, the bevor and visor of diagonal line from the corners of the sight, the visor arms the Earl’s helmet being pierced with breaths like the are cut to curve around the pivots and then drop farther helmets of the van der Goes St. George and the Hamburg down, forming a vertical flange on either side, which are Godfrey de Bouillon. It is also worth mentioning that the pierced to take the visor pivots. The line of the visor’s man-at-arms directly behind the standard bearer appears to lower edge, from its rear corners to the frontal medial be wearing an open-faced close-helmet, the bevor fitting ridge, is therefore nearly horizontal when the visor is snugly around the chin much like the Pluckley and Bury lowered; there are thus no diagonal visor arms as such, St. Edmunds helmets. like those of the visor of the Bury St. Edmunds helmet. Clearly the Flemish close-helmets and armets of the These pivot flanges also are each embossed with a strong late fifteenth century were very close relatives; both horizontal ridge which emanates from the corner of the performed essentially the same function, albeit in slightly sight on each side and continues towards the rear along different ways. But the same fashion trends and tastes that line, fading out as it passes under the visor pivots. A applied to both. Therefore it is not very surprising that it is visor of this same form, with the same distinctive flanges sometimes difficult to tell them apart in the pictorial at the visor pivots, is illustrated in a Flemish woodcut sources. One especially interesting detail must be representation of Godfrey de Bouillon, one of a series of mentioned at this point- the armet of the Flemish style illustrations of the nine worthies cut c. 1490, now in the shown on the famous late fifteenth-century parade shield in collection of the Hamburger Kunsthalle (Fig. 41). Here the the British Museum (Fig. 43). This helmet appears to be an close-helmet is fitted with a pivoted bevor moving on the armet (unless of course early close-helmets were sometimes same points as the visor; the bevor is fitted with one worn with wrappers; this is possible but difficult to articulated neck plate and an upper bevor plate cut into a substantiate) with a short mail aventail visible at the back flamboyant shape on the visible side, pierced with a set of and a wrapper reinforcing the front, the split Y-strap of triangular breaths and apparently held in the raised which can be seen running around the back of the helmet. position by a stud on the left side of the chin. A dagged or Like the Bury St. Edmunds helmet, this armet includes a ‘vandyked’ aventail can also be seen extending below the cusped reinforce like the sallets, and unlike Italian armets, base of the helmet. The helmet worn by Sir Richard of this period. Most significantly, the visor is not attached by Beauchamp’s standard bearer on fol. 20v of the means of loose-pin clasps, but rather has Flemish pivot Beauchamp Pageant37 displays the same visually arresting flanges similar to those observed on the Godshill close- feature; the helmets of the standard bearer and the Earl helmet. himself may be armets or close-helmets, it is impossible to The last two close-helmets in the early Flemish group be sure (Fig. 42). What appears to be a strap around the are conversions like the Bury St. Edmunds helmet, although back of the standard bearer’s neck seems to suggest the they both started their working lifetimes as sallets rather 11  Stourton and Pluckley helmets were made by the same hand39, an idea that is not beyond the realm of possibility but hard to substantiate. The other sallet conversion, from Hurstbourne Priors in Hampshire, has a rounder skull with a sharp medial ridge and deeply cusped brow plate, suggesting a slightly later date (Fig. 45). Significantly it is the only close-helmet of the group to feature a visor that is detachable in the Italian manner. Conclusion Although all of the helmets discussed above (with the exception of the Paris helmet skull) reside in or come from English churches, none can be said definitely to be of English manufacture. The Flemish origin of all of the most relevant pictorial art, with additional material coming from France, suggests that the stylistic group to which the Bury St. Edmunds helmet belongs is characteristically continental, rather than English. It is important to note, however, that while the stylistic group may be Flemish, the move from sallet and seperate bevor to sallet/close-helmet with pivoted bevor is also observed in Germany at the same time. One of the three fine armoured figures sculpted by Michel Erhart for the Rathaus fountain at Ulm40 wears his sallet chin-strap over a bevor with articulated neck-plates, in 45 Close-helmet, incorporating a sallet skull and brow reinforce, the same manner as Jean de Daillon in the Monacute House probably Flemish, c. 1490-1510. From Hurstbourne Priors, tapestry, and many other examples can be found in German Hampshire, on loan to the Royal Armouries, Inv. no. AL.41. art of the 1480s and 90s. An important group of three helmets41 from the Helmshmid workshop must also be than armets; another helmet, documented by Laking38 at mentioned42. These represent the German approach to the Stoke Poges in Berkshire, may or may not be a largely intact transitional sallet/close-helmet concept, combining close-helmet of the same group, but the author has so far typically long-tailed German sallets with bevors pivoting been unable to confirm its location and present state of on the same points as the visors. preservation. To preserve the flaired, sweeping lines of the sallet’s One, from Stourton in Wilshire, has a very similar skull sides and tail, slots have been cut into the leading edges of form and brow reinforce to the Pluckley and Bury St. the sallet skull at the sides, allowing the overlap of skull and Edmunds helmets although the cusps on the latter are bevor to be reversed at that point; an ingenious way of deeper and sharper than those on those other two pieces preserving the appearance of a traditional sallet and bevor (Fig. 44). Laking saw this similarity as evidence that the while at the same time incorporating a new and improved method of construction and wear. These German helmets are intended to mimick the appearance of their immediate ancestors, rather than being converted from them as are, as we have seen, several of the Flemish examples. Interestingly two of these three Helmschmid close-helmets are designed so that the top lame of the bevor overlaps the visor rather than the other way around, as had been standard on the basic sallet and bevor arrangements. In this and several other respects, the piercing of the visor and bevor with groups of ventilation holes and slots for example, the Helmschmid group are comparible to the early Flemish close-helmets. In the late fifteenth century a close relationship developed between the Low Countries and the German Empire, first through the marriage of the Emperor Maximilan to Mary of Burgundy (1477) and later when Maximilian’s son Philip the Handsome became Archduke of Burgundy (1482). A direct close-helmet design influence or inspiration, from Germany to Flanders or vice versa, should not perhaps be ruled out. 46 Close-helmet, Workshop of Lorenz Helmschmid, Augsburg, c. Despite the fact that these helmets appear to be a 1495. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Inv. no. 29.156.45. continental rather than English design, it is not at all 12 surprising that they are found in England. Beyond the fact 6 c. 1400-50, Royal Armouries, IV.184. Once hung over the that armour was being imported into England on a large monument to Sir William Barendyne (d. 1549) at the church of St. Peter, Great Haseley, Oxfordshire. See Laking 1920-2, scale, from Italy and Flanders, there is no obvious reason op. cit., Vol. 2, pp. 138-40; Cripps-Day 1922, op. cit., p.225; why in theory a skilled English armourer, perhaps one of Richardson, Thom, ‘The Barendyne Helmet’, Royal the London masters, a member of the Armourers’ Company, Armouries Yearbook, 1 (1996), pp. 68-72; Southwark 2006, could not have made a close-helmet in the Flemish style. It op cit., pp. 44-6. is equally possible that some of these helmets originated on 7 c. 1400-50, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, C1631. the continent but were converted in England. Although these Once hung over the monument to John de Vere, 13th Earl of scenarios are hypothetically plausible, there is no direct Oxford (d. 1513) at the church of St. Nicholas, Castle Hedingham, Essex. See Laking 1920-2, op. cit., Vol. 2, pp. evidence to support them. Funerary or even active 140-1; Cripps-Day 1922, op. cit., p.179; Richardson, Thom, battlefield use in England is not in itself evidence of English ‘The Barendyne Helmet’, Royal Armouries Yearbook, 1 make. The best evidence for armour of a characteristically (1996), p. 70; Southwark 2006, op cit., p. 46. English style, apparently, is found on the indigenous 8 c. 1470-1500, Dorset County Museum. Formerly hung over monumental effigies43, but unfortunately the prevailing one of the two monuments to members of the Browning fashion in the late fifteenth century was for such effigies to family at the church of St. Mary, Melbury Sampford, Dorset. portray their subjects as bareheaded. It remains a fact that all See Blair, Claude, European Armour (London: Batsford, of the pictorial evidence for this helmet style (including the 1958), pp. 196-7, no. 87. Arzila tapestries, the van der Goes St. George and the 9 For a detailed discussion of the armour and equipment used British Museum parade shield) is Flemish, and all of it links in the late fifteenth-century joust of peace, as well as the joust such helmets to full armour of the Italo-Flemish, rather than form itself, see Fallows, Noel, Jousting in Medieval and Renaissance Iberia (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2010), especially English, fashion. pp. 94-121 and 323-62. This exceptional group of fine helmets, of which the 10 c. 1480-90. Apparently once hung over the monument to John Bury St. Edmunds piece is one of the most intriguing, is Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset (d. 1444) at the church of St. also a powerful reminder of the historical, technological and Cuthburga (Minster), Wimborne Minster, Dorset. Now on artistic importance of armour in English churches. There loan to the Royal Armouries, AL. 63.1. See Laking 1920-2, and (almost) only there, a rare style of helmet, of central op. cit., Vol. 2, pp. 156-7; Cripps-Day 1922, op. cit., p.176; importance to the technological history of armour, has been Blair 1958, op. cit., p. 194-5, no. 77. preserved. 11 The unfinished Beauchamp Pageant (British Library Cotton Julius E.IV, art.6) produced in Flanders between 1483 and Sources & Notes 1492, includes excellent depictions of both types of helmet 1 This article has been extracted from the author’s forthcoming in their respective sporting combat contexts. Great bascinets three-volume work Armour of the English Knight 1400-1500, are worn by the combatants in foot combat (fol. 7v) and to be published by subscription in 2012-13. tourney (fol. 11v) scenes, while helms of a very similar form to the Browning helm appear in four of the five jousting 2 c. 1370-5, Canterbury Cathedral. See Laking, Guy Francis, scenes (fols. 3r, 15r, 15v, 17v). In the other joust illustrated A Record of European Armour and Arms Through Seven (fol. 16r), the combatants appear to be wearing great bascinets Centuries, 5 vols (London: G. Bell and Sons, 1920-2), Vol 1 fitted with jousting visors. See Dillon, Viscount and W. H. St. pp. 150-56, 275-9; Cripps-Day, Francis, A List of Churches John Hope, eds, Pageant of the Birth, Life and Death of Containing Armour, in Laking 1920-2, Vol. 5 (1922), p. 193; Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick KG, 1389-1439 Mann, Sir James and Dorothy Mills, Edward the Black (London: Longmans Green, 1914); Sinclair, Alexandra, ed, Prince: His Tomb and Funeral Achievements in Canterbury The Beauchamp Pageant (Donington: Richard III and Yorkist Cathedral (Canterbury: Canterbury Cathedral, 1962); Trust/Paul Watkins, 2003). Southwark, Leslie, ‘The Great Helm in England’, Arms and Armour, 3, 1 (Spring 2006, pp. 26-31. 12 c. 1470. From the church of St. Philip and St. James, Witton- 3 c. 1370-5. National Museum of Scotland, A.1905.489; hung le-Wear, County Durham and traditionally associated with the over the monument to Sir Richard Pembridge (d. 1375) until d’Arcy family, although the specific monument of which it the early nineteenth century, when it was given to Sir Samuel was a part is unknown. See Cripps-Day, Francis, A List of Meyrick, from whom it passed to Sir Joseph Noel-Paton, who Churches Containing Armour, in Laking 1920-2, Vol. 5 bequeathed his collection to the Royal Scottish Museum, (1922), p. 177; Cripps-Day 1922, op. cit., p.177; Richardson, Edinburgh; ffoulkes, Charles, The Armourer and his Craft, Thom, The Witton le Wear Sallet, London Park Lane Arms From the XIth to the XVIth Century (London: Methuen, Fair, (Spring 2010), pp. 32-5. 1912), p. xviii, XXIX. See Laking 1920-2, op. cit., Vol. 1, pp. 13 c. 1470. Cripps-Day 1922, op. cit., p. 236; Blair, Claude, ‘The 279-81; Southwark 2006, op cit. pp. 26-31. Blithfield Sallet’, Archaeological Journal, CXI (1955), pp. 4 Late fourteenth century. Originally hung over Sir Nicholas’ 160-7. monument at the church of St. Mary Magdalene, Cobham, 14 c. 1500. Associated with the monument to Sir Thomas Hooke Kent, now on loan to the Royal Armouries, AL.30.1. See Laking 1920-2, op. cit., Vol. 2, pp. 103-4; Cripps-Day 1922, (d. 1677). See Cripps-Day 1922, op. cit., p. 187; sale op. cit., p.196; Southwark 2006, op cit., pp. 39-42 catalogue, Thomas del Mar Ltd., 8 December 2010, lot 125. 5 Late fourteenth or early fifteenth century, Westminster Abbey, 15 c. 1510. Hung over the monument to Sir Robert Drury (d. London. See Laking 1920-2, op. cit., Vol. 2, pp. 99-102; 1536) in the church of St. Mary, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Cripps-Day 1922, op. cit., p.211; Marks, Richard and Paul See Laking 1920-2, op cit., Vol. 2, p. 92-3, fig. 445 A, B; Williamson, eds, Gothic: Art For England 1400-1547 Cripps-Day 1922, op. cit., p. 239. (London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2003), p. 194 16 Laking 1920-2, op cit., Vol. 2, p. 93, fig. 445 c. (catalogue entry by Claude Blair); Southwark 2006, op cit., pp. 39-42. 17 Cripps-Day 1922, op. cit., p. 239. 13 18 The use of the adjective ‘double’ to indicate an armour part 27 The Italian export sallet at the Herbert Art Gallery in Coventry with a reinforcing plate occurs in Italian inventories- ‘double is the most famous example of an ‘almond’ skull, while those pauldrons’, ‘double couters’ etc. See for example Scalini, at the Musée de l’Armée, Paris (inv. no. G.PO.556), the Mario, ‘The Weapons of Lorenzo de’ Medici, an examination Hofjagd –und Rüstkammer, Vienna (inv. no. A2334) and the of the inventory of the Medici palace in Florence drawn up Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto are all excellent examples upon the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent in 1492’, in Held, of the ‘onion’ type. Robert, ed, Art, Arms and Armour: An International Anthology (Chiasso: Acquafresca Editrice, 1979), pp. 12-29, 28 Laking 1920-2, op. cit., Vol 2, p. 93, fig. 445, i; Cripps-Day especially p. 24, item 41: ‘una armadura fatta per Piero de 1922, op. cit., p. 200. Medici fornita di tutto cioè uno elmetto con dua baviere una 29 Inv. no. IV.1879. See Richardson, Thom, 2001, op. cit., pp. chorazza con due soprapetti due paia di spallacci due doppi e 18-9. Although Richardson identifies this group as ‘English or due scempi un paio di bracciali colle guardie doppie uno Italian export’, some of the Flemish pictorial depictions are scarsellone e arnesi e schinieri et uno paio di ghuanti et una mentioned in Richardson, Thom, ‘Vicissitudes of a Sallet’, celata colla baviera et una schifa da una lancia tutto detto Royal Armouries Yearbook, 7 (2002), p. 13. fornimento dorato’. 30 Inv. no. H34. This helmet skull is the only early close-helmet 19 The increasing sharpness of the medial ridge on fifteenth- fragment to carry a mark, a crowned shield, the arms on century helmets is well illustrated in Boccia, Lionello G., Le which are now very indistinct. armature di S. Maria delle Grazie di Curtatone di Mantova e l’armatura Lombarda del ‘400 (Milan: Bramante, 1982), pp. 31 Inv. AL. 41 and A.L. 50. Both on loan to the Royal Armouries; 114-5, pls. 213 and 215, wherein are compared three of the the former originally hung over a monument at Hurstbourne armets from the Curtatone sanctuary group, nos. B3, B4 and Priors, Hampshire. The latter comes from the church of St B5, which the author dates to c. 1475, c. 1490, and c. 1490- Peter in Stourton, Wiltshire; see Laking 1920-2, op. cit., Vol 1500 respectively. The same trend can be found on Italian 2, p. 93, fig. 445, j; Cripps-Day 1922, op. cit., p. 266; sallets; in the Wallace Collection a ‘Corinthian’-type sallet, Richardson 2001, op. cit., p. 19. made in Milan c. 1455 (Inv. No. A75), exhibits a gradual slope up to the apex of the medial ridge, while a later Italian sallet 32 c. 1475-85. Workshop of Passchier Grenier, Tournai, now in with an articulated tail (Inv. No. A71) includes a much sharper the Museum of the Collegiate Church of Nuestra Senora de la ridge rising up much more suddenly from the otherwise Asunción, Pastrana. See de Bunes Ibarra, Miguel Ángel, and rounded skull. See Mann, J. G., Wallace Collection others, The Invention of Glory: Afonso V and the Pastrana Catalogues: European Arms and Armour, 3 vols (London: Tapestries (Lisbon: Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, 2010). Trustees of the Wallace Collection, 1962), Vol. 1, pp. 93-4, 33 A funerary helmet at Stoke Poges in Berkshire also has or had 96-7 and pls. 55, 57; Norman, A.V.B, Wallace Collection a visor of this same form. The author was however not able to Catalogues: European Arms and Armour Supplement (London: Trustees of the Wallace Collection, 1986), pp. 39- confirm this helmet’s current location and circumstances at 42; Capwell, Tobias, Masterpieces of European Arms and the time of writing. See Laking 1920-2, op. cit., Vol 2, p. 93, Armour in the Wallace Collection ((London: The Wallace fig. 445, h. Collection, 2011), pp. 44-5. The author would also like to 34 National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, Inv. 1950.20.3 (B- thank Robert Macpherson, Armourer, for emphasising this 17724). point in one of many enjoyable and illuminating discussions. 35 Dated 1478. Royal Collection Inv. no. RCIN 403260; the right 20 Nos. B4 and B5 of the Mantua group are typical examples of two panels, including the one featuring the Saint in armour, this form of the face-opening. See Boccia 1982, op. cit., p. are on long-term loan to the National Gallery of Scotland in 114, pl. 213. Edinburgh. See Norman, A.V.B, ‘The Armour on the Van Der 21 For the Jouvenal des Ursins family, see Valois, Noël, ‘Note Goes Altarpiece’, Journal of the Arms and Armour Society, 2 sur l’origine de la famille Juvenal des Ursins’, in Mémoires de (1956-1958), pp. 116-28. la Société Nationale des Antiquaires de France, 6, 9 (1900), 36 Champion, Sharon, The Early Owners of Chale Abbey pp. 77-88. (Ventnor: privately published, 1996), Chapter 8 22 c. 1460, Inv. No. II.168. Formerly Churburg Castle No. 61. (unpaginated). See Trapp, Oswald Graf, The Armoury of the Castle of 37 See Sinclair, Alexandra, 2003, op. cit., pp.130-1, pl. XL. Churburg, trans. by J. G. Mann (London: Methuen, 1929), pp. 91-2, pl. XXXI, c. 38 Laking 1920-2, op. cit., Vol 2, p. 93, fig. 445. Dufty, Arthur Richard, European Armour in the Tower of London (London: HM Stationary Office, 1968), pl. LXXVI. 39 Laking 1920-2, op. cit., Vol 2, p. 92. 23 c. 1460. Churburg Castle No. 23. See Trapp, Oswald Graf, 40 The figure presently installed on the fountain is a replica; the The Armoury of the Castle of Churburg, trans. by J. G. Mann original is now in the sculpture galleries of the Ulmer (London: Methuen, 1929), pp. 64-5, pl. XXIX, a. Museum, inv. no. 1910.2644.a. See Roth, Michael, and others, Spätgotik in Ulm: Michel Erhart and Jörg Syrlin d. Ä 24 Laking failed to distinguish these early close-helmets from (Ulm: Ulmer Museum, 2002), p. 186, no.171. armets of the same period and from Italo-Flemish close- helmets of the early sixteenth century, grouping all as 41 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. 29.156.45; ‘English armets.’ See Laking 1920-2, op. cit., Vol 2, p. 93, fig. Hofjagd –und Rüstkammer, Vienna, inv. nos. A110, A205. All 445, c, h, i, j. were made for the Emperor Maximilian I, the first two in the 1490s; A205 may date from the first decade of the sixteenth 25 See Vaivre, J. B., ‘La tapisserie de Jean de Daillon’, Archivum century. Heraldicum, 2-3 (1973), pp. 18-25. 42 See Norman, A.V.B., ‘A Comparison of Three Helmets’, 26 The undeniable resemblance has led to these helmets Waffen- und Kostumkunde,1/2 (1959), pp. 16-21. Also sometimes being referred to as ‘transitional sallets’. See mentioned in Blair 1958, op. cit., pp. 133-4, 200-1, no. 114. Richardson, Thom, ‘Recently Acquired Armour from the Gwynn Collection’, Royal Armouries Yearbook, 6 (2001), 43 Discussed in detail in Capwell, Tobias, Armour of the English pp.18-19. Knight 1400-1500, 3 vols (Forthcoming 2012-13). 14