Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/193

 is represented wearing a cylindrical and crested helm furnished with what appears to be a movable mezail (Fig. 145, a, b). The helm has a ridged comb rounded to a half circle, the edge set off with pen-feathers, the sides enriched with one of the leopards of his arms. In a manuscript in the Royal Library of Berlin, the Eneidt of Heinrich von Veldegke, there appears a very characteristic early XIIIth century helm with a true heraldic crest in the form of a lion passant (Fig. 146). This was possibly of painted metal, for we remember seeing many years ago exhibited for sale in Paris the fragment of an early helm, on which was riveted the figure of a monster in thin wrought iron. It was of inconsiderable weight, but of sufficient substance to form a very solid crest. The present whereabouts of this interesting fragment we are unaware (Fig. 147). It is impossible to say whether the crest on the early helm was erected with any idea of its affording an extra protection or not; but at a little later date such cresting upon a helm as appears on the Humphrey de Bohun Seal (Fig. 148) and on the Edward of Carnarvon, Prince of Wales's Seal (Fig. 149), certainly brings to one's mind the crest of the high XVIth century morion, which was mainly fashioned for extra defence.

Showing a crested helm

(a)

(b)

construed by John Hewitt, from "Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe"

Between the years 1220 and 1330 we find in the contemporary illumina