Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/308

 "Avoit une cercle d'or ouvragé sus de pierres precieuses qui bien valoient vingt mille francs."

First half, XIVth century. Royal Armoury, Turin

Chancel of the church at Arundel After Stothard

(a)(b)

Alvechurch, Worcestershire After Stothard

(a) Profile view; (b) Full face view

To our knowledge the only bascinet helmet extant to which a crown might have been attached is that now preserved in the treasury of the cathedral church of St. Stanislaus belonging to the royal Polish castle of Cracow, situated on a rocky eminence called the Wawel Hill. The story attached to the helmet and the crown found within it is that it belonged to the hero-king Wladislaus I, "Lokietek" ("Span-*long"). The helmet (Fig. 274a) is a bascinet with a low skull-piece. Attached to the lower edge still exist the staples for holding the camail in position. In the centre of the forehead is a catch, on to which a lifting nasal-guard was probably fastened. The head-piece is much corroded, in consequence of it having been found some five years ago in a village in Russian Poland buried under an oak tree. Discovered inside the helmet was a crown of metal gilt, adorned with sixty-five precious stones (Fig. 274b). The crown, the upper edge of which is shaped to four fleurons, has hinges between the four segments, which strengthens our belief that it was made to fasten round the bascinet helmet within which it was found, more especially as twin holes in the skull-piece of the bascinet corre