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 CHAPTER IX

In tracing the evolution of body armour, and in speaking of the various types of helmets and of weapons, we have so far merely alluded to the great helm. It is now necessary, in order that we may resume the story of this particular head-piece, to return to the early years of the XIIIth century, the period at which we began it (see Figs. 141, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148 and 149, pages 117, 118, 119, 120). From this point we pass from what may be called the period of the theoretical helm, the period in which we can gather no very satisfactory information on which to form our ideas of the helm's make, to one in which we possess slightly more tangible evidence to assist us, namely, that available in contemporary effigies and sculpture. This period covers about a hundred years; for it is not until the last quarter of the XIVth century that we are able at last to illustrate an authentic helm in actual existence. It is a strange fact that, notwithstanding the survival of a certain number of conical helmets of the XIth and XIIth centuries, and of a fair series of bascinets of various years of the XIVth century, not a single genuine specimen of the large helm is known to us that can be dated anterior to about 1370, and that of these late XIVth century helms we can instance five known examples only. This fact is worthy of notice, and it is as well to be forewarned; since there are numerous forgeries of early helms, some even purporting to be of the XIIIth century, in the private and public collections of every country. Of the non-survival of these helms, or even of fragments of them, there is no satisfactory explanation. It may be by their weight causing the several plates of which they were composed to break asunder rather readily when once the rivets had been affected by rust, that their life was shorter than that of the one plate head-piece; for when once they had been broken up the plates were, no doubt, cast away as useless, or wrought into unrecognizable shapes for other purposes.

But to return to helms of the early part of the XIIIth century. The representation of the helm can be seen in knightly effigies, in the great seals