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Italian, late XVth century. From the armoury of Charles V and possibly from that of Philippe le Beau. C 11, Royal Armoury, Madrid

helmet is there identified with the burgonet, and as we examine other texts in which this word appears we shall find the gravest objections to Sir Samuel Meyrick's supposition." In 1595 the great military writer, Sir John Smith, in his Instructions Militaires, says of light cavalry called Stradiotes, "I would wish them all to bee armed with good burgonets and buffes, with collars, with cuirasses, with backs, and with long cuisses." The burgonet in this case must mean an open helmet, for they are to be furnished with "buffes." At a later date a letter from Cardinal Richelieu to the Cardinal de la Valette, alluding to the formation of a new cavalry force, tells us exactly what was meant by a burgonet in his day. He states that this force was to be armed with une bourguignote couvrant les deux joues avec une barre sur le nez, in other words with a head-piece such as we see in the open nasal-guard helmet of Cromwell's time. This analysis of Fauchet's remarks goes, therefore, to show that the burgonet was not a close helmet of any kind, but an open one; since, therefore, with the exception of the morion and cabasset, of which we shall speak later, the casque was the only other form of open helmet in use in the XVIth century, the burgonet must refer to that form of head-piece. As a forerunner of the open casque, but most distinctly a head-piece of the latter part of the XVth century, we mention here that salade