The Armour Archive

Right O,
I am trying to potray an Englishman from late 1300's to the early 1400's..
My armour currently consists of an aketon,chainmalle hauberk, black prince arms and legs, Sugarloaf helm.. Now I am looking into purchasing a CoP would that mesh with the rest of my kit ? Or will it stick out like a sore thumb ??

Thanks for your time..

If you are an English archer, yes. The only thing out of place in that context is the sugarloaf.

I thought the Sugarloaf was a common helm type in the early 1400's and the late 1300's ... Mmm perhaps my research is wrong.. Thanks for the heads up Oswynn.. Bad ass name by the way..

It was for gentles appearing mounted (supposedly between MacBible pothelm and true greathelm?) but an archer needs room to see (supposedly). Depending on your time period and location, an open face bascinet (for SCA, add grill) is fine for the later 14th century (1300s) and then slowly evolved into the barbutes (german) and sallets (14th century Italian then France and eventually England) as time progressed. Anyone else, feel free to correct me. I personally like to see and as such am eventually going to get a much worn and rusted bascinet (and claim old salvage) even though I am 1430ish (Agincourt). You might want to *rename* your aketon into a jack, but that is just semantics as far as I know. I personally started out fighting heavy in a greathelm (and think everyone should as it really drives home *knowing* where the opponents sword will be) but I like to look around and in a melee, vision is everything ! My name came from browsing St. Gabriel and is being used around 50 years before documentation (it took a really really long time to write down ). As I posted somewhere else, the only problem is people making it more complicated than it needs to or remembering it. (BTW, it is pronounced Oz-win)

Well I am always keen on "doing-it-right "..So chances are once I start fighting I will be switching or trading helms.. So a basinet would be more appropreate for the time period.. Cool I guess I had better go research what kind of basinet I like..

CoP, first half of the 14th century. The harness you describe is that of a mounted aristocrat, not a foot archer -- I don't know where that idea sneaked in.

Oswyn, the barbute was Italian in origin. The neat thing about the fifteenth-century Germans was how they grew their own distinctive variant of the sallet.

The sugarloaf helm, visored or not (usually not) is really a curvy edition of the greathelm and was used the same way -- as an ultimate lance-stopper that was then shed once the lances were broken and the swords came out for close-in melee -- switching from hastiludes to spathiludes, as it were. The late 1300s/early 1400s dates you were thinking of are much more those of the visored bascinet and earliest to fairly early forms of the great bascinet, which was an expansion of the bascinet into the greathelm function. The great bascinet, over quite a few decades, was refined into the frogmouth helm.

Konstantin the Red wrote:CoP, first half of the 14th century. The harness you describe is that of a mounted aristocrat, not a foot archer -- I don't know where that idea sneaked in.

Oswyn, the barbute was Italian in origin. The neat thing about the fifteenth-century Germans was how they grew their own distinctive variant of the sallet.

The sugarloaf helm, visored or not (usually not) is really a curvy edition of the greathelm and was used the same way -- as an ultimate lance-stopper that was then shed once the lances were broken and the swords came out for close-in melee -- switching from hastiludes to spathiludes, as it were. The late 1300s/early 1400s dates you were thinking of are much more those of the visored bascinet and earliest to fairly early forms of the great bascinet, which was an expansion of the bascinet into the greathelm function. The great bascinet, over quite a few decades, was refined into the frogmouth helm.

I must say I am learn a whole lot from this board... So I would want a visored basinet then.. I didnt know that then SL was jousting helm.. Shows how hard I researched dont it ..

OswynHaddock wrote:If you are an English archer, yes. The only thing out of place in that context is the sugarloaf.

Ummm...where did he say "archer"?