Great helm

Few pieces of armour are as iconic as the knightly great helm or 'heaume'. Emblematic of a romantic chivalric past, the great helm was frequently used in medieval art to emphasise the status and virtue of the wearer. Today only around 20 genuine examples still exist, making this great helm a rare and incredibly important piece.

This great helm shares a number of features with the Great helms of the Black Prince at Canterbury Cathedral and of Sir Richard Pembridge in Edinburgh. This suggests all three came from the same armourer's workshop. Although these helmets may have a German or Flemish origin, it is possible they were made in London by the 'Company of Heaumers' which had been established in 1347.

Made of several large plates riveted together, the helm completely encloses the wearer's head. Vision is provided by a ridged horizontal sight with a short bar between the eyes for better protection. The cross-shaped hole close to the bottom edge allowed the helm to be secured to the wearer's belt or body armour by a toggled guard-chain. Numerous artistic depictions of great helms show they were frequently worn over a tightly fitting, visorless bascinet to provide an extra layer of protection.

Physical description
Constructed from three plates of plain steel; the low conical crown-plate being overlapped by the truncated cone of the skull-plate which is itself overlapped by the side- plate and joined with brass capped nails. This last, forming the wall of the helm, is a one-piece tube and is pierced on the right side at the front only by numerous circular breaths, and at the front near the lower edge on each side by a cross-shaped opening for the attachment of a toggle-ended chain, by which the helm was secured to the breastplate. The lower edge of the helmet is turned over to strengthen it. The sight is formed by a gap between the skull and the side plate, the edges of which are turned out to form a glancing surface away from the eyes. It is spanned at the centre front by an upward extension of the side-plate. The front of the helm has a marked vertical keel running up the centre and over the crown. It is much less pronounced down the centre of the back. The helm is pierced at twenty-one places with pairs of holes for the attachment of the lining, mantling and crest. Three holes arranged in a triangle at the nape of the neck presumably originally secured the strap by which the helm was attached to the backplate. The small dome-headed rivets are of steel, with pointed shanks clinched over the inside. Several of the rivets along the top of the side-plate have diamond-shaped iron washers inside to secure the lining. Three of the six rivets over the brow have similar washers. The centre of the crown-plate has been roughly pierced, presumably for the spike on which a funerary crest could be fixed when the helm became part of a funerary achievement. A lining was attached inside the cone of the skull by washers on every second rivet around the circumference of the join at the level of the sights.