Bascinet The bascinet ( " bassinet " , " basinet " , " bazineto " ) was a Medieval European open - faced military helmet . It evolved from a type of iron or steel skullcap , but had a more pointed apex to the skull , and it extended downwards at the rear and sides to afford protection for the neck . A mail curtain ( " camail " or aventail ) was usually attached to the lower edge of the helmet to protect the throat , neck and shoulders . A visor ( face guard ) was often employed from ca . 1330 to protect the exposed face . Early in the fifteenth century , the camail began to be replaced by a plate metal gorget , giving rise to the so - called " great bascinet " . Development . The first recorded reference to a bascinet , or " bazineto " , was in the Italian city of Padua in 1281 , when it is described as being worn by infantry . It is believed that the bascinet evolved from a simple iron skullcap , known as the cervelliere , which was worn with a mail coif , as either the sole form of head protection or beneath a great helm . The bascinet is differentiated from the cervelliere by having a higher , pointed skull . By about 1330 the bascinet had been extended lower down the sides and back of the head . Within the next 20 years it had extended to the base if the neck and covered the cheeks . The bascinet appeared quite suddenly in the later 13th century and some authorities see it as being influenced by Byzantine or Middle - East ern Muslim helmets . The bascinet , without a visor , continued to be worn underneath larger " great helm s " ( also termed " heaumes " ) . Camails or aventails . Unlike the cervelliere , which was worn in conjunction with , often underneath , a complete hood of mail called the coif , early bascinets were typically worn with a neck and throat defence of mail that was attached to the lower edge of the helmet itself ; this mail ' curtain ' was called a camail or aventail . The earliest camails were riveted directly to the edge of the helmet , however , beginning in the 1320s a detachable version replaced this type . The detachable aventail was attached to a leather band , which was in turn attached to the lower border of the bascinet by a series of staples called vervelles . Holes in the leather band were passed over the vervelles , and a waxed cord was passed through the holes in the vervelles to secure it . Protection for the face . Bretache . The illustration to the right shows a bascinet with a type of detachable nasal ( nose protector ) called the bretache or " bretèche " made of sheet metal . The bretache was attached to the aventail at the chin , and it fastened to a hook or clamp on the brow of the helmet . According to Boeheim , this type of defence was prevalent in Germany , appearing around 1330 and fading from use around 1370 . The bretache was also used in Italy , one of the first representations of it is on the equestrian statue of Cangrande I della Scala , who died in 1329 . It is also shown on the tomb of Bernardino dei Barbanzoni in the Museo Lapidario Estense in Modena , executed ca . 1345 – 50 . An advantage of the bretache was that it could be worn under a great helm , but afforded some facial protection when the great helm was taken off . Use of the bretache preceded and overlapped with that of a new type of visor used with the bascinet , the " klappvisor " or " " klappvisier " " . Visored bascinets . The open - faced bascinet , even with the mail aventail , still left the exposed face vulnerable . However , from about 1330 , the bascinet was often worn with a ' face guard ' or movable visor . The " klappvisor " or " " klappvisier " " was a type of visor employed on bascinets from around 1330 - 1340 ; this type of visor was hinged at a single point in the centre of the brow of the helmet skull . It was particularly favoured in Germany , but was also used in northern Italy where it is shown in a Crucifixion painted in the chapter hall of Santa Maria Novella in Florence , c . 1367 . Its use in Italy seems to have ceased around 1380 , but continued in Germany into the 15th century . The klappvisor has been characterised as being intermediate between the bretache nasal and the side pivoting visor . It should be noted that not all sources agree on the nature of the " klappvisier " ; De Vries and Smith class all smaller visors , those that only cover the area of the face left exposed by the aventail , as " klappvisiers " , regardless of the construction of their hinge mechanism . However , they agree that " klappvisiers " , by their alternate definition of ' being of small size ' , preceded the larger forms of visor , which exclusively employed the double pivot , found in the latter part of the 14th century . The side - pivot mount , which used two pivots - one on each side of the helmet , is shown in funerary monuments and other pictorial or sculptural sources of the 1340s . One of the early depictions of a doubly pivoted visor on a bascinet is the funerary monument of Sir Hugh Hastings in St . Mary ' s Church , Elsing , Norfolk , England , Sir Hugh died in 1347 . The pivots were connected to the visor by means of hinges to compensate for any lack of parallelism between the pivots . The hinges usually had a detachable pin holding them together , this allowed the visor to be completely removed from the helmet , if desired . The side - pivot system was commonly seen in Italian armours . Whether of the klappvisor or double pivot type , the visors of the first half of the 14th century tended to be of a relatively flat profile with little projection from the face . They had eye - slits surrounded by a flange to help deflect weapon points . From around 1380 the visor , by this time considerably larger than earlier forms , was drawn out into a conical point like a muzzle or a beak , and was given the names " hounskull " ( from the German " hundsgugel " - " hound ' s hood " ) or " pig faced " ( in modern parlance ) . From about 1410 the visor became progressively more rounded , by 1435 it gave an ' ape - like ' profile to the helmet ; by 1450 it formed a sector in the , by then , almost globular bascinet . Later evolution of the helmet . Between c . 1390 and 1410 the bascinet had an exaggeratedly tall profile , it was an acutely pointed form — some so severe as to have a near - vertical back . Ten years later both the skull of the helmet and the hinged visor started to become less angular and more rounded . Almost globular forms became common by c . 1450 . As part of the same process the helmet became more close - fitting , and narrowed to follow the contours of the neck . Bevors and gorgets . Around 1350 , during the reign of John II , French bascinets began to be fitted with a hinged chin - or jaw - piece ( bevor ( sense 2 ) , ) , upon which the visor would be able to rest . The visor and bevor that closed flush with each other thus provided better protection against incoming sword blows . This type of defence augmented the camail rather than replaced it . The bascinet fitted with a camail was relatively heavy and most of the weight was supported directly by the head . Plate gorget s were introduced from c . 1400 - 1410 , which replaced the camail and removed the weight of the throat and neck defences from the head to the shoulders . At the same time a plate covering the cheeks and lower face was introduced also called the " bavière " ( contemporary usage was not precise ) . This " bavière " was directly attached by rivets to the skull of the bascinet . The combined skull and " bavière " could rotate within the upper part of the gorget , which overlapped them . A degree of freedom of movement was retained , but was probably less than had been the case with the mail camail . Great bascinet . In the view of Oakeshott the replacement of the camail by a plate gorget gave rise to the form of helmet known as the " great bascinet " . However , many other scholars consider that the term should be reserved for bascinets where the skull , and baviere - if present , was fixed to the gorget , rendering the whole helmet immobile . Early gorgets were wide , copying the shape of the earlier aventail , however , with the narrowing of the neck opening the gorget plates had to be hinged to allow them to be put on . Early great bascinets had the skull of the helmet riveted to the rear gorget plate , however , some later great bascinets had the skull forged in a single piece with the rear gorget plate . The gorget was often strapped to both the breast and backplate of the cuirass . In this late form the head was relieved of the entire weight of the helmet , which rested on the shoulders ; however , the helmet was rendered totally immobile and the head of the wearer had only limited abilities to move inside it . Though very strongly constructed , this type of helmet imposed limitations on the wearer ' s vision and agility . Historic use . Use with the great helm . Bascinets , other than great bascinets , could be worn beneath a great helm . However , only those without face protection , or those with the close fitting bretache , could be worn in this manner . The great helm afforded a high degree of protection , but at the cost of very restricted vision and agility . The lighter types of bascinet gave less protection but allowed greater freedom of movement and better vision . The practicality of a man - at - arms being able to take off a great helm during a battle , if he wanted to continue fighting wearing just a bascinet , is unclear . By the mid 14th century the great helm was probably largely relegated to tournament use . However , Henry V of England is reputed to have worn a great helm over a bascinet at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 . He was recorded as receiving a blow to the head during the battle , which damaged his helmet ; the double protection afforded by wearing two helmets may have saved his life . Later use . By the middle of the 14th century , most knight s had discarded the great helm altogether in favor of a fully visored bascinet . The bascinet , both with and without a visor , was the most common helmet worn in Europe during most of the 14th century and the first half of the 15th century , including during the Hundred Years ' War . Contemporary illustrations show a majority of knight s and men - at - arms wearing one of a few variants of the bascinet helmet . Indeed so ubiquitous was the use of the helmet that " bascinet " became an alternative term for a man - at - arms . Though primarily associated with use by the ' knightly ' classes and other men - at - arms some infantry also made use of the lighter versions of this helmet . Regions where rich citizens were fielded as infantry , such as Italy , and other lands producing specialised professional infantry such as the English and Welsh longbowman probably saw the greatest use of bascinets by infantrymen . The basic design of the earlier , conical version of the helmet was intended to direct blows from weapon s downward and away from the skull and face of the wearer . Later versions of the bascinet , especially the great bascinet , were designed to maximise coverage and therefore protection . In achieving this they sacrificed the mobility and comfort of the wearer ; thus , ironically , returning to the situation that the wearers of the cumbersome great helm experienced and that the early bascinets were designed to overcome . It is thought that poorer men - at - arms continued to employ lighter bascinets with mail camails long after the richest had adopted plate gorgets . Decline in use . Soon after 1450 the " great bascinet " was rapidly discarded for field use , being replaced by the armet and sallet , which were lighter helmets allowing greater freedom of movement for the wearer . However , a version of the great bascinet , usually with a cage - like visor , remained in use for foot combat in tournaments into the 16th century .