THE BASINET
In the 13th century a small round steel cap, the cervellière, was sometimes worn over or under the mail hood. By the early 14th century this was gradually being replaced by a new helmet, the basinet, and at first the helm might be worn over either helmet. The basinet initially appeared in several forms: one that covered the ears, one that came down to the shoulders (and with a visor looked like a great helm), and one that was conical and fitted just above the ears, suggesting it developed from the old conical helmet that had now gone out of fashion.
By mid-century these had given way to one form that was conical and covered the ears, which remained popular throughout Western Europe. The visor was often detachable, with each side arm held by a pin through a hinge. It developed flanges along the sights to protect them, while by 1380 the swollen ‘nose’ became drawn out to a deflecting snout often with a flanged slit like a mouth below, the ‘hounskull’ basinet. Ventilation holes were pierced more on the right side, since the left side was presented to an opponent and holes there could catch a weapon point. Instead of a visor, many mid-14th century Italian and German basinets had an iron nose-guard attached to the mail aventail, being drawn up and secured to the helmet brow, but it suffered from a lack of rigidity. A form of visor that appeared in about 1360 was the klappvisier which was seen mainly in German lands; it was attached by a single pivoting bar to the brow of the helmet.
Instead of being worn over a mail hood, basinets were increasingly furnished with a collar of mail (the ‘aventail’} at first riveted inside the lower rim. Then the collar became hung from a leather or cloth strip cut with slits that fitted over a row of pierced studs (‘vervelles’) along the outer lower helmet edge, held in place by a cord threaded through the holes. The collar could thereby be removed for cleaning or repair.
Basinets might additionally have a plate throat defence called a ‘bevor’. By 1400 full plate body armour was appearing, now often worn uncovered. Some basinets did away with the mail aventail, replacing it with a plate bevor and neck plates, and this was known as the great basinet. The visor was now becoming more rounded again. After about 1450 the great basinet was relegated to the tournament.