Hi, my name is Kevin Hicks and welcome to my YouTube channel the History Squad.
Now I’m here in my home county in the middle of England, Warwickshire with my son Joshua. Hello.
Now Joshua, he's a member of a re-enactment group, which one is it? It's the Oxford Household of the
Wars of the Roses Federation. So what we've done, is we've got a collection of these uh
replica helmets, they're not original they're too valuable, the originals and we're going to
talk you through the different styles and once we've done these five, we have an extra surprise
for you. So first of all tell us about this one Joshua. Right so over here we have a salet, this
one is visored and in addition to the visor we have an articulated tail now this would be German
in its origin, gothic, so you can see from some of the decorations on the back and that elongated
tail this kind of thing probably worn by a man of arms, you might find some European foot soldiers
had them as well as they were produced that sort of way. Now this one I believe a chap de fer?
That's correct yeah, chap de fer or hat of iron or iron cap. Yeah iron hat of iron, iron cap. Now
this sort of thing here has been forged out of one solid piece of steel giving it extra
strength as much as possible because of this far far brim but you can also breathe and it will stop
incoming projectiles as well quite like modern helmets in itself. Yeah I can understand that. Now
I remember you getting this and how excited you were at getting this, so I’m going to ask a favor
Josh tell us about it but put it on yeah? Okay so this helmet you can't really describe it as
either a salet or a kettle helmet it's kind of a mix between the two and it's a copy of one
that was found from the Siege of Rhodes around 1460 and is currently in the royal armouries.
And so from the shape of it, again you've got the brim to stop incoming projectiles and the way it
sweeps down at the edge will stop any incoming blows from the side. Show the viewers that,
that is wow yeah, that is a serious steel helmet isn't it. Certainly is yeah, but of course you
can't see that much. No I can't. Yeah is it heavy? Not too bad actually, not too bad. Okay.
Then we have just a very simple, isn't it? It is, another visored salet, without uh, without
the articulated parts at the back. It's Flemish in its sort of look, so made sort of Northern Europe.
Um very common amongst all classes of foot soldiers, but primarily those who’d be in close
combat because you have that visor for the extra protection of anything incoming. It looks very
similar to the famous Warwickshire salet doesn't it? The Coventry salet. The Coventry salet is
more pointed at the top you can always tell the English ones because they're a bit more pointed.
And then this one, this is your latest helmet I understand. Yep, this is my latest one, this is
an open-faced salet, an Italian design. This one now, being open-faced, popular amongst all classes
of soldiers, from men at arms right the way down to archers but particularly amongst archers
because you don't have the visor, which interferes with you drawing back the string. Now this part,
as well on the front, is an extra reinforced plate just to give the front even more protection as
that's where most of the blows will be coming in. That's a lovely specimen, and it's stamped here.
Who made that? Yes, that was Dave Hewitt of White Rose Armories. White Rose yeah? Pretty good eh?
It's just interesting, off set we're being attacked by birds and there's a big hawk
above the birds. So in the background, wildlife is happening yeah? So we've got a nice surprise
for you here, look at this for a piece of armor yeah? Brigandine? Coats of plates?
Yep, brigandine being the more common name for the ones at this time but look at this
uh configuration here this this chap de feu with this bever here. Can you talk us through this?
Of course, so the chap de feu, quite similar to the one you've seen earlier on in the video
but of a much more noble status, hence the uh the brass plume holder on the top lecture decoration
and this visor as well this I believe is another one that was found at Rhodes as well quite a
good collection of armor from there and these buttons here, if I can get it to do it right,
actually let the bever fall away yeah, so it gives him plenty enough to breathe, but as soon as the
arrows start to fly he can then close it or we can close it up and when I’ve got it done right,
it marries up really well with the helmet there as well being able to see. Gosh that's an incredible
piece of kit. So inside here can we undo it a little bit yes of course just remove the helmet.
There you go son, thank you, the detail in this is quite fantastic. It's lined on the outside
isn't it with, with thick felted wool. Yep, thick felted wool for this one and of course the Cross
of St George's decoration. Now things to note about the brigandines as well these weren't either
for upper class or for lower class, they could be made for all classes. This one is of course
the sort of thing a knight, a noble man at arms would have worn because you see the decoration
the rivets. The more work that goes into the piece, the more expensive, the higher class of
soldier who would have worn it. Now if we can, we might have to lay it out on the
ground just to be able to get a good view of it while I’m unbuckling it at the front
There you are if you can take the weight for me
Lovely stuff. Let's take that let me just show the detail
at the back before we put it down yes look at that.
That's splendid workmanship isn't it,
so we're going to lay it down now and open it out so you can see the inside.
All right, talk us through it. So all of these plates in here have been overlapped and riveted
to the outside that's where you can see the rivets. Now all these plates as well they've
been hand tinned so they won't rust, because the sweat of the body up against it'd get rusty really
fast if that wasn't the case. Now this one being a very high quality, you're going to have pretty
consistently good plates of steel whereas some of the ones that your common soldiers would have worn
were made out of old out of fashion pieces or damaged pieces of armor that they simply
hammered flat cut up and they made into new armor, because you don't want to waste steel,
being an expensive commodity and all. I saw something up at Bradford university years ago
when they recovered the dead from Towton and I was asked if I could identify what they thought was a
bodkin arrowhead, but there was something stood stuck on the front of it yep. And what it was,
was it was the bodkin arrowhead the short one and it had gone through a small plate from a
brigandine still had three little rivets in it and they found that inside the vertebrae
of, of a man. So that's a flat shot from a longbow, has gone through the front,
taken the plate with it all the way through the body which is incredible but this
I’m sure this would have actually stopped the arrow look at it, it's, it's quite magnificent.
Quite possibly I mean arrows were powerful, crossbow bolts as well yeah? Anything at close
range might have buckled the plates but um who knows me the draw these became incredibly
um popular because you can move around yeah of course as you can see the way that the plates do
move overlapping when they are on you the way your body moves the plates go with it as well
do you Remember when I made one of these years ago? I do, I do, out of a Land Rover
car door if I remember rightly. It was out of the front wing of a Land Rover.
Well I hope you enjoyed that video of ours, if you did like, share and subscribe, and if you're
already a subscriber hey thanks a million. But I’ve got to give a special shout out now to our
patreon members. Now this first name Crusty 1945, Dave Dempsey, hey guys thank you. Now Matthew if
I get this wrong tell me. I’m going to give two attempts the first attempt thank you to Matthew
Boger second attempt thank you Matthew Bouger, let me know which one's right. Thanks, bye for now.