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., p.160 The bascinet fitted with a camail was relatively heavy and most of the weight was supported directly by the head.
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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".
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The gisant of Saint Herbot This gisant is a granite effigy that depicts Saint Herbot in relief, dressed in a long robe and an aventail or camail. There is a pilgrim's staff beneath his left arm and by his right arm is a pouch and a book.
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The shock of the excavator's strike probably also accounts for a missing portion along the rear sinister brow band, which may have corroded before disintegrating with the impact. The suspension strip from which the camail would have hung was also missing in this area, although it may have been removed before the helmet's deposition.
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Ceremonial cloth of a knight of the Order (François de Poilly, Reconstruction of the 17th century) Order's collar. Knight of the Order The Order of the Porcupine (French: Ordre du Porc-Épic, Ordre du Camail) was established by Louis de France, Duke of Orléans, in 1394, at the occasion of his elder son Charles of Orléans' baptism.
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For this reason, the Order of the Porcupine was also called the Ordre du Camail or "Ordre du Camaïeu" ("Order of the Cameo"). The Latin motto of the order was Cominus et Eminus (English "Near and Far") which was also the motto of Louis I, Duke of Orleans. Ackermann mentions this chivalric order as a historical order of France.
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The hooded dotterel was placed in genus Charadrius but in the early 2000s it was reclassified into the genus Thinornis, along with shore plover (Thinornis novaeseelandiae). In 2000 the number of mature individuals was estimated at 7,000. Alternate common names include: hooded plover, hoody, pluvier à camail (in French), kappenregenpfeifer (in German), and chorlito encapuchado (in Spanish).
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Soldiers wear helmets, often made from lightweight plastic materials. The word helmet is diminutive from helm, a medieval word for protective combat headgear. The medieval great helm covers the whole head and often is accompanied with camail protecting throat and neck as well. Originally a helmet was a helm which covered the head only partly and protected it from injury in accidents.
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Civilizations that used mail invented specific terms for each garment made from it. The standard terms for European mail armour derive from French: leggings are called chausses, a hood is a mail coif, and mittens, mitons. A mail collar hanging from a helmet is a camail or aventail. A shirt made from mail is a hauberk if knee-length and a haubergeon if mid-thigh length.
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Plate gorgets were introduced from c. 1400–1410, which replaced the camail and moved 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.
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Bascinet without accessories. The bascinet – also bassinet, basinet, or 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.
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Northumbrian cavalry (right) wearing helmets similar to the Coppergate Helmet. From one of the Pictish Aberlemno Sculptured Stones The construction of the helmet is complex. Apart from the neck guard the basic form is shared by the contemporaneous Pioneer Helmet, a sparsely decorated fighting piece, and consists of four parts: an iron skull cap with brass edging and decorations, two iron cheek guards with brass edging, and camail protecting the neck. The cap of the helmet has eight iron components.
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Unlike the cervelliere, which was worn in conjunction with, often underneath, a complete hood of mail called the coif,Nicolle (1996) p. 59. 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.Gravett (2008), p.
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Later great bascinet (c. 1440) with rounded skull and visor - showing the position of the wearer's head and the rotation of the visor 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.Rothero p. 3.
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Another method was to simply forge down an iron billet into a rod and then proceed to draw it out into wire. The solid links would have been made by punching from a sheet. Guild marks were often stamped on the rings to show their origin and craftsmanship. Forge welding was also used to create solid links, but there are few possible examples known; the only well documented example from Europe is that of the camail (mail neck-defence) of the 7th century Coppergate helmet.
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At some point in the process a slight dent in the front portion of the nose-to-nape inscription band was also reshaped, despite the belief that it represented contemporary use of the helmet, not post-deposition damage. A new suspension strip was created to replace the missing sinister half, and damaged rings had new rings of iron wire adhered to them in support. The camail was then rehung, and attached to three loops on each cheek guard. Replacements were made for several missing loops.
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Reconstruction of the Lamellenhelm from Niederstotzingen The Lamellenhelm (plural Lamellenhelme - German language derived terms) was a type of helmet used in Europe during the Early Middle Ages. Examples are characterized by caps made from overlapping lamellar scales, in addition to a brow plate, cheek guards, and camail. They are distinct from the contemporary spangenhelm and crested helmets also found in Europe; unlike those, which are influenced by Roman designs, Lamellenhelme display eastern influence and have primarily been found in southeastern Europe. They are mostly associated with the Avars of Pannonia and the Lombards of Italy.
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The Agiluf helmet plate Lamellenhelme are characterized by overlapping plates—a form of lamellar armour—with caps of conical shape and plumes at the top. They also tend to have brow plates, cheek pieces, and, like spangenhelme, camail protecting the neck. A print of a lamellar helmet The Lamellenhelm was one of three primary designs of helmets that proliferated throughout 6th- and 7th-century Europe; the others were the spangenhelm and the northern crested helmet. They are categorized by Heiko Steuer with 'other helmets of eastern origin,' and have been principally found in southeastern Europe.
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The Gevninge eyepiece is wide and tall, moulded from bronze and gilded. An oval eye opening is overlain by a sculpted eyebrow with grooves representing individual hairs; grooves around the perimeter of the oval might represent eyelashes. The top and bottom of the fragment each have three holes, presumably used to attach it to the helmet where it would have formed the dexter eyepiece. The top three holes might have attached it to the helmet cap, the bottom three to some form of face protection such as a face mask or camail.
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The collar of the order was composed of a tortil of three gold chains, at the end of which a gold porcupine hung on a green-enamelled flowered terrace. It was worn on an azure velvet coat, lined with crimson satin, ornamented with a cope and a mantle, both crimson. Under the coat, the knights wore a long violet garment. The knights received, on the day of their nomination, a gold ring adorned by a cameo (called in French at the period, "camaïeu" or "kamaheu" or even "camail") upon which a porcupine was engraved.
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The pit in which the helmet was found was lined with oak planks that had been pressed into the clay. It was most probably a well; the lack of food or human parasite ova remains suggests that it was not a toilet or cesspit, while plant and animal remains are consistent with an open, aquatic environment. The helmet appears to have been intentionally hidden within it, probably with the intention of recovery. The sinister cheek piece and the camail had been carefully removed and placed inside the cap, which was then placed upside down in the pit, keeping the three parts together.
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Knights usually wore the great helm over a mail coif (hood) sometimes in conjunction with a close-fitting iron skull cap known as a cervelliere. The later development of the cervelliere, the bascinet, was also worn beneath the great helm; men-at-arms would often remove the great helm after the first clash of lances, for greater vision and freedom of movement in melee combat. The bascinet had a mail curtain attached, a camail or aventail, which superseded the coif. Mail throat and neck defences such as these were made obsolete when plate gorgets were introduced, around 1400.
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This rounded helmet is horizontally divided: with a brow-band constructed for the attachment of a face-covering camail, above this is a deep lower skull section surmounted by an upper skull-piece raised from a single plate. The upper part of the helmet has a riveted iron crosspiece reinforcement.Dawson, Timothy: Byzantine Infantryman, Oxford (2007), p. 61. A high-quality Byzantine helmet, decorated in gilt brass inlay, was found in Vatra Moldovitei in Rumania. This helmet, dating to the late 12th century, is similar to the Yasenovo helmet in having a deep lower skull section with a separate upper skull.
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Vertical in format and with a brown background, the painting shows Pius three-quarter-length seated on a red velvet chair embroidered in gold. He has a peaceful expression and wears a white zucchetto, a white rochet or tunic (of which only the sleeves can be seen), a red velvet pelerine-type camail with ermine cuffs and a red stole with gold embroidery. Pius's arms rest on the chair's arms and his right hand holds a paper on which is written in Latin Pio VII Bonarium Artium Patron (Pius VII, Patron of the Fine Arts). The painting is signed top left with LUD.
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The scans revealed the presence of the camail and the sinister cheek guard within the cap of the helmet, otherwise filled with clay. In mid-June the interior of the helmet was excavated in intervals, corresponding to the vertical slices taken of the helmet when it was CT scanned. No significant organic materials were found—it had been hoped that an interior leather cap, worn as additional padding, might be present—allowing the helmet to be protected against corrosion more easily, by sealing it in a new Perspex box desiccated with sachets of silica gel. The helmet next had the accumulated layers of corrosion removed.
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"... Alexius covered his face, drawing down the vizor fastened to the rim of his helmet..." Both Choniates and Kinnamos describe the Emperor Manuel I having armour covering his face. This would accord with accounts of such protection in earlier military writings, which describe double-layered mail covering the face, and later illustrations. Such a complete camail could be raised off the face by hooking up the mail to studs on the brow of the helmet. However, the remains of metal ‘face-mask’ anthropomorphic visors were discovered at the site of the Great Palace of Constantinople in association with a coin of Manuel I Komnenos.
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Nicolle, David (1996), p. 163.. Most Byzantine helmets are shown being worn with armour for the neck. Somewhat less frequently the defences also cover the throat and there are indications that full facial protection was occasionally afforded. The most often illustrated example of such armour is a sectioned skirt depending from the back and sides of the helmet; this may have been of quilted construction, leather strips or of metal splint reinforced fabric. Other depictions of helmets, especially the ‘Caucasian’ type, are shown with a mail aventail or camail attached to the brow-band (which is confirmed by actual examples from the Balkans, Romania, Russia and elsewhere).
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The form of neck protection on the helmet, if any, is unclear. The bottom of the back of the helmet is largely missing, although the portion that survives appears to have at least two perforations. These would most likely have been used to attach a neck guard, perhaps like the one made of camail on the Coppergate helmet, yet no such remains were found. A series of unexplained iron rods found near the helmet could theoretically have been used as stiffeners for an organic neck guard, such as one made of leather, but such an arrangement has no known parallels; it is instead thought that the rods were more likely belt stiffeners.
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Bascinet with an aventail. The method of fixing the aventail to the helmet via a pierced leather band fitted over rivets on the helmet (vervelles) secured by a cord passing through the vervelles is shown Historic depiction of a bascinet with aventail on the tomb of Edward, the Black Prince (1376) An aventail or camail is a flexible curtain of mail attached to the skull of a helmet that extends to cover the throat, neck and shoulders. Part or all of the face, with spaces to allow vision, could also be covered. The earliest camails were riveted directly to the edge of the helmet, however, beginning in the 1320s in Western Europe a detachable version replaced this type.
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By the second half of the 14th century, the coat of plates became affordable enough to be worn by soldiers of lesser status, like the Gotland's militiamen or the urban militia of Paris. After being replaced by plate armour amongst the elite, similar garments could still be found in the 15th century, as the brigandine. The Portuguese 'Regimento dos Coudéis' from 1418 states that the most basic body armor accessible for a non-gentle soldier was, indeed, such armor. Monteiro, João Gouveia, 1998, To the aquantiados on 32 marcs of silver, it was just demanded horse, while those of 24 marcs and up had to had crossbows spanned with goat's foot lever, a hundread bolts and yet, as defensive arms, coat-of-plates, bascinet with camail or bascinet of baveira, p. 49.
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