Medieval Historian Ranks The Most Famous Helmets From The Middle Ages | History Ranked

Historian and host of the Gone Medieval podcast Matt Lewis ranks the most famous helmets from the medieval period. From the Great Helm to Sutton Hoo, Matt scores each helmet on protection, comfort, and visibility. Disagree with him? Let us know in the comment section below.

00:00 Intro
0:55 Viking
01:21 Spangenhelm
03:38 Sutton Hoo
05:54 Kettle Hat
08:07 Norman Helm
10:30 Great Helm
12:49 Pig Faced Bascinet
14:48 Barbute
16:41 Sallet
18:17 Closed Helm
19:56 Frog Mouth Helm
21:38 Morion
23:24 Horned Helm of Henry VIII
24:37 Outro

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free exclusive podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsely, Mary Beard and more. Watch, listen and read history wherever you are, whenever you want it. Available on all devices: Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Android TV, Samsung Smart TV, Roku, Xbox, Chromecast, and iOs & Android.

#medievalhistory #ranking #tierlist

[rabidspatula]

Speaking as a Viking reenactor the primary role of the nasal on the spangenhelm is to keep your own shield from bouncing back into your face during the crush of the shieldwall. Saved my teeth more than once in our competitive free fights. As for head and neck protection, that is where maille coifs and aventails come in. That said you sacrifice hearing and weight. Combat is all about tradeoffs.

And correct on the nasal not impeding vision. It is between your eyes and you don't even notice it.

[Roggay]

Ranking the Sallet at D seems downright criminal. The Sallet is part of the rest of the armor, ranking it alone without taking into account how it integrate into the system is not very fair.

[joseelempecinao]

The ranking is a bit random and capricious. There is a category to the judging process that has been completely forgotten: Function. You can't compare a mass produced helmet whose function was to protect infantry in a general role functionality, with a helmet, which was part of a system like a full armour, designed with a specific function in the battlefield.

[Yandarval]

I know this is a History Hit programme, and matt is a HH presenter. However, this really should have been done by someone like Dr Toby Capwell. The man jousts AND does it in a Sallet and Bevor. So he would be the person to ask about comfort and visibility.

[danq.]

I think there will be a few people posting reaction videos to this one.

[gerry]

Surely the WW1 Brodie helmet owes more to a kettle helm than the morion.

[randalthor]

Sorry, but it makes absolutely no sense to rank a sallet below a kettle hat, when a sallet is nothing but an improved version of a kettle hat. It's more protective than a kettle hat when you need it to be, and when you need visibility or ventilation more than you need protection, it's got the same visibility and ventilation of a kettle hat. If your sallet has a visor, then you simply lift the visor when you want full visibility. If your sallet doesn't have a visor, then you just push it back on your head when you want full visibility. In either case you'll have nothing restricting your vision, and you'll have equally good protection compared to a kettle hat. If you're wearing it without a bevor, then that's all there is to it, and there's no issue with ventilation because the lower half of your face isn't covered (just as it isn't covered with a kettle hat). If you're wearing it with a bevor, then you keep the bevor lowered when you want more ventilation (or when you want to be able to shout orders or something), and you raise it when you care more about protecting the lower half of your face. You can generally expect a sallet to be more comfortable than a kettle hat as well, since a sallet is less likely to be mass produced and more likely to be made specifically for you compared to a kettle hat. A sallet is just as good as a kettle hat at everything that a kettle hat does well, but it gives you more options than a kettle hat.

[twincast]

Why did you make this video with someone who's an expert on certain parts of history, but clearly not on arms and armor? Not at all the quality standards I'm used to from you. And I know you have contacts with the Royal Armouries etc.
2:20 8:30 While true in isolation, you can't just ignore they were pretty much universally worn with a mail coif or aventail covering those areas.
5:30 Obviously they would have been secured with straps or strings, as was done on later as well as earlier (i.e. Roman) helmets with "flaps".
11:00 Well, with an asterisk for the flat-top ones.
13:05 It doesn't. With it, too, you used an aventail or (later on) a gorget 13:25 to cover your neck.
15:00 Technically true, I suppose, but you sort of imply that the barbute was a descendant of the kettle hat, which it was not. They're "cousins".
16:50 So now we both acknowledge separate neck and chin protection, and openly handwave it, despite a bevor being standard equipment when wearing a sallet into battle with full plate armor.
17:40 Completely ignoring that it often had a visor that could be raised, let alone that people were flipping it back for increased visibility.
17:50 Sallets are well-known to be one of the most comfortable helmets. Not to mention that, as you pointed out earlier, they all came with padding, anyway. And your constant "I think" and "I'd imagine" in regards to comfort in particular make it abundantly clear that you've never worn, let alone exercised with, a helmet other than your greathelm, and that one merely as a novelty item.
18:00 Giving arguably the most popular helmet in history a D rating because it looks bad to you...
18:50 How on Earth can you ever justify rating closed helmets/armets lower than greathelms?!
20:20 While true that it was specialized for jousting, the very period illustration shown on screen here depicts specimens with breath holes.
20:50 It arguably deserves an 11 by comparison.
...The morion and Henry VIII's novelty jousting helmet are the only ratings devoid of nonsense.

[petrvcelak]

Excuse me? The shape of a hounskull bascinet is designed to increase the ventilation? Certainly it is not connected to the deflective ability of such shaped object, isn't it? Also anybody who have this type of helmet knows that the ventilation is actually worse since there is a lot of space between your face and plate with all already breathed out air and you need to breathe strongly and deep to be able to have a proper circulation of fresh air. Some bascinets of this type of visor even have a mouth shaped opennings to make breathing easier.

Not only that you use a picture of a horrible modern reproduction with so many technicals aspect of the real helmet done wrong with so many great survival extant pieces just ready to be used but also without a maille aventail which is an another 1/2 of the head protection intended to be used with the helmet. Also a single slit? Like 90% of bascinets have two eyeslits. There are also some which have even more holes for eyes, yet are more protective such as CH16 from Churburg and I can think of only one displayed in Poland if I'm not mistaken that has a single eyeslit. The following black and white picture shows a greatbascinet, a later type developed from bascinet but not a bascinet.

What a mess.

[boydgrandy]

The shape of he visor on the pig snout bascinet is intended to deflect arrows and sword blows from the face. The breaths in it are kept small, which impacts breathing badly and vision with the visor down is almost completely restricted. Some vision downward is available through the breaths, but often these were only on the right side, especially when used on horseback.
The good news is that many of these helms had visors that could be raised and locked, or removed easily. Vision and breathing vastly improved, and acceptable decrease in protection if done in appropriate conditions (no arrow storms and fighting on foot against other armored men at arms.

[kariannecrysler]

I would rank the Sutton Hu helm higher on visibility. The face mask is rounded by the eyes and the cut looked as if there would’ve been a 6 of 10 imo

[caradocewing]

That helmet is frankly an awful reproduction. No wonder it's uncomfortable.

[dougsundseth]

Shall I assume that the presenter means "Spangenhelm" when he says "Spangle helm"?

[HandleMyBallsYouTube]

I know from experience that History Hit isn't exactly the most trustworthy channel when it comes to anything beyond basic pop history, but this one is bad even for that. This is basically nothing short of twisting facts to create some ''interesting'' rating situations. I think anyone serious about medieval history is going to agree with me that a tier list isn't exactly a good resource for anything, but bear in mind people will watch this video and take what you say as a fact because they saw ''historian'' in the title, so when you talk about these things you should at least put in the bare minimum of effort when it comes to historical accuracy. You're clearly not looking at any of these in their proper historical context, or with any knowledge about how they were used. This is going to do nothing but add yet more myths into the mix that people will perpetuate for years to come.

[Hudsoncolo]

Overlooking that they were high performing athletes who practiced long hours fight in their armor. They worked to over come limitations of the armor.

[scelonferdi]

Salet seems way more practical than a closed helm, under the condition of being paired with a bevel. It achieves full face protection with 2 independently moving pieces, allowing much greater mobility.

[Crytica.]

That Norse Helmet scored just as if not better than the Spangen helmet yet is in a lower tier. And tbh, having worn a lot of those simple earlier medieval helmets like the Spangen or Norse helmet. With padding it sits perfectly fine and does it's job pretty well for it's time. It's also easily made and all the functions it has it does well. For me it's an easy A tier ( both the Norse and Spangen helm)

[davidsorum]

Did you really say "spangle"? Spangle? Seriously?

[rebeccawayman]

I just want more videos of you, Eleanor and Dan Snow.

[LauraSoly]

Lost me at “spangle” helm. If you want to be taken seriously as an expert in your field, correct (or even defendable) pronunciations of the basic items of kit is a must.