[ANSTHRLD] Helms in SCA achievements

[Tim McDaniel]

On Thu, 27 Feb 2003, BOWERMAN, MATTHEW S. (JSC-DV1) (USA) <matthew.s.bowerman1 at jsc.nasa.gov> wrote:
> Lord Daniel de Lincolia.  As far a barred or non-barred visors go,
> this was a practice in England ...  One use of barred visors was to
> denote rank in addition to the coronets, and crowns used.
> when you have a barred visor, and happen to be a Squire, or
> Gentlemen instead of a peer.

It appears not, in period.  Friar's _A Dictionary of Heraldry_,
s.v. Helmet.

    From the end of the fourteenth century ... the tilting helm
    [no bars, one horizontal eyeslot] was widely used to dispolay the
    ornate tournament crests ... This was permanently 'closed' except
    for an eye-slit, and was only effective when leaning forward in
    the tilting position.

    However, following the Tudor period ... the nobility perceived the
    need for further differentiation, and from the early seventeenth
    century a variety of helmets has been used to indicate rank. ...

    ... tilting helm [barless] reserved for the use of esquires and
    gentlement.

    In Germany, two types of helmet were adopted for armorial
    purposes: the open helmet with bars or grilles was reserved for
    use by the older families of prominent position, the lesser,
    closed helm being used by the new nobility.  Likewise, in France,
    the grilled helm was appropriate to the ancient noblesse, newly
    ennobled families being denied its use until the third generation
    when they became 'bon-gentil-hommes'.  French heralds delighted in
    devising complex rules governing the number of bars relating to
    each rank, but it seems that these were never strictly observed
    ...

Note that almost all the data I've mentioned has been English.  For
non-English, you might want to check in various of von Volborth's
works, and Neubecker as well, at least some of which have been
translated into English.  von Volborth, _The Art of Heraldry_, p. 61,
writes

    However, there are a great humber of coat of arms in European
    heraldry which have more than two tinctures in their mantling.  We
    quite often find, especially in Hungarian arms, mantling which are
    on one side argent and azure, and on the other Or and gules, even
    if the shield should have one colour and one metal only.  In
    Italy, Spain and France it can happen that all the tinctures
    contained in the arms appear also in the mantling ...

P. 49, he writes of helms,

    Especially in France, Portugal, Spain and Italy helms are often
    damascened.  Helms of emperors, kings and royal princes are
    usually painted gold.  The inside of the helm is mostly lined red
    or purpure but coule also be of the first colour mentioned in the
    blazon.

Unfortunately, he gives no dates for these practices.  Neubecker,
_Heraldry: Sources, Symbols and Meaning_ has pp. 144-165 on helms,
mantling, crests, and such.  Apparently in the late Middle Ages, the
imperial chancery in Vienna reserved barred helmets to the nobility
and their equals ("for exmaple those who had a doctor's title in law
or theology").  But he says that other lands had other principles.  As
for mantling, he notes that the Armorial de Galre "admits all
possibilities" of tinctures.

    A front-facing helmet with the mandling tucked up to one side is
    today considered against the rules, but in the classical period of
    heraldry it was not unusual.

He mentions that in Gelre (ca. 1390), even lowly families have
coronets.

Daniel de Lincolia
--
Tim McDaniel (home); Reply-To: tmcd at panix.com; work is tmcd at us.ibm.com.