Harleian Library
The Harleian Library, Harley Collection, Harleian Collection and other variants is one of the main "closed" collections of the British Library in London. The collection is 7660 manuscripts, including 2200 illuminated manuscripts, more than 14,000 original legal documents, it was formed by his son Edward. In 1753, it was purchased for £10,000 by the British government. Together with the collections of Sir Robert Cotton and Hans Sloane it formed the basis of the British Museum's collection of manuscripts, which moved to the new British Library in 1973; the collection contains illuminated manuscripts spanning the early Middle Ages to the Renaissance. There are important early British manuscripts, many from Western Europe, several Byzantine manuscripts in Greek and other languages. Among the most significant manuscripts are: Lacnunga Harley Psalter Kildare Poems Sumer Is Icumen In, in Harley 978 Inventory of Henry VIII of England Gospels of Mael Brigte Harley 1775, an illuminated Gospel Book produced in Italy during the last quarter of the 6th century Minuscule 113 - and many others, see the category at bottom of the page Harley Lyrics Harley Golden Gospels Ramsey Psalter Book of Nunnaminster Minuscule 3686 Harleian Genealogies Minuscule 104 Minuscule 505 Uncial 0121a Ptolemy's Geography Harley MS. 7334 Harleian prayerbook Cotton Library British Library Journal vol. 15 is devoted to Robert Harley and his collections.
C. E. and C. R. Wright, eds; the Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715–1726, 2 vols. The foundation collections at the Catalogue of Illuminated manuscripts List of medicine and alchemist manuscripts PDF, 192 KB Trilingual Psalter Harley Bestiary The Book of Nunnaminster
Blackadder
Blackadder is a series of four BBC1 pseudohistorical British sitcoms, plus several one-off instalments, which aired in the 1980s. All television episodes starred Rowan Atkinson as the anti-hero Edmund Blackadder, Tony Robinson as Blackadder's dogsbody, Baldrick; each series was set in a different historical period, with the two protagonists accompanied by different characters, though several reappear in one series or another, for example Melchett and Lord Flashheart. The first series, The Black Adder, was written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson, while subsequent episodes were written by Curtis and Ben Elton; the shows were produced by John Lloyd. In 2000, the fourth series, Blackadder Goes Forth, ranked at 16 in the "100 Greatest British Television Programmes", a list created by the British Film Institute. In the 2004 TV poll to find "Britain's Best Sitcom", Blackadder was voted the second-best British sitcom of all time, topped by Only Fools and Horses, it was ranked as the 9th-best TV show of all time by Empire magazine.
Although each series is set in a different era, all follow the misfortunes of Edmund Blackadder, who in each is a member of a British family dynasty present at many significant periods and places in British history. It is implied in each series that the Blackadder character is a descendant of the previous one, although it is never specified how or when any of the Blackadders managed to father children. In series one, Edmund Blackadder is not bright, is much the intellectual inferior of his servant, Baldrick. However, in subsequent series, the positions are reversed; each incarnation of Blackadder and Baldrick is saddled with tolerating the presence of a dim-witted aristocrat. This role was taken in the first two series by Lord Percy Percy, played by Tim McInnerny; each series was set in a different period of British history, beginning in 1485 and ending in 1917, comprised six half-hour episodes. The first series, made in 1983, was called The Black Adder and was set in the fictional reign of "Richard IV".
The second series, Blackadder II, was set during the reign of Elizabeth I. Blackadder the Third was set during the late 18th and early 19th centuries in the reign of George III, Blackadder Goes Forth was set in 1917 in the trenches of the Great War; the Black Adder, the first series of Blackadder, was written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson and produced by John Lloyd. It aired on BBC1 from 15 June 1983 to 20 July 1983, was a joint production with the Australian Seven Network. Set in 1485 at the end of the British Middle Ages, the series is written as an alternative history in which King Richard III won the Battle of Bosworth Field only to be mistaken for someone else and murdered, is succeeded by Richard IV, one of the Princes in the Tower; the series follows the exploits of Richard IV's unfavoured second son Edmund, the Duke of Edinburgh in his various attempts to increase his standing with his father and his eventual quest to overthrow him. Conceived while Atkinson and Curtis were working on Not the Nine O'Clock News, the series dealt comically with a number of aspects of medieval life in Britain: witchcraft, Royal succession, European relations, the Crusades, the conflict between the Church and the Crown.
Along with the secret history, many historical events portrayed in the series were anachronistic. The filming of the series was ambitious, with a large cast and much location shooting; the series featured Shakespearean dialogue adapted for comic effect. Blackadder II is set in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, portrayed by Miranda Richardson; the principal character is Lord Blackadder, the great-grandson of the original Black Adder. During the series, he deals with the Queen, her obsequious Lord Chamberlain Lord Melchett – his rival – and the Queen's demented former nanny Nursie. Following the BBC's request for improvements, several changes were made; the second series was the first to establish the familiar Blackadder character: cunning and witty, in sharp contrast to the first series' bumbling Prince Edmund. To reduce the cost of production, it was shot with no outdoor scenes and several used indoor sets, such as the Queen's throne room and Blackadder's front room. A quote from this series ranked number three in a list of the top 25 television "putdowns" of the last 40 years by the Radio Times magazine: "The eyes are open, the mouth moves, but Mr. Brain has long since departed, hasn't he, Percy?"
Blackadder the Third is set in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a period known as the Regency. In the series, Edmund Blackadder Esquire is the butler to the Prince of Wales. Despite Edmund's respected intelligence and abilities, he has no personal fortune to speak of, apart from his fluctuating wage packet (as well
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death on 24 March 1603. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the last of the five monarchs of the House of Tudor. Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, his second wife, executed two-and-a-half years after Elizabeth's birth. Anne's marriage to Henry VIII was annulled, Elizabeth was declared illegitimate, her half-brother, Edward VI, ruled until his death in 1553, bequeathing the crown to Lady Jane Grey and ignoring the claims of his two half-sisters and the Roman Catholic Mary, in spite of statute law to the contrary. Edward's will was set aside and Mary became queen, deposing Lady Jane Grey. During Mary's reign, Elizabeth was imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels. In 1558 upon Mary's death, Elizabeth succeeded her half-sister to the throne and set out to rule by good counsel, she depended on a group of trusted advisers, led by William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley.
One of her first actions as queen was the establishment of an English Protestant church, of which she became the Supreme Governor. This Elizabethan Religious Settlement was to evolve into the Church of England, it was expected that Elizabeth would produce an heir. She was succeeded by her first cousin twice removed, James VI of Scotland, she had earlier been responsible for the imprisonment and execution of James's mother, Queen of Scots. In government, Elizabeth was more moderate. One of her mottoes was "video et taceo". In religion, she was tolerant and avoided systematic persecution. After the pope declared her illegitimate in 1570 and released her subjects from obedience to her, several conspiracies threatened her life, all of which were defeated with the help of her ministers' secret service. Elizabeth was cautious in foreign affairs, manoeuvring between the major powers of Spain, she only half-heartedly supported a number of ineffective, poorly resourced military campaigns in the Netherlands and Ireland.
By the mid-1580s, England could no longer avoid war with Spain. England's defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 associated Elizabeth with one of the greatest military victories in English history; as she grew older, Elizabeth became celebrated for her virginity. A cult grew around her, celebrated in the portraits and literature of the day. Elizabeth's reign became known as the Elizabethan era; the period is famous for the flourishing of English drama, led by playwrights such as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, for the seafaring prowess of English adventurers such as Francis Drake. Some historians depict Elizabeth as a short-tempered, sometimes indecisive ruler, who enjoyed more than her share of luck. Towards the end of her reign, a series of economic and military problems weakened her popularity. Elizabeth is acknowledged as a charismatic performer and a dogged survivor in an era when government was ramshackle and limited, when monarchs in neighbouring countries faced internal problems that jeopardised their thrones.
After the short reigns of her half-siblings, her 44 years on the throne provided welcome stability for the kingdom and helped forge a sense of national identity. Elizabeth was born at Greenwich Palace and was named after her grandmothers, Elizabeth of York and Elizabeth Howard, she was the second child of Henry VIII of England born in wedlock to survive infancy. Her mother was Anne Boleyn. At birth, Elizabeth was the heir presumptive to the throne of England, her older half-sister, had lost her position as a legitimate heir when Henry annulled his marriage to Mary's mother, Catherine of Aragon, to marry Anne, with the intent to sire a male heir and ensure the Tudor succession. She was baptised on 10 September 1533. A canopy was carried at the ceremony over the three-day old child by her uncle Viscount Rochford, Lord Hussey, Lord Thomas Howard, Lord Howard of Effingham. Elizabeth was two years and eight months old when her mother was beheaded on 19 May 1536, four months after Catherine of Aragon's death from natural causes.
Elizabeth was deprived of her place in the royal succession. Eleven days after Anne Boleyn's execution, Henry married Jane Seymour, who died shortly after the birth of their son, Edward, in 1537. From his birth, Edward was undisputed heir apparent to the throne. Elizabeth was placed in his household and carried the chrisom, or baptismal cloth, at his christening. Elizabeth's first governess, Margaret Bryan, wrote that she was "as toward a child and as gentle of conditions as I knew any in my life". Catherine Champernowne, better known by her married name of Catherine "Kat" Ashley, was appointed as Elizabeth's governess in 1537, she remained Elizabeth's friend until her death in 1565. Champernowne taught Elizabeth four languages: French, Flemish and Spanish. By the time William Grindal became her tutor in 1544, Elizabeth could write English and Italian. Under Grindal, a talented and skilful tutor, she progressed in French and Greek. After Grindal died in 1548, Elizabeth received her education under Roger Ascham, a sympathetic teacher who believed that learning should be engaging.
By the time her formal education ended in 1550, Elizabeth was one of the best educated women of her generation. At the end of her life, Elizabeth was believed to speak Welsh, Cornish and Irish in addition to the languages men
Dunkirk
Dunkirk, is a commune in Nord, a French department in northern France. It is the most northern city of France, it has the third-largest French harbour. The population of the commune at the 2016 census was 91,412; the name of Dunkirk derives from West Flemish dun'dune' or'dun' and kerke'church', which together means'church in the dunes'. Until the middle of the 20th century, the city was situated in the French Flemish area. Today Dunkirk is the world's northernmost Francophone city. A fishing village arose late in the tenth century, in the flooded coastal area of the English Channel south of the Western Scheldt, when the area was held by the Counts of Flanders, vassals of the French Crown. About 960AD, Count Baldwin III had a town wall erected in order to protect the settlement against Viking raids; the surrounding wetlands were cultivated by the monks of nearby Bergues Abbey. The name Dunkirka was first mentioned in a tithe privilege of 27 May 1067, issued by Count Baldwin V of Flanders. Count Philip I brought further large tracts of marshland under cultivation, laid out the first plans to build a Canal from Dunkirk to Bergues and vested the Dunkirkers with market rights.
In the late 13th century, when the Dampierre count Guy of Flanders entered into the Franco-Flemish War with his suzerain King Philippe IV of France, the citizens of Dunkirk sided with the French against their count, who at first was defeated at the 1297 Battle of Furnes, but reached de facto autonomy upon the victorious Battle of the Golden Spurs five years and exacted vengeance. Guy's son, Count Robert III granted further city rights to Dunkirk. Count Louis remained a loyal liensman of the French king upon the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War with England in 1337, prohibited the maritime trade, which led to another revolt by the Dunkirk citizens. After the count had been killed in the 1346 Battle of Crécy, his son and successor Count Louis II of Flanders signed a truce with the English. However, in the course of the Western Schism from 1378, English supporters of Pope Urban VI disembarked at Dunkirk, captured the city and flooded the surrounding estates, they left great devastations in and around the town.
Upon the extinction of the Counts of Flanders with the death of Louis II in 1384, Flanders was acquired by the Burgundian, Duke Philip the Bold. The fortifications were again enlarged, including the construction of a belfry daymark; as a strategic point, Dunkirk has always been exposed to political covetousness, by Duke Robert I of Bar in 1395, by Louis de Luxembourg in 1435 and by the Austrian archduke Maximilian I of Habsburg, who in 1477 married Mary of Burgundy, sole heiress of late Duke Charles the Bold. As Maximilian was the son of Emperor Frederick III, all Flanders was seized by King Louis XI of France. However, the archduke defeated the French troops in 1479 at the Battle of Guinegate; when Mary died in 1482, Maximilian retained Flanders according to the terms of the 1482 Treaty of Arras. Dunkirk, along with the rest of Flanders, was incorporated into the Habsburg Netherlands and upon the 1581 secession of the Seven United Netherlands, remained part of the Southern Netherlands, which were held by Habsburg Spain as Imperial fiefs.
The area remained much disputed between the Kingdom of Spain, the United Netherlands, the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of France. At the beginning of the Eighty Years' War, Dunkirk was in the hands of the Dutch rebels, from 1577. Spanish forces under Duke Alexander Farnese of Parma re-established Spanish rule in 1583 and it became a base for the notorious Dunkirkers; the Dunkirkers lost their home port when the city was conquered by the French in 1646 but Spanish forces recaptured the city in 1652. In 1658, as a result of the long war between France and Spain, it was captured after a siege by Franco-English forces following the battle of the Dunes; the city along with Fort-Mardyck was awarded to England in the peace the following year as agreed in the Franco-English alliance against Spain. The English governors were Sir Edward Harley and Lord Rutherford, it came under French rule when King Charles II of England sold it to France for £320,000 on 17 October 1662. The French government developed the town as a fortified port.
The town's existing defences were adapted to create ten bastions. The port was expanded in the 1670s by the construction of a basin that could hold up to thirty warships with a double lock system to maintain water levels at low tide; the basin was linked to the sea by a channel. This work was completed by 1678; the jetties were defended a few years by the construction of five forts, Château d'Espérance, Château Vert, Grand Risban, Château Gaillard, Fort de Revers. An additional fort was built in 1701 called Fort Blanc; the jetties, their forts, the port facilities were demolished in 1713 under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht. During
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG, PC, was an English nobleman and a favourite of Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years' War in 1599. In 1601, he was executed for treason. Essex was born on 10 November 1565 at Netherwood near Bromyard, in Herefordshire, the son of Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, Lettice Knollys, his maternal great-grandmother Mary Boleyn was a sister of Anne Boleyn, the mother of Queen Elizabeth I, making him a first-cousin-twice-removed of the Queen. He was brought up on his father's estates at Chartley Castle, at Lamphey, Pembrokeshire, in Wales, his father died in 1576, the new Earl of Essex became a ward of Lord Burghley. In 1577, he was admitted as a fellow-commoner at Cambridge. On 21 September 1578, Essex's mother married Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Elizabeth I's long-standing favourite and Robert Devereux's godfather. Essex performed military service under his stepfather in the Netherlands, before making an impact at court and winning the Queen's favour.
In 1590, he married Frances Walsingham, daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham and widow of Sir Philip Sidney, by whom he was to have several children, three of whom survived into adulthood. Sidney, Leicester's nephew, had died in 1586 at the Battle of Zutphen in which Essex had distinguished himself. In October 1591, Essex's mistress, Elizabeth Southwell, gave birth to a son who survived into adulthood. Essex first came to court in 1584, by 1587 had become a favourite of the Queen, who relished his lively mind and eloquence, as well as his skills as a showman and in courtly love. In June 1587 he replaced the Earl of Leicester as Master of the Horse. After Leicester's death in 1588, the Queen transferred the late Earl's royal monopoly on sweet wines to Essex, providing him with revenue from taxes. In 1593, he was made a member of her Privy Council. Essex underestimated the Queen and his behaviour towards her lacked due respect and showed disdain for the influence of her principal secretary, Robert Cecil.
On one occasion during a heated Privy Council debate on the problems in Ireland, the Queen cuffed an insolent Essex round the ear, prompting him to half draw his sword on her. In 1589, he took part in Francis Drake's English Armada, which sailed to Spain in an unsuccessful attempt to press home the English advantage following the defeat of the Spanish Armada, although the Queen had ordered him not to take part. In 1591, he was given command of a force sent to the assistance of King Henry IV of France. In 1596, he distinguished himself by the capture of Cádiz. During the Islands Voyage expedition to the Azores in 1597, with Walter Raleigh as his second-in-command, he defied the Queen's orders, pursuing the Spanish treasure fleet without first defeating the Spanish battle fleet. So when the 3rd Spanish Armada first appeared off the English coast in October 1597, the English fleet was far out to sea, with the coast undefended, panic ensued; this further damaged the relationship between the Queen and Essex though he was given full command of the English fleet when he reached England a few days later.
A storm dispersed the Spanish fleet - a number of ships were captured by the English and though there were a few landings, the Spanish withdrew. Essex's greatest failure was as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, a post which he talked himself into in 1599; the Nine Years' War was in its middle stages, no English commander had been successful. More military force was required to defeat the Irish chieftains, led by Hugh O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone and supplied from Spain and Scotland. Essex led the largest expeditionary force sent to Ireland—16,000 troops—with orders to put an end to the rebellion, he departed London to the cheers of the Queen's subjects, it was expected the rebellion would be crushed but the limits of Crown resources and of the Irish campaigning season dictated otherwise. Essex had declared to the Privy Council. Instead, he led his army into southern Ireland, where he fought a series of inconclusive engagements, wasted his funds, dispersed his army into garrisons, while the Irish won two important battles in other parts of the country.
Rather than face O'Neill in battle, Essex entered a truce that some considered humiliating to the Crown and to the detriment of English authority. The Queen herself told Essex that if she had wished to abandon Ireland it would scarcely have been necessary to send him there. In all of his campaigns Essex secured the loyalty of his officers by conferring knighthoods, an honour the Queen herself dispensed sparingly, by the end of his time in Ireland more than half the knights in England owed their rank to him; the rebels were said to have joked that, "he never drew sword but to make knights." But his practice of conferring knighthoods could in time enable Essex to challenge the powerful factions at Cecil's command. He was the second Chancellor of Trinity College, serving from 1598 to 1601. Relying on his general warrant to return to England, given under the great seal, Essex sailed from Ireland on 24 September 1599, reached London four days later; the Queen had expressly forbidden his return and was surprised when he presented himself in her bedchamber one morning at Nonsuch Palace, before she was properly wigged or gowned.
On that day, the Privy Council met three times, it seemed his disobedience might go unpunished, although the Queen did confine him to his rooms with the co
Lewes Lewknor
Sir Lewes Lewknor was an English courtier, M. P. writer and Judge who served as Master of the Ceremonies to King James I of England. M. P. for Midhurst in 1597 and for Bridgnorth 1604–10. His career has been described as a "tortuous trajectory rich in false starts and rather nebulous interludes... slippery religious and political allegiances". He was noted for his translations of courtly European literature. Important was the translation of Gasparo Contarini's account of the Venetian republic, The Commonwealth and Government of Venice, which influenced contemporary writers including Shakespeare, he was the author of an original work, The Estate of English Fugitives, a polemic attacking the Spanish and the machinations of Catholic clergy, while defending the rights of English Catholics. He was the son of Thomas Lewknor of his wife Bridget Lewes, he studied at Cambridge and the Middle Temple, working for a short time as a lawyer with his uncle, Richard. His uncle Edmund Lewknor was tutor to the Jesuit priest John Gerard.
In the 1580s he was in the Low Countries, as an exile due to his Catholic sympathies. He attempted a career as a soldier, serving as a captain in the Duke of Parma's army, but suffered a disabling injury to his right arm. Lewkenor would acknowledge the debt he owed to the General under whom he served, Jan Baptista del Monte, his brother Camillo del Monte. In 1587 he was living in Antwerp with his wife, but returned to England after experiencing financial problems, he reported to Lord Burghley about the activities of English Catholics working for the Spanish. He became a member of parliament for Midhurst in 1597. Lewknor served as a Gentleman Pensioner in Ordinary from 1599 to 1603, he appears to have accepted the Church of England after his return from the continent, but he returned to Catholicism after the death of Queen Elizabeth. Lewknor became an expert on ceremonial court protocol and as a Gentleman Pensioner, was required to host foreign ambassadors. In 1600 he looked after the French ambassador.
In the same year he escorted the Moroccan ambassador Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud, suggested to be the inspiration for Shakespeare's Othello. After James I came to the throne in 1603, Lewknor's position was regularised, he was knighted in the same year and he was given the newly created post of Master of the Ceremonies, for which he received an annual salary of £200. The post was confirmed for his lifetime in 1605. From this point on Lewknor's life was taken up with his duties to attend foreign dignitaries, he was assisted by John Finet, who succeeded him in the post. The Venetian ambassador Zuane Pesaro described the Lord Chamberlain, William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke as ‘a man of good intention,’ but one, ‘influenced by being related to the Master of the Ceremonies.’At the summoning of James I's first Parliament Lewknor’s uncle, Richard secured his return for Bridgnorth. In the first session of the Parliament Lewes made five speeches and Between 1604 and 1610 he sat on 37 committees; the King selected him to be among those ordered to manage the ‘matter of estate foreign or matter of intercourse’ at the conference with the Lords of 28 April 1604 on the Union with Scotland.
Lewknor's publications were translations of courtly and political works by continental European writers. He translated from French and Italian and is credited with coining'Cashiering' from the Flemish Kasserren. In 1594 Lewknor translated The Resolved Gentleman, Hernando de Acuña's version of Olivier de la Marche's le Chevalier délibéré. Lewknor's version of this chivalric allegory has been interpreted as "a subtle, perceptive but scathing criticism of the Elizabethan court in the 1590's"; the work was prefaced with dedicatory poems by Maurice Kyffin, Sir John Harington. Lewkenor praised his university friend, Edmund Spenser, in his introduction, "the following ages among millions of other noble works penned in her praise, shall as much admire the writer, but far more the subject of The Faerie Queen, as former ages did Homer and his Achilles, or Virgil, his Aeneas," In 1595 A Discourse of the Usage of the English Fugitives, by the Spaniard, was published, which became popular having four reprintings in two years, expanded with the title The Estate of English Fugitives under the king of Spaine and his ministers.
The book gave a colourful account of the author's adventures as a soldier of fortune in the Netherlands. Published under the initials "L. L.", the work has been attributed to Lewknor. Despite the initials, it has been sometimes incorrectly attributed to Lewes' brother Samuel Lewkenor, who had returned from Europe in 1594 and published an account of his travels. Historian Marco Nievergelt, says that Lewes is "generally accepted" as its author. In one paragraph Lewkenor expresses thanks to the general he served under in the Low Countries, Jan Baptista del Monte and his brother Camillo del Monte, he repeats his gratitude in a similar paragraph in his next work The Commonwealth and Government of Venice, his 1599 translation of Gasparo Contarini's De Magistratibus et Republica Venetorum demonstrates "the admiration Englishmen could express towar
Helmet
A helmet is a form of protective gear worn to protect the head. More a helmet complements the skull in protecting the human brain. Ceremonial or symbolic helmets without protective function are sometimes worn. Soldiers wear helmets made from lightweight plastic materials; the word helmet is diminutive from a medieval word for protective combat headgear. The medieval great helm covers the whole head and is accompanied with camail protecting throat and neck as well. A helmet was a helm which covered the head only and protected it from injury in accidents. In civilian life, helmets are used for recreational sports. Since the 1990s, most helmets are made from resin or plastic, which may be reinforced with fibers such as aramids; some British gamekeepers during the 18th and 19th centuries wore helmets made of straw bound together with cut bramble. Europeans in the tropics wore the pith helmet, developed in the mid-19th century and made of pith or cork. Military applications in the 19th-20th centuries saw a number of leather helmets among aviators and tank crews in the early 20th century.
In the early days of the automobile, some motorists adopted this style of headgear, early football helmets were made of leather. In World War II, Soviet, German and French flight crews wore leather helmets, the German pilots disguising theirs under a beret before disposing of both and switching to cloth caps; the era of the First and Second World Wars saw a resurgence of metal military helmets, most notably the Brodie helmet and the Stahlhelm. Modern helmets have a much wider range of applications, including helmets adapted to the specific needs of many athletic pursuits and work environments, these helmets often incorporate plastics and other synthetic materials for their light weight and shock absorption capabilities; some types of synthetic fibers used to make helmets in the 21st century include Aramid and Twaron. Helmets of many different types have developed over time. Most early helmets had military uses, though some may have had more ceremonial than combat applcations. Two important helmet types to develop in antiquity were the Roman galea.
During the Middle Ages, many different military helmets and some ceremonial helmets were developed all being metal. Some of the more important medieval developments included the great helm, the bascinet, the frog-mouth helm and the armet; the great seal of Owain Glyndŵr depicts the prince of Wales & his stallion wearing full armour, they both wear protective headgear with Owain's gold dragon mounted on top, this would have been impractical in battle so therefore these would have been ceremonial. In the 19th century, more materials were incorporated, namely leather and pith; the pith helmet and the leather pickelhaube were important 19th century developments. The greatest expansion in the variety of forms and composition of helmets, took place in the 20th century, with the development of specialized helmets for a multitude of athletic and professional applications, as well as the advent of modern plastics. During World War I, the French army developed the Adrian helmet, the British developed the Brodie helmet, the Germans produced the Stahlhelm.
Flight helmets were developed throughout the 20th century. A multitude of athletic helmets, including football helmets, batting helmets, cricket helmets, bicycle helmets, motorcycle helmets and racing helmets, were developed in the 20th century. Helmets since the mid-20th century have incorporated lightweight plastics and other synthetic materials, their use has become specialized; some important recent developments include the French SPECTRA helmet, Spanish MARTE helmet or the American PASGT and Advanced Combat Helmet, or ACH. As the coat of arms was designed to distinguish noble combatants on the battlefield or in a tournament while covered in armour, it is not surprising that heraldic elements incorporated the shield and the helmet, these being the most visible parts of a knight's military equipment; the practice of indicating peerage through the display of barred or grilled helmets first appeared around 1587-1615, the heraldic convention of displaying helmets of rank in the United Kingdom, which came into vogue around Stuart times, is as follows: Sovereign: a gold barred-face helm placed affronté Peer's helmet: silver barred-face helm placed in profile Knight's or baronet's helmet: steel helm placed affronté with visor open Esquire's helmet: steel helm placed in profile with visor closedEarlier rolls of arms reveal, that early heraldic helmets were depicted in a manner faithful to the styles in actual military or tournament use at the time.
Helmets portal Balaclava Cap Combat helmet Face shield Firefighter's helmet Helmet boxing The Stackhat "Helmets... A Medieval Note In Modern Warfare", August 1942, Popular Science evolution of military helmets
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