Thearmet is a type ofcombat helmet which was developed in the 15th century. It was extensively used inItaly,France,England, theLow Countries andSpain. It was distinguished by being the first helmet of its era to completely enclose the head while being compact and light enough to move with the wearer. Its use was essentially restricted to the fully armouredman-at-arms.

As the armet was fully enclosing, and narrowed to follow the contours of the neck and throat, it had to have a mechanical means of opening and closing to enable it to be worn. The typical armet consisted of four pieces: the skull, the two large hinged cheek-pieces which locked at the front over the chin, and avisor which had a double pivot, one either side of the skull. The cheek-pieces opened laterally by means of horizontal hinges; when closed they overlapped at the chin, fastening by a spring-pin which engaged in a corresponding hole, or by a swivel-hook and pierced staple. A reinforcement for the bottom half of the face, known as awrapper, was sometimes added; its straps were protected by a metal disc at the base of the skull piece called arondel. The visor attached to each pivot via hinges with removable pins, as in the later examples of thebascinet. This method remained in use untilc. 1520, after which the hinge disappeared and the visor had a solid connection to its pivot. The earlier armet often had a smallaventail, a piece ofmail attached to the bottom edge of each cheek-piece.^[1]

The earliest surviving armet dates to 1420 and was made inMilan.^[2] An Italian origin for this type of helmet therefore seems to be indicated. The innovation of a reduced skull and large hinged cheek pieces was such a radical departure from previous forms of helmet that it is highly probable that the armet resulted from the invention of a single armourer or soldier, and not as the result of evolution from earlier forms.^[2] However, a number of Italianbascinets dating toc. 1400 (sometimes termed 'Venetian great bascinets') were discovered inChalcis,Greece; these possess a single hinged cheekpiece (the other being immobile). This may have had some influence on the development of the armet.^[3]

The armet reached the height of its popularity during the late 15th and early 16th centuries, when western European fullplate armour had been perfected. The term armet was often applied in contemporary usage to any fully enclosing helmet, however, modern scholarship draws a distinction between the armet and the outwardly similarclose helmet (or close helm) on the basis of their construction, especially their means of opening to allow them to be worn. While an armet had two large cheekpieces hinged at the skull and opened laterally, a close helmet instead had a kind of movablebevor which was attached to the same pivot points as its visor and opened vertically.^[4]

The classic armet had a narrow extension to the back of the skull reaching down to the nape of the neck, and the cheekpieces were hinged, horizontally, directly from the main part of the skull. From about 1515, the Germans produced a variant armet where the downward extension of the skull was made much wider, reaching as far forward as the ears. The cheekpieces on this type of helmet opened sideways, on vertical hinges on the edges of this wider neck element.^[5] The high-quality EnglishGreenwich armours often included this type of armet fromc. 1525. Greenwich-made armets adopted the elegant two-piece visor found on contemporaryclose helmets; armets of this form were manufactured until as late as 1615. The lower edge of such helmets often closed over a flange in the upper edge of a gorget-piece. The helmet could then rotate without allowing a gap in the armour that a weapon point could enter.^[6]

The armet is found in many contemporary pieces of artwork, such asPaolo Uccello'sThe Battle of San Romano, and is almost always shown as part of aMilanese armor. These depictions show armets worn with tall and elaborate crests, largely of feathered plumes; however, no surviving armets have similar crests and very few show obvious provision for the attachment of such crests.^[7]

The armet was most popular in Italy, however, in England, France and Spain it was widely used by men-at-arms alongside thesallet, whilst in Germany the latter helmet was much more common. It is believed that theclose helmet resulted from a combination of various elements derived from each of the preceding helmet types.

• 
  Armet made in 1915 to replace the missing original on an English Greenwich armourc. 1587
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  An armet with a German form of construction, but possibly of Florentine Italian manufacture, opening in a manner different from a classic armet
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  Comparison of a close helmet and an armet in open position, showing that the close helmet uses a single pivot point for the double visor and bevor, while the armet has hinged cheek plates that lock in place

• Gravett, Christopher (2006).Tudor Knight. Oxford; New York: Osprey Publishing.ISBN 978-1-84176-970-7.OCLC 63401027.
• Oakeshott, R. Ewart (2000).European Weapons and Armour: From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution. Rochester, NY: Boydell Press.ISBN 0-85115-789-0.OCLC 44468825.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toArmets.

• Nickel, H., ed. (1982).The Art of Chivalry: European Arms and Armor from the Metropolitan Museum of Art: An Exhibition. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The American Federation of Arts.ISBN 0917418670.OCLC 44468825.

• Medieval helmets

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