Morion Style Helmets

[Jib]

I know that the Morion style helmet was used by many nations (although often considered Spanish) and was used in the 1500's. When did this type of helmet cease to be used?

[Mission]

Wiki dates them through the mid 17th century, noting that "Surviving morions from the 1648 siege have been unearthed and preserved at Colchester Castle..."

Interestingly, several sites note that the British used these helmets in the mid 1500s.

Wiki also notes that "...captured Spanish armor was worn by Native Americans as late as the 19th century as protection from bullets and a sign of their status." If the Indians were still using them in the new world in the 1800s, you would think they could have been around at any time in between, although they would probably not be popular after the dates noted.

[Graydog]

I know that the Morion style helmet was used by many nations (although often considered Spanish) and was used in the 1500's. When did this type of helmet cease to be used?

It's still being used by the Swiss Guard in Vatican City.

Edited March 4, 2009 by Graydog

[hellfirehannah]

For a sec I thought it said moron. Nevermind me you can go back to your normal posting.

[Graydog]

For a sec I thought it said moron. Nevermind me you can go back to your normal posting.

You will find that helmet is still used world wide and it's use is not limited to military applications.

[John Maddox Roberts]

The morion, along with its cousin the cabasset and the burgonet were among the last helmets used in western Europe. Helmets and all other armor died out in western Europe after the mid-17th century except for a few cuirassier cavalry units. Hats often had steel linings, but they were kept out of sight.

[Jib]

So no armor used in European conflicts after say 1670?

[Guest]

What about the gorget? (hope I spelled that right.... neck armour.... worn in later periods as a decoration and symbol or rank......)

[Capt. Sterling]

and breast and back plates

[Guest]

And eppilettes......

[Guest]

and helmets..... and body armour (flack jackets...)

[John Maddox Roberts]

I did mention the cuirassier regiments that kept the breast-and-back and a helmet. Gorgets were mostly symbolic, though scale and mail epaulets continued to be used and were some protection from sabres, but for all practical purposes armor disappeared from the battlefield after the mid-1600s, only to reappear in WWI in the form of helmets, because of the great number of scalp lacerations caused by air bursts. From that time armor began to reappear. It still wouldn't stop a bullet, but in the 20th century relatively few wounds were produced by bulets, but huge numbers were caused by small bits of shrapnel, which could be stopped. In recent years body armor has come back in a big way because of the new materials like kevlar and soldiers finally have armor that is effective against small-arms bullets as well as shrapnel. But, to get back to the subject at hand (or head) the morion was one of the last of the old-style helmets worn.

[Guest]

But in the American Civil War, there were attempts at body armour..... so the idea never quite died out....OK... the few guys that bought the iron breast plates were accused of cowardice.... so the fashion did stop.....

the morion was one of the last of the old-style helmets worn.

There's something nagging in the back of my brain about another helmet. or armour... but danged if I can remember it now....

It's not the chain mail face mask worn by tanker during WWI......

OH well... I'll figure it out later.......

[Fox]

the morion was one of the last of the old-style helmets worn.

There's something nagging in the back of my brain about another helmet. or armour... but danged if I can remember it now....

Are you thinking perhaps of the lobster-tail helmet which probably outlasted the morion by a couple of decades?

[John Maddox Roberts]

That's a "pikeman's pot," a degenerate form of the burgonet mentioned in my first post, and it probably was the last form of helmet seriously worn by foot soldiers, along with the breast-and-back. They were worn as late as the English Civil War. Cuirassier cavalry continued to wear the cuirass and helmet (often a classically-inspired fantasy) right through the Napoleonic era, and by ceremonial units to this day. But armor was essentially through after the mid-17th century. The Age of Gunpowder had arrived fully.

[Fox]

"Pikeman's pot" is just a generic term (and possibly a reenactorism to boot), for a helmet worn by foot-soldiers. The helmet in the photo is primarily a cavalry helmet - and FWIW I wonder if "lobster tail" isn't also a more modern term for it. They were worn some decades after the English Civil War, James II had a particularly nice one.