Why Medieval Knights OFTEN Did Not Bother with FACE PROTECTION

A petition for Matt to make an hour long video about England and Burgundy 👇

As an ex-army guy I spent a lot of time doing maneuvers fully kitted out in my protective gear (MOPP level 4). While you get used to wearing a protective mask and hood for extended periods, you are absolutely operating in a diminished capacity while doing so, and your always aware that your face is being touched by the mask. Breathing isn't bad until you reach a heightened activity level, and then it's quite noticeably more difficult to draw air through the mask's filter than it is without it. Even with the relatively large eye slots found in modern pro masks, those apertures rest a short distance forward of the eyes, and that means the angles in one's line-of-sight wearing the mask provide less peripheral vision acuity. Getting hot and sweaty with a pro mask on is quite unpleasant. I imagine that most of these factors would be multiplied in a visored/masked steel helmet, even more so when taking the added burden of weight into account.

A king should wear an open face helmet, so his vassals can see that he is alive and not a zombie raised by necromancers.

At our last HEMA open hall we had some people in armor. What impressed me, was a guy with an open helmet and a rather high gorget. He could basically turtle up by lowering his head and raising his shoulders, so that the gap between helmet and gorget became quite minuscule. That was a really good compromise in my view to have the advantages of an open helmet with the option to increase protection quite quickly if needed. Practically a medieval hero turtle.

Only a man as dedicated as Matt would take an arrow to the dome just for the thumbnail.

There are no solutions, only trade-offs. - Thomas Sowell. I think I would feel quite claustrophobic in any of these closed face helmets except maybe the Salet and Bever. I worked in Construction most of my life and had to wear a plastic "hard hat" all the time. Trying to get the helmet to work with hearing protection (muff style), safety goggles, breathing protection, face shields for grinding and managing a home made cape to protect the back of my head can be a huge pain. Even worse, I once had to work in a hazmat suit with hard hat, hearing protection, safety goggles while wearing a breathing hood with a remote fresh air supply. It was horrible - hot, difficult to move and see - which is dangerous when using power tools - VERY claustrophobic and it took all the discipline I could muster to quell my emotions. Seems to me the hazmat arrangement is the best modern equivalent for a civilian to experience the challenges of full harness and a closed face helmet. Anyway, as always, another excellent discussion. BTW I LOVE that open faced Salet. What a beauty! The studs around the brim are marvelous and it just looks great! Cheers!

Modular plate armor has always been an attractive prospect to me. Being able to easily swap helms, visors, gauntlets, greaves etc. to suit various tasks but all seamlessly working together as needed.

Last time I was this early the English knights still spoke French

As a motorcycle rider, yes, closed helmets rea really inconvenient. But having the helmet be covered in bugs is better than me being covered in bugs. Like really. My head is not that big of a target. Please stop running into it.

The "klappvisor", where you could remove the visor, seems in line with this "how to have options."

Being able to see and breathe properly beats the additional protection of a full closed helmet.

I was an adventurer like you but took an arrow to the eye 😂

WOW that tournament visor is gorgeous

distracted by realizing I could see the other side of the garage in the visor. great job on the polish

Over the centuries we’ve seen a tremendous variety of headgear. Alas, today protective headgear is far more likely to be found on construction sites than battlefields. Imagine finding a survey crew wearing modern OSHA rated “Zulu” pith helmets; carpenters wearing Adrian WW1 French hard hats; welters with bassinet helmets incorporating not just eye protection but respirators as well!

Another tactic for not getting arrows, spears or other pointy, sharp bits of steel shoved through any potential opening in your armor is to never fight on a medieval battlefield. I've used it all my life to great effect.

Context and Compromise is going to be my next RPG published

Excellent video. What I find really interesting here that the Romans made a similar choice. They had the technology to cover themselves completely in plates, they chose not to do so for the most part. The only exception at a rather late stage where the Cataphractes. Who had a similar development comparable to medieval knights - fighting on horseback. Anybody else - not as much metal on their body. Although they could even at an earlier stage.

That tourney visor is great, like a portcullis for your face!

Additionally you can use a shield, an armoured arm or armoured comrade to protect your face if you are particularly worried about projectiles. With a kettle helmet looking at the ground and using the brim to cover your face may also work.