Hello,
I cannot seem to find this in the search function and I hope that I have not asked a previously asked question, though I know that there are a lot of armor explanations and discussions on here. Even if somebody has already answered this question and I don't know it, that would be great too. But I was reading about William Montagu, 1st Earl of Salisbury in the 14th Century, England. This image is apparently from the Salisbury Roll in 1463. I am mostly curious as to the construction of the bird on his helm and leafs on his shoulders. Though obviously elaborate and probably not intended for actual warfare. Were these also constructed out of the same material that the rest or the armor was? Is the armor simply an exaggeration? I find that because the roll was made 120 years after his death, I could imagine some kind of embellishment but some truth to the matter. Is anybody out there that can elaborate on this armor for me please?
Thank you,
The armour you see in this image is not akin to what William Montagu (1301-1344) himself would have worn during the first half of the 14th century. Armour in that period was not full plate and would have used maille as its main defence with small amounts of plate over vital areas such as the joints and torso. The armour you see here is however not exaggerated at all and is simply a typical harness of the period when the manuscript was made in 1463. This is a common trope in medieval depictions of historical figures whereby the are shown in dress and armourment to be contemporary to the creation of the medium in which they are shown. The helmet the depiction wears is a crested tournament helm designed for the mounted melee using blunted swords or wooden clubs as depicted in the 15th Tournament Book of Rene d'Anjou. You can also see helms for war off to the right of the image at the figure's feet. As for the crest of the helm, these elaborate devices were sculpted by moulding wet leather over a wooden frame then plastering and painting the resultant hollow leather sculpture, we see this method in the surviving crest of the Black Prince in Canterbury Cathedral. The result was rather light and yet fairly durable. The "leaves" that you mention are the flowing cloth mantle of the crest cut or "dagged" into foliate shapes.
