The steel cylinder on this knight's shoulders arose in the late twelfth century in the context of the Crusades themselves, and it was the most complete head protection the medieval West had yet devised. The great helm grew out of the old nasal helmet by way of an intermediate enclosed form, reaching its true shape by about 1240 and staying in service into the fourteenth century: a flat-topped drum of riveted plate that swallowed the whole head, later curved on top to throw off a descending blow and drawn down until it rested on the shoulders. It was worn over a mail coif and often over a close-fitting iron skull cap called a cervelliere as well, so a blow had three layers to get through. The price was paid in everything except protection. The sights were narrow slits and the breaths were a scatter of small holes, so a man in a great helm lost his peripheral vision, heard poorly and cooked — a serious matter in the heat of Syria and Palestine. Knights knew it: after the first clash of lances, men-at-arms would often pull the helm off altogether and finish the fight with their sight and their breath back. In the end the bascinet superseded it, and the great helm retired to the tournament as the frog-mouthed tilting helm.

King & Country have posed him at the moment the lances are behind him — sword cocked back for a downward cut, heater shield with its red cross swung across the body, mail glinting at the arms and legs beneath a white surcoat. Pair him with the Crouching Crusader Knight with Sword for an attacker and a defender in the same exchange, add Victory is Ours for the moment it is settled, or stand him beside the bare-headed Crusader Axeman to show what the mail underneath looks like without the helm on top. In a diorama he works hardest in a press of bodies — a breach, a courtyard, a shield wall giving way — where a man who can barely see is exactly what the fight looks like from the inside.

Model: MK183 / King & Country / 1/30 (60mm) scale / matte finish / 1 piece set