When is a 'Salette' not a sallet?

It’s been a while since my last entry, and there’s been some progress: hose are nearly finished, the first shirt has been started, I’ve found some wool to make a doublet, and I’ve got green and white wool samples for making the coat. I’ve even dragged my armour out of the shed, cleaned most of the rust off, and given it a coat of oil. What’s more, I’ve found time to start repairing the boots that I thought were irreparable. I plan to invest in some new boots as well, but there didn’t seem much point in having boots lying around that couldn’t be worn.

Most recently, though, I have been thinking about helmets…

The inventory of equipment from the Henry Grace a Dieu that forms one of the main sources of information for this portrayal (see THIS POST) includes mention of 200 ‘salettes’. Nowadays, the term ‘sallet’ is almost exclusively used to described a particular kind of helmet, familiar to anyone who’s been to a late medieval re-enactment event, with a sweeping tail at the back to protect the neck. The trouble is that it is doubtful that the term was used so specifically in 1514, and in most cases it was probably just an alternative term for, and interchangeable with, ‘helmet’.

 These examples show some of the different styles of sallet in production at the end of the 15^th century.

So, accepting that the ‘salettes’ mentioned in the inventory could have been sallets in the modern sense of the word, but could equally have been some other kind of helmet, what would be the most suitable style of helmet to represent a soldier of the Admiral’s Division at Flodden?

There are various possibilities:

It could be a sallet such as those shown above, or in the ‘classic’ bellows-face style of the early 16^th century:

Or a kettle hat:

Or, simplest of all, a skull cap or ‘secret’:

But which?

In an effort to figure out which would be the most appropriate I have done a bit of analysis of helmets in period illustrations. Looking at north European depictions of infantrymen from c.1500-1525 one thing becomes immediately obvious: most of the soldiers depicted either aren’t wearing helmets at all or are so crudely drawn or partially hidden by other figures that it’s impossible to tell what kind of helmet they are wearing. Nevertheless, fourteen pictures yielded up 47 identifiable helmets, in the following proportions:

16 open-faced sallets

14 skull caps

8 kettle hats

5 visored or closed-faced sallets

4 other types (2 helmets made of overlapping scales, 1 armet or closed helm, 1 landsknechthaube)

“Bad War” by Hans Holbein, c.1524, showing a skull cap (right) and scaled helmet (centre)

English printed account of the battle of Flodden, showing a variety of sallets.

Detail from Hans Burgkmair’s engraving of the Battle of the Spurs, showing English archers in sallets, skull caps, and at least one kettle hat.

Perhaps one of the most relevant illustrations is this oft-reproduced depiction of the Battle of Flodden by Hans Burgkmair.

Although Burgkmair was German and was not present at Flodden, the attention to detail in a number of his illustrations showing English troops suggests that he was to some extent familiar with their appearance. In the Flodden illustration, for example, the English troops are easily distinguished from the fleeing Scots.

None of this really helps in my quest for a helmet.

Based on the illustrations an open-faced sallet or a skull cap would seem the most likely thing, but the Burgkmair illustrations do suggest a certain number of kettle hats among English troops. None of the illustrations show anything even resembling a bellows-face sallet, so although they were definitely around in 1513 I’m going to strike it off my list of possibles.

That leaves me to choose between an open-faced sallet, skull cap or kettle hat…