In melee combat, it is the hands that ensure the knight on the offensive. If the hands are injured, it leaves the knight at the mercy of the enemy regardless to the quality of the breastplates or helmet. Thus, some form of hand protection is important.

Nevertheless, it was a dilemma for armorers. Any type of hand defense needed to have adequate protection without interfering the use of the hand in wielding weapon. 

Until the 12th century, there was virtually no hand armor. Afterwards, mail (chain mail) was used to create hand armor. In the transitional period of the 14th century, hourglass gauntlet was the dominant form of hand armor.

In the period of transition in the 14th century, the introduction of plate armors encouraged a new improvement in gauntlets that would remain in the mainstream for the next 100 years. Plate gauntlets were masterfully crafted in such a way that even fit the wearers' hands perfectly down to individual fingers. These new gauntlet were known as hourglass gauntlet because of its hour-glass shape.

There are two variants of the hourglass gauntlets: the demi-gauntlet and the fingered gauntlet

The demi-gauntlet type is the lighter type of the two. It protects from the wrist to the back of the palm. A mail gauntlet or padded glove is used to the protects the palm and fingers. ​
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​The fingered-gauntlet is the most sophisticated gauntlet of its time. It protects the wrist and the entire back of the hand with many steel plates. These plates are carefully measured to perfectly fit individual fingers without restricting their movement in combat. A glove made of leather or padded cloth attached to the inside of fingered-gauntlet by rivets.

The shift from mail gauntlets to hourglass gauntlets was mainly due to better protection. The main advantage of plate armor over mail armor is that its hardness provide much better protection against crush attack. The hourglass gauntlet can reduce and deflect heavy blows from blunt weapons while the flexible mail gauntlet is much vulnerable against them.

The bascinet was a type of revolutionary knight helmet during the transitional period. It was introduced in Italy in  the first quarter of the 14th century and remain very popular across Europe for the next 200 years. 

The word "bascinet" was derrived from the ancient French word "baycin" - a water basin/bowl. The term was original applicable to any helmet that had hemispherical shape, for example the skullcap Cervelliere. However, bascinet refered to a specific type of helmet that directly evolved from it.

Despite its evolution from a simple and plain Cervelliere, the bascinets developed into one of the most sophisticating European helmets, providing flexible and excellent head protection to the wearers . 

The purpose of this post is to examine the three development in regard to the bascinet

Overtime, the shape of the bascinet changed significantly in shape and coverage.

The bascinet appearance changed from hemispherical into conical, egged-shaped. It was more pointy, making a direct weapon hit to the head much more difficult due to deflection. 

It covered most the wearer face, down to the chin. The only part it did not cover is the face, allowing the wearer to see better in hand-to-hand combat. 

As the quality of steel in European improved in the transitional period, the mail coif became obsolete. Instead of wearing a bascinet over a mail coif, which was much heavier, knights chose to wear a bascinet with an aventail (camail) attached.
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An aventail is a piece of riveted mail that help provide protection to the wearer neck and upper shoulder. Eventually, the aventail was replaced by a plate armor called gorget in later centuries. Subjects related to the gorget will be discussed in detail in the future posts. 

The effigy of Sir Hugh Despenser created around 1349 is the example of a bascinet with a aventail. There is a clear line on the helmet that was used to attach the aventail to the helmet. 

To appreciate the introduction of visored bascinet, it is important to understand the role of helmets in battle. 
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For knights in Europe, there were a need to balance between face protection and field of view in combat. When charging enemies from a far, it was critical to maximize face protection against arrows and powerful thrusts from opponent knight's lances. The great helm in 12th century was designed for such purpose with maximum coverage of the knight's entire head in exchange for very narrow field of vision. 

When engaging in a prolonged hand-to-hand combat, visibility was much more important. A knight who had a tunnel vision would fail to see and counter enemy blows from multiple angles. Before visor was introduced to the bascinet, it was common practice for a knight to wear a great helm over a bascinet when charging the enemy and to remove the helm when in melee.

Breastplate:

- The 0.5% carbon steel breastplate was made based on Churburg-Style Armor.
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​- It had the thickness of 2.5 mm in the central area, but gradually decreasing to 1.5 mm on the sides.
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- It had the V-shaped pieces to prevent arrows and weaponry from skating to the wearer's neck. 
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- Beneath the breastplate is a layer of riveted maille  and a piece of arming doublet. These layers of protection reflects what knights wore in battle. 

The Longbow and Arrows:
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- The bow that was used for the experiment is a 160lbs (73Kg) mountain yew English Longbow.

- The distance of shooting is 25 m, and 10 m. At 10 m, the arrow delivered the maximum impact on the target, but archers either kept a longer distance or switched to hand-to-hand weapons when the enemy reached this distance.

- The types of armor-piercing arrow were used in subsequent order: (1) wrought iron unhardened arrow, (2) wrought iron case-hardened arrow, and (3) modern steel case-hardened arrow. 

- The longbow and arrow shafts were based on archaeological evidence from the Mary Rose wreckage. The arrowhead was modeled after the surviving arrowhead located in the Museum of London.

European plate armors in the late 14th and early 15th century were too tough for arrows to pierce through. Even the modern steel case-hardened arrow was ineffective against the plate.

Armor piercing arrows could wound and kill a knight in armor when hitting areas that are not protected by plates. A wrought iron unhardened arrow did pierce through both the maille and the gamberson and hit the gel (represented a human body) behind.