Morion (helmet)
Encyclopedia
_01.jpg)
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
s, was common among foot soldiers of European nationalities, including the English; the first were issued during Edward VI of England's reign. Inexpensive production costs aided its popularity and dissemination although officers and elite guards would have theirs elaborately engraved to display their wealth and status.
The crest or comb on the top of the helmet was designed to strengthen it. Later versions also had cheek guards and even removable faceplates to protect the soldier from sword cuts.
The morion's shape is derived from that of an older helmet, the Chapel de Fer, or "Kettle Hat
Kettle hat
A kettle hat is a type of helmet made of steel in the shape of a hat. There are many design variations. The only common element is a wide brim that afforded extra protection to the wearer....
." Other sources suggest it was based on Moorish armor and its name is derived from Moro, the Spanish word for Moor; the New Oxford American Dictionary, however, derives it from Spanish morrión, from morro 'round object.'
In England this helmet (also known as the pikeman's pot) is associated with the New Model Army
New Model Army
The New Model Army of England was formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, and was disbanded in 1660 after the Restoration...
, one of the first professional militaries. It was worn by pikemen, together with a breastplate
Breastplate
A breastplate is a device worn over the torso to protect it from injury, as an item of religious significance, or as an item of status. A breastplate is sometimes worn by mythological beings as a distinctive item of clothing.- Armour :...
and buff coat
Buff coat
The European Buff coat was an item of leather clothing worn by both the infantry and cavalry during the 17th century, usually worn under armour...
as they stood in phalanx
Phalanx formation
The phalanx is a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar weapons...
-like pike and shot
Pike and shot
Pike and shot is a historical method of infantry combat, and also refers to an era of European warfare generally considered to cover the period from the Italian Wars to the evolution of the bayonet in the late seventeenth century...
formations, protecting the flanks of the unarmored musketeers.
It provided protection during the Push of pike
Push of pike
The push of pike was a particular feature of late medieval and Early Modern warfare that occurred when two opposing columns of pikemen collided and became locked in position along a front of interleaved pikes...
maneuvers known for their high casualty rate. Although mostly issued to Cromwell's troops many cavalier
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
s wore the morion as well, leading to confusion in battles; soldiers risked being shot by their own allies. It was for this reason uniforms were introduced to identify armies. First these were simple colored sashes but soon the roundheads introduced colored coat
Red coat (British army)
Red coat or Redcoat is a historical term used to refer to soldiers of the British Army because of the red uniforms formerly worn by the majority of regiments. From the late 17th century to the early 20th century, the uniform of most British soldiers, , included a madder red coat or coatee...
s which were retained by the army after the 1660 Restoration of Charles II of England
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
.
Surviving morions from the 1648 siege
Siege of Colchester
The siege of Colchester occurred in the summer of 1648 when the English Civil War reignited in several areas of Britain. Colchester found itself in the thick of the unrest when a Royalist army on its way through East Anglia to raise support for the King, was attacked by Lord-General Thomas Fairfax...
have been unearthed and preserved at Colchester Castle
Colchester Castle
Colchester Castle in Colchester, Essex is an example of a largely complete Norman castle. It is a Grade I listed building.-Construction:At one and a half times the size of the Tower of London's White Tower, Colchester's keep is the largest ever built in Britain and the largest surviving example in...
along with a lobster tail pot, a helmet associated with Oliver Cromwell's heavily-armored Ironside cavalry.
Some captured Spanish armor was worn by Native Americans as late as the 19th century as protection from bullets and a sign of their status. The most famous of these was the Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
chief Iron Jacket
Iron Jacket
Iron Jacket was a Native American War Chief and Chief of the Comanche Indians.Iron Jacket was a Comanche chieftain and medicine man whom the Comanche believed had the power to blow bullets aside with his breath...
who lived in Texas and wore armor that originally belonged to a conquistador.
Cabasset
A similar helmet, the Cabasset, was introduced around the same time in Italy. Like its Spanish counterpart it was worn by infantry in the pike and shotPike and shot
Pike and shot is a historical method of infantry combat, and also refers to an era of European warfare generally considered to cover the period from the Italian Wars to the evolution of the bayonet in the late seventeenth century...
formations. The stalk-like projection on the top resembled a pear, which is how it gained its name. It was popular in 16th century England and was used during the Civil War. Several of these helmets were taken to the New World by the Pilgrim fathers, and one of these has been found on Jamestown Island.
Modern times
- The morion may have influenced the design of the Adrian HelmetAdrian helmetThe M15 Adrian helmet was a combat helmet issued to the French Army during World War I. It was the first standard helmet of the French Army and was designed when millions of French troops were engaged in trench warfare, and head wounds became a frequent cause of battlefield casualties...
issued to French and Italian troops during World War 1. Both are of a similar shape and have a comb reinforcing the top of the helmet. - The comb morion (with a red crest added) is part of the uniform of the PopePopeThe Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
's Swiss Guards. - In the 20th century (from 1928 until 1961) the morion served as the logo of automobile manufacturer DeSotoDeSoto (automobile)The DeSoto was a brand of automobile based in the United States, manufactured and marketed by the Chrysler Corporation from 1928 to 1961. The DeSoto logo featured a stylized image of Hernando de Soto...
, named after the 16th century explorer Hernando de Soto. It appeared as the hood ornamentHood ornamentA hood/bonnet ornament, or radiator cap, or car mascot is a specially crafted model of something which symbolizes a car company like a badge, located on the front center portion of the hood...
on cars of the 1940s and 1950s like the DeSoto DeluxeDeSoto DeluxeThe DeSoto Deluxe is an automobile produced by the Chrysler Corporation and sold under its DeSoto brand from 1946 through to the 1952 model year. While in production, the Deluxe was DeSoto's entry-level car, and was offered primarily as two and four-door sedans. The Deluxe range also included...
. - In the Disney moviePocahontas (1995 film)Pocahontas is the 33rd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and was originally released to selected theaters on June 16, 1995 by Walt Disney Pictures...
PocahontasPocahontasPocahontas was a Virginia Indian notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of Chief Powhatan, the head of a network of tributary tribal nations in Tidewater Virginia...
English soldiers like Captain John Smith wear morions. - Morions appear in the fantasy film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince CaspianThe Chronicles of Narnia: Prince CaspianThe Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is a 2008 epic fantasy film based on Prince Caspian, the second published, fourth chronological novel in C. S. Lewis's epic fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia. It is the second in The Chronicles of Narnia film series from Walden Media, following The...
- worn by the Telmarines: soldiers of the evil king MirazMirazMiraz is a fictional character from C. S. Lewis's fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia. He is the main antagonist in the second book Prince Caspian, and is the uncle of the book's protagonist....
and descendants of pirates from Earth. - In Dances With WolvesDances with WolvesDances with Wolves is a 1990 epic western film directed by and starring Kevin Costner. It is a film adaptation of the 1988 book of the same name by Michael Blake and tells the story of a Union Army Lieutenant who travels to the American frontier to find a military post, and his dealings with a...
the Indian chief presents Lt. Dunbar with a morion. - Helmets like the morion and cabasset feature in historical dramas set in the Elizabethan period (worn by extras portraying guards). Such works include the films Elizabeth: The Golden Age, CromwellCromwell (film)Cromwell is a 1970 film, based on the life of Oliver Cromwell who led the Parliamentary forces during the English Civil War and, as Lord Protector, ruled Great Britain and Ireland in the 1650s. It features an all-star cast led by Richard Harris as Cromwell and Alec Guinness as King Charles I...
, Witchfinder GeneralWitchfinder General (film)Witchfinder General is a 1968 British horror film directed by Michael Reeves and starring Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy, and Hilary Dwyer. The screenplay was by Reeves and Tom Baker based on Ronald Bassett's novel of the same name. Made on a low budget of under £100,000, the movie was coproduced by...
and BBC TV series like The TudorsThe TudorsThe Tudors is a Canadian produced historical fiction television series filmed in Ireland, created by Michael Hirst and produced for the American premium cable television channel Showtime...
and Blackadder 2. - In The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, orcOrcAn orc is one of a race of mythical human-like creatures, generally described as fierce and combative, with grotesque features and often black, grey or greenish skin. This mythology has its origins in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien....
sapperSapperA sapper, pioneer or combat engineer is a combatant soldier who performs a wide variety of combat engineering duties, typically including, but not limited to, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, demolitions, field defences, general construction and building, as well as road and airfield...
s wearing morions plant explosives in the wall of Helm's DeepHelm's DeepIn J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings, Helm's Deep was a large valley in the north-western Ered Nimrais .The valley was described as being blocked over its entire width by the natural series of hills called Helm's Dike and behind that lay the fortress of Aglarond or the Hornburg, at the...
. Other Uruk-haiUruk-haiThe Uruk-hai are fictional characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth. They are introduced in The Lord of the Rings as an advanced breed or breeds of Orcs that serve Sauron and Saruman...
wear helmets resembling the lobster tail pot. - In both the stageMan of La ManchaMan of La Mancha is a musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion and music by Mitch Leigh. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay I, Don Quixote, which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes's seventeenth century masterpiece Don Quixote...
and film versionsMan of La Mancha (film)Man of La Mancha is a 1972 film adaptation of the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, with music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion...
of the musical Man of La ManchaMan of La ManchaMan of La Mancha is a musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion and music by Mitch Leigh. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay I, Don Quixote, which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes's seventeenth century masterpiece Don Quixote...
, the soldiers of the Spanish InquisitionSpanish InquisitionThe Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...
all wear morion helmets, and in the film (but not the play), Don Quixote's helmet is a morion with a makeshift visor artificially attached to it, as CervantesCervantes-People:*Alfonso J. Cervantes , mayor of St. Louis, Missouri*Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, 16th-century man of letters*Ignacio Cervantes, Cuban composer*Jorge Cervantes, a world-renowned expert on indoor, outdoor, and greenhouse cannabis cultivation...
describes in his novel Don Quixote de la Mancha. (The play uses a regular knight's helmet with a non-makeshift visor.) - A Swiss guardsman in his morion appears on the Vatican City's commemmorative 2 Euro coin.
- The seal of the city of Cupertino (in California) contains a morion