CHAPTER XI
THE HEAD-PIECE CALLED THE CHAPEL-DE-FER, WAR HAT, OR CHAPAWE, DOWN TO THE EARLY YEARS OF THE XVIth CENTURY
Froissart speaks of this head-piece as "un chapel de Montauban,
fin, cler et net, tout d'acier, qui resplendissait au soleil," an account which is lyrical, but not very enlightening. Whether, indeed, the chapel de Montauban was a distinctive form of war hat, or whether war hats made at Montauban and thereby famous for excellence of workmanship, the great chronicler fails to make clear. The period when the chapel-de-fer prevailed was probably longer than that of any other helmet; its simplicity of form, together with its general protective qualities, must have made it universally popular. Mentioned in statutes as early as the end of the XIIth century, its form survived in the pikeman's helmet of the middle of the XVIIth century, and so stretched over an epoch covering close on five hundred years, during the whole of which time such alterations of its general form as can be traced are surprisingly slight. As its name implies, the chapel-de-fer, chapeau-de-fer, or, as it was termed in England, the chapawe, means nothing more than a hat of iron.
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Fig. 409. From the Painted Chamber, Palace of Westminster
Showing the chapel-de-fer. Early XIIIth century
