King Henry VIII's creepy royal helmet.

Described as one of the most mysterious pieces in the British Royal Armories collection, the "horned helmet" was presented to Henry VIII by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I in 1511.
royalarmouries.org...#

Apparently it was part of a full "pageantry" armor intended for the Tudor monarch, who was once declared "defender of the Catholic faith", but later went on to found the Church of England.
Suffice to say that process wasn't without bloodshed, and was accompanied by a plethora of unbelievably horrific executions, often regarding some of the greatest theologians and brightest intellectuals of the time in England.
Along with this came the stripping of the monasteries to fund the monarch's endeavors, and from a gender-perspective, the beheading of some of his wives.

Now, I'm just wondering, but that mask looks pretty diabolical to me?
In fact, it looks like something from the masked-ball scene in Stanley Kubrick's 1999 film Eyes Wide Shut.
[According to some conspiracy theorists the ritual scene in the film refers to genuine malevolent occult ceremonies - including human sacrifice and rape - supposedly performed by some royalty and elites up to the present day.]

Some say it may have been modeled on Maximilian himself, others saying it denoted a "fool", although it remains disturbingly enigmatic.

I mean even at a party it's not something I'd expect from a devout Catholic or Anglican Christian.

Makes one wonder what was really going on at those "pageants".

Inspiring fear in the enemy on the battlefield was just as important back then as it is today. Perhaps even more so. You can see examples in every culture throughout military history. Samurai helmet designs weren’t purely for decoration after all.

Imagine a dude in that helmet; 6ft tall, charging at you waving a mace, shouting to high heaven, with a weird metalic muffle to it. Not pleasant! I’d be out of there myself.

I think it looks pretty cool.

Wow! I love all things Tudour and I'd never heard of that!
Thank you for postinf
S&F

Rainbows
Jane

a reply to: halfoldman

Man that thing would be creepy regardless of time period.

My knee-jerk conspiracy response would be - yeah, Eyes Wide Shut for you poor sheeple indeed.
But I have glasses, and can see what's planned for you all.
Let him who have vision see ... mwahahaha.
Oh, it would have been used in ritualistic pageantry, and not the battle-field.
It was apparently once covered in brilliant gold and silver.

a reply to: halfoldman

That's really a weird thing.
What 'clowns' looked like in 1511, proof that they've always been scary.
Imagine how that thing would freak you out if it knocks on your window at night.
Or shows up in front of you on a battlefield.
Scream and run seems like the only reasonable reaction.
Which was probably the point.

So to me it's more the psychological sophistication it shows that's surprising and not any hidden symbolism.

a reply to: halfoldman

Cool helmet , first I've heard of it TBH.

I think it being modeled on the "fool" seems plausible given the depiction in the video and lean toward the school of thought that says the horns are a later addition.

It looks a bit Steam Punk with those glasses on.

It's awesome, I want to do yardwork with that on.

originally posted by: scraedtosleep
a reply to: halfoldman

Man that thing would be creepy regardless of time period.

Henry's Halloween mask.

a reply to: alldaylong
Just my interpretation of vague pareidolia and imagery, but it looks uncannily futuristic.
Like Henry Kissinger going trick-or-treating in the 1970's.
Ach, look, I'm going as myself.

a reply to: halfoldman

If Carlsberg did trippy Helmets?

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

It's awesome, I want to do yardwork with that on.

Ha!

You really are an asshat.

A loveable asshat, but an asshat all the same.

😛

a reply to: halfoldman

The mask poses a lot of questions - why was the 'gjft' accepted at all, and how has the mask managed tto survive all these years?

Maxjmillian was a seriously screwed up kinda guy. He had a riding accident some years before his death in 1519 (as I recall), and went everywhere with a coffin. He was also well kmown for elaborate armour. Put the two together and a weird headset gift doesn't seem unreasonable.

But here's the thing that interests me: Maximillian founded the Hapsburgs, who in turn founded tbe Austro-Hungarian, who in turn help kick off World War One, and renounced the throne of Austria in 1961, about 60 years ago. So the power sustained for around 500 years.

Today there is a society in Austria called The Order of St George, which was founded by Maximillian.

Coincidently, the patron saint of England is St. George.

So maybe theres a deeper, older, connection that made the grotesque headset acceptable as a gjft, and kept it from being dumped like donmuch 'old stuff'.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

It's awesome, I want to do yardwork with that on.

But only the mask right? Why leave everything else to the imagination?

a reply to: halfoldman

He was overweight, smelled especially of rotting flesh like a corpse from the open sores on his leg, had severe gout, was angry, a serial killer of woman and rumoured to have had many illegitimate offspring, was once a nice guy before falling off his horse after which he had a completely different personality.

Lost the British Throne it's claim on France which went back through the Norman's so lost a war.

Supposedly wrote Green Sleeves which I doubt - but before his fall from that horse he was apparently a talented youth so just maybe and was that really him that got up after the fall? (One interpretation of the Beast in the book of revelation is that it has the power not to raise but to send Demons into dead body's to make them seem to be raised from death so could this have been a demon and Henry really have died when he fell and struck his head - I know this bit is not on thread but think about it).

www.classicfm.com...

A suitable demonic helmet for what was essentially an evil man.

God turned him to his own use despite his evil, he attacked the church, destroyed the monastery's and martyred men and woman that stood up for there faith but God turned it against the devil who planted that seed and in the end it did not serve the devil for all his vile work, it served God.

a reply to: Ohanka

Imagine a dude in that helmet; 6ft tall, charging at you waving a mace, shouting to high heaven, with a weird metalic muffle to it. Not pleasant! I’d be out of there myself.

A mace, really? Why do people on this forum worship maces so much? A SWORD is always much better, deadlier and more efficient in everything you'd ever want to do on a battlefield. Why the heck would you be more scared of a mace than a sword?

'6 ft' wouldn't be that tall anyway, plenty of people have bodies way taller than that.

Shouting to 'high heaven'? As opposed to middle-heaven or low-heaven? Why would it matter where they're shouting, and why would it be more scary if it's heaven of ANY kind? Isn't heaven a wonderful, comforting place?

Wouldn't it be scarier if he's shouting at YOU than at some heaven?

People should really watch Shadiversity's or Lindybeige's videos on 'maces' before deciding it's the most scary weapon.

To me, an arrow shot by one of those super strong longbowmen that don't exist anymore (they weren't merely superficially strong, but their muscles and body structure were 'optimized' for shooting those ridiculously heavy (and I don't mean weight, but the power required to pull them properly) longbows, because they were trained since they were kids, so their whole body structure was actually a bit 'deformed' (which is why you can't find people like that anymore), would be WAY scarier than some small dude flailing some MACE around while shouting to 'heaven'.

Think about it; an arrow that you don't know is somewhere in the 'high heavens' that this other dude is shouting at (for some reason, instead of at you), you have no way of seeing it or hearing it, then suddenly it impales your body and burrows itself deep into the ground - or if you are on a horse, it can go through your armor, your leg AND the horse and still go deep inside the ground.

THAT would be scary to me, not what you're describing, no offence. AT LEAST replace the mace with something more common and effective, and make the entity a bit bigger and if they really have to shout, have them shout at ME, then maybe we'll talk. But until then, that arrow beats your non-scary mace-flailing mini-monster any day.