Half of a Morion

[Jim McDougall]

All extremely interesting on these other elements of armor and the contexts surrounding the conquistadors. If I may, I wanted to return to the original topic on the morion, and its actual appearance in the America's with them.

As I had mentioned earlier in the discussion, the catalog by Walter Karcheski of the Higgins Armory Museum for the Florida Museum of Natural History (1990) had noted the morion was not used until later in the explorations. I received this from Kathleen Deagan, the director of the museum in 1998 as I was researching Spanish colonial weapons.

As noted (7a, pictured) , "...Hollywood notwithstanding, the classic morion as shown here evolved too late to have been used by early conquistadors".
These would include Cortes; Pizarro; DeSoto, Coronado in first half of 16th c.mostly c. 1540s.

In 'Karcheski' re: DeSoto, "..he was probably dressed in a field breastplate and the 'favorite' helmet of the early conquerers- the open burgonet with a bevor".

It is noted that infantry wore a simple headpiece such as a skull cap or sallet, many wore a removable defense called a barbera (BEVOR) on the lower face.

However, in the tropical climates armets and close helmets saw only limited use...............light and airy headpieces like skullcaps, sallets and burgonets and the LATER morion and cabasset were preferred by foot soldiers and horsemen alike.