Crested Helmet with Horsehair Tail

Crested Helmet with Horsehair Tail (French casque à cimier), a military headdress, surmounted by a metal crest with horsehair tail.

The crested helmet was already known in antiquity, but fell out of use, only to become fashionable again in 1743, during the War of the Austrian Succession, as the dragoon helmet of the Volontaires de Saxe, who in 1751 formed a dragoon regiment of volontaires under the comte Friesen. In 1755, the comte Schomberg took command of the dragoons, who were so fond of their helmets à la Schomberg that they refused to take them off even in church. Toward the end of the Seven Years’ War, in 1762, the stylish dragoon helmet replaced the tricorne in all French dragoon regiments, and the Volontaires de Schomberg were taken into the line as the 17th Dragoon Regiment. In 1804, the French cuirassiers adopted the crested helmet with horsehair tail, and in 1812 the British heavy dragoons did as well.

	English	Deutsch	Français	Italiano
a	horsehair tail	Rosshaarschweif	crinière
b	plume	Federbusch	plumet
c	ferrule, plume socket	Tulpe	douille de plumet
d	rosette, boss, rose	Rosette	rosace de jugulaire
e	chinscales	Schuppenkette	jugulaire
f	peak, visor	Schirm	visière	visiera
g	fur band	Fellverbrämung	turban
h	disc	Kennscheibe	lentille de houppette
i	ferrule	Tulpe	douille de houppette
k	tuft	Puschel	houppette de marmouset
l	crest	Helmkamm, Bügel	ailerons, flancs du cimier	crestina
m	crest plate	Vorderblech	masque du cimier
n	shell	Helmglocke, Helmkalotte	bombe, calotte, tymbre	calotta

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Military Glossary