Royal.—A Helmet of Gold, with six bars, set affrontée.
Peers.—A Helmet of Silver, barred, with five bars, and garnished gold, usually set in profile, but Dukes sometimes used it affrontée.
Baronets and Knights.—A Helmet of Steel, garnished with silver, without bars, the visor open, and set affrontée.
Esquires.—A Helmet of Steel, the visor closed, and set in profile.
On the Helmet, between it and the crest support, comes the mantling, the survival of the helmet cover torn in war, and showing in strips, now ornamentally treated. The main metals and colours of the coat-of-arms should be repeated in the mantling.
To wear a crest at a Tournament implied more social status than the possession of a shield, and in the latter part of the fourteenth century all great nobles were very careful to display their crests, but lesser gentry had to be content with their shields only. In early visitations coats-of-arms were frequently granted without crest at all.