Part 10

The harness, A291-294 (plate 54), seems to have been made in Milan by Lucio Picinino, and was presented by the Duke of Savoy to Philip III. “Although it belongs to the decadent period of the Italian Renaissance,” remarks the Conde de Valencia, “it is assuredly one of the handsomest pieces of work turned out by the Milanese armourers of the late sixteenth century.” The panoply is unfortunately very incomplete, owing to the strange course having been adopted of dressing with parts of it the corpse of the Infante Carlos, who died in 1632.

The whole suit is profusely decorated with reliefs and gold and silver damascene work. The burgonet displays three masks--on the visor (which is in two pieces), and at the base of the skull. The upper edge of the breastplate is roped. In the centre of the chest is an embossed mask; beneath it a panel with the figure of Victory, seemingly held in position by chains, and by two male figures. Below it and on either side are grotesque masks. The pauldrons (one of which has a bufe or passe-garde), the tassets, cuisses, genouillères, and demi-jambs are similarly decorated with cartouches and medallions with martial and allegorical subjects.

“The rich covering for the horse is also incomplete. It is composed of pieces of the two distinct bards mentioned in the Inventory, one ‘inlaid with gold and silver, fluted, and in relief, all adorned with blue stones (lapis lazuli) and yellow stones and illuminated crystals’; and the other, ‘with the same pieces as the one above, lacking nothing, and this is of gilded iron in relief.’

“Saddles, chanfrons, and mainfaires of both bards are preserved, these sets being that of the dragon chanfron on the horse A190, and that with the inlaid work on the present figure; but the cruppers and poitrels of both have been broken up, and their component parts have been mostly dispersed abroad. What was preserved in the Armoury, now without stones or crystals, together with other remains found in the ancient edifice after the fire, constitute the crupper and poitrel of this horse.”

To the first decade of the seventeenth century belongs the suit (A338-A346) attributed to the third Duke of Escalona. It has a tilting helmet with visor in two pieces, and a shutter in the ventail; the leg-armour is still complete. The elaborate ornamentation, consisting of wide vertical bands etched, alternating with trophies, medallions, and lacework, has lost much of its richness, owing to the disappearance of the blackening and gilding.

The horse’s barding is older than the armour; it is of the early sixteenth century, and the style of the ornamentation appears to be Spanish Renaissance. The several pieces of which it is composed are decorated with trophies, flowers, grotesques, and other devices in good taste, etched, and part of them engraved by hand. On the poitrel may be seen St. James on horseback, fighting against the Moors, accompanied by two warriors of antiquity. The chanfron has the escutcheon of the Alvarez de Toledo family, the surname of the celebrated Duke of Alba, from whom possibly it might have come.

The days had passed when Spanish Kings sent to Augsburg for their harness, and in 1620 we hear of a Royal armour factory at Pamplona in Navarre. The first specimen of its work is the parade armour made for the Duke of Savoy by order of Philip III. (A350-353, plate 62). Being a presentation suit, it was lavishly decorated with vertical bands and panels, with a bordering of trefoils of silver in relief. The initial letter, and the ducal crown and palms of Savoy figure in the ornamentation; and on the centre band of the cuirass may be seen the arms of the County of Nice--a crowned eagle gazing at the sun.

Philip III.’s half-suit of armour, numbered A354-355, was also forged at Pamplona. It is of steel-plated iron, and of extraordinary thickness. It is blued and decorated at the borders with bands on which are chiselled flowing scrolls, animals, grotesques, &c. A graceful edging of silver trefoils in relief finishes off the bands. The helmet, or cabasset, has a drooping brim, and is forged in two pieces. The breastplate is adorned by the Collar of the Golden Fleece, and another collar or riband (engraved), from which hangs the medal of the Immaculate Conception. A curious feature is the seven indentations made by the bullets of an arquebus, and each set with silver pearls. These marks do not say much for the quality of the metal, which is ten millimetres thick. The backplate, which is only three millimetres thick, has been perforated by the bullet. The arms are defended by espaliers reaching to the elbow, where they meet the cuffs of the gauntlets.

At Pamplona were also made six half-suits of boys’ armour for the three sons of Philip III.--the Infantes Philip, Charles, and Ferdinand. These suits (B13-B20, plates 87, &c.) are composed of closed helmet, gorget, cuirass, and the usual arm armour. The steel is blued, and each piece is decorated at the edge with the Collar of the Golden Fleece. The rest of the surface is divided by beautiful foliations in silver into diamond-shaped sections, in which are displayed the Tower and Lion of Spain, the Pillars of Hercules, warlike trophies, and the Double-headed Eagle.

The suit A360-368 (plate 58) was made in the first years of the century, in Italy, apparently for the Prince Filippo Emmanuele of Savoy, who died in 1605, aged 19. It consists of closed tilting helmet, gorget, cuirass, tassets, and the usual pieces for the limbs. All the pieces are richly decorated, but the blackening of the groundwork and the gilding of the ornamentation have disappeared. The crown of Savoy, with the palms and olive-branch, and groups of trophies are etched in rhomboidal sections formed by intertwined lovers’ knots, the emblem of the ducal house.

The same scheme of decoration is apparent on the two suits (A369, A377) of Italian make that were the property of the victor of St. Quentin, Prince Emmanuele Filiberto of Savoy, Grand Admiral of Spain (1588-1624). On the first suit certain Spanish heraldic devices, such as the Tower and Lion, may also be seen associated with the emblems of Savoy.

The last period of armour is illustrated by the suits belonging to King Philip IV. Six of these were sent to him from Brussels by his aunt, the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, wife of the Archduke Albrecht.

The first of these (A380-393) dates from 1624. It is shown on two figures, both with the same decoration of vertical bands traced on a groundwork of gold. On the shield may be deciphered the initials M. P. with a crown and three fleurs-de-lys, which leads the Conde de Valencia to hazard the conjecture that the armourer may have been one of the Petits, who served Louis XIII. of France. The harness includes the complete leg-armour, which now was never worn in the field; but the second figure (A381, plate 60) has, instead, the lobster-tail tassets, which were in actual use.

The second presentation suit (A394-401) is that in which Philip IV. is represented by Velazquez in the portraits in the Prado, numbered 1,066 and 1,077. It seems to have been originally blackened with the edges and rivets gilded, but probably lost its hue when worn by the illustrious Don Juan José, natural son of Philip IV., in his Italian campaign in 1652.

The armour A408-413 was among the gifts presented by the Archduchess Isabel Clara. It was very elegantly decorated with bands of gold and silver, chiselled by hand in zig-zag fashion. The next suit, A414-421, from the same donor, was worn by Don Juan José, who is shown wearing the cuirass on a bust in the Prado gallery.

The two remaining suits attributed to Philip IV. were the gift of his brother, the Cardinal Infante Ferdinand. The first (A422, plate 59) has the lobster-tail tassets, and is blued and decorated with vertical bands of medallions with various subjects. This suit was formerly, for some obscure reason, ascribed to Columbus. The second suit (A423-428) was originally blued and gilt, but the natural colour of the metal has now reasserted itself. The armour is distributed over three figures, and includes several pieces fast becoming obsolete at that time (1632). Notice the unusual size of the garde-de-rein on the first figure.

With these suits the Cardinal sent another for his boy-nephew, Prince Baltasar Carlos (1629-1646). This armour is little more than a toy, and preserves its blackening and gilding almost unimpaired.

The magnificently engraved collar and gorget numbered A434-A441 (plates 93, 94) are now known to represent the siege of Ostend (1601-1604) and the Battle of Nieuport (1600). The details are executed with marvellous clearness, and the chiselling reflects the greatest credit on the unknown artist. The horseman in the centre group on the gorget is probably the Archduke Albrecht, who distinguished himself by his valour at the Battle of Nieuport. These pieces were worn over a buff jerkin, such as was used by Cromwell’s Ironsides.

This brief survey of the principal objects of interest in the Royal Armoury at Madrid may be fittingly concluded with some account of the origin and vicissitudes of that establishment. Its nucleus was the armour accumulated by the Emperor Charles V., not with a view to a collection, but for his personal use. Philip II. was not slow to recognise the value of the treasure bequeathed him by his father. On his return to Madrid, upon the death of his wife, Mary Tudor, Philip deposited all the Emperor’s armour in a building specially designed for its reception, and added to it from time to time trophies won from the enemies of Spain, and such antiquities of national and military interest as he could procure. His good example was followed by his successors till the manufacture of defensive armour altogether ceased at the end of the seventeenth century, while the spoils of war became every year rarer towards the close of the eighteenth.

A calamity befell the collection at the outbreak of the War of Independence. The people of Madrid, in their eagerness to procure arms, invaded the building on December 1st, 1808, and carried off more than three hundred swords and other weapons with which to attack the French. And three years later Joseph Buonaparte foolishly piled the contents of the Armoury in the garrets, in order to make room for the dancers in the hall.

In the reign of Isabel II. the collection was re-installed and re-arranged. A catalogue was issued for the first time in 1849, the author being Don Antonio Martinez del Romero--a work displaying considerable research and industry, but full of errors, and completely superseded by the catalogue published in 1898 by the Conde de Valencia de San Juan.

It was to that gentleman that the late King Alfonso XII., soon after his accession, entrusted the complete re-organisation of the collection. This was a work presenting extraordinary difficulties, and after three years of incessant labour, the Conde had the mortification of seeing a fierce fire break out, which in the night of July 9th, 1884, reduced to ashes sixty-two flags taken from the enemy, twenty leather shields, and all the wooden figures prepared for the arrangement of the armour.

Without hesitation the work was begun all over again. The King added new and priceless acquisitions to the collection, among these being eleven examples of fifteenth-century brigandine armour (quilted jackets with the additional protection of plates of iron secured among the pads) discovered in Aragon, and several of the finest pieces in the armouries of the Dukes of Osuna and del Infantado.

Her Majesty Queen Cristina, during her regency, was not forgetful of the interest taken by her lamented husband in this magnificent Museum of Arms; and, thanks to her, the number of its treasures has been materially increased. Nor is it likely that any opportunity of adding to the value and usefulness of the collection will be neglected during the reign of a young Monarch devoted, like so many of his illustrious ancestors, to manly exercises and chivalrous traditions.

PLATE 47B.

PLATE 79A.