Part 7

The body-armour (C11) may have been brought to Spain by Philip. It is the work of a Milanese armourer, Bernardino Cantoni (who lived in 1492), and consists of a brigantine with tassets and sleeves, “Greek breeches” or chausses for the thigh, and brayette. These pieces are composed of scale armour, overlaid with canvas and crimson silk. The borders and joints are garnished with fine steel mail. On the rivets is stamped the Imperial eagle, which goes to prove that the armour belonged to Maximilian. No less than 3,827 pieces of plate and more than 7,000 rivets have been used to make this wonderful harness. The armourer’s mark, the heraldic devices of Austria and Burgundy, and the plates cut in the form of dolphins on the backplate, are worthy of attentive inspection (see plates 79 and 79A).

Attached to the salade shown with this body-armour, are beautiful wings of steel, inlaid with gold and other decorations, which could be assumed or removed according as the helmet was required for war or tilting (plate 141).

The most remarkable exhibits in the Armoury are the eighteen superb suits that belonged to the Emperor Charles V. They are the work of the greatest armourers of that or any age, and illustrate the transition from the “Gothic” to the more elaborate style of Maximilian.

The suit A19 (plate 20) was made for Charles when he was a youth by Koloman Colman, surnamed Helmschmied, the famous armour-smith of Augsburg. It is known as the K. D. suit from the enormous monogram stamped on the pike-guard of the left-shoulder. The letters stand for Karolus Dux, Charles being at that time (about 1514) only Duke of Burgundy and Prince of the Spains. The whole suit conforms to the elegant simplicity of the earlier fashion, but the size of the left pauldron or shoulder-guard and the shape of the sollerets show the influence of the new.

The armour is of burnished steel, “soberly gilded and engraved.” The borders are adorned by diamond-shaped reliefs. The armet is of the pattern described under A1, but the side-pieces close in front of the chin; the visor has five rows of holes and slits for ventilation. There is no gorget, the interval between the helmet and the upper edge of the breastplate being defended by chain-mail. The breastplate has a ridge or tapul down the middle; it is roped at the edges, and decorated with the Collar of the Golden Fleece. Strong lance-rest, with the Imperial eagle and armourer’s mark. Attached to the taces are tassets of three plates. The space between them is incompletely defended by a narrow skirt of mail. At the armpits are gussets of mail. The right arm has an espalier, palette, rere-braces, coude, vambrace, and gauntlet; the left, the four last pieces, but instead of espalier and palette, a large pauldron with pike-guard, on which is engraved the monogram K. D. The coudes are very beautiful. The remaining pieces are: backplate, open cuisses, genouillères, jambs, and laminated sollerets, approximating to the bear’s-paw pattern that afterwards became fashionable.

This harness belongs to the best period of armour. The decoration is chaste and tasteful, and there is nothing superfluous or exaggerated in the whole suit. The armet could be strengthened by the usual reinforcing pieces. The other tilting-pieces, which might have been worn with this suit, are shown separately on the equestrian figure A26 (plate 21). Here we notice the armet with cheek-pieces opening at the sides, according to the system which now became general; laminated gorget; the enormous pauldron, elbow-guard, and gauntlet of the right arm; and the handsome garde-de-rein attached to the backplate. The cuisses have a fringe of mail at the knee, and the houghs are defended by decorated shields or rondels. The junction of the jambs and sollerets is similarly strengthened by mail.

The horse’s barding appears to have been the work of Daniel Hopfer of Augsburg, who co-operated in many instances with Colman. All the component parts are gilded, and etched by means of aqua-fortis, the decoration consisting of imbrications or overlapping of festoons, in open-work or relief.

Each imbrication encloses two cherubim in the attitude of striking with sparkling flint bars, and in each festoon is a rose and three pomegranates surrounding it. The first are emblems of the Golden Fleece; the rose alludes to one of the seigneuries of the Emperor; and the pomegranates are a favourite device adopted by the children and grandchildren of Ferdinand and Isabel, in memory of the triumph over the Moors at Granada.

The iron borne by the horseman weighs thirty-six kilos., and the horse’s bard and saddle as much more: if the weight of an average man be added the result is about 150 kilos, carried by the horse.

The most notable features of the suit A27 (plates 22, 98, 143), which is mainly composed of extra or reinforcing pieces, are the helmet, called celada de infante, with serrated comb, decorative bands, deep pointed visor forming a strong reinforcing piece, beavor “bellows-pattern” with alternate ridges and rows of perforations, and laminated gorget plates; and the target screwed to the left shoulder. This defence was only used at tilts and tournaments. It is concave and trellised, and is beautifully engraved by Daniel Hopfer.

On it may be seen several birds of the same kind (herons?) in the act of attacking an eagle in the centre, which has one of them a prisoner in its talons--possibly an allusion to the alliances promoted by Francis I. of France against Charles V., after the former refused to comply with the Treaty of Madrid.

The suit A37-42 (plate 23) is a tilting harness of burnished steel, probably that in which the Prince appeared in the lists at Valladolid in 1518. The most important piece is the tilting-helm, which weighs more than nineteen kilogrammes. Divided vertically at the sides in two halves, which are joined by means of six sliding springs, it was put on by screwing the back part to the backplate and the front part to the over-breastplate, the tilter remaining thus between walls of steel, with the weight shared between the shoulders and the waist.

The lance is of the kind called Bordonasa, hollow and fluted. The larger variety was used to mark the limits of the lists at tournaments. In an account of Charles’s doings (1523) we read, “Le jour que sa dite Majesté jousta à la targette, qui’il courut par diverses fois armé à la bourdonasse.”

The heavy bard that covers the horse, like the suit, comes from the Imperial Armoury. It is of German make; but has no mark to show its origin. Its make and size remind us of those of the _Triunfo de Maximiliano I._, and the beautiful etchings are in the style of the celebrated engravers Burgmair, father and son; the latter, as is known, worked with the armourers of the Imperial House of Austria.

It includes: large chanfron with arched outline, lateral plates, ear-coverings like sheeps’ horns, and on the crown a small shield with the two-headed eagle; collar of steel scales; poitrel with sliding embossed hinges, in the shape of lions’ heads; flechières and croupière, all covered with pearls, pendants, and reliefs. On the croupière, which finishes at the crupper in a sheep’s head, Biblical subjects are engraved: David with the sling, and Samson fighting the Philistines. The whole is one of the most beautiful bardings known.

The horse armour at A38 is also remarkable, and probably belonged to the Emperor Maximilian. Note the double-headed eagle on the chanfron, the motto, “Plus Oultre” on the forehead, and the St. Andrew’s crosses and bars of the Golden Fleece on the collar.

At A43 the upper limbs are defended by “a pair of narrow armlets to be used with sleeves of mail” (Valladolid Inventory). “They are specially worthy of mention as they are very rare, there being none like them in any other Museum, while in the collection at Madrid there are four sets belonging to as many suits of armour of the Emperor. On tapestries and some sepulchral effigies of the fifteenth century they are worn over the sleeves of the coat of mail, to defend the outside part of the arm from the shoulder to the hand, being divided in articulated laminæ. Those of Charles V. have their own garniture of mail and straps to go round the arm.”

Between 1519 and 1539, five complete suits, almost identical in design, were made for Charles by the Colmans of Augsburg. They are all decorated with ornamental vertical bands, and differ mainly in the distances between these and in dimensions. Two are distinguished, however, by lamboys or bases, the ugly kilting of armour added to the harness about this time to gratify the craze for novelty and ornamentation. It may also have been suggested by the prevailing fashion in civil dress.

The most ancient of these suits is that known as the oak-leaf harness (_tonelete de hojas de roble_) [A49-64]. It could not have been made earlier than 1519, the year in which Charles ascended the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, as the Imperial Eagle is engraved on the coudes. It was made by Colman Helmschmied.

The armour is shown on three separate figures. The first (A49--plate 24) is a harness for jousting on foot, with the two-handed sword, mace, or half-pike. The helmet, of the kind Spanish writers call the _celada de engole_, has a serrated comb and pointed visor ridged horizontally; the cheek-pieces open at the sides; and the nape covering or _colodrillo_ is forged separately from the helmet, and fastened with rivets. This headpiece has six reinforcing pieces, which are placed at the side of the figure. Among these is a curious beavor, composed of two plates, nailed on leather, which clasp on the helmet and close at the chin. The rest of the suit consists of: laminated gorget; globose breastplate, roped at the edges, and decorated with ornamental lengths; taces, to the lower edge of which is attached the lamboy, composed of two bell-shaped halves, each of eight semi-circular plates, across which the lengths are continued, and the lowest or outermost of which is decorated all round with embossed oak-leaves intertwined round a trunk. The espaliers are small and beautifully decorated with the device of the Golden Fleece in relief. The coudes show the Imperial Eagle embossed on a gold ground. The leg-armour does not properly belong to this suit.

(A56). The second figure (plates 25, 99) has a helmet for jousting on foot, which opens at the sides, and has a large visor in one semi-spherical piece perforated; slight crest, and stripes of gold which unite at the back to form two fantastic figures, and, lastly, eight holes on each side, guarded with metal, for hearing. Undoubtedly it was altered at a very remote period by cutting horizontally at the neck, at the back of which the Golden Fleece is engraved; and doubtless it was cut in order to add the neck-plates, which, screwed on to the cuirass, serve instead of a gorget.

Note the heavy tilting elbow-guards and gauntlets; the brayette, rarely shown in English pieces of armour; and the close-fitting tassets, resembling breeches, in which we may recognise the beginnings of the lobster-tail armour, worn so much during the seventeenth century. The back of the espaliers is beautifully designed to resemble the wings of an eagle.

(A57.) The third figure has tilting pieces of the same armour. The helm in two pieces, united at the side by means of seven sliding rivets, is magnificent, with pointed visor, very stout at the edges; it has a shutter on the right side; two groups of perforations for breathing, and eight others, guarded with metal, for hearing; in front the decoration only consists of lightly engraved feathers, on the crest, of a centaur fighting a serpent, in relief, on a gold ground (plate 100).

The superb shield (plate 143A), screwed to the over-breastplate, bears the signature of Daniel Hopfer, and the date 1536. Its surface is divided into twenty-eight compartments of different sizes, in each of which are engraved groups of nymphs, satyrs, amorini, winged horses, griffins, and other fanciful creations on a gold ground. The groups are all different. Some of the female figures appear to have been intentionally made grotesque. The whole design reminds one of Albrecht Durer’s school and the German Renaissance.

The beautiful burgonet or helmet (A59--plate 101), shaped like a dolphin’s head, was made in the workshops of Colman, and almost certainly designed by Daniel Hopfer. The scales are damascened on a black ground, and the visor is formed by the snout above the open jaw.

We come now to the harness made for Charles V. at Augsburg about 1521, and distributed like the last suit among three figures. It presents no very interesting points of difference from the armour just described (plate 26). The barding of the horse (A65) is exquisitely engraved with fanciful figures, in which we recognise the hand of Daniel Hopfer. The armet of the third figure (A75--plate 102) is of the shape already shown at A19. The reinforcing piece over the crown is cut to resemble an eagle, and bears such devices as the Golden Fleece and Pillars of Hercules, and the motto “Plus Oultre.” It has also the most complete set of reinforcing pieces in the Armoury. These are shown on plate 97.

The harness numbered A93-107 is the third of the suits decorated with vertical bands and the second with lamboys made for Charles by Colman Helmschmied. The Conde de Valencia fixes its date at 1526, and has elicited from various archives the following interesting historical details concerning it:

“So long as the young Prince Charles resided in Flanders under the tutelage of his grandfather, the Emperor Maximilian I., it would be easy for the armourer Colman Helmschmied to take and certify personally his measurements, without neglecting the large clientèle that came to his workshops; but when his patron was obliged to go to Spain, he wished, and expressed this wish through his agents, that the armourer should remove to Toledo. Colman demurred, alleging that he was fully occupied, and from this it has been inferred that he never crossed the Pyrenees. We, more fortunately, are able to assert that the celebrated artificer, at last obeying the express command of his Sovereign, went to Toledo in December, 1525, and returned to Germany the following month.

“A bill ordering the payment of the expenses of his journey, found in Simancas, states, among other curious details, that he left Augsburg in December, accompanied by Ludovico Taxis, an official of the Imperial Post, and two servants, and passed through Lyon in France. He was summoned to Court chiefly to rectify measurements, before executing fresh orders, as may be gathered from the extremely curious charge in an ancient account of the Emperor’s Armoury, the date of which coincides with the artificer’s stay in Toledo. The French text begins thus: ‘Pour trois livres de cire et de plomb pour faire les patrons que maitre Colman, armoyeur, a fait,’ &c.

“The Emperor’s bill, dated Toledo, January 15th, 1526, arranging for the payment of expenses from and to Augsburg to Colman and his companions is so interesting in its details that it ought to be known. It runs thus:

“‘Notre Secretaire M. Jehan Lalemand, depechez nos lettres patentes par les quelles soient mandé a notre Argentier Jehan d’ Adurza et des deniers de son entremise payer, bailler et delivrer comptant à ..., Colman maître armoyeur de notre cité d’ Augsbourg en Allemaignes et à Ludovico de Taxis serviteur du maître des postes estant au dit Augsbourg la somme de 1,125 ducats d’or de XXXVII. s. VI. d. pièce, à savoir; au dit Colman 735, les 500 en don gratuit pour une fois pour aucunement des peines et travaux qu’il a eu et supporté venant par notre expresse ordonnance au mois de decembre dernier en poste dés sa maison etant au dit Augsbourg, jusque par devers notre dite majesté en notre cité de Tolede; les 150 pour ses depenses tant de venir que de retourner en sa dite maison; les 30 ducats pour convertir et employer en ung acoustrement pour sa personne, de nos couleurs et livrées et les 55 autres ducats pour une mulle que lui avons fait ce jourd-huy acheter et presenter aussi en don de par nous; et au dit Ludovico de Taxis 380 semblables ducats, les 200 pour ses peines et frais par lui payés d’etre aussi par notre dite ordonnance venu accompagner par poste le dit Colman, dés le dit Augsbourg à quatre chevaux jusqu’ à Lyon sur Rhone en France et dés le dit Lyon jusqu’ en notre cité de Tolede à trois chevaux, a cause qu’ un serviteur d’ icelle Colman était demeuré malade par chemin; les 150 ducats aussi pour ses dépenses et autres frais que lui conviendra faire accompagnant le dit Colman et portant une montre de harnais pour notre personne dés le dit Tolede jusqu’ au dit Augsbourg et les autres 30 ducats aussi en don gratuit pour un acoutrement pour sa personne aussi de notre dite livrée; revenant ensemble toutes les dites parties à la dite somme de 1,125 ducats d’or,’” &c. (Simancas. Casa Real).

The figure A93 (plate 27) shows the armour as worn for combat on foot in _champ-clos_. The helmet has a complete set of reinforcing pieces. The roped edge of the breastplate is placed over the gorget. The pauldrons are large, and furnished with pike-guards. The lamboys are in bell-shaped halves, joined by sliding rivets. The lowest or outermost plate can be detached at will, and is decorated with bas-reliefs of bears and deer pursued by dogs on a gilded ground. Beneath is a “baticol,” or kind of breeches, of burnished steel, “articulated with great skill and precision, so as to defend the body without hindering its movements.” Cuisses, genouillères, and jambs complete the suit.

The tilting pieces attached to the harness are shown on the second figure (A101--plate 20). The helm, similar to that of A37, is decorated with gold bands, and is fifteen millimetres thick at the visor. It is screwed on to the over-breastplate. The arm defences are very handsome, being gilded, embossed, and engraved so as to resemble the civil dress of the period. The right coude bears the emblem of the Golden Fleece, and would appear from the Relacion de Valladolid to have been a prize won or competed for at tournaments. The armour on the left arm will only permit the arm to be bent towards the pommel of the saddle.

The cuisses are laminated, and the influence of the civil dress is seen once more in the genouillères which are composed of strips of metal placed vertically, so as to give the “slashed” appearance common to the trunk-hose and sleeves of the period. The jambs are engraved with floral devices. The sollerets are of mail.

The third figure (A103), described as including the pieces necessary for war or hunting, does not call for special notice.

A108 is a light harness for war, made by Colman Helmschmied. The emblem of the Golden Fleece predominates in the scheme of its decoration. Of this suit the Conde de Valencia says:

“Time has dimmed the effect of its sober and severe ornamentation of gold on a black ground, confined to a few narrow longitudinal stripes engraved and gilded. It has the ‘bars’ of the Golden Fleece on the helmet, the guards, and the shield; two winged griffins, supporting the Pillars of Hercules on the backplates of the pauldrons, and the image of Our Lady on the breastplate. According to the Emperor’s inventory, the backplate, which does not exist, bore the image of St. Barbara.

“It is the last armour the famous Colman made for Charles V. This is easily proved by the date (1531), engraved on the left tassets--a date which agrees with that given us some years ago by the learned German professor, Carl Justi, to whom it was communicated by Canon Braghirolli on his finding it in the Mantua archives. It is contained in a letter from Duke Federigo di Gonzaga to the Duke of Urbino on the 9th November, 1532, in which he says that _the Emperor had shown him his armour, among which was a beautiful suit by Colman, the last one he made for him, for shortly after he had died_. The statement was confirmed by the payment lists of the Municipality of Augsburg, from which the name of the armourer disappeared in the year 1532.”

The helmet is a _celada de infante_, and has a visor with wide gratings fastening over the beavor. The evolution of leg-armour is well shown by the tassets extending, in several plates, below the knee where they overlap the demi-jambs. There are no genouillères. The lower plates of the tassets were detachable, those pieces being thus convertible into tassets of ordinary length.

The shield (A109), embossed with the devices of Burgundy and the Golden Fleece, was found in the province of Burgos, where it was bought for seven pesetas. It was purchased for the nation by Alfonso XII. at a cost of 1,250 pesetas.

The suit A112, plate 28, though of the same pattern as those just described, is the work of the Italian artificer, Caremolo Mondrone, of Milan. It is one of two suits presented to the Emperor by the Duke of Mantua, in gratitude for favours received and anticipated. The gift elicited the following letter of thanks from Charles (Bertolotti, Arti minori):

“_Carolus Augustus D. F. C. Romanorum Imperator. III. Princeps consange. Carissima:_

“_Las armas q. nos truxo Caremolo nos ha parescido muy bien y estamos muy contento dellas porque son muy bien acabadas ya nostra voluntad, y lo quedamos del animo con que se embiaro porque lo tenemos bien conoscido y habemos lo que en el hay para nostras cosas. El nostro para las vestrases de la misma manera como es razon. Caremolo dira particularmente lo demas q. toca a las armas. Dat. ex Palencia a quatro de Septembre an. de MDXXXIIIJ.--Carolus._”

The harness was made in 1534 specially for the African expedition which the Emperor was planning at that time, and was worn by him on his triumphal entry into Tunis. The decoration has disappeared, all but a band of embossed leaves round the border of the tassets. The closeness of the fit and the flowing lines recall the best days of the armourer’s art.

The helmet has a pointed visor and beavor in one piece, with perforations on each side. The breastplate is moderately globose, the espaliers composed of narrow laminæ bolted on to the breast and backplates. Rondels defend the armpits. The coudes are large. The genouillères are composed of narrow articulated plates.

In gratitude for his investiture with the principality of Monteferrato, the Duke of Mantua, in 1536, sent the Emperor a second suit of armour (A114--plate 29) by the same artificer, and of the same design:

On receipt of these gifts the Emperor replied in the following terms:

“_Carolus Divina favente Clemencia. Roman. Imp. August. Illustria Princeps consanguine carissime._

“_Las armas son muy buenas, y nos han parescido en extremo bien y contentado mucho, y assy nos ha satisfecho el armero al qual havremos plazer que por nuestro respecto tengais por encomendado. De Alba á 23 de Julio de 1536.--Carolus._”

The suit appears to have been originally blued and richly damascened in gold. Most of the decoration and the bluish hue have now disappeared. Gold palms in relief still remain on certain of the pieces. The extreme delicacy of the azziminia, imitating cufic inscriptions, testifies to the extraordinary skill of Caremolo Mondrone. It will be noted that many of the most important pieces are missing from the suit.

The harness A115-A127 is known as the Cornucopia Suit, from the emblem which predominates in the scheme of decoration. The Conde de Valencia is of opinion that it is the work of Desiderius Colman, and was made about 1534. The steel was originally blackened, and the ridges, which correspond to the bands in the other suits, were engraved and gilded. Excessive cleaning has greatly marred the beauty of this armour.