Spanish Arms and Armour / Being a Historical and Descriptive Account of the Royal Armoury of Madrid

by Albert Frederick Calvert

The lance-rest is of the hollow kind, peculiar to Spain and Italy. Note on the right hip the pocket, cork-lined, on which the butt-end of the lance was rested before being couched. Above the left breast is a large ring, to which, by means of a bolt, the target was fastened and held in position. The leather ball, filled with tow, hanging to this ring, was to deaden the effect of a blow on the shield. We are ignorant of the use of the four rings hanging from the central ridge of the breastplate. The tassets are of three laminæ. The left hip is protected by a strong reinforcing piece in two plates. The left arm being defended by the target has no espalier or pauldron, but only coude, vambraces, and gauntlets. The right arm, in addition to these pieces, has a sort of espalier-pauldron, called épaule-de-mouton, with a fluted pikeguard. The lance is of pine-wood, and has the point blunted. The next suit (A17) differs only in a few unimportant particulars from the one just described.

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.