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.