British and Foreign Arms & Armour

by Charles Henry Ashdown

This style of armour, which prevailed for so long a period, and of which examples in some form or other exist in almost every museum of importance, saw its origin in the reign of the Emperor Maximilian, from whom it is named. It is essentially the late Gothic style of armour richly decorated with fluting, and reinforced by numerous extra pieces designed to afford additional security to the wearer in the tilt-yard. For the battle-field the plain, unornamental armour of the Transition Period was invariably used; the Maximilian was for tilting and pageant purposes chiefly, and for display. Its introduction, and subsequent development upon the lines followed by the civil dress, was a sign of the decadence of armour for use in the battle-field—the turning-point which eventually led to its abolition.

The invention and use of gunpowder was the death-knell of chivalry in the full sense of its meaning. The mail-clad knight and the heavily armed man-at-arms had played their part through many centuries, and were now to disappear; steel-clad squadrons in all the majestic might of the pomp and circumstance of glorious war, with levelled lance and mantling streaming in the wind, had lived their day and were now to be no more, Armour had served its purpose so long as sword and lance, javelin and bolt, were the usual weapons of war; but when it was discovered that against the deadly lead of the arquebus it was of no avail, it was gradually discarded as obsolete and cumbersome.

Fig. 358.—The Emperor Maximilian I.

Fig. 359.—Maximilian armour, 1535. (Wallace Collection.)

All the examples of Maximilian armour present the same broad features, and can be easily recognised. As an effective defence against lance and sword and mace they were extremely efficacious, and the armourers of the period attained a high degree of excellence in producing suits which were, for tourney purposes, invulnerable. The general features of the armour followed the lines shown in [Fig. 358], which is taken from a drawing by Hans Burgkmair in 1508, and represents the Emperor Maximilian I.