[LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS]
| COLOURED PLATES | PAGE | |
| [I.] | Full suit of armour of Henry, Prince of Wales, in the Guard-chamber at Windsor Castle. Attributed to William Pickering, master-armourer | Frontispiece |
| [II.] | Second suit of Sir Henry Lee, Master of the Armoury, reduced facsimile of No. 19 in the Armourers’ Album in the South Kensington Museum | 28 |
| [III.] | First suit of Sir Christopher Hatton, Captain of the Guard, and subsequently Lord Chancellor. Reduced facsimile of No. 15 in the Armourers’ Album in the South Kensington Museum | 40 |
| [IV.] | Grand-guard of the suit of George, Earl of Cumberland, in the possession of Lord Hothfield. This is a part of the 20th suit in the Armourers’ Album in the South Kensington Museum | 46 |
| [V.] | Grand-guard, used for tilting, belonging to the suit of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, with the gilding restored. In the Tower of London | 58 |
| [VI.] | Profile of the helmet belonging to the French suit (Fig. 32). In the Guard-chamber of Windsor Castle | 76 |
| [VII.] | Ornament on the tapul of the breastplate belonging to the half-suit of the Earl of Essex (Fig. 35), with the original gilding slightly restored. In the Guard-chamber of Windsor Castle | 90 |
| [VIII.] | The sword of Charles I. when Prince of Wales, 1616. The hilt entirely covered with raised gold damascened work on blue steel matrix, except the grip of silver wire work. Preserved in Windsor Castle | 96 |
| ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT | ||
| [1.] | Hauberk, or byrnie, of chain-mail, of the fourth or fifth century, found at Vimose | 11 |
| [2.] | Norman knights in mail hauberks and conical helmets | 13 |
| [3.] | A complete suit of mail, with coif and mufflers; A thirteenth-century suit, with reinforcing plates | 17 |
| [4.] | Mail coif, flat-topped, with leather thong | 19 |
| [5.] | Mail coif, round-topped, with jewelled fillet | 19 |
| [6.] | Mail coif, conical top, with coronet and mantelet | 19 |
| [7.] | Helmet of bronze and iron, from County Down | 21 |
| [8.] | Illustration of the development of plate-armour | 23 |
| [9.] | The sleeping guards, from the Easter Sepulchre in Lincoln Cathedral | 25 |
| [10.] | Melée. From MS. of the fourteenth century | 29 |
| [11.] | The helm and crest of the Black Prince, with his shield, from his monument in Canterbury Cathedral | 31 |
| [12.] | The helm of Richard Pembridge, K.G., from Hereford Cathedral | 32 |
| [13.] | Bassinet from the tomb of Sir John de Melsa, Aldborough Church, Holderness | 32 |
| [14.] | A bassinet transformed into a sallad in the fifteenth century | 33 |
| [15.] | A ridged bassinet with banded camail; Combed and jewelled bassinet | 35 |
| [16.] | Effigy of the Black Prince on his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral | 37 |
| [17.] | Gauntlet from the effigy of Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, in Staindrop Church, Durham; Gauntlet from the effigy of Sir Thomas Cawne, Ightham Church, Kent | 41 |
| [18.] | Helm from the tomb of Henry V. in Westminster Abbey | 48 |
| [19.] | Effigy of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, on his tomb in St. Mary’s Church, Warwick | 53 |
| [20.] | The Earl of Warwick slays a “mighty Duke.” From the Beauchamp MS. | 55 |
| [21.] | The Duke of Gloucester and Earls of Warwick and Stafford chase the Duke of Burgundy from the walls of Calais. From the Beauchamp MS. | 57 |
| [22.] | Sallad in St. Mary’s Hall, Coventry; Helm of Sir Giles Capel | 59 |
| [23.] | English tournament helm over the tomb of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, in Wimborne Minster | 60 |
| [24.] | Helm of Sir John Gostwick, in Willington Church | 61 |
| [25.] | The entry of Queen Isabel into Paris in 1390. From MS. of Froissart | 63 |
| [26.] | Armet of Sir George Brooke, K.G., 8th Lord Cobham | 65 |
| [27.] | English armet from the collection of Seymour Lucas, A.R.A. | 65 |
| [28.] | Complete suit for fighting on foot, made for Henry VIII. | 67 |
| [29.] | Suit made for Henry VIII. by Conrad Seusenhofer of Innsbrück, 1511-1514 | 71 |
| [30.] | Part of a suit made for Sir Christopher Hatton | 79 |
| [31.] | Armour of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 1566-1588 | 83 |
| [32.] | A suit of French armour, early seventeenth century | 87 |
| [33.] | Italian suit of blued and gilded steel covered with appliqués of gold | 89 |
| [34.] | A part of the ornament of the Italian suit (Fig. 33), drawn real size | 91 |
| [35.] | Demi-suit of the Earl of Essex, with closed helmet, magnificently engraved and gilt | 93 |
| [36.] | Sword, probably of James I., with basket hilt, entirely covered with raised gold damascening | 95 |
| [37.] | The sword of John Hampden, with hilt of carved steel | 97 |
[ARMOUR IN ENGLAND]
[I]
The Britons—An Early Age of Plate-Armour
It is the nature of islands to exhibit some peculiarities in their fauna and flora, and this insularity is no less pronounced in the manners and customs of the human beings inhabiting them. Thus even the stone implements of Britain of remote prehistoric days can readily be distinguished by the expert; and we have the authority of Sir John Evans for regarding our types of bronze celts and weapons as both peculiar and indigenous. On first taking a place in history several strange and extra-European customs were noticed in these isles by Cæsar, such as the use of chariots in war, and dyeing the skin blue with woad: British nations were, moreover, frequently ruled by queens, and some practised the rare and difficult, and very far from barbaric, art of enamelling on bronze.
Modern opinion is at present opposed to the theory that the culture and civilisation of Western Europe originated exclusively in the East, and is inclined to regard our primitive arts and crafts as indigenous. That this must in a large measure be true appears sufficiently established; but the large and excellently-made bronze bucklers with concentric rings of bosses or studs, called the clypeus, the singular art of enamelling, the use of studs of coral for embellishing weapons and trinkets, the chariots of war and the government by women, all so remote from savagery, and so intimately connected with Eastern civilisation, compel the belief that these isles did actually at some distant time possess a privileged and intimate communication with the East. The old and rooted tradition of a direct traffic in tin between Britain and Phœnicia cannot yet in fact be safely abandoned.