Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 2).djvu/173

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celebrate at Toledo (1502) the confirmation of Princess Joanna and of Prince Philip the Fair as heirs to the crown of Castile, among other public rejoicings, arranged with Don Garcia of Toledo, son of the Duke of Alba, to hold a royal tournament in Zocodover, and this "seemed very good to the Prince, and the foreign gentlemen who were with him" (Collection of Documentos inéditos para la Historia de España, vol. viii, page 87). Some years later, the young king, Charles I, afterwards the Emperor Charles V, held at Valladolid (1518), according to his Flemish chronicler, Laurent Vital, two kinds of tournaments, one of them being "that which they call royal, where great shields and blunt lances are employed" (Gachard, Chroniques Belges, vol. ii, page 189). Both quotations go to show that this form of joust was distinctly Spanish, that the Flemish witnessed it for the first time, and that they afterwards practised it in Brussels, along with the reed-spear games and other diversions of Spanish origin, in honour of Philip II when he was heir-apparent (Calvete de Estrella, Viaje de Felipe II). It is because of their connection with this particular form of Spanish jousting that we select two helms from the Madrid Armoury, one with its harness attached, which represent yet another different shape of jousting helm. In the Count de Valencia's catalogue the numbers of these two helms are A 16 and 17. Owing to a sketch which appears in the Inventario de Carlos V, and to statements made in the Relacion de Valladolid, the armour described as A 16 (Fig. 474) was formerly believed to have actually belonged to the Emperor Charles V. The armourer's marks indicate that it was made in Valencia, about the time that the young husband of Princess Joanna was seeking exercise in jousting, as his chronicler says, "à la mode d'Espaigne." However, the reference to it in the Relacion de Valladolid is "Armour engraved and gilded as for Royalty," which we may take it really means for royal tournaments. So we have no direct evidence that it was ever the personal property of the Emperor Charles V. The helm on this jousting harness, to judge by the dimensions and general outline of the visor, might easily be Italian; but before coming to a definite opinion we must note that it bears an armourer's mark—a fleur-de-lis—very similar to that seen on a Chapeau de Montauban, described on page 64 (Fig. 415). The breastplate of the body harness is composed of two thick plates of steel, which are placed one over the other, each being tinned to prevent rust, while the exterior was covered with gold brocade. The lower plate serves to protect the whole front down to the waist, the upper plate reinforcing the chest only, as far as the horizontal line of gilded nails. The