Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 3).djvu/15

list of the famous Windsor Tournament of 1278—Pictorial illustration of the complete
chanfron of about 1350—Other illustrations and allusions to horse armour of the
second half of the XIVth century—The Musée d'Artillerie chanfron, dating from the
end of the XIVth century; the famous Warwick chanfron; the "Attila" chanfron in the
Arsenal of Venice, its possible date—Pictorial evidence as to horse armour in the first
half of the XVth century—The war saddle of the XVth century, and the early and
historical example from the tomb of King Henry V in the Abbey Church of Westminster—Pictorial
and sculptural evidence of the formation of the war-saddle in the
XIIIth and XIVth centuries—Some fine extant bits of the latter part of the XIVth
century—Others of later date—The spur from the end of the XIIIth century—Illustration
of types of the prick order—The rowel spur—Some sumptuous extant examples of
the XIVth and XVth centuries—XVth century saddles other than those used solely for
purposes of war—Some highly finished examples in ivory, bone, and gesso duro—Plate
armour for the horse in the first half of the XVth century—The few and very rare
extant examples—After about A.D. 1460 our knowledge of the subject made more
thorough by the existence of more specimens—Certain complete horse armours, now
existing, but of slightly later date—The strange absence from Italian pictorial and
sculptural art of representations of horse defence—Extant chanfrons as evidence of the
style of horse defence in the third quarter of the XVth century—The wholly complete
horse armour of the latter years of the century, both English and Continental—Horse
armour in the Tower of London—Examples in the Imperial Armoury of Vienna—The
deterioration in workmanship towards the second half of the XVIth century—Eccentricities
of horse armour intended for the tilt yard—The beauty of horse apparel
in the second quarter of the XVIth century, when accompanying en suite the suits
made by great armourers of the epoch for great personages—Horse armour of the
"Spanish" school—Note on the pair of spurs illustrated in Figs. 971 and 971A and
on a sword bearing the arms of the House of Dreux 147


CHAPTER XXIII

THE DAWN OF THE XVITH CENTURY—THE TOWER OF LONDON ARMOURY

The dawn of the XVIth century—Certain types of decorated armour—The rivalry of
armourers that led to the excessive decoration upon armour as the century progressed,
which decreased its protective quality and disguised its indifferent construction—The
gradual transition from the so-called Gothic armour to the so-called Maximilian—Early
XVIth century armour of foremost interest to the English collectors; extant
examples in our national armoury, the Tower of London—An endeavour to establish
their identity with royal ownership accredited to them—The Curators of the armouries
at the Tower—The possible makers of certain of the Tower Henry VIII suits discussed—The
suit formerly preserved in the Château de Bonnelle said to have been worn by
Gourdon de Genouilhac, its great likeness in form to the double suit of Henry VIII—The
armourers of the French school 209