CHAPTER XXVI
ARMOUR TERMED "SPANISH"
We have now completed our enumeration of the more important
examples of the school of classically fashioned and decorated
armour that are extant. This has taken us rapidly through
the XVIth century into the opening years of the next, with the
result that we must perforce once more retrace our steps and
concern ourselves with that very large class of plate armour which is known
as "Spanish," and which is so called not because it was made in Spain, or
was made by Spaniards, but because it was chiefly supplied to the Spanish
Court under Charles V and Philip II, and so became commonly known
as à la façon d'Espagne. German workmen were the artificers, Augsburg,
Landshut, and Innsbrück being the chief towns from which these fine productions
emanated; though, as we shall have to relate, the great armourers
of Italy were likewise pressed into the service of these notable monarchs.
Indeed, beyond reproach as is much of the armour produced in all countries
early in the XVIth century, it is the opinion of the author that the fine
proportions and wonderful fashion of the harnesses, which were made in the
second and third quarters of the century, and which were commissioned to a
great extent, though not exclusively, by the Court of Spain, well bear comparison
with all others. The records show that the Kolmans of Augsburg
and the Wolfs of Landshut were in the almost continuous employ of
Charles V, Philip II, and the grandees of Spain; the Wolfs from their
status being perhaps the more favoured armourers of this period; and though
individual suits have been removed from Spain, and are to be seen to-day
in some of the more important public and private collections of other countries,
it is still to the old Imperial Armouries of Madrid and Vienna that armour
enthusiasts must turn if they wish to see these so-called Spanish suits in
their almost original state and completeness. It is indeed difficult for us to
