point to the fact that the suit must have belonged to one of two Portuguese princes of Austrian origin in the maternal line, who lived in the second half of the XVIth century, either to Prince John, who died at the age of seventeen without having occupied the throne, or to his brother, the King Sebastian, who, as we have stated, was killed, at the age of twenty-four, in the year 1578. It is impossible that Prince John at the age of seventeen could have worn a harness of such adult proportions, and as the armour is of advanced XVIth century form, it more closely corresponds with the epoch of King Sebastian, who was, according to a reference in a contemporary Spanish report, (Translation) "of good proportions, a little taller than the king [Philip II] as well as more robust and stout, very white-skinned with slight beard, and fair like Don Juan."[1] These historical facts agree so well with the peculiarities of this armour as to justify, to a very large extent, the presumption that it belonged to King Sebastian, whose mother, the Princess Juana, must have removed it to Spain after the catastrophe of Alcazarquivir.
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Fig. 1080. Suit of Armour
Said to have been made for King Sebastian of Portugal (1554-1578), the work of Anton Peffenhauser of Augsburg. A 290, Royal Armoury, Madrid
For a harness of its period, the end of the third quarter of the XVIth century, it is remarkably shapely and very restrained in taste as regards colour; inasmuch as, though richly embossed
- ↑ Morel Fatio, L'Espagne au XVI et XVII siècle, page 141: "Reception which the King, our lord gave to the King of Portugal at Guadalupe on the 10th of December, 1576." (Translation.)
