CHAPTER XXVIII
ARMOUR TERMED "FRENCH"
Now that we come to deal with decorated armour intended for use
in France, we shall again, as in the case of armour made for use
in Spain, have to speak of the works of armourers all of
whom were not of the nationality of the country where the
armour was made, and whose works are of all styles; but,
since the suits we illustrate under this heading have all more or less a reliable
French royal provenance, we must accept them as typical French harnesses of
the time, or rather such as were supplied to great French personages. We have
already alluded to the suit in the Musée d'Artillerie of Paris, always known as
that of Francis I, as the work of an Augsburg armourer (Fig. 1048), and have
discussed the question of its attribution to that monarch. In the case of this
suit, as in those of certain other suits in the same Museum attributed to French
royal personages, we could wish that the attribution was based on convincing
documentary evidence, such as is cited in the catalogue of the Royal Madrid
Armoury, instead of on the mere unconfirmed statements of the guide-book,
excellent as is Colonel L. Roberts's catalogue of that institution. There appear
to be even more missing links in the chain of the older inventories and annals
of that comparatively recent collection than in those of our National Armoury,
the Tower of London; and it is unlikely too that many of the treasures of the
Royal Armoury of the House of France can have survived the shock of the
great Revolution. It is now, however, outside France that we look for
the first suit of undoubted Royal French provenance, a suit of armour at the
present time in the collection of Viscount Astor at Hever Castle, Kent. That
this suit belonged to Henri II of France is proved conclusively by a small
miniature portrait of the King, still in existence, attributed to Jean Clouet, a
picture once in the collection of the King of Holland, afterwards in the
Magniac Collection, No. 87 in the catalogue (Fig. 1089), in which Henri II
is represented arrayed in this identical suit of armour, the only difference
being that the armour is shown as black with the embossed parts brightened
with silver plating. According to Brantôme, Henri II always wore black and
