Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/55

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  • cumference of the jamb on the Tower suit

now measures only 16 inches and of the ankle 11 inches. One of the suits reputed to have been made for King Henry VIII in the Tower of London (Vol. iii, p. 224, Fig. 1018, and anteFig. 1108. Additional close helmet to the suit (Fig. 1107) Tower of London, Class II, No. 83, p. 14), weighs considerably more than this; but it is a complete suit. In the Armoury of the Knights of St. John, at Malta, there is a half suit made for the Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt, early in the XVIIth century, apparently for sapping purposes, of the great weight of 110 lb. It is No. 413 in the author's catalogue of 1902.

Fig. 1109. Part of the suit (Fig. 1107)

Made for William Somerset, Earl of Worcester. English (Greenwich school), third quarter of the XVIth century. Formerly in the Armoury of Windsor Castle, but removed to the Tower of London in 1914 by command of H.M. the King (Class II, No. 83A)

From 1708 until 1827 the Tower of London portion of the Worcester suit did duty in the line of kings for the armour of Edward I; for according to Meyrick Edward I was armoured in "blue steel armour with gilt slashings one 'pas-guard' and chain shoes." This is the only suit in the Tower to-day to which this rather vague description might be said fairly to correspond; though the surface of the armour is certainly not blue now but has been scoured "white." In John Hewitt's mid-XIXth century catalogue of the Tower this armour is referred to as that of Francis Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon. The portion of the Worcester suit formerly at Windsor Castle used to figure under the heading of the