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Fig. 1435. Suit of armour

Made for Henry, Prince of Wales, about 1610. English, Greenwich, school. Collection: H.M. the King, Windsor Castle

• tainly of those in the royal collection of

England, is the harness we next deal with, a harness known to have been made for Henry, Prince of Wales, still preserved in Windsor Castle, No. 678 in the 1904 Catalogue (Fig. 1435). We have referred to it before in Vol. iv on pages 7, 39, 55, when the author attempted to give an account of the armour of the Greenwich school. It is supposed to be the work of William Pickering, of Greenwich, and to have been made for the Prince about 1610. This theory was originated by Sir Samuel Meyrick, who early in the XIXth century came across an account in the Record Office which mentioned a harness "fayrely guilt and graven made for the same Prince." The idea seems to be reasonable; for at the death of Prince Henry it appears that some fine suit was not paid for, and that of the £450, its original price, £200 was still owing. The fact that the suit was only just completed before the demise of King James's favourite son would very probably lead to its preservation in one of the royal palaces as a souvenir of the deceased prince. As we have said earlier in this chapter, W. H. Pyne, in 1819, speaking of this suit then in the Guard Chamber of the Round Tower, says: "Over the entrance to which are two coats of mail, curiously inlaid with gold; one with fleur-de-lys, which is said to have belonged to John, King of France, and the other with thistles to David, King of Scotland, both of whom were prisoners in the Castle." It is surprising that this error of description was left uncorrected in the guide books of the Castle up to late Victorian times; for how a suit of most characteristic early XVIIth century fashion could have remained unchallenged as