the armour of a Scottish king who died in the year 1371 it is difficult to understand, more especially as in the existing portrait of Henry, Prince of Wales, by Sir Antony Vandyck, after Van Somers (always in the royal collection), the prince is represented wearing this identical harness. This is the picture which was formerly in the ante-room at old Carlton House, whence it was removed to St. James's Palace; it now hangs in the Windsor Armoury (Fig. 1436). Apart from the monogram of the Prince that appears among the various decorations of the suit, the existence of the Vandyck portrait should be conclusive evidence as to which prince the suit was made for. A similar portrait of Prince Henry wearing the same suit of armour is now in the possession of the Marquis of Lothian. There also exists in Holyrood Palace a portrait of King James I, painted a year after the death of Prince Henry, in which the same suit figures as a property in the background, while the King is himself wearing the actual gorget belonging to it. This armour was no doubt introduced into the portrait through the desire of the King to keep alive the memory of his son (Fig. 1437).
Up to the present time Sir Samuel Meyrick's theory that the suit of Henry, Prince of Wales, is the work of William Pickering, the master armourer at Greenwich under James I, has been generally accepted, an association based solely on the probability of it being one of the two suits mentioned in the Warrants dated March 1613 and July 1614. William Pickering was Master of the Armourers' Company from 1608 to 1609. The former warrant was issued under signed manual for the payment to Sir Edward Cecil of a balance of £200 due for armour to the value of £450 made to the order of the deceased Prince Henry. The latter, preserved in the State Paper Office, was directed by King James I to the Commissioners of the Office of High Treasurer of England, stating: "Whereas there was made in the office of our Armoury of Greenwich by William Pickeringe, our master workman there, one rich armour with all pieces compleate, fayrely guilt and graven by the commaundement of our late deere sonne Prince Henry, which armour was worth (as we are informed) the somme of three hundred and fourty pounds, whereof the said William Pickeringe has received of our late deere sonne the somme of one hundred and fourty poundes only, soe as there remayneth due unto him the somme of two hundred poundes." Despite, however, the almost time-honoured attribution of this suit to the hand of William Pickering there is no conclusive reason for regarding it as his work. In the first place the individuality of style of Pickering is, as yet, unknown; so that this suit cannot possibly be recognized as his handiwork by any process of
