garde de rein brought from the Tower of London in September 1914 by command of His Majesty the King.
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Fig. 1446. Suit of armour
Said to have belonged to Charles I when Prince of Wales. Probably of French workmanship, about 1610. Collection: H.M. the King, Windsor Castle
The attribution to the ownership of Charles I when Prince of Wales of the suit exhibited in the Armoury of Windsor Castle, No. 677 in the 1904 Catalogue (Fig. 1446), is also only recorded in the 1842 inventory of the castle, but it is one on which no reliance can be placed. All that we can learn about it is that in the XVIIIth and early XIXth centuries it was probably one of the suits that hung on either side of the doorway in the old guard-room in the Round Tower. In the 1842 inventory, we read that "It is said to have belonged to King Charles I when Prince of Wales." The entire surface of the suit is deeply etched with vertical wide bands alternating with narrower ones, the former being decorated with various compositions, which introduce the figures of Neptune in a car drawn by dolphins, bound captives, grouped trophies of lances, tridents and naval crowns, oars, anchors, and hand-cannon. These compositions are varied with figures of mermen blowing conch-shells and of the fulmen of Jupiter; while at given intervals appears a sphere-like form from which radiate six cannon muzzles discharging flames. All these various ornaments are gilt upon the groundwork, which is worked to a granulated surface by means of small circular punches of various calibres. The narrower bands are filled with a running design of conventional leafage, a form of scrollwork. The edges of the various plates have been turned under to a cable-*pattern border, and the whole surface is studded with hemispherically-headed rivets, each coated with brass or latten. The colour of the suit is now a dark
