Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 3).djvu/15

 list of the famous Windsor Tournament of 1278—Pictorial illustration of the complete chanfron of about 1350—Other illustrations and allusions to horse armour of the second half of the XIVth century—The Musée d'Artillerie chanfron, dating from the end of the XIVth century; the famous Warwick chanfron; the "Attila" chanfron in the Arsenal of Venice, its possible date—Pictorial evidence as to horse armour in the first half of the XVth century—The war saddle of the XVth century, and the early and historical example from the tomb of King Henry V in the Abbey Church of Westminster—Pictorial and sculptural evidence of the formation of the war-saddle in the XIIIth and XIVth centuries—Some fine extant bits of the latter part of the XIVth century—Others of later date—The spur from the end of the XIIIth century—Illustration of types of the prick order—The rowel spur—Some sumptuous extant examples of the XIVth and XVth centuries—XVth century saddles other than those used solely for purposes of war—Some highly finished examples in ivory, bone, and gesso duro—Plate armour for the horse in the first half of the XVth century—The few and very rare extant examples—After about 1460 our knowledge of the subject made more thorough by the existence of more specimens—Certain complete horse armours, now existing, but of slightly later date—The strange absence from Italian pictorial and sculptural art of representations of horse defence—Extant chanfrons as evidence of the style of horse defence in the third quarter of the XVth century—The wholly complete horse armour of the latter years of the century, both English and Continental—Horse armour in the Tower of London—Examples in the Imperial Armoury of Vienna—The deterioration in workmanship towards the second half of the XVIth century—Eccentricities of horse armour intended for the tilt yard—The beauty of horse apparel in the second quarter of the XVIth century, when accompanying en suite the suits made by great armourers of the epoch for great personages—Horse armour of the "Spanish" school—Note on the pair of spurs illustrated in Figs. 971 and 971 and on a sword bearing the arms of the House of Dreux                 147

CHAPTER XXIII

THE DAWN OF THE XVI CENTURY—THE TOWER OF LONDON ARMOURY

The dawn of the XVIth century—Certain types of decorated armour—The rivalry of armourers that led to the excessive decoration upon armour as the century progressed, which decreased its protective quality and disguised its indifferent construction—The gradual transition from the so-called Gothic armour to the so-called Maximilian—Early XVIth century armour of foremost interest to the English collectors; extant examples in our national armoury, the Tower of London—An endeavour to establish their identity with royal ownership accredited to them—The Curators of the armouries at the Tower—The possible makers of certain of the Tower Henry VIII suits discussed—The suit formerly preserved in the Château de Bonnelle said to have been worn by Gourdon de Genouilhac, its great likeness in form to the double suit of Henry VIII—The armourers of the French school                                    209