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 CHAPTER XXV

At this point we find ourselves in an attitude of mental hesitation; for, having now arrived at a period towards the close of the first half of the XVIth century, we are in some doubt as to whether we should follow our natural desire to march straight ahead in order to carry on our sequence of suits directly influenced by the later Maximilian feeling, or whether we should go back to the early years of the XVIth century, so as to deal with those harnesses in which the classicism of the Italian Renaissance made itself felt so strongly both as regards decoration and even form. We have decided to proceed to the next class of defence immediately evolved from the Maximilian style, viz., "Landsknecht" armour. We agree that the true Landsknecht soldier fought on foot, but when we refer to this armour the reader will see that it is a type suitable for both mounted and foot soldier. The term may seem to some an unsuitable one, but to the author, who has lived, as it were, entangled in armour jargon, and to all collectors, it connotes a definite class of harness. This armour was in use in almost all civilized countries, and was less influenced by the civil fashion in dress of the time than the direct Maximilian; though that which we see to-day is, as a rule, the product of Germany. We wish to imply by the term a class of armour which is of almost stock pattern but which occasionally is distinguished by the work of the most skilled of armourers. If we describe three suits of the class it will suffice; for these will take us well into the second half of the XVIth century, and we shall have no occasion to return to the type again.

Among the possessions of the Musée d'Artillerie of Paris is a fine suit of armour of this not uncommon type, but of the high class to which we have alluded (G 117) (Fig. 1048). It is a work wrought under the direct influence of Kolman of Augsburg, and belongs certainly to the so-called Landsknecht group. In this instance the suit is of fairly well established