Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 3).djvu/345

 make our choice of the most representative example of this great school. But after the most careful consideration we give pride of place to the great series of pieces, sufficient to arm nearly four figures, which are known in the Madrid Armoury as the "K. D." harness, made by Koloman Kolman of Augsburg. These plates are numbered A 19 to A 36 in the Armoury, and are certainly the finest specimens of the Kolman type. In the catalogue of 1849 this suit, or rather series of suits, was attributed to the original ownership of the illustrious Don John of Austria, whose death took place in the year 1578; but, if the armour is compared with other armour of the third quarter of the XVIth century, it will be readily seen that this assumption can have no foundation. The researches of the late Count de Valencia have now established the fact that this particular series of pieces for tournament and for war was originally the property of the Emperor Charles V when he was Prince of Spain and sovereign Duke of Burgundy (1550-58). The initials "K. D.," a species of monogram of unusual size, which appear recessed, etched, and gilt on the left upright shoulder guard, gave the clue. As the Count de Valencia said, it will readily be seen that it was taken from the Charles's title in Latin, that of (Burgundiae), the highest sovereignty which, at that time, the heir apparent had inherited; for if the reader will examine the equestrian portrait engraved on the great seal, which the young Prince adopted on his coming of age as Count of Flanders, he will find it surrounded by the following legend:. However, above and beyond all other proofs is one fact which leaves no room for doubt that this series of suits belonged to Charles V, and that is the fact that we find them sketched in the famous Inventario Iluminado of Charles V, and recapitulated in the Relación de Valladolid. We imagine that this was the most important and the most comprehensive panoply which Charles possessed in his early years (this last supposition is confirmed by the seal before mentioned, which bears the date 1515), and so was possibly the first complete harness which Koloman Kolman made for him. Kolman's mark and the guild mark of the city of Augsburg, the pine-apple, are stamped on a few of the pieces.

The portion of the panoply which we propose to illustrate is that which figures under the heading A 19 (Fig. 1062). It comprises the complete armour for the field, armour which is at once simple and most beautiful in shape. The head-piece is a fine close helmet of the armet type, with which are associated various adjustable and interchangeable plates: the coronet and the crest