Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 3).djvu/367

 belonged to King Sebastian of Portugal, who was killed at the battle of Alcazarquivir in Africa in the year 1578 (A 290 in the Royal Armoury, Madrid). We give an illustration of it as another example of the skill of the Augsburg armourer (Fig. 1080). It comes from the hand of Anton Peffenhauser, an armourer who, by his second marriage, became a connection of the famous Koloman Kolman. The late Herr Boeheim considered that the suit in question was presented to King Sebastian of Portugal by Philip II of Spain. For this statement the Count de Valencia could find no authority. In the 1849 catalogue of the Madrid Armoury the absurd statement is made that this suit was presented to King Philip II by King Manuel of Portugal; as a matter of fact the latter monarch died in 1521, six years before the birth of the former. No records exist as to the origin of this most important suit in the numerous inventories of the royal weapons and armour which are to be found in the archives of Simancas; neither was the late Count de Valencia able to discover at what period it was placed in the Royal Armoury of Madrid. For purposes of identification he, therefore, found it necessary to rely on the data supplied by the various emblems that enrich the armour. An examination of these details enabled him to deduce, without much difficulty, that the suit was made for a Portuguese prince of Hispano-Austrian pedigree.

To be worn with the elbow-cops (Fig. 1078) over a chain mail shirt Royal Armoury, Madrid

Some of the rivet plates are stamped with the armillary sphere which, having its origin in Portugal, came to be the arms of Brazil; others bear the cross of Avis, and the rest the complete escutcheon of the Lusitanian kingdom. It is also to be noticed that Peffenhauser has repeatedly introduced the Austrian eagle with two heads, the lion, and the pomegranate, all of them emblems of the reigning house of Spain. These authoritative indications