King Henry VIII of England (1497 - 1547) is known to most people mainly for the fact that he was a polygamist king, and that he started the so-called "Anglican" church in England, and not so much for the sake of faith itself, as for the sake of to be able to marry without hindrance. However, it is much more important that he was also an intelligent statesman, whose reign is considered by English historians as a period when the old was replaced by a new one, and at the same time as an era of decline and the heyday of armor made of solid-forged plates.
The birth of the Greenwich style
To begin with, it was Henry VIII who transformed the English army from a traditional medieval army, which consisted of knightly cavalry and a number of infantry and archers, into a "modern" army, welded together by a discipline unfamiliar to the feudal army, and gaining the upper hand over it thanks to its firearms weapons and very long spears, which allowed her infantrymen to fight on equal terms with the knightly cavalry. True, new weapons have not yet been produced in England, but brought from the mainland. However, the king retained the "good old English bow", encouraged in every possible way to practice shooting from it and did not allow his shooters to set targets closer than at a distance of 220 yards (about 200 m).
The famous "horned helmet" of Henry VIII. Royal Arsenal. Leeds.
Heinrich himself could not be called an outstanding commander, even if he participated in two military campaigns outside the country. But in his younger years, he fought in tournaments, loved to wrestle and shoot a bow, and when he grew old, he became addicted to falconry. Twice, in 1524 and 1536, participating in tournaments, he almost lost his life - so tournament fun was dangerous even for kings.
Portrait of Henry VIII by Holbein.
But he was also smart, and considered it unacceptable that Britain depended on the import of weapons and armor from the continent. To start his own production, he invited craftsmen from Italy to England, but for some reason this time the business ended in failure. But the king was persistent, and in 1515 he found gunsmiths in Germany and Flanders, who agreed to move to England and work for him in a workshop specially opened for them in Greenwich.
And so it happened that in England two schools were mixed at once: German-Flemish, but also Italian, and this is how the famous "Greenwich style" was born.
Of course, one must bear in mind that the king mainly tried for himself! Because he still preferred to order cheap armor for his infantry abroad and, in particular, in Italy, where at the end of 1512 he acquired 2,000 sets of plate armor in Florence (at the cost of 16 shillings per armor); and a year later he also bought 5000 of the same type of armor in Milan. Then, in 1539, the king ordered another 1200 sets of cheap armor in Colony, and another 2700 in Antwerp. Moreover, contemporaries noted that here Henry clearly decided to save money, since Antwerp was "famous" for the production of "low quality" armor, which were used only in the infantry. But the king himself did not offend! Only in the Royal Arsenal of the Tower of London are four pieces of armor that belonged to Henry VIII are kept. The fifth armor is in Windsor Castle, and two more, which, according to experts, also belong to Henry VIII, are owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Silver and Etched Armor of Henry VIII from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Height is 1850 mm. Weight 30.11 kg. It is believed that they were brought to England either by the Flemings, or by the Milanese Filippo de Gramnis and Giovanni Angelo de Littis. The armor was previously gilded, but is now completely silver plated and engraved over silver.
The king was very fond of foot duels, so the first armor (about 1515) was made for him precisely to participate in them. All its details are fitted to one another in the most careful way, so that the armor resembles not so much armor as a real work of art. They are decorated with engraving, the plot of which was the marriage of Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon, which took place in 1509. On the front of the cuirass was placed the image of St. George, and on the back of St. Barbara. The ornament was climbing plants, among which were the roses of the Tudors, and also the pomegranates of Aragon. On the wings of the knee pads, bundles of arrows were depicted - that is, the emblem of Catherine's father, King Ferdinand II of Aragon. The socks of the Sabatons were decorated with symbolic images of the fortress of Castile and another emblem of the Tudor family - the lattice of the castle gates on chains. Along the lower part of the "skirt" of the armor there was a border of intertwined initials "H" and "K" - that is, "Heinrich" and "Ekaterina". The back of the grease bore an image of a female figure that emerged from the calyx of a flower; the figure on the left bore the inscription "GLVCK" on its collar. The armor emphasizes the tall, even for our time, height and excellent physical condition of the young monarch.
In 1510, Emperor Maximilian I presented Henry VIII with horse armor - as a memory of the war with the French, and it shows especially well how perfect such armor was at that time. It was made by the Flemish craftsman Martin van Royan, and it consists of such details as a headpiece, collar, bib, two side plates of the flanchards and a massive convex cuff. To decorate the plates, engraving and chasing, as well as gilding were used. The metal plates of the reins were engraved, and all the other large metal plates, the front and rear bows of the saddle were decorated with convex images of branches and fruits of pomegranate, and in addition, branched crosses of the Order of the Golden Fleece, the owner of which Henry VIII became in 1505. The neck was least decorated the plate of this armor, however, it also had an engraved border on which grenades were depicted. It is believed that this piece belongs to another armor and was made by the Flemish master Paul van Vreleant. However, later both of these masters ended up in Greenwich. So Henry, apparently, selected people known to him for work on the orders of Emperor Maximilian I.
Who knows, maybe in this silvered and beautifully engraved armor of 1515 there is more work of Italian than Flemish craftsmen, but it may well be that their parts were made in Flanders, although you can almost say that they were already trimmed directly in England, where Henry VIII in 1515 already had his own weapons workshop.
In 1520, the king needed one more armor for the walking tournament, which was to take place on the "Field of Golden Brocade", known for its luxury, and it was these armor that turned out to be so perfect that, having a weight of 42, 68 kg, they did not have any one part of the body not covered by solid forged steel. But this armor was not finished, and to this day they have survived in this unfinished form.
Knightly armor of Henry VIII 1520 Drawing by a modern artist.
Another armor of Henry VIII dates from the same year. It is called "steel skirt", and it is clear why - after all, this is its main element. It is also obvious that this armor was made in great haste, because of which some of its parts were borrowed from some other armor, and only some of them were made anew.
It is distinguished by a very large bascinet, originally made in Milan (since it bears the stamp of the Missagli workshop), but with a changed visor on it. The bracers were also taken from old armor, and they looked like a series of narrow and thin plates that covered the elbow joints from the inside, but larger plates covered them outside.
Tournament armor "steel skirt".
The leggings had loops and special grooves for spurs, which were required for the rider, but not at all required for the foot soldier. Only the shoulder pads of overlapping plates (which became the hallmark of the gunsmiths from Greenwich) and the steel skirt (tonlet) were completely new. The engravings on them still retain traces of gilding. The figures of St. George, the Virgin Mary and the baby were used as decorations for it, Tudor roses walked along the edge, the sign of the Order of the Garter was engraved on the collar, and on the left grease there was an engraved image of the Order of the Garter.
Badge of the Order of the Garter.
On the one hand, it turns out that the armor was sharply specialized, on the other, their truly incredible cost, sometimes equal to the cost of a medium-sized city (!), Gave rise to armored headsets, in which the armor could be "modernized" by adding various details to it. And thus, the same armor could be used both as tournament and combat armor at the same time.
The most famous of the headsets that have survived to this day is a set made for Henry VIII by his craftsmen in Greenwich in 1540. These are full armor for the Jostra, as indicated by the very massive left shoulder pad, which is one piece with a buff - that is, an additional armor plate, which was attached to the cuirass so that it covered the chin, neck and part of the chest. If it was used in a pedestrian tournament duel, then elongated legguards could be fastened to these armor. The shoulder pads had a symmetrical shape, but the codpiece, an object that the king loved and appreciated very much, was all-metal. By combining parts of the armor, you could get several armor: tournament; the so-called "dart armor" or "three-quarters", in which the legguards covered the legs only up to the knees, and the infantryman's half-armor with chain mail sleeves, plate gloves, legguards and again with an all-metal codpiece, but without a lance hook on his cuirass. The helmet had no visor. Plate shoes were also missing.
Knight's set of Henry VIII. Modern drawing.
Thus, with only one such set, Henry VIII, it turned out, had several armor at once. It is possible that this decision was dictated by economic considerations, since the armor was very expensive. But it is possible that it was a kind of "mind game", and it was simply prestigious to possess such armor. Indeed, in 1544 he needed two more armor already for the Boulogne campaign. Their engraving was based on sketches by the artist Hans Holbein. But why then did he not use his armored headset?
A unique accessory of the armor of 1545 was a special abdominal plate, which Henry VIII was offered to use by the French king Francis I in 1520. It became a feature of the Greenwich school, but was used only on this royal armor and nowhere else. This is a part of three steel plates interconnected and overlapping one another. It was fastened in front on a quilted doublet with chain mail sleeves and short chain mail leggings with a codpiece. The breastplate had a hole in the center on the chest for a T-shaped pin that held this plate to the breastplate. Such a device helped to distribute the weight of the cuirass over the body, in addition, the multilayer armor became well, just absolutely "machine gun-gun-proof".
Armor of Henry VIII 1545
As for the ceremonial armor, the armourers, trying to please their customers, did not pay attention to common sense at that time, which proves to us the famous "horned helmet" of Henry VIII, which the same Emperor Maximilian I gave him in 1514 …
Battle armor of William Somerset, 3rd Earl of Worcester, chief exquire of Henry VIII. Armor weight 53, 12 kg. In this armor, the Earl of Worcestersky is depicted in two portraits, one of which was painted not earlier than 1570, when he was awarded the Order of the Garter, which is visible on him. Manufactured in Greenwich under the direction of John Kelte. The set includes parts of the horse's armor and a saddle with a protective lining. The armor was originally purple in color with gilded scallops.
Only this helmet has survived from the armor itself. He has a hinged visor shaped like a human face, glasses without glasses (and it is understandable why, why are they needed on armor ?!) and for some reason … twisted ram's horns attached to it! It was made by the master Konrad Seusenhofer of Innsbruck in 1512, and without any doubt it is an outstanding work of armor art of the early 16th century. But fighting in it was, most likely, completely inconvenient.
Here it is - such a famous "horned helmet"!
Did the gunsmiths understand this? We could not help but understand! But, apparently, it was an original souvenir and nothing more, a purely “royal gift” from the king to the king, that's why they made it this way!
Well, the armor from this helmet has not been found, and there is a suspicion that what was left of them was sold for scrap as early as 1649, during the Civil War in England. The helmet escaped this fate only because it was kept separately from them (they, perhaps, could have other helmets). Already in the seventeenth century. this helmet was shown in the Tower as a part of Will Somers' armor, which Henry VIII had as a court jester. For a long time it was generally unknown who was its owner.
Helmet-mask 1515 Kolman Helschmidt. Weight 2146 g.
True, in recent years, specialists have again had certain doubts about its authenticity. And here's the question: were the ram's horns and glasses on it from the very beginning, or were they added to it later? And most importantly - why would Maximilian I decide to present this such bizarre object to Henry VIII? Most likely, you will not be able to answer these questions, but … even if this is the only part of this armor, but it is truly amazing and therefore … especially beautiful! On the other hand, it is possible that such questions are irrelevant at all. Just the time between 1510 and 1540. fell on the peak of the popularity of the so-called Maximilian armor, and the armé helmets from many of them had a visor in the form of grotesque human faces. Hence the desire of the gunsmiths to please their crowned customer to the maximum and to do something completely original, which has not yet been met, and it should be noted that in this they achieved their goal!
Rice. A. Shepsa
