The “Gothic”31 school, as it is termed, exhibits the highest embodiment of artistic beauty as applied to defensive armour; and it inaugurated a new epoch in warlike panoply. The armour-smith’s best efforts were directed not only to give increased protection to the limbs and make the armour light, flexible, and impenetrable; but the flutings and escalloped edges were designed to produce beauty of form and outline, as well as with a view to deflecting the weapon of attack from vital points; and the armour was equally mobile for fighting on foot or on horseback. We owe its initiation doubtless to Italy, in which country, together with Germany, it reached its highest pitch of excellence; but the style itself is really a reproduction of the mediæval Florentine dress. Gothic armour is greatly associated with the sallad, large mentonnière, tuilles, and sollerets “à la poulaine.” The cuirass is decorative; the earlier form being somewhat short with many taces, and the later with a longer breastplate and fewer taces, thus exhibiting the evolution from the still earlier fashion. It has been fully described under the heading devoted to this piece. There is an English example of this style of armour shown on a brass in St. Mary’s Church, Thame, Oxfordshire, about 1460; and another in the effigy already mentioned of Sir Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, in St. Mary’s Church, Warwick. There are only very few Gothic suits preserved in this country, our practical people having used up so many as old iron, just as they let the weather into our fine abbeys and churches by tearing off the roofing lead for the melting pot.

A few suits are attributed to particular ancestors in some of the castles of long-descended German families, but, in almost every case, with but slender foundation in fact; the only specimens in England that may be termed historic are those in the Rotunda at Woolwich, and these are only fragments. Few of the “Gothic” suits in this country, if indeed in any other, are quite homogeneous, and many of them are more or less made up of odd pieces. This is the case with the “Gothic” armour at Parham, which is said to have come from the Church of St. Irene at Constantinople. Many of the details of this armour are of the most exquisite and obviously authentic character, while pieces, such as the sallads, apparently never went with the other armour. Reliable armour of this period is very scarce, and difficult to buy. Four thousand pounds was recently asked in London for a suit! Fashion was as absolute regarding armour as in dress; and with the advent of the “Maximilian” period the “Gothic” form was greatly laid aside, for it could not be adapted, and therefore became obsolete. This is the main cause why so few specimens have been preserved. A historic example in the collection at Sigmaringen Castle, the cradle of the Hohenzollerns, is described in detail, and an illustration given (Fig. 17). Another example may be seen on the brass of Sir Robert Staunton at Castle Donnington (died 1458), on which the épaulières extend over the armpits. This brass probably presents the earliest English instance of the sallad. The “Beauchamp” effigy in latten, a “species of fine brass metal,” affords a beautiful example of the earlier Gothic school. The suit from which the models were taken is probably the work of Tomaso da Missaglia of Milan. This effigy, and its probable origin, raises the question as to which country we are indebted for the “Gothic” form until comparatively recently freely attributed to Germany; but it is tolerably certain that it originated with the Missaglias. There is a further interesting point brought out by the effigy itself, which was the work of an Englishman, viz.: that the smith who could copy a suit so faithfully would probably be able to make real armour of a high character. We read in Blore’s Monumental Remains all about the contracts for this truly magnificent monument, where it is stated that Dugdale, the historian of Warwickshire, has very fortunately preserved a recapitulation of the agreement between the executors of the Earl and the artisans employed in its erection. This document is given in extenso in Blore’s work, and, as he says, it throws considerable light, and affords some extremely important information, on the construction of ancient monuments in general. The original was found among the muniments of the bailiff and burgesses of Warwick, and bears the date June 13, 32 Henry VI. The Earl died in 1439, so that the contract for the monument was given out in 1454. Various subsidiary agreements of an early date are included in the main contract. The names of the contractors were John Essex, marbler; William Austin, founder; and Thomas Stevyns, coppersmith. The clause of the contract regarding the effigy runs as follows, viz.:—

“The said Will. Austin, xi. Feb., 28 Henry VI., doth covenant to cast and make an image of a man armed of fine latten, garnished with certain ornaments, viz., with sword and dagger; with a garter; with a helm and crest under his head, and at his feet a bear musled, and a griffon, perfectly made of the finest latten, according to patterns, all which to be brought to Warwick, and layd on the tombe, at the perill of the said Austin: the said executors paying for the image, perfectly made and laid, and all the ornaments in good order, besides the cost of the said workmen to Warwick, and working there to lay the image, and besides the cost of the carriages, all which are to be born by the said executors, in totall xl li.”

A further clause refers to the agreement made with Bartholomew Lambespring, Dutchman, and goldsmyth of London, 23 Maii, 27 Hen. VI., who “covenanteth to repaire, whone, and pullish, and to make perfect to the gilding, an image of latten of a man armed, that is in making, to lye over the tombe, and all the apparell that belongeth thereunto, as helme, crest, sword, &c., and beasts; the said executors paying therefore xiii li.” The accounts of one of the executors show that the monument took twenty-one years to erect and finish, and that the total cost was £2481 4s. 7½d. Mr. Blore continues: “The monument of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, consists of an altar-tomb of grey marble, in the finest preservation. Within canopies admirably wrought, are whole-length sculptures of fourteen of the immediate relatives of the deceased, executed in latten, which was a species of fine brass metal, and richly gilt; these figures are disposed five on each side, and two at either end of the tomb. Underneath every figure, in starred quatrefoils, is a shield with armorial bearings enamelled on brass, and between the larger canopies, alternately, a smaller, containing an angel executed in similar metal with the portraiture of the mourners, and holding in one hand a scroll, on which is engraven in Gothic letter,

“Sit deo laus et gloria, defunctis misericordia.”

The image, excepting the hands and head, is in complete armour, with the garter encircling the left leg. The head rests upon a helm, surmounted by the family crest, and at the feet are a bear muzzled and a griffin, badges of the ancient house of Warwick. The armour may be considered as real, from the extreme care and exactness that have been bestowed on it by the original artist. Mr. Charles Stothard had the figure turned over, and found that the armour for the back was as carefully and minutely finished as that on the front. The suit exhibits the cuirass as shorter than we find it in later “Gothic,” while the taces are correspondingly more extended, and consist of five lames. The breastplate has a gracefully curved groove on either side, and a catch for the mentonnière on the breast. The mentonnière is usually omitted in effigies for obvious reasons. A remarkable feature of the effigy is that there are four tuilles; the larger two do not converge so abruptly to a point as they usually do rather later, but the smaller ones are more sharply pointed. The coudières are of the beautiful butterfly type, and very large; while the sollerets are far from being extravagantly tipped. The most unusual feature of this effigy is the early presence of pikeguards. The Earl died in 1439, so the figure could not well be copied from any armour he left behind him, for the general aspect of the suit would fix the date about 1450–60, which would correspond with the date of the contract for the tomb. As already stated, the figure was probably fashioned after models supplied by Tomaso da Missaglia, and seems to represent his later work. This impression is strengthened by the following comparisons with two harnesses at Vienna, viz.: a suit by this master, made for the Pfalzgraf Friedrich am Rhein, about the middle of the century, exhibits points of contact with the Warwick figure, especially in respect to the number of the taces; while another by Antonio da Missaglia, made about thirty years later for the Count of Gajazzo (died 1487), shows a relatively longer breastplate and fewer taces. The latter suit bears pikeguards, which the earlier does not. One may perhaps deduce from these examples that the Beauchamp effigy represents the later work of Tomaso. The illustration given in Fig. 16 represents the effigy in an upright position. It is a reproduction of that given in Blore.

Tomaso and Antonio da Missaglia, the illustrious sire and son, were the great Milan armour-smiths of from the end of the first quarter to the close of the fifteenth century. To the first it seems certain that we are indebted for the form called “Gothic,” which was, however, merely a graceful improvement on the fashion immediately preceding it. There was nothing very abrupt in the transition, as was the case in the radical change from “Gothic” to “Maximilian.” The work of Tomaso is conspicuous for purity of style and nobility of form, and, from an artistic point of view, it has no rivals. Armour of his period was generally plain, but the more pronounced passion for decoration of the time found expression in the work of his son; an example of whose skill may be seen in the case of a helmet in the Tower of London, and at Vienna is the superb Gothic suit with pikeguards, already referred to, made for the Count of Gajazzo. Tomaso was, it is believed, the first master to use armourer’s marks. His monogram is the letter “M,” surmounted by a crown. The Negrolis, who worked after the Missaglias, seem to have been of the same family, and, as Boeheim points out, the name “Missaglia,” like that of Ferrara, seems to have originated as a “place” designation. Examples of the work of the Negrolis may be seen both at Vienna and Madrid. Their work represents the full swing of the “renaissance.”

Milan, where the Missaglias worked, is not the only town in Italy where there is a Via degli Armorari and a Via degli Spadari, showing that there were then separate guilds for armour- and sword-making in that country.

SIGMARINGEN SUIT.

This beautiful “Gothic” suit, by Lorenz Kolman of Augsburg (Fig. 17), is said to have belonged to one of the Counts of Hohenzollern-Eitel. Demmin refers to it as being erroneously ascribed to Eitel Frederick I. of the thirteenth century. The mistake is obvious, as there were no Counts of Hohenzollern-Eitel then! There were two Eitel Fredericks in the fifteenth century. On consulting the Stammbaum at Hohenzollern it appears that

And the character of the armour conforms closely to the early portion of the reign of the last-named. There was no later “Eitel Frederick.” A later suit, made for this Eitel Frederick about 1510, is now at Vienna. It is “Maximilian” and partly fluted, and very possibly by the same master; for we see by the Berne example, referred to somewhat later in these pages, that Lorenz Kolman turned out Maximilian armour after that fashion had superseded the “Gothic.”

The sallad (Fig. 17) is very heavy, and of the usual German form. There are traces of a leather lining, and besides the ocularium there are two small holes above the forehead. The mentonnière is fastened to the breastplate by a cusped clasp; the neck and chin-piece can be raised or lowered at pleasure, and there is a spring catch for the purpose. The cuirass is most elegant in shape, and being much longer than that on the Beauchamp effigy brings out clearly its later date. It consists of three plates, the two lower slightly overlapping, leaving decorative margins, and they converge to points along the tapul at the breastbone and below. The lower plates are riveted, and add both strength and elasticity to the piece. There are holes on the right breast for fixing a lance-rest, and on the left are two holes for fastening on a grand-guard for tilting. The taces consist of three lames, and to these the tuilles are attached by straps and buckles. The tuilles are very graceful, with angular flutings, and terminate in a point. The cuisses are decorative, while the genouillières are small, with bivalve guards. The épaulières and rerebraces are laminated, the coudières pointed, and held in their places by straps. The rondelles are unfortunately missing. The gauntlets are articulated, with sharp gadlings over the knuckles and first finger joints. The garde-de-reine consists of three lames. The sollerets are “à la poulaine” in an extreme form, but the tips can be disconnected at pleasure for foot fighting, like those on the effigy of the Black Prince. The lower part of the body is protected by a skirt of mail.

The Sigmaringen harness exhibits many points of contact with a beautiful suit recently acquired by Prince Ernst of Windisch-Graetz, which is a glorious specimen of the armourer’s art at his very best. The tuilles of this example are not pointed, as is the case on the Sigmaringen suit.

A “Gothic” suit from the collection of Prince Carl of Prussia now in the Zeughaus at Berlin, of which an illustration is given in Fig. 18, is very beautiful. The finely modelled breastplate has a fluted rim across the upper chest, a feature that is uncommon in Gothic armour, but of which other examples are given under the heading “The Cuirass.” The rondelles are ornamented with curved radiating flutings, in the matrix of which a projecting spike is fixed. The coudières are sharply pointed at the elbow, while the tuilles are large, with a shape not unlike that of the larger pair on the “Beauchamp” effigy, though bevelled and pointed. The sollerets are “à la poulaine,” in the extreme form.

The remarkable armour-smith family of Kolman of Augsburg occupied a similar position in Germany, during the reign of the Emperor Maximilian I., to that held by Antonio da Missaglia in Italy. Lorenz, surnamed Helmschmied, is perhaps best known to-day for the beautiful “Gothic” harness, made about 1490 for the Emperor Max, which now adorns the collection at Vienna. It resembles the Sigmaringen example somewhat closely, the points of difference lying mainly in the form of the sallad, the shape of the tuilles (square-cut at the bottom in the Vienna example), and the Vienna harness has an extra plate on the breastplate. That Lorenz Kolman was employed during the later portion of his career as Court armour-smith to Maximilian in making fluted armour, as he had been engaged earlier in turning out “Gothic,” is shown by an early and interesting example of fluted “Maximilian” armour at Berne. This harness compares closely with that represented in Fig. 24, though the Swiss example shows pikeguards, which the other one does not. The early character of both suits is shown by the swelling out of the breastplate over the abdomen. The figure sits on horseback, and the horse is fully barded contemporaneously with the figure. The saddle has the deep seat of the “renaissance.” Lorenz Kolman died in 1515. The armourer’s mark of this family is a helmet surmounted by a cross. The mark of Hans Grünewalt of Nuremberg has not been fully determined, so that his work cannot be identified with absolute certainty; but a breastplate that belonged to Philip the Fair, and a shield at Vienna, have been attributed to him. They are of exquisite workmanship, and the mark on these specimens is a stag on a shield, which clearly refers to the “greenwood.” He was the great rival of Tomaso da Missaglia, and died in 1503.

The Gothic armour at the Rotunda, Woolwich, is especially valuable from its direct association with the Knights of Rhodes. It is fragmentary in character, consisting mainly of isolated plates and portions of plates. There are several sallads of the Italian type, a beautiful breastplate in two plates, a backplate, some gardes-de-reine, a cuisse with a small butterfly genouillière guard, rounded flutings radiating from the centre of the upper thigh, several broken gauntlets, besides other fragments, and a tilting helm of the end of the fifteenth century, on which fifteen of the staples remain; the helm is perforated on one side only.

The last Gothic suit given is one in the author’s collection, and an illustration of it is here given (Fig. 19).

GOTHIC SUIT IN THE AUTHOR’S COLLECTION, 1460–1500.

This suit, like so many of its period, is incomplete. The armet with it, when acquired, never belonged to the suit, and there is no mentonnière. The sallad, shown on the figure, was made recently to give the general effect of the period. The suit is otherwise complete, and of fine material, proportions, and workmanship. The steel of this period is of excellent quality. The details, with a few exceptions, somewhat closely resemble those of the Sigmaringen suit. There are rondelles at the armpits on this suit which are ornamented with radiations, and these, together with the elbow-guards, are beautifully ridged and bevelled. The tuilles are larger and squarer than those on the Sigmaringen suit, and the sollerets not so long in the tips. The cuirass is in two plates, with a rim across the chest, as shown on the Berlin suit (Fig. 18)—the mentonnière therefore went partly below the cuirass. The general details greatly resemble those of a suit at Vienna, attributed to Sigismund of Tyrol, which is also an incomplete suit. As the gauntlets of this suit are distinctly typical, it may be well perhaps to go somewhat into detail concerning them. They are of fine workmanship and material, as well as light and graceful. The surface of the steel is very hard. The cuff is sharply pointed, and deep flutings run in parallel lines towards the extremity; while similar perpendicular flutings join the lowest of these lines. Three supple articulations lend flexibility to the gauntlet, and connect the knuckle-plate with the cuff. The last-mentioned plate and four finger plates all work in slots, and are beaten into ridges for fitting over the knuckles and fingers. The thumb-guard is also articulated. An illustration is given in Fig. 19.

Transitional Gothic, where laminated tassets replace tuilles and merge into the next stage in various ways, is also very beautiful. In both varieties you have lovely escalloped and fluted rondelles, often charged with a heraldic rose. A fine example of this description may be seen in the National Museum at Munich, and an illustration is given of it (Frontispiece), because of the beautiful details. The rondelles are especially fine, and the mentonnière and breastplate, which latter is in two plates, are clearly shown.