Authorised Guide to the Tower of London | Page 7

known as the Council Chamber, 95 feet by 40 feet, and, like the smaller room, 21 feet high. Round this top floor runs a passage cut in the thickness of the walls, with numerous openings inwards opposite the windows, and widening somewhat when forming as it does the triforium of St. John's Chapel. At the entrance are cases containing velvet-covered brigandines and canvas-covered jacks, garments which were much used in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as giving protection by means of numerous small plates of metal disposed between the thicknesses of the material covering and lining them, and also great flexibility. In the cases on the right hand are specimens of chain mail in form of hoods, coats, sleeves, &c, mostly, if not all, of Eastern origin. Observe also some bronze swords and other very early weapons.
Round the walls of the two rooms are arranged the various staff weapons used in England and the continent. In the first enclosure on the left are cases in which are ancient bronze tools, weapons, and ornaments from various localities, stone implements and weapons, and a suit of bronze armour from Cum?, an ancient Greek settlement near Naples. In the centre of the enclosure are grouped many varieties of staff weapons of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. Among them are boar spears for the chase and for war, halberds, partizans, bills, glaives, holy water sprinkles (a staff with a ball with spikes at its extremity), and the 18 foot pikes of the Civil War period.
The first case on the left contains a fine archer's salade with its original lining, from the de Cosson collection. A Venetian salade, with the stamp of the maker of the Missaglia family, a heavy salade for jousting, a combed morion and the tilting helmet of Sir Henry Lee, K.G., Master of the Armouries to Queen Elizabeth and James I. In the lower case are finely engraved and parcel gilt chamfrons for horses' heads, a gilt vamplate for the tilting lance belonging to Lord Chancellor Hatton, an officer's gorget of the time of Queen Anne, and various pieces of rich armour.
In the window recess behind are shields and horns. In the next enclosure are three foot figures of the end of the fifteenth century and commencement of the sixteenth century; the first holds a long-handled axe as used for encounters on foot in champ clos. The second holds a two-handled sword. The third suit is enriched with engraving, and was formerly parcel gilt, but the helmet does not belong to the suit.
In the centre of the room is an equestrian figure (III), the man wearing a fine early sixteenth-century suit of armour, bearing the Nuremberg stamp, and the horse protected by a barb richly repoussé, engraved, and formerly silvered. The designs on this display the Burgundian cross ragulé and the flint and steel. The steel or briquet is to be seen also in the hinges and in the metal coverings for the reins. It will be remembered that this design forms the motif of the collar of the Golden Fleece.
The next equestrian figure (IV) shows the fluted, or as it was called crested, armour, of about 1500. The horse armour is also fluted. On the right, in the centre of the room, are two armours which belonged to Henry VIII. Of these the first (XXVIII) is that formerly described as "rough from the hammer," though it has been milled or glazed and no hammer marks are visible. It is a complete suit for fighting on foot in the lists, and comfort and ability to move about, have been sacrificed to perfect protection. The suit weighs about 93 lbs., and is composed of no less than 235 separate pieces of metal. Some details of construction point to a Spanish influence in the style. The second figure (XXIX), which wants the leg armour, is of the kind known as a tonlet, and has a skirt of horizontal lames engraved. The helmet bears the well-known stamp of the Missaglia family of armourers, and is very curious and massive. This armour is also for fighting on foot in champ clos or the lists.
The next suit (VI) on the left is one of Henry VIII, and has been parcel gilt; the weight of the man's armour is 81 lbs. The two foot figures are those of a horseman and an officer of foot, both of Henry's time. The first bears on it Nuremberg marks; the second has an engraving of the Crucifixion on the left breast. The next equestrian figure (VII), also of Henry VIII, much resembles the last, and has at its feet extra pieces for the tilt yard. Other extra pieces which might be worn with these two suits are in the Royal Armoury at Windsor Castle.
The suit (V) on the equestrian