[Adam D. Kent-Isaac]

The Greenwich workshop continued to produce royal armours into the reign of James I. One armour for the first Stuart monarch is in the Tower of London. It is currently "white" - I don't know if was originally colored in any way. If not, it would have been quite basic compared to the harnesses made by the Greenwich shop during Elizabeth's reign. The armour has holes for a lance rest, which I find kind of amusing because I really can't picture James I participating in a tournament. Did they even continue to hold tournaments during the Jacobean era? Maybe the armour was made for him when he became king, and he simply never used it. There's also a Samurai armour there which was supposedly a gift from the Japanese to King James. I suspect he never actually wore it...though who knows.

James's Greenwich armour (sorry for the low picture quality.)


More interesting is the harness made for Charles I. This one does not appear to have been made at the Greenwich armoury; it looks distinctly Continental, maybe French. The all-over gilding and ornamentation looks French to me, at any rate. This suit was made in the cuirassier style of the time, with very long tassets, squared-off pauldrons and a close helm similar to the ones worn by heavy cavalrymen.

Charles's armour:


Here is the armour of Charles II, also cuirassier-style.


And finally the armour of James II. A cuirass, gauntlet, and lobster-tail helmet with a very ornate grille visor. Interesting to see how the styles changed so radically over the years.

[JG Elmslie]

A little cynic in me says "those are'nt the early stuart kings."
James the 6th was, after all, the 9th Stuart to be king...

[Jonathan Atkin]

Do you have photo's of the Japanese armour? I'm not terribly interested in japan and there armor or weapons. Though I'm quite intrigued by the idea of a european king having a set of samuri armour. I'm very curious as to how it looks!

[JG Elmslie]