Yeah. The armour seems to have rather more parts and articulations than what's really necessary in a functional military harness. But adding a very marginal improvement to comfort and/or range of motion for the sake of more bling seems exactly like what the rich and famous would have liked to do.

Perhaps that armor had a "dorsal plate" as well. It's a logical extension of the idea. Presumably, the dorsal and ventral plate assemblies could be left buckled together at the shoulders and the whole thing slung on like a poncho. After the buckles were all adjusted properly the backplate and then the breastplate could be bolted into place, followed by the gorget. If the shoulder strap buckles were still accessible before the gorget went on, it would be pretty convenient to make fine fine adjustments at that point.

It seems like exactly the sort of thing that a gadget-loving monarch like Henry VIII would have been delighted with.

Mac

Eric,

The "ventral plate" would have originally had a threaded stud riveted to it. The one in New York still has its stud, but the one in the Royal Armouries no longer does. The large hole surrounded by four smaller ones shows where it used to be riveted in place. This stud would have done a dual duty in securing both the breastplate and the reenforcing plate or plates. The armor's jousting grandguard survives, but there may originally have been an alternative reenforcing breast for the field, like the one for the armor in NY.

[ Linked Image ]

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTChC-TfoNYrNFs2Q2eEz_tDJn20eqP5Hqgu1JZl_MlKIPSdR3n

If the artist who made those drawings had done his homework, he would have shown a nut in the second image where he has shown a hole.

I do not know of any examples of reenforcing plates for the back. If we were to speculate, we could imagine a bullet-proof plate that completely covered the back. Such a thing is unprecedented, but we are dealing with Henry VIII; a monarch who was very interested in guns, and novelty, and novel guns etc. Perhaps a newfangled "field and tilt" with bulletproof plates both front and back is the sort of thing that would have pleased him.

Mac

Thank you, Eric! I could not figure out how to get that Flikr image to appear in the post.

Mac