Henry VIII armour

Henry VIII armour ~1544

Picture found on Flickr and taken by Wally Gobetz

This is a picture of Henry VIII armour made approximately 1544 and probably used in Henry's final campaign which was the siege of Boulogne.

It is italian in origin as it was stated as such in Henry's post mortem inventory and was probably imported by Francis Albert. This is supported by the relatively simple lines and lack of ornate fluting coupled with the way that the armour has been decorated..

As was common at the time there are several parts that can be interchanged to add flexiblity in use such as the breastplate reinforcement which was used to support a lance.

Some features of this armour that I like are the downward pivoting visor on the burgonet (helmet), the way that the rerebraces (upper arms) and cuisse (thighs) are both heavily articulated to maximise the range of motion, the way that armours found to protect the inside of the elbow and the general decoration. It is interesting to see that there is no thumb protection which has presumably been lost.

The caption for this photograph provides a more detailed description of the item and talks about the collection of armour found in New York's Metropolitan museum of Art.