An English Armor for the King of Portugal

Abstract

T EHE PERSONAL POSSESSIONS of emperors, kings, and princes carry with them an inherent mystique purely by virtue of former royal ownership. Few items evoke the presence and portray the tastes of a long-dead ruler more palpably than his armor. In this regard the Department of Arms and Armor is particularly fortunate to have four finely made and relatively well-preserved royal armors. In chronological order the earliest is a field armor dated 1549 and made for Ferdinand I (1503-1564), king of Bohemia and Hungary from 1526, king of the Romans from 1531, and Holy Roman Emperor from 1556.1 Next, and the most elaborately decorated armor in the collection, is the sumptuous pageant armor made about 1555 for Henry II (1519-1559), king of France. Following this by more than a century, and the principal subject of this essay, is the harquebus armor of Dom Pedro II (1648-1706), king of Portugal, made about 1685 (Figure 1). Last in this distinguished line, and perhaps the last royal armor made in Europe, is a child's armor dated 1712 and thought to have been made for Luis (1707-1724), prince of Asturias, who reigned briefly as Luis I, king of Spain, in 1724. The armors of Henry II and Luis I represent aspects of the symbolic and ceremonial characteristics of kingship. The sheer artistic virtuosity of Henry's armor-the finest then available-was intended not