VII.—Two Studies in the History of the Tower Armouries

Alan Borg

doi:10.1017/S0261340900013989

VII.—Two Studies in the History of the Tower Armouries

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 April 2011

Alan Borg

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During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there were three essential things to be seen by visitors to the Tower of London: the menagerie, the crown jewels, and the Line of Kings. The first and second of these still exist, although the menagerie was moved to Regent's Park in 1834 and became the London Zoo. The jewels, of course, are still in the Tower, but the Line of Kings as such has disappeared, although most of its component parts survive.

Type: Research Article
Information: Archaeologia , Volume 105 , 1976 , pp. 317 - 352

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900013989 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1976

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^{page 317 note 1} I wish to record my gratitude to my colleagues at the Tower for the assistance they have given me in the preparation of these two studies. I have benefited greatly from the support and criticism of A. R. Dufty, Master of the Armouries; H. L. Blackmore first directed me to the Board of Ordnance records in the Public Record Office, and Miss S. E. Barter drew my attention to numerous specific references. H. R. Robinson placed his unrivalled knowledge of the Armouries collections at my disposal, enabling me to identify specific items which survive from the early displays.

^{page 317 note 2} For early visitors to the Armouries see ffoulkes, C.J., Inventory and Survey of the Armouries of the Tower of London, London, n.d. (1916), 2 vols., i, 65 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 318 note 1} MS. from Lord Dartmouth's collection, deposited in the Armouries Library.

^{page 318 note 2} Public Record Office, State Papers Domestic, Car. I, CXXXIX, No. 94.

^{page 318 note 3} Armouries Library MS. 1—56.

^{page 318 note 4} Cripps Day, F. H., Fragmenta Armamentaria, i, pt. iv (Frome, 1945), 68–73.Google Scholar

^{page 318 note 5} Inventory of 1675: P.R.O., W.O. 55/1709. Inventory of 1683: Lord Dartmouth's MS., deposited in the Arimouries Library.

^{page 319 note 1} Brander MS., Society of Antiquaries MS. 129. The arms and armour sections were published by Lord Dillon, ‘Arms and armour at Westminster, the Tower, and Greenwich, 1547’, Archaeologia, li (1888), 219–80.Google Scholar

^{page 319 note 2} This picture is now in a private collection in London, It was sold by Christie, Manson, and Woods, 24th March 1972, Lot 72.

^{page 319 note 3} Blakiston, N., ‘The storehouse in the Tower’, Architectural Review (June 1957), 453.Google Scholar

^{page 319 note 4} P.R.O., W.O. 51/18, f. 192^v; payments to Richard Hoden, armourer, for work done in the Horse Armoury from July 1675.

^{page 319 note 5} Stores ledger, Armouries Library, MS. I-i. The list includes, ‘Nayles, nippers for shott, punches for smiths, buckles for collermakers, blacke of lamp, sheets, blancketts, barr's for potts, awles, sheets of iron, umber, backs, redd lead, files for smiths, sea coale, small coale.’

^{page 319 note 6} P.R.O., W.O. 51/19, f. 51^v.

^{page 320 note 1} P.R.O., W.O. 51/36, f. 85^r.

^{page 320 note 2} P.R.O., Works 31/83, a plan and section of the White Tower by Lemprière, 1721, which identifies the Scotch Storehouse.

^{page 320 note 3} P.R.O., W.O. 51/37, f. 159^r.

^{page 320 note 4} P.R.O., W.O. 47/15, f. 10^r.

^{page 320 note 5} Ibid., 18th June 1685.

^{page 320 note 6} P.R.O., W.O. 47/16, f. 57^r.

^{page 320 note 7} P.R.O., W.O. 51/31, f. 116^r, I42^r.

^{page 320 note 8} P.R.O., W.O. 51/33, f. 187^r, 190^v.

^{page 320 note 9} Gunnis, R., Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660–1851 (London, 1968), pp. 167–70.Google Scholar

^{page 321 note 1} P.R.O., W.O. 51/37 f. 38^v, 46^r, 166^r.

^{page 321 note 2} P.R.O., W.O. 51/38, f. 24^r, 45^v.

^{page 321 note 3} Gunnis, op. cit., pp. 141–2.

^{page 321 note 4} P.R.O., W.O. 51/40, f. 122^r.

^{page 321 note 5} ffoulkes, Inventory and Survey, ii, 443.

^{pafe 321 note 6} The figure of fourteen kings is based upon the Guide of c. 1750, which lists sixteen, including William III and George I, who were added during the eighteenth century. In 1694 Benthem said that there were twelve kings, but this was probably a mistake (see note 9).

^{page 321 note 7} Grose, F., A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons (London, 1786), p. 55.Google Scholar

^{page 321 note 8} P.R.O., W.O. 51/64 f. 91^v.

^{page 321 note 9} p. 30: ‘Zwölf geharnischte Könige zu Pferde und viel vergleichen Dinge mehr sind darselbst auch zu sehen.’

^{page 321 note 10} Erndtel, C., The relation of a journey into England and Holland in the years 1706 and 1707 (London, 1711), pp. 29–30.Google Scholar

^{page 322 note 1} P.R.O., W.O. 47/35, pp. 83–4.

^{page 322 note 2} Ibid., p. 296.

^{page 322 note 3} An historical account of the Tower of London and its curiosities, (London, n.d. (c. 1750)), p. 47.Google Scholar

^{page 322 note 4} P.R.O., W.O. 51/230, p. 230. On this see the important article by Blair, C., ‘Notes on the History of the Tower of London Armouries, 1821–55’, Journal of the Arms and Armour Society, ii (1956–8), 233–53.Google Scholar

^{page 322 note5} Vol. iii, facing p. 188.

^{page 323 note 1} This may have been done by Rowlandson in the Horse Armoury as a sketch for the engraving which appeared in Ackermann's Microcosm. It is the most accurate and revealing version to survive.

^{page 323 note 2} pp. 132–5.

^{page 323 note 3} This letter is in the Armouries Library, MS. 1–24. It was published in full in The Connoisseur, civ (August 1939), 90–1.Google Scholar

^{page 323 note 4} As a result of the rearrangement, Edward I became the earliest figure in the Line. In 1833 a figure of ‘The Norman Crusader’ was set up in the Horse Armoury, but it was not part of the Line. See, A. Borg, ‘A Crusader in Borrowed Armour’, Country Life, 18 July 1974, 168–9

Meyrick's work received generally favourable notice in the contemporary press. One curious criticism occurred in the London and Westminster Review (April–July 1837), p. 437: ‘It is a pity that the faces of the personages on horseback claim to be likenesses, without attaining as great a completeness in that respect as might surely have been possible; thus reminding us too much of an ordinary show, and of the old wax-work exhibitions of Mrs. Salmon. The art of wax-work, as applied to human portraiture, is either incapable of attaining its object, or, if these are taken as its best specimens, is yet in its infancy.… Surely some better mode, or material, is discoverable for doing justice to resemblances of this sort.’ These observations were incorrect, since the heads used were the old wooden ones, and no wax models appear to have been used at the Tower, although the head of the page in the Queen Elizabeth group in the Spanish Armoury was made of plaster.

^{page 324 note 1} ‘A looking-glass for London: i The Tower’, London Magazine, 3rd Series, iii (Jan–Feb. 1829), 50Google Scholar

^{page 324 note 2} Issues and Receipts Book, Armouries Library MS. 1–3.

^{page 324 note 3} Green, D. B., Grinling Gibbons: his work as carver & statuary (London, 1964), pp. 136–7 and figs. 192, 194.Google Scholar

^{page 325 note 1} Inventory ' survey, i, pl. XVIII.

^{page 325 note 2} Grose, op. cit., pl. XXV.

^{page 326 note 1} Guide, p. 49. According to J. Hewitt's Official Catalogue (1870), p. 16, Richard appeared in a diminutive armour, now Class II–126, in which the very small head would fit.

^{page 326 note 2} See Stenstrom, S., ‘Gustav Ill's Riddarspel 1776 och 1777’, Livrustkammeren, Journal of the Royal Armoury, Stockholm, iv (1946), 26–61.Google Scholar

^{page 326 note 3} Janos, K., Regi magyar legyverek (Budapest, 1971), pl. 11, figs. 88, 89.Google Scholar

^{page 327 note 1} P.R.O., W.O. 51/37, f. 46^r; W.O. 51/38, f. 24^r.

^{page 328 note 1} p. 48.

^{page 328 note 2} Wells's patent: 1672, No. 167; Folyart's patent: 1673, No. 172.

^{page 329 note 1} de Montfaucon, B., Les monuments de la monarchie franfoise (Paris, 1729–1733, 5 vols.).Google Scholar

^{page 329 note 2} From London, ed. Knight, C., ii (1842), pp. 266–7.Google Scholar

^{page 333 note1} See A Form of Prayer necessary for the present Time and State, printed in History of the Spanish Armada (London, 1759), p. ]7.Google Scholar

^{page 333 note 1} Hewitt, J., The Tower; its history, armouries, and antiquities (London, 1845), p. 23.Google Scholar

^{page 333 note 2} Laughton, J. K. (ed.), The Defeat of the Spanish Armada (Navy Records Society, vol. i, 1894, vol. ii, 1898. Hereafter cited as N.R.S.). The inventories are printed in ii, 154–8, 190–2.Google Scholar

^{page 333 note 3} N.R.S. ii, 188–90.

^{page 333 note 4} N.R.S. ii, 18–22.

^{page 334 note 1} The whole question of the captured guns is examined by Lewis, M., Armada Guns, London, 1961.Google Scholar

^{page 334 note 2} P.R.O., W.O. 55/1659.

^{page 334 note 3} Nichols, J., The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth (ed. 1823), ii, 537.Google Scholar

^{page 334 note 4} von Büow, G. & Powell, W. (eds.), ‘Diary of the Journey of Philip Julius, Duke of Stettin-Pomerania, through England in the year 1602,’ Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, n.s. vi (1892), 12–17.Google Scholar

^{page 334 note 5} Zinzerling (Sincerus, J.), Itinerarium Gallicae (Lyon, 1617), pp. 368–9: ‘In summo turris interioris quam Caesaris vocant, collocata sunt tormenta bellica capta in occupatione Gadium.’Google Scholar

^{page 334 note 6} State Papers Domestic, Elizabeth 1595–7, cclix, 273.

^{page 334 note 7} Meyrick, S.R., ‘Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the amount of Booty taken at Cadiz in 1596’, Archaeologia, xxii (1829), 172–89.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 335 note 1} Walpole, H. (ed. and trans.), A journey into England by Paul Hentzner (Strawberry Hill, 1757), p. 38.Google Scholar

^{page 335 note 2} King's College Library MS. 41. The remainder of Bishop Osorius’ library is now in the Bodleian.

^{page 335 note 3} P.R.O., S.P. 25/62, p. 10.

^{page 335 note 4} Dartmouth MS., deposited in the Tower Armouries Library.

^{page 335 note 5} All quotations from the 1547 Inventory of Henry VIII's possessions are taken from Lord Dillon, ‘Arms and Armour at Westminster, the Tower, and Greenwich, 1547’, Archaeologist, li (1888), 219–80.Google Scholar

^{page 335 note 6} Mattingly, G., The Defeat of the Spanish Armada (London, 1959), pp. 264 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 335 note 7} For Cely see N.R.S. i, xvi; Hortop wrote an account of his adventures, which was published by Hakluyt.

^{page 336 note 1} Lüneburg (1694), p. 29: ‘Wie auch Hehlen und Ketten worinn sie haben gedacht die Engeländer zu schliessen und gefangen wegzuführen.’

^{page 336 note 2} Quarrell, W.H. and Mare, M. (eds.), London in 1710 from the Travels of Zacharius Conrad, von Uffenbach (London, 1934), p. 42.Google Scholar

^{page 336 note 3} Tower Armouries Library MS. I–i.

^{page 336 note 4} Dartmouth MS., deposited in the Tower Armouries Library.

^{page 336 note 5} British Museum, Harl. MS. 7459.

^{page 336 note 6} P.R.O., W.O. 51/36, f. 95.

^{page 336 note 7} Godfrey, W. H. (ed.) (London Topographical Society) (Cambridge, 1951), p. 3.Google Scholar

^{page 336 note 8} The Relation of a Journey into England and Holland in the years 1706 and 1707 by a Saxon Physician (London, 1711) PP 29–30Google Scholar

^{page 337 note 1} London (1862), i, 39–40. I am most grateful to Claude Blair for this reference.

^{page 337 note 2} See the entry on Wilson in Dictionary of National Biography, xxi (London, 1909), 533–5.Google Scholar

^{page 337 note 3} Holmes, M. R., ‘A carved wooden head of Elizabeth I’, Antiquaries Journal, xl (1960), 35–45.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 337 note 4} In a letter on the Tower Armouries in London Magazine (Feb. 1829), 117–18.

^{page 337 note 5} London (1830), pp. 281–5.

^{page 337 note 6} P.R.O., W.O. 44/301.

^{page 338 note 1} The Tapestry Hangings of the House of Lords, Lodon, I739 (znd edn. 1753), p 24 (describing plates 1 and 11): ‘On each side of the Queen are moreover several warlike Instruments taken out of the Spanish Fleet, and now preserved in the Tower.’ The drawings for the plates were made by Hubert Gravelot.

^{page 338 note 2} The same plate was used in Thornton, W., The New, Complete, and Universal History, Description, and Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster (London, 1784), opp. p. 70Google Scholar, and Barnard, E., The New, Comprehensive, Impartial, and Complete History of England (London, 1791). opp. p. 7.Google Scholar

^{page 338 note 3} An historical account of the Tower of London and its curiosities, London, n.d. (c. 1750), pp. 30–6.Google Scholar

^{page 338 note 4} For this purpose numbers have been here added to the illustration by Hamilton, to facilitate identification.

^{page 338 note 5} e.g. ‘a most excellent pyke of Spanishe wood’ was included in Lot 27 of an arms sale which took place in 1586. See Cripps-Day, F. H., Fragmenta Armamentaria, ii, pt. ii (Frome, 1938), 20.Google Scholar

^{page 339 note 1} N.R.S. ii, 27–9.

^{page 339 note 2} The term rawcon has normally been interpreted as some form of corsèque; however, it almost certainly derives from the Italian roncone, bill, as the entry for ‘rancoons or Spanish bills’ in the 1676 Tower inventory indicates.

^{page 340 note 1} In March 1544 Giovanbattista, painter of Ravenna, offered to come to England with two companions to make various military devices for the king, including ‘several round shields and armpieces with guns inside that fire upon the enemy and pierce any armour’. See Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, vol. xix, pt. i, p. 119, no. 219.

^{page 340 note 2} Millar, O. (ed.), The Inventories and Valuations of the King's Goods, 1649–51 (Walpole Society, xliii (1970–2), 153, no. 18).Google Scholar

^{page 340 note 3} P.R.O., W.O. 55/1699.

^{page 341 note 1} Catalogo historico-descriptivo de la Real Armeria de Madrid (Madrid, 1898), p. 158.Google Scholar

^{page 341 note 2} Thomas Boreman, Curiosities of the Tower of London, i, iii.

^{page 341 note 3} This was probably Class X–43, removed from the collection in 1965.

^{page 342 note 1} Official Catalogue of the Tower Armouries, p. 124. This provenance is not given in Hewitt's 1845 history of the Armouries.Google Scholar

^{page 342 note 2} It is interesting to note that the next Lot, 75, in the Denew sale is ‘A very curious weapon used against the heretics, time of the Spanish armada, elaborately engraved in appropriate subjects.’

^{page 342 note 3} P.R.O., W.O. 44/3438.

^{page 342 note 4} Op. cit., p. 284.

^{page 342 note 5} Tanner, M., Societas Jesu (Prague, 1675), p. 18Google Scholar: ‘Praecipua torturae post equuleum Anglis species est, Filia Scavengeri dicta, priori omnino opposita. Cum enim ille membra, alligatis extractisque in diversa manuum pedumque articulis, ab invicem distrahat; haec e contra ilia violenter in unum veluti globum colligat et constipat. Trifariam hie corpus complicatur, cruribus ad femora, femoribus ad ventrem appressis, atque ita arcubus ferreis duobus includitur, quorum extrema dum ad se invicem labore carnificum in circulum coguntur, corpus interim miseri inclusum informi compressione pene eliditur. Immane prorsus et dirius Equuleo cruciamen-turn; cujus immanitate corpus totum ita arctatur, ut aliis ex eo sanguis extremis manibus et pedibus exsudet, aliis rupta pectoris crate, copiosus e naribus faucibusque sanguis effundatur.’ This extract is quoted by Jardine, D., A Reading on the Use of Torture in the Criminal Law of England (London, 1937), p. 15Google Scholar, where it is said to come from Tanner's Societas Europaea, which is a separate work. The mistake was perpetuated by Dillon, Lord in his article ‘The Rack’, Archaeological Journal, Ixii (1905), 54–5.Google Scholar

^{page 343 note 1} J. Foxe, Ecclesiastical History, conteyning the Actes and Monumentes of Martyrs (London, 1570), ii, 2229, and other editions. See also ‘A letter of Cuthbert Symson to certayne of hys frendes concernyng hys Rackyng and other cruell tormentes which he suffred in the Tower’, in M. Coverdale, Certain most godly, fruitful and comfortable letters of.… true Saintes and holy Martyrs etc. (London, 1564), pp. 686–7.

^{page 343 note 2} I am most grateful to N. Hall Esq., for acting as the victim in these experiments.

^{page 343 note 3} Jardine, op. cit., Appendix, no. 21, p. 83. Thomas Myagh also left an inscription, which survives, on the walls of the Beauchamp Tower, recording his treatment:

Thomas Miagh which lieth here alone

That fayne wold from hens begon,

By Torture straunge mi trouth was tryed

Yet of my liberty denied.

1581, Thomas Myagh.

Happily, it can be recorded that he survived his ordeal, He was allowed the liberty of the Tower on 5th Nov. 1581, and, although the date of his release is not recorded, he was appointed Keeper of the Gaol at Naas in Ireland in Nov. 1583—an appointment for which his own experiences no doubt well qualified him! See Calendar of State Papers relating to Ireland, 1574–85, pp. 327, 477.

^{page 343 note 4} Fetters or shackels serve to make fast Male malefactours that on myschiefe de muse, Untyll the learned lawes do quite or do cast Such suttile searchers, as all euyll do use. (London, 1567, no pagination)

^{page 343 note 5} N.R.S. ii, 247.

^{page 344 note 1} op. cit.

^{page 344 note 2} ‘A Looking-Glass for London, No. 1, The Tower’ London Magazine, 3rd Series, iii (Jan. 1829), 49.Google Scholar

^{page 344 note 3} See above, p. 335.

^{page 345 note 1} A clue to this is provided by National Maritime Museum MS. CAD/C/2, Stores accounts for 1595, which includes at the Tower (f. 38^r)

^{page 345 note 2} Hall's Chronicle (London, 1809), p. 819.Google Scholar

^{page 346 note 1} The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 3rd Series, ix (1684), (Edinburgh, 1924), 66. It may be noted that in the child's guide to the Tower of 1741 these are referred to as ‘a Spanish Thumbakin’ (Boreman, op. cit., i, 115).Google Scholar

^{page 346 note 2} Historical Notices of Scottish Affairs, selected from the MSS. of Sir John Lauder of Fountainhall (Edinburgh(Bannatyne Club), 1848), ii, 548.Google Scholar

^{page 346 note 3} See the entries for both men in Dictionary of National Biography (London, 1908), v, 444–6; vi, 49–50.Google Scholar PubMed

^{page 346 note 4} An Antidote to Cure the Calamites of their Trembling for fear of the Arke (London, 1663), p. 32.Google Scholar

^{page 347 note 1} e.g. Baildon, W. P. (ed.), Select Cases in Chancery (1364–1471), (Selden Society, Vol. x, 1896), no. 25Google Scholar, p. 30 (1397): ‘qe vne Johan Skypwyth le lundy prochein apres le feste de seint Johan le Baptistre l'an de regne nostre seignur le Roy q'or'est dis et noifisme, adonqes esteant viscont de Nicole [i.e. Lincoln] par colour de soun office aresta le dit Johan Rouseby et lui emprisona horriblement en soun hostiel a Nicole et lui mist en ceppes et mist sez mayns adereresoun dorse et sur sez mayns vne paire de pyrwykes.’

^{page 347 note 2} N.R.S. i, 30.

^{page 347 note 3} This piece had become much decayed and was disposed of in 1965. Fortunately, it proved possible to track it down and it has now been returned to the Tower as Class VII‐902.

^{page 347 note 4} A similar weapon is illustrated in Carré, J. B. L., Panoplie (Paris and Chalons-sur-Marne, 1795 (but written 1783)), pl. 1.Google Scholar

^{page 348 note 1} See Nevinson, J. L., ‘Portraits of Gentlemen Pensioners before 1625’, Walpole Society, xxxiv (1958), 1–13.Google Scholar

^{page 348 note 2} Holinshed's Chronicle, ed. 1808, Vol. Ill, p. 557.

^{page 348 note 3} Stow's Survey of London, ed. Kingsford, C. L. (Oxford, 1908), i, 257–8.Google Scholar

^{page 349 note 1} Dillon, Lord, ‘The Gun called Policy’, Archaeological Journal, lxv (1908), 265–9.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 349 note 2} Mann, Cf. J. G., ‘The master of the snails and dragonflies’, Zettschrift der Gesellschaft für historische Waffenund Kostümkunde (1961), i, 14–27.Google Scholar

^{page 350 note 1} op. cit., p. 30.

^{page 350 note 2} Op. cit., p. 284.

^{page 351 note 1} See, for example, the illustrations of the Kings in the Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 11th Jan. 1840.

^{page 351 note 2} Dictionary of National Biography (London, 1908), vii, 854–6.Google Scholar

^{page 351 note 3} The Vira blade factory was established in 1635 and obtained a monopoly in Sweden. There are several such swords in the Livrustkammaren, Stockholm.

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