Armour of the English Knight 1400-1450

Book 1 returns!

Available at a special pre-order price.

Out of circulation for some time, the first, award-winning book in Toby Capwell’s acclaimed series Armour of the English Knight is coming back in a limited run.

This lavishly illustrated book tells the story of the complete armour worn by English men-at-arms during the later phases of the Hundred Years War, as they fought through the great victories and humiliating defeats in France that would ultimately lead them into the Wars of the Roses. This was the armour of the age of Henry V, the armour that went into action at Agincourt, the armour worn by some of the most famous fighting men in English history.

An exploration in unprecedented detail, this work features many largely unknown visual and documentary sources which, when brought together here for the first time, reveal the existence of an English style of armour design. Since no example of proven English armour survives from the fifteenth century, the signature style of late-medieval English armourers has been reconstructed through the meticulous study of funerary effigies – over two hundred of which were examined during the project – alongside pictorial and sculptural depictions of all kinds. These sources are supported by scores of technical illustrations drawn by Robert Macpherson and Jeffrey Wasson, two of the world’s greatest living armourers.

About the Author

Dr. Tobias Capwell FSA is an independent scholar and leading authority on medieval arms and armour. He has worked with many of the world's great collections, including the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Royal Armoury in Stockholm, and served as curator at Glasgow Museums (2003-6) and the Wallace Collection (2006-23). He is the author of many books on armour and weapons, has curated numerous exhibitions, and frequently appears on television and online media.

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