Armour of the English Knight: An Armourers’ Album

In his three-volume work Armour of the English Knight, author Toby Capwell re-discovered the previously unknown and distinctively English style of fifteenth-century armour. His story followed the harness of English men-at-arms from victory at Agincourt (1415) to defeat at Castillon (1453) and on through the Wars of the Roses (1455-87) and into the Tudor Age. The work also comprehensively documented the presence of foreign armour styles in England during the same period – primarily French, Burgundian and Italian war gear.

Hundreds of original illustrations were created for these three books, by two of the foremost armourers working today.

Now, all of those fine line drawings are brought together in a single volume and expanded with a wealth of brand new, previously unpublished illustrations, to form a concise summary of the contents of the 1100 pages of the original English Knight series.

An Armourers’ Album thus forms the essential visual reference guide to armour of the fifteenth century.

Part 1 presents a new essay placing English armour in a wider military, geographic, and cultural context, moving beyond the scope of the original works to consider armour in the German Lands and Italy as well as western Europe.

Part 2 then provides a decade-by-decade account of the evolving stages of every relevant armour style organised in chronological order, with discussion of the distinguishing features of all of the diverse types and sub-types.

These two main parts are complemented by armour evolution timelines and appendices listing essential sources.

Armour of the English Knight: An Armourers’ Album is an introduction to the subject, for readers unfamiliar with the original series, while for those who know it, it is an indispensable continuation. Foremost, it celebrates armourers as draughtsmen and designers, and acknowledges the accomplishment represented by this body of visual art.