Sixteenth century recessed armour: evaluating links with the Spanish Armada

Abstract

Several black and white Italian cabassets, and associated armours, are described. All share an unusual, recessed construction and typically bear an etched family crest on the front. The cabassets also have (1) a predominantly Spanish distribution, (2) a high frequency of damage, including tears (that may reflect exposure to ballistic projectiles), (3) a high frequency of paired holes in the brim (for conversion into make-shift buckets?), and (4) distinctive copper-alloy plume-holders. We critically evaluate the stylistic, historical, geographic, ballistic and archaeological evidence that may link these recessed cabassets with the 1588 Spanish Armada. Furthermore, the distinctive family crest on the cabassets, and one breastplate, may provide specific links with a Spanish infantry company commanded by Captain Fernando de Ayala on the Armada’s flag galleass, the San Lorenzo. In combination, these independent lines of evidence suggest that the recessed cabassets were used by troops on the Spanish Armada.

Keywords:

• Black and white armour
• Spanish Armada
• projectile damage
• Fernando de Ayala
• Elizabeth I
• Philip II Spain
• shipwreck

Acknowledgements

We are indebted to Geoffrey Parker, Colin Martin, Noel Fallows and Paul Hazell, for their insights and encouragement, and to anonymous reviewers for invaluable comments. However, the authors are solely responsible for all omissions and errors. For help with material in their care we thank: Michaël Cesaratto and Xavier Ndala (Musée de l’Armée, Paris); Daniela Assel, Thomas Storm and Bettina Habsburg-Lothringen (Universalmuseum Joanneum, Landeszeughaus, Graz); Thomas Ilming (Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Militärhistorisches Institut Arsenal, Vienna); Luis Araus (Museo de Burgos), and Scot Hurst and Henry Yallop (Royal Armouries, Leeds). For access to images we thank: Colin Martin, Sylvia Leever; Louise Morgan and Brendan Maher (National Gallery of Ireland); Stefan Krause and Florian Kugler, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna; Caroline Brooks and Cloe Medrano (Roswell Museum); Crait + Müller, Paris; and Andreas Kornfeld (Alexander Historical Auctions). For helpful discussions, literature, translations, graphic and photographic support, we thank Robert Streit, Victor Huertas Martin, Sharon Wismer and Sam Swan.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 C. Martin and G. Parker, The Spanish Armada (Mandolin: Manchester University Press, UK, 1999), pp. 295; C. Martin and G. Parker, Armada the Spanish Enterprise and England’s Deliverance in 1588 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022), pp. 718; F. Fernández-Armesto, The Spanish Armada the Experience of War in 1588 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), pp. 100.

2 M. J. Rodriguez-Salgado, Armada 1588-1988, an International Exhibition to Commemorate the Spanish Armada (London: Trustees of the National Maritime Museum, Penguin Books, 1988), p. 99.

3 L. Boynton, The Elizabethan Militia 1558-1638 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1967), p. 24, 168.

4 Rodriguez-Salgado, p. 132.

5 Martin and Parker, 1999, p. 18.

6 Rodriguez-Salgado, p. 218.

7 This Milanese armour (in the Walters Art Museum, USA, Acc. # 51.585) was made two years after the Armada campaign.

8 T. F. Arnold, The Renaissance at War (London: Cassel & Co., 2001), p. 62, provides a contemporary c. 1581 image of a Spanish officer in a banded half armour.

9 Martin and Parker, 2022, p. 17. The El Escorial Hall of Battles also shows two Spanish soldiers on a galley wearing cabassets at the battle of Terceira Island in the Azores.

10 Rodriguez-Salgado, p. 37; Fernández-Armesto, pp. 1–4.

11 Boynton, pp. 9–11, 55 and C. G. Cruickshank, Elizabeth’s Army (Clarendon Press Oxford, 1966), pp. 117–125, provide extensive details on the formation, organization and arming of the English militias, including detailed accounts of the armour and their care etc. See also Rodriguez-Salgado, pp. 139–141 and T. Richardson, Arms against a Sea of Troubles (Country Life, July 1988). pp. 104–5.

12 There are several helmets in museum collections reputedly from Ireland. Associated material in the Royal Armouries, Leeds, includes a high comb morion IV. 449 and cabassets IV. 606, IV. 1543, IV. 541 and IV. 450-2 – see online notes for IV. 449 for provenance and other examples.

13 Rodriguez-Salgado, pp. 139–41, Boynton Plate 3, opp. p. 142.

14 Cabassets with black and white recessed bands are particularly rare. There are many black and white German field armours in museums or in armouries that have retained armour from the days of use, e.g. Graz (P. Krenn, Harnisch und Helm, Landeszeughaus Graz am Steirmärkischen Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz: Publ. Verlag Hofstetter, Reis/Innkreis, 1987), pp. 26–9, 46–7), Solothurn (N. Vital and B. Wiebel, Das Alte Zeughaus Solothurn (Solothurn: Vogt-Schild, 1985)), pp. 125, 131, 137–8), see also http://sammlungmaz.so.ch/eMuseumPlus [accessed March 29, 2021], and Emden (K. Ullmann, Die Schönsten Harnische in der Emder Rüstkammer, 1968), pp 14–5, 30–1, and in auctions (D. R. Bellwood, O. Bellwood, and T. Ilming ‘The Evolution of Black and White or Fleur-de-Lis High Comb Morions,’ Arms & Armour, 18 (2021), 163–83). All German black and white armours, to our knowledge, are associated with burgonets, high-comb morions or, occasionally, close helmets. Cabassets with black and pale (i.e., white or gilt) bands are, however, not uncommon on Italian half-armours; although they are rarely recessed.

15 The Italian black and white armours described herein are quite distinct from German black and white field armours (Graz has a wide range of black and white German armours, but there are also multiple examples in the armouries of Hochosterwitz, Churburg and Emden; most museums with armour have at least one example). In Ausberg examples the white bands are raised; in Nuremberg examples the white bands are recessed; elsewhere it varies. The Italian types, including those described herein, have pale bands (etched, gilded or plain ‘white’ as in the recessed forms) radiating from the waistline, with a vertical medial band then a series of 2–3 lateral ones at approx. 20$°$ from vertical (A4 may have just one lateral raised band). The pale bands are often not raised in the etched versions, cf. L. G. Boccia, L’Armeria del Museo Civico Medievale di Bologna (Bramante Editrice – Busto Arisizio 1991), #83, pp. 72–3, + plates; etched raised bands can be seen in examples in the Musée de l’Armée in Paris and in the Azores; Table 2). See also Krenn, pp. 26–9, 46–7; Ullmann, pp. 14–5, 30–1; Vital and Wiebel, pp. 137–8).

16 Examples of Italian armour with this star in a circle style rosette-washer type can be seen in Boccia #20,21,30,34 (all Italian burgonets) pp. 57–61 + Plates, or in the Wallace Collection [wallacelive.wallacecollection.org] A137 and A141 (Italian peaked morions); this rosette-washer type is commonly associated with munitions armour without etching or gilding. A rosette-washer like C1 can be seen in Wallace Collection A130 (a gilded Italian High comb morion), while rosette washers with 7–8 petals with a circle design on each petal are often found on late sixteenth century Italian helmets, including etched, gilded forms (e.g. 1570–90 Milanese cabasset A145 Wallace Collection). These rosette washers contrast markedly with the German rosette-washer types (illustrated in Bellwood et al. p. 174).

17 An Italian half armour c. 1580 with comparable patterns and vertical rivet rows on the tassets, like A5 (Figure 3), can be seen in the Musée de l’Armée, Paris (inv. # G113). G. F. Laking, A Record of European Armour and Arms through Seven Centuries, Vol. IV, Chapter XXX, p. 78, Fig. 1155 (London: G. Bell and Sons, 1921), illustrates a late 16thC Italian armour with similar tassets.

18 Given the even patination and wear it is possible that the parts were assembled at the time of construction and/or use. See J. Mann, Wallace Collection Catalogues, European Arms and Armour, Volume 1 (London: William Clowes and Sons Ltd., 1962), p. 50, who provides details of the use of composite armour during its working lifetime. He notes, when discussing a black and white armour: ‘That the component parts of munition armours of this kind were often mixed is shown in the armoury at Churburg, where the names of the retainers who wore them are painted inside. Instances occur there with the same soldier’s name on each of its parts, but different pieces bearing the marks of Nuremberg and Augsburg’.

19 A. Soler del Campo, ed., The Art of Power: Royal Armor and Portraits from Imperial Spain (Sociedad Estatal para la Acción Cultural Exterior, 2009), pp. 295; A. Patterson, Fashion and Armour in Renaissance Europe: Proud Lookes and Brave Attire (London: Victoia and Albert Museum, 2009), pp. 112.

20 J. Tavares, The Morion: An Introduction to its Development, Form, & Function, American Society of Arms Collectors Bulletin, 105 (2012), 12–5; https://americansocietyofarmscollectors.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2012-B [accessed January 4, 2022); C. Richardson, pp. 126–8. E. Currie, ed., A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion in the Renaissance (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021); G. Parker, The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road 1567-1659 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 138–9.

21 Late sixteenth century examples include the distinctive black and gold armour of the elector of Saxony’s life guards (T. Capwell, D. Edge, and J. Warren, Masterpieces of European Arms and Armour in the Wallace Collection (London: The Trustees of the Wallace Collection, 2011), pp. 165–7; Tavares, pp. 12–15) and the black and white half-armours with the raised acorn markings of Georg Khevenhüller, of Hochosterwitz castle (Krenn, p. 28). Both have striking parallels to the armours described herein.

22 See the painting of Alfonso d’Avalos by Titian in the Getty Museum.

23 Other examples of armour with similar patterns include: William Herbert, the 1st Earl of Pembroke (1565) (Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales); John Farnham, A Gentleman-Pensioner to Elizabeth I (1563) (Worcester Art Museum, USA); and William Compton, 1st Earl of Northampton (c. 1600) (Royal Collection of the UK). See also: (i) A. F. Calvert, Spanish Arms and Armour. Being a Historical and Descriptive Account of the Royal Armoury of Madrid (London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, E. Goodman and Son, The Phoenix Press, Taunton, 1907), Plates 52A and 86, and (ii) C. Beaufort-Spontin and M. Pfaffenbichler, Meisterwerke der Hofjagd- und Rüstkammer. (Wien: Kunsthistorisches Museum, 2013), pp. 136–7, showing Philip II’s 1544 gilt and blued armour from Ausberg, and pp. 140–1 an Ausberg 1557 gold on black armour for Maximillian II.

24 A. R. Jones, p. 97, in Currie.

25 Beaufort-Spontin, Pfaffenbichler, pp. 182–3.

26 G. Parker, Imprudent King: A New Life of Philip II (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2014), p. 173.

27 An identical crest (comprising a shield with two wolves) is also present on the breastplate of A3 reported in F. A. Fournier, Museo de Armeria. Museos de Armeria y Heraldica Alavesa. Vitoria-Gasteiz. Alava. Vitoria, Diputación Foral de Álava (1983), p. 60. It is clearly visible in the online image (details in Table 1).

28 The link between this crest and the Ayala family was reported by the Munich auction house Hermann Historica in 2013 (Auction 66, Lot 3197) at the sale of C1. Described as ‘A Spanish suit of armour for a man-at-arms, circa 1580, manufactured for the Ayala family’, and ‘the front [of the cabasset] with the coat of arms of the Ayala family (two running wolves)’. Noting that ‘This is one of the 400 suits of armour for men at arms which were manufactured for the Ayala family’s private army during the reign of Philipp [sic] II of Spain’. Unfortunately, the basis for these statements could not be established. However, it has been suggested that the armour came from an Iberian collector with a deep knowledge of the military history of the region. Recessed cabassets with etched family crests in the Royal Armouries, Leeds, UK (C4), and Álava museum, Spain (C6, C7, C8, C9) have likewise been linked with the Ayala or Villalobos families. A private army of 400 is a large number. The nobility typically had less than 40 armed retainers (Martin and Parker, 2022, pp. 31–2), however, in England the Earl of Huntington recalled his great uncle raising 500 men (Boynton, p. 161). The survival of over 30 recessed cabassets attests to the likelihood of relatively large original numbers.

It must be noted that the linkage of the crests with the Ayala family cannot be made with complete certainty. A crest with two wolves passant is most commonly associated with the Ayala and Villalobos families (and the towns in the Ayala valley [Basque: Aiara] in the province of Álava, Spain). However, similar crests have been linked with the Romero, Montes, Lopes, Lopez and Cardosa families. J. M. Florit y Arizcun and F. J. Sanchez Canton, 1927, Catalogo de las armas del Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan, Madrid. P. 25 illustrate a Type 1 crest and point to possible links with the Ayala family (and the Lobera, Eraso, and Beortegui families). Notably, in the Ayala crest the wolves are characteristically black on a silver ground (as illustrated in one of the earliest records: Escudos de armas (Mss/3240) pp. 67, 1601 (and later 1800?) Biblioteca digital Hispánica http://bdh-rd.bne.es/viewer.vm?id=0000087067&page=1 [accessed January 10, 2020]. This is also the general configuration reported for Iberian versions of the crest (cf. J. B. Rietstap’s 1884 Armorial General). In other houses the wolves may be red or white, and the ground yellow, red, or gold. Interestingly, the black on silver armorial colours match the black and silver colours of the recessed armours. Notably, in C4, C25, and in an illustration of C10, the ground behind the two wolves is covered with vertical rows of small circles; these may have been lost through abrasion and polishing in other examples.

The only other cabassets we have seen with two etched animals on a shield in this position is on three fully etched cabassets in the ‘Pisan’ style. The Horniman Museum, London, example (# hmos107) has a flat topped shield containing two dogs(?) passant on a dark ground, surmounted by a coronet or crown. Similar examples are illustrated in (https://www.curiosamax.fr/post/art-abstrait-l-ordre-au-milieu-du-chaos [accessed August 17, 2021]) and in Hermann Historica (Oct. 2022, Auction 94, Lot 3142). Interestingly, the Horniman example has a copper-alloy plume holder with incised chevron lines, a ventral notch and medial keel, but lacks dorsal, lateral or ventral notches (having jagged cut edges instead). The Herman Historica example, however, has a plume holder almost identical to Figure 11B herein. The animals are provisionally identified as dogs, due to their large drooping ears, collars, and stout body. However, contemporary Ayala ‘wolves’ can look like foxes or dogs. In today’s usage, the crown means from the Ayala region rather than from the family per se. Although more work is needed, the similarity of the crest and plume holders suggest that these cabassets may also be linked with the Ayala region (and possibly the Armada).

29 For example, the city emblem of the Bologna town guards in Boccia, pp. 39–42; Don Juan’s crest on the side of a peaked morion in the Royal Armouries, Leeds (IV. 390); a family crest etched on the side of a peaked morion (Thomas del Mar June 2012, lot 387); a family monogram on the side of a peaked morion (Fournier p. 70); and numerous black and white Fleur-de-Lis high comb morions (Bellwood, pp. 163–83). In addition to the etchings in notes 27 and 28, above, there is a personalized symbol in the front band of a ‘Pisan’ style cabasset in the Wallace Collection # A149.

30 Rodriguez-Salgado, p. 36. Martin and Parker, 2022, p. 22.

31 P. Padfield, Armada (Victor Gollanz Ltd in UK; Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 1988), p. 42. Fernandez-Armesto, pp. 27–8.

32 Martin and Parker, 1999, pp. 17, 123.

33 Ibid., p. 182 note #12.

34 Ibid., p. 265.

35 Padfield, p. 42.

36 Martin and Parker, 1999, pp. 18–19. Parker, 2004, pp. 138–9. Boynton, p. 123.

37 C. Richardson, In Currie, pp. 117, 121, 126–8. For literary parallels see N. Shulman, Graven with Diamonds (Short Books, 2012), pp. 355.

38 Martin and Parker, 2022, p. 21.

39 The 5th Duke was also the Spanish King’s chief commissioner in London in 1604. J. McDermott, England and the Spanish Armada: The Necessary Quarrel (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2005), p. 304.

40 Rodriguez-Salgado, pp. 34–5.

41 Parker, 2014, p. 19.

42 Martin and Parker, 1999, p. 20.

43 Ibid., pp. 32–3.

44 Rodriguez-Salgado, pp. 34–5 (see note 68 below).

45 Martin and Parker, 1999, p. 178; Fernández-Armesto, p. 195.

46 The primacy of cabassets in Spanish naval encounters can be seen in the Palacio del Marqués de Santa Cruz where cabassets predominate in the images of renowned soldiers associated with Spanish naval battles.⁹ Cabasset-like morions were also the only armour headpieces recovered from the Santa Clara wreck, a Spanish ship of c. 1575 (C. Malcom, Solving a Sunken Mystery: The Investigation and Identification of a Sixteenth-Century Shipwreck (PhD Thesis, University of Huddersfield, UK, 2017), pp. 218–20).

47 The armour A4 was sold in Christie’s Sale 7086, Lot 9, Nov 10, 2005. Described as: ‘A composite Italian infantry half armour. Late sixteenth Century’. Pre-Lot text notes state that it was: ‘Property from a European Noble Family (lots 1-103). Comprising morion of ‘Spanish’ form punched and engraved with a coat-of-arms at the front and fitted with later cheek-pieces, later gorget, breast-plate of ‘peas-cod’ form with skirt lame and later arm gussets, a pair of short tassets, back-plate, a pair of full arm defences incorporating large spaulders, tubular vambraces on turners, bracelet cowters, hinged lower-cannons and later gauntlets, decorated throughout with a later pattern of recessed bands, and the edges turned and roped (all straps defective): on a stand’.

It is noteworthy that the other lots were predominantly Spanish and included an embroidered armorial wall hanging with a quartered Ayala (?) emblem: two wolves passant (Lot 10). It appears likely that the ‘European Noble Family’ that consigned these items had strong Portuguese or Spanish links (two wolves passant is a common emblem in Spanish heraldry). With regards to the ‘later’ recessed bands. This accords with A1 – where there is evidence of recessed bands being added to pieces on the couters which bear earlier incised lines. ‘Later’ may thus refer to components being recessed to match other recessed pieces at the time of assembly. It is unlikely that the armours were recessed entirely in modern times as such armours are not of significantly increased value (unlike etched versions, which were often etched in the nineteenth Century).

48 Stands often characterize armour from specific collections. We have not seen this particular design in use elsewhere and the similarity of the two stands, both with rare, recessed half armours is strongly suggestive of a common recent history.

49 Calvert, pp. 114–142.

50 Ibid., pp. 141–142.

51 Martin and Parker, 2022, p. 175; Parker, 2004, p. 40.

52 Bellwood et al., p.177, discuss the absence of armourer’s marks on morions. Many armour production areas did not have armourer’s marks; the lack of marks, therefore, is simply the lack of evidence for known areas of production not positive evidence for Italy.

53 Martin and Parker, 1999, pp. 210, 224.

54 Rodriguez-Salgado, p. 268; T. P. Kilfeather, Ireland Graveyard of the Spanish Armada (Dublin: Anvil Books, 1967), p. 63; D. A. Howarth, The Voyage of the Armada the Spanish Story (New York: The Viking Press, 1981), pp. 222–3; Fernández-Armesto, p. 213.

55 A cabasset in Scotland (Glasgow Museums reg. ’28–46), was found in a peat bog near Loch Awe, Appin, a short distance from the wreck of the San Juan de Sicilia off Tobermory, Mull, Scotland. It has been suggested that this helmet came from the Armada and was subsequently used by local armed bands (http://fallingangelslosthighways.blogspot.com [accessed June 3, 2021]).

56 Rodriguez-Salgado, p. 239, noted that ‘Howard thought he had inflicted a shattering defeat on the galleasses’. S. Usherwood, The Great Enterprise The History of the Spanish Armada as Revealed in Contemporary Documents (London: The Folio Society, 1978), p. 117.

57 Rodriguez-Salgado, p. 242, Usherwood, p. 110.

58 Rodriguez-Salgado, pp. 173, 178.

59 Padfield, p. 84.

60 Martin and Parker, 1999, pp. 177–9; Fernández-Armesto, pp. 191–5.

61 Padfield, p. 119.

62 Ibid., p. 150.

63 J. K. Laughton, State Papers Relating to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada 1588, Vol II (London: The Navy Records Society, 1895), p. 11.

64 Padfield, p. 89.

65 Ibid., p. 113.

66 Martin and Parker, 1999, p. 22.

67 Padfield, p. 120. The exposed mid-section is also clearly visible in the ‘Greenwich cartoon’, a contemporary representation of a galleass (Martin and Parker, 2022, p. 37); see also National Maritime Museum BHC 0263. Even galleons had limited cover for soldiers necessitating last minute changes to the fighting fore and aft castles (Martin and Parker, 2022, p. 219).

68 The San Lorenzo was one of the key defensive vessels as the Armada made its way up the English Channel. Following the English attack with fireships, the San Lorenzo broke its rudder in a collision with the Rata Encoronada (at this point many soldiers on the San Lorenzo managed to climb on to the Rata; Martin and Parker, 1999, p. 176; 2022, p. 315). Unable to maneuver, the San Lorenzo came under intense fire from the English Capt. Hawkins, and it ran aground off Calais. The English assailed, boarded and sacked the stricken vessel which was actively defended by the Spanish (Usherwood, p. 107). Although wounded in the fighting, Fernando de Ayala and $\sim$ 150 soldiers survived the grounding (Rodriguez-Salgado, p. 241). Ayala went on to write an account of his Armada experiences (Martin and Parker, 1999, p. 182; 2022, p. 608 note #25). This ‘compendio’ is available as a digital copy from the Spanish Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, BNM MS 5489/120-31.

69 Usherwood, p. 117.

70 Rodriguez-Salgado, p. 257. See also, C. J. M. Martin, The Equipment and Fighting Potential of the Spanish Armada (PhD thesis, University of St Andrews, Scotland, 1984), p. 184. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/10991 [accessed September 23, 2020].

71 See the Supplemental Material.

72 Krenn, p. 32.

73 Likewise, of the 42 high comb morions in Solothurn and the 291 morions examined by Bellwood et al. 2021 only 1 (0.3%) showed potential projectile damage.

74 Cruickshank, p. 122.

75 Martin and Parker, 1999, p. 19.

76 Usherwood, p. 133.

77 The thickness of the recessed cabassets is typical of contemporary cabassets. For comparison, we measured cabassets c. 1580 in the Vienna Arsenal and Landeszeughaus, Graz (6 measures per cabasset). They ranged in mean thickness from 1.1 to 1.9 mm, with overall means of 1.44 mm (n = 5) and 1.65 mm (n = 3) in Vienna and Graz, respectively.

78 P. R. Kalaus, in P. Krenn, ed., Von alten Handfeuerwaffen: Entwicklung, Technik, Leistung; Sondernausstellung im Landeszeughaus. May-October. Austria, Graz Armoury (1989). A. Williams, D. Edge, and T. Atkins, ‘Bullet Dents – “Proof Marks” or Battle Damage,’ Gladius, 26 (2006), 175–209. S. Leever ‘For show or safety?’ Arms & Armour, 3.2 (2006), 117–25.

79 C. J. M. Martin, El Gran Grifón An Armada wreck on Fair Isle. The international Journal of Nautical Archaeology and Underwater Exploration (1972), p. 65, Figure 5 illustrates impacted lead musket and arquebus balls. Musket and arquebus balls of 20 mm and 13 mm diameter equate to approximately 47 and 13 g, respectively. Martin notes that both could have been used as ‘case’ shot in the smaller deck guns. Additional details and figures are provided in the digital records at http://canmore.org.uk/site/3857

80 Estimating the armour penetrating capabilities of late sixteenth century guns and cannon is extremely difficult, with issues ranging from gunpowder performance to ball dimensions and windage. However, the thorough evaluations of Kalaus (1989) offer robust estimates of relative abilities (with direct measurements of the velocities, energy, and accuracy of projectiles from contemporary guns). These, and subsequent, studies offer compelling evidence that the muskets and cannon used by the English were more than capable of penetrating (and tearing?) the 1.4 mm thick cabassets, even at significant distances. At close range they would have been devastating. The tears in the armour herein closely mirror those seen in WWI helmets and in the cannon shot in the 1580s breastplate held in the Royal Armouries, Leeds (# III.107). See Supplemental Material for a more detailed evaluation.

81 A. Williams, The Knight and the Blast Furnace: A History of the Metallurgy of Armour in the Middle Ages & the Early Modern Period (Leiden: Brill, 2003), pp. 947–8.

82 Rodriguez-Salgado, p. 35.

83 If used for chin straps, holes in the bowl would be uncomfortable and do not need to be so large. Conversion into a cooking pot would also not require such large holes. Conversion into buckets, however, has previously been suggested in association with C4 (Table 1).

84 D. A. Howarth, The Voyage of the Armada the Spanish Story (New York: The Viking Press, 1981), p. 209. See also Martin and Parker, 2022, pp. 318–9.

85 Ibid., p. 212.

86 Rodriguez-Salgado, p. 241.

87 Usherwood, p. 107.

88 Martin and Parker, 1999, p. 1237.

89 Howarth, pp. 222–3.

90 Kilfeather, p. 62.

91 Although unusual, this type of plume holder fits within the general style found on Italian morions/cabassets of this period. For example, an Italian peaked morion c. 1575 from a Spanish armoury, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, Accession # 27.159.12, has a similar plume holder. Although distinct from the forms found on recessed cabassets, it is another example of a plume holder of this general type constructed in Italy for Spanish use; it possesses many of the same design elements (copper-alloy, with incised lines in a chevron pattern). One cabasset illustrated in a history of Basque farmhouses (http://bertan.gipuzkoakultura.net/bertan4/ing/1.php [accessed February 14, 2022]) Figure 22, has a typical recessed cabasset-like plume holder and ‘Pisan-style’ etchings. Likewise, an etched ‘Pisan’ cabasset in Hermann Historica (Auction 94, Oct. 2022, lot 3142), has a plume holder almost exactly matching those from the Trinidad Valencera (Figure 11B herein). These two cabasset may share a common origin (and may also be also associated with the Armada); it is likely that the six cabassets recovered from the Trinidad Valencera were of this form (i.e., ‘Pisan’ etched cabassets with a chevron marked plume holder).

92 Martin p. 325, Fig. 66.

93 L. Flanagan Ireland’s Armada Legacy (Alan Sutton Publishing, Gloucester, UK. 1988). P. 184. See also C. Martin (in press) Weapons and fighting potential of the 1588 Spanish Armada: the military component. 1st International Congress ‘The Spanish Armada of 1588 and the English Counter Armada of 1589. Naval Conflict between Spain and England: 1580–1607’, held in Cartagena, Spain, April 2019.

94 Mr. Estruch is reported to have been Spain’s most important private collector of arms and armour and, following closure of the museum, the collection was acquired by Georges Pauliahc (eltranvia48.blogspot.com; [accessed March 14, 2022]).

95 A further five recessed cabassets were in the Military Museum, Castell de Montjuïc, Barcelona, Spain, which closed in 2009. From the sole image https://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=https://c8.alamy.com/comp/AXJ4NX/museu-militar-in-castell-de-montjuic-barcelona-catalunya-spain-AXJ4NX.jpg&imgrefurl=https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/military-museum-of-barcelona.html&tbnid=E3TsTGjfqBM-9M&vet=1&docid=s0tQplOI9phH_M&w=1300&h=953&hl=en-au&source=sh/x/imthey [accessed March 14, 2022]) they appear to have four recessed bands. Without further details or examination, it is not possible to establish if they belong to the series described herein; although inclusion is likely.