Boy's armour

Emperor Maximilian I ordered this spectacular ceremonial armour in 1512 for his twelve-year-old grandson Archduke Charles (later Emperor Charles V). Konrad Seusenhofer, the emperor’s court armourer at Innsbruck, began work on the armour in March 1512, completing it in the spring or summer of 1513.

The armour was probably commissioned in connection with the planned marriage of Charles to Mary Tudor, a sister of King Henry VIII of England. In the summer of 1513, Henry and Maximilian went to war against France. The treaties cementing this alliance were signed during the elaborate victory celebrations held at Tournai and Lille in October 1513. The wedding was scheduled for the spring of 1514 at Calais (then held by the English); ultimately, however, intrigues and shifting political alliances put paid to the betrothal.

In a highly sophisticated way, the armour plays with the contrasts in materials between steel and fabric. It comprises a field harness with fashionably puffed and slashed arm and leg pieces and creates the illusion that the young archduke is wearing a surcoat, a pleated overcoat and a close-fitting jerkin with short, voluminous sleeves. The surcoat is also made of steel and is embellished with gilt steel ‘braids’ featuring the emblems of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

In the early seventeenth century, this armour was owned by Archduke Charles, Grand Master of the Teutonic Order. Between 1618 and 1621 it was moved to Ambras Castle, together with a bard made for Emperor Frederick III in 1477 (inv. A 69) and a papal sword (inv. A 453).