Visar resultat för..."Trustees of the Royal Armouries"

Camillo Palladini's manuscript for his discourse on fencing is housed in the De Walden Library at the Wallace Collection in London. Previously unpublished and largely unknown, it is of central importance to a modern understanding of Italian rapier play in the sixteenth century. This stunning book, a joint endeavour between the Royal Armouries and the Wallace Collection, reproduces the forty-six red chalk illustrations in the manuscript--only three of which have ever been seen in print--together with a transcription and translation of the original Italian text. Perfect for students of fencing, lovers of Italian art, sixteenth-century researchers, and historical reenactors and interpreters, The Art of Fencing: The Forgotten Discourse of Camillo Palladini showcases a striking example of Renaissance swordsmanship.

Japan is a mysterious and beguiling country, steeped in the deepest of traditions yet strikingly modern. Here, Curator Emeritus Ian Bottomley sheds light on one of the most popular facets of the Royal Armouries' collection, reflecting this mesmeric harmony of reverence and reinvention. He offers an overview of Japanese arms and armour from the middle ages to the twentieth century, describing sword-making, firearms technology, key military campaigns and samurai culture in the 'Land of the Rising Sun'.

The idea of late medieval arms and armour often conjures up images of lumbering warriors, clad in heavy plate armour, hacking away at with each other with enormous weapons – depictions perpetuated in both bad literature and bad movies. In this introductory guide, replete with fabulous photography and marvellous anecdotes, internationally-renowned edged weapons expert Robert Woosnam-Savage describes the brutal reality of personal protection and attack in the so-called ‘age of chivalry’. From Bannockburn to Bosworth, Poitiers to Pavia, this book is an indispensable introduction to an iconic era.

The sequence here shows a MK.I Vickers centrefire automatic machine gun being fired. Sequence shot at the National Firearms Centre in Leeds.

In celebration of the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's accession to the English throne, an international exhibition, 'Henry VIII: Dressed to Kill', was held at the Tower of London in partnership between the Royal Armouries and Historic Royal Palaces. Published to coincide with the launch of the exhibition, this definitive publication illustrates and records over 90 Henrician treasures drawn from the Royal Armouries' own collections and from museums and institutions worldwide. Leading historians and specialists in arms and armour have contributed major essays on subjects which encompass the wide-ranging aspects of Henry's reign from war and politics to dress and dining.

From Captain George Francklin Atkinson, the celebrated author of Curry and Rice on Forty Plates, comes the iconic The Campaign in India. Atkinson, an officer of the Bengal Engineers in the 1850s, sketched the British response to the Indian Rebellion. Widely denigrated for overlooking the Indian perspective, The Campaign in India is unsurpassed as a record of the English attitude to India at 1857. This Royal Armouries facsimile includes, for the first time, both the text and illustrations from Atkinson’s work.

The Eglinton Tournament, held in August 1839, was intended to be the most magnificent and glorious expression of the nineteenth-century revival of chivalry. Archibald William Montgomerie, the 13th Earl of Eglinton, spared no expense in transforming his castle and grounds for the event. Eglinton's guests dressed in the finest costumes, and the event captured the public imagination with nearly 100,000 tickets issued. Of all the volumes published to commemorate the tournament, the most magnificent was a set of prints published by the fine art dealers, Colnaghi and Puckle, from original illustrations made on the spot by the artist James Henry Nixon. The full colour version is reproduced in full here, with an introduction by Karen Watts.

In 1858, Ensign Hugh Pearson embarked at Chatham for service with the 84th (York and Lancaster) Regiment in India, little suspecting that within a few short months he would be taking part in the dramatic events of the Indian Rebellion. His letters to his family, published here for the first time, tell of the dramatic events that unfolded from the first rumblings of unrest at Barrackpore, to the shocking news of the massacre at Cawnpore, and the struggle to relieve Lucknow. Pearson offers a remarkable insight into the career of a young regimental officer in Queen Victoria’s army, as well as an enticing glimpse of family life. Peace gives him the chance to engage in his favourite pastime – shooting – whilst war offers the opportunity for promotion and loot. But as the campaign continues and his comrades begin to fall, Pearson begins to long for home.

The Littlecote House armoury is the most important surviving armoury of the English Civil Wars. This volume describes how the collection was saved for the nation (in part by a sponsored march in original armour from Littlecote to London), and includes a full illustrated catalogue of its contents.

The papers presented in this book represent the latest research on a wide variety of arms and armour given as diplomatic gifts between Asia and Europe, or within Europe, between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. The research originated at a conference that celebrated the 400th anniversary of Anglo-Japanese relations.

The Royal Armouries’ collection of Asian arms and armour is among the finest in the world. With the aid of stunning photography, former Deputy Master Thom Richardson outlines a rich and vibrant diversity of military cultures from the Ottoman Empire to East Asia. The book provides fascinating information about medieval Islam, the Ottoman Turks, the Arabian Peninsula, Islamic kingdoms of North Africa, Iran and Iraq, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, India and Indonesia.

The history of England records no more charismatic figure than King Henry VIII. His reign reveals an intriguing amalgam of the old and the new, during which his kingdom emerged as a European power to be reckoned with. Henry was fascinated by weapons and armour, taking a personal interest in their design and manufacture, and playing a vital role in the development of the Royal Armouries at the Tower of London. This publication showcases the armours made for him, his personal guard and his army, and with the aid of beautiful photography explores the sporting and military equipment of an historical colossus.

The Elizabethan court was a vibrant and colourful place, where the inherited traditions and technological skill that had characterised the Middle Ages came face to face with the decorative techniques of the Renaissance. The book includes fascinating background about the court, government and armies of the age (including the main protagonists of the Spanish Armada) together with information about the individual owners of many pieces. It features beautiful photographs of key objects from the Royal Armouries’ collection including the Lion Armour, the ‘Forget-me-not’ Gun and the Burgonet of Smyth armour.

India is a vast sub-continent with a complex history and a great array of languages, cultures and religions. This book serves as a short introduction to the exquisite weapons used in the region, focusing on the Royal Armouries’ collections from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Beautiful photography is interwoven with remarkable historical and cultural detail about archery, swords, shields, daggers, firearms, artillery and elephant armour.

The documents surviving from the privy wardrobe, the department which administrated the Tower armoury under Edward III, Richard II and Henry IV, provide a unique insight into the use of arms and armour in late medieval England. Thom Richardson expertly brings these documents to life, showing how the previously peripatetic armoury became established in the Tower of London at the outbreak of the Hundred Years War, and grew into the national arsenal which today forms the basis of the Royal Armouries, the national museum of arms and armour.

Published from a conference organised by the Archaeological Leather Group and the Royal Armouries, this publication offers a multidisciplinary perspective on the varied use of leather and skin products in warfare. Contributors cover issues as diverse as Romano-Egyptian ceremonial clothing, Roman campaign tents, the equipment of the medieval swordsman and Japanese Samurai, Mamluk lamellar armour and European plate armour, the buff coat of the English Civil War and the fish skin helmet of the Pacific Island warrior.

The First World War was a watershed in global history. Both terrible and terrifying, it shredded the social order and ushered in a bleak new world. Inevitably, the war led to major advances in military strategy and tactics that were reflected in the weapons used on the battlefield. This book offers an extended introduction to the arms and armour of the Great War, with particular focus on iconic weapons such as the Maxim machine gun. It is a unique insight into the material culture that not only enabled the horrors of the Somme, Passchendaele and Gallipoli but also provided the means to bring peace in 1918.

The Royal Armouries’ stunning collection of arms and armour provides a unique historical perspective on visual and material culture from across the world. Both intricate and elaborate, these items are a magnificent testament to fashion, craftsmanship and engineering throughout the ages. This book is filled with gorgeous photography offering a glimpse into a world of firearms, armours, swords and helmets. It includes an insightful essay by Karen Watts, former Senior Curator at the Royal Armouries and Knight of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Inspired by a collection of letters received by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle during the First World War, Philip Abbott sets out to explore the inspirational campaign to provide body armour to British soldiers serving in the trenches. Setting the letters in the context of the terrible losses suffered during the Battle of the Somme, Abbott reveals the actions of the War Office and Ministry of Munitions in providing better protection for the troops. He examines Conan Doyle's personal motives for involvement, and investigates the part played by another Edinburgh graduate, Caleb Saleeby, in promoting the development of helmets, body armour and shields. Saving Lives is an absorbing account of how the creator of Sherlock Holmes used his fame to campaign against the horrific casualties on the Western Front.

Jousting is the most iconic form of mounted combat. For more than five hundred years, the sport itself, and the chivalric culture that surrounded it, took on almost mythical qualities. Here, Tobias Capwell explains the glitz and glamour of a sport that attracted enormous popular audiences throughout the late middle ages. Though he deals almost exclusively with weapons and warriors, Capwell tells a story not of war and destruction, but of pageantry and valour. This is the story of the armour of peace.The book forms part of a series of introductions to aspects of the Royal Armouries' collection of arms and armour. Written by specialists in the field, they are packed full of fascinating information and stunning photography. Royal Armouries is the national museum of arms and armour, with sites at Leeds, the Tower of London and Fort Nelson, Hampshire.

1066 in Perspective is a landmark publication offering an interdisciplinary assessment of the impact of the Norman Conquest in the 950 years since 1066. Drawing upon papers presented at the Tower of London on the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, contributors, all of whom are internationally renowned, examine 1066 from a wide range of perspectives: military, social, political, architectural, ecclesiastical, gender and art history.

Royal Armouries Manuscript I.33, also known as the Tower Fechtbuch or the Walpurgis Manuscript, is the oldest-known manual of swordsmanship in the western canon. Dated to c.1310, it is a stunning work of late medieval art and the Armouries’ most treasured manuscript, one so famous it has become known simply by its shelf number: I.33. This new edition includes a critical introduction, transcription and translation by Jeffrey L. Forgeng, the foremost authority on I.33.

The First World War tore apart the early twentieth century. Both terrible and terrifying, it banished misplaced optimism that war on such an unconscionable scale could never occur. A century after the guns fell silent on the Western Front, its scars continue to shape our modern idea of remembrance.As the national museum of arms and armour, the Royal Armouries brings a unique perspective to studies of the Great War. Stumbling Towards Victory contains photographs – many previously unpublished – from the museum archives, all of which were taken in the final twelve months of the war. Amidst the haunting emptiness of broken ground and shattered trees, these images convey the horror, and hope, of that final cataclysmic year. Published to coincide with the First World War centenary commemorations, Stumbling Towards Victory illustrates the final months of a global conflagration that was nothing less than an armageddon for the ages.

Could the event that triggered the ‘war to end all wars’ have been prevented? The shot that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and directly led to the outbreak of the First World War is known as the ‘shot heard around the world’. Far less widely known is the fact that the Archduke owned, but on that fateful day did not wear, a bulletproof vest manufactured by Polish priest-turned-inventor Casimir Zeglen. Using a reconstructed bulletproof vest and a Royal Armouries Browning Model 1910 pistol identical to that used by the Archduke’s assassin, Lisa Traynor highlights the risks associated with power and status in the early 20th century. Assessing the design and composition of Zeglen’s armours, she charts the technological development of pistols used during this period’s assassination plots. Testing her findings on a replica of the Archduke’s bulletproof vest, Traynor poses the haunting question: had Franz Ferdinand been wearing body armour on the day of his assassination, would it have saved his life? Featured in the BBC TV series Sword, Musket and Machine Gun: Britain’s Armed History, this fascinating book breaks new ground in our understanding of the outbreak of the First World War.

The fabled treasures of China span thousands of years of history. From the exotic Silk Road to the mysterious Great Wall, China’s allure is as vast as the country itself. Here, Natasha Bennett introduces the fascinating world of Chinese arms and armour in the Royal Armouries’ collection. Offering a colourful insight into one of the world’s earliest civilisations, she chronicles the development of personal weapons and armour from the late Bronze Age to the early twentieth century. It is ideal for anyone interested in the military and material culture of this absorbing land.

The English Civil Wars tore families and friendships apart, setting father against son and brother against brother. Raging across England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the conflict was the greatest political upheaval in the British Isles in six hundred years, and led directly to the execution of King Charles I in 1649. Keith Dowen tells the absorbing story of the arms and armour of the civil wars, and demonstrates how emerging weaponry contributed to some of the most well-known battles in British history. The book forms part of a series of introductions to aspects of the Royal Armouries' collection of arms and armour. Written by specialists in the field, they are packed full of fascinating information and stunning photography. Royal Armouries is the national museum of arms and armour, with sites at Leeds, the Tower of London and Fort Nelson, Hampshire.

Fort Nelson was built in the 1860s, as part of a chain of fortifications protecting the great naval harbour of Portsmouth and its Royal Dockyard from a feared French invasion. It now houses the national collection of artillery, held in trust for the nation by the Royal Armouries, with over 350 big guns and historic cannon on display. Visitors can explore 19 acres of ramparts, outer fortifications, secret underground tunnels and ammunition bunkers. This fascinating guidebook is a perfect introduction to a remarkable site.

‘It is extraordinary how reluctant the British soldier is to show cunning. We try to play the game of war as if it had rules for fair play like cricket and football.’‘If you want to make your spell of duty pass quickly, concentrate on prowling properly.’‘By Jove, look! There is a suspicious-looking man creeping under those bushes. It will be heaven help that rough chap if he makes a break!’First published in the 1940s for the newly-recruited British Home Guard, The Art of Prowling showed recruits how to sneak up on the enemy without being seen, how to avoid attracting attention, and why they should never underestimate a German spy.Will you be awarded the Good Prowler’s Badge?

The Royal Armouries is Britain's oldest museum, still partly housed in its original buildings in the Tower of London. The core of the collection is the medieval arsenal that was restocked by Henry VIII and on show to privileged visitors as early as the reign of Elizabeth I. After 1660, the general public was admitted and a series of spectacular exhibits was set up, one of which included instruments of torture and punishment. Since that time, they have been one of the Tower's prime attractions, enhanced by the macabre stories that surround them.This fascinating book sets these instruments of torture and punishment in their proper context and explores whether the Tower deserves its grim reputation.