The Royal Armouries – serie

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 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 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.

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 Stumbling Towards Victory contains photographs – many previously unpublished – from the museum archives, all of which were taken in the final twelve months of the war.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.

‘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 Field of Cloth of Gold was one of the greatest courtly spectacles of the sixteenth century. A carefully-orchestrated meeting outside Calais between Henry VIII and Francis I, it encapsulated Henry’s imperial ambitions and confirmed the role of the tournament in international diplomacy. Here, Keith Dowen and Scot Hurst reveal the glamour and excitement of the Field of Cloth of Gold. Using surviving artefacts and important archival material, they illustrate how England began the transition from being a small nation on the edge of Europe to becoming a global empire with power and influence. The armour that was created for the event was made possible by Henry VIII’s new armoury at Greenwich and his existing armoury at the Tower of London.Tudor Power and Glory explains the skill of the armourers as they prepared for the tournament, the fighting that took place on horse and on foot, and the significance of the Field of Cloth of Gold as a political event as England and France, two emerging nations of old Europe, took their places on the world stage.

Do you know that house-to-house fighting is the finest sport on earth?Do you know that is it just the sort of close-quarter scrapping the British excel in?Do you know that once you get going you will love it?Do you want to come with me down our street and play hell with some bloody Huns?You do?Right, we’ll carry on!House to House Fighting is one of a series of training books written in 1942 by Colonel G. A. Wade for the newly-recruited Home Guard. This reproduction from the Royal Armouries’ archive shows how Second World War trainees learnt to defend themselves amidst the threat of enemy invasion.

British Ordnance Muskets identifies and analyses in detail 18 ordnance muskets from the 1830s and 1840s. As well as providing the history and details of the muskets of this important period when the Ordnance transitioned from flintlock to percussion arms, it also covers the impact of two arms shortages, material losses suffered in the Tower of London fire (1841) and the obsolescence of all existing arms for the Militia and Volunteers. By consulting original records, Adrian Roads also offers much about the gun contractors themselves: what drove them, what irked them and their capacity for work. It includes several appendices that facilitate in-depth research into any British ordnance percussion musket held in a collection or under consideration for acquisition, making it an invaluable resource for researchers, students of arms and collectors alike.

We are not dealing with the remote future. The Huns are coming. Will they drop from the skies and surround the village?Will sounds of battle will be heard in the far distance?Or will their armoured fighting vehicles will come careering across the landscape?When they come, your village must be ready. Defence of Villages and Small Towns is one of a series of training books written in 1942 by Colonel G. A. Wade for the newly-recruited Home Guard. This reproduction from the Royal Armouries’ archive shows how the Second World War trainees learnt to defend rural villages and small towns from the threat of enemy invasion.

A road block is a tiny battlefield.Here, all the principles of strategy and tactics apply – just as much as when whole armies meet in the field.It is a challenge thrown down by the free world to Hitler and his hordes. A road block is a gesture of defiance that says, ‘Beyond this, you shall not come’.Lie doggo. Hit hard. And clear out!Road Blocks is one of a series of training books written in 1942 by Colonel G. A. Wade for the newly-recruited Home Guard. This reproduction from the Royal Armouries’ archive shows how the Second World War trainees learnt to set up and defend road blocks amidst the threat of enemy invasion.

The sequence here shows Royal Armouries’ Keeper of Firearms Jonathan Ferguson firing a Luger P.08 centrefire self-loading pistol. Sequence shot at the National Firearms Centre in Leeds.

The sequence here shows Royal Armouries’ Keeper of Firearms Jonathan Ferguson firing a Sten MK II centrefire automatic submachine gun. Sequence shot at the National Firearms Centre in Leeds.

The sequence here shows Royal Armouries’ Keeper of Firearms Jonathan Ferguson firing a gold-plated Sterling MK.4 centrefire automatic military submachine gun. 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.

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.