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II.—The Armourers' Company of London and the Greenwich School of Armourers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2011

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Extract

In making researches into the early history of the Armourers' Company, we are faced with the question what kind of craftsman was the armourer or ‘armorarius’ up to the middle of the fourteenth century. On consulting the recognized reference books on the subject, up to the present I have found no word used to denote the maker of defensive armour and offensive weapons as distinct from any other craft till the end of the thirteenth century. Smith translates armourer as ‘faber armorum’, and Riddle and White do not even give this qualification under the word ‘faber’. Du Cange gives 1412 as the earliest use of the term, Murray 1386, and Gay 1351. The nearest approach to the word is ‘armarium’ from which we get ‘armoir’, a closet or cupboard to keep arms, clothing, and possibly, but not necessarily, armour.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1927

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References

page 47 note 1 S. P. Dom. Eliz., ccxxxii, 92.Google Scholar

page 47 note 2 Buttin, Charles, Notes sur les Armures à l'Épreuve, 1901Google Scholar; ffoulkes, The Armourer and his Craft.

page 47 note 3 Memorials of the Verney Family, iv, 30.Google Scholar

page 47 note 4 Gaya, , Traité des Armes (Clarendon Press reprint), p. 30Google Scholar.

page 48 note 1 Mém. de la Soc. Arch, de Touraine, tom, xx, pp. 268–9.Google Scholar

page 49 note 1 Ellis, Hubert Dynes, Ancient Silver Plate, vol. i (privately printed for the Company).Google Scholar

page 49 note 2 J. H. T., , A Short Account of Ancient Chivalry, 1799Google Scholar.

page 50 note 1 S. P. Dom. Eliz., sub anno.

page 50 note 2 Ibid.

page 50 note 3 Hatfield Papers, pt. viii.

page 50 note 4 Ibid., pt. ix.

page 51 note 1 Vol. lii.

page 51 note 2 Dillon, Viscount, An Almain Armourer's Album, Griggs, 1905.Google Scholar

page 51 note 3 Possibly James Haider, ‘from the Dominion of the Emperor’, who took out denization papers, 30 April 1572 (Pat. Roll., 14 Eliz., pt. 8, m. 4; Page, Letters of Denization, Huguenot Soc, vol. 8).

page 52 note 1 State Papers Sign Man., vol. iv, 29.Google Scholar

page 53 note 1 Royal Armourer, 1519–93, Chief Armourer, 1544.

page 54 note 1 The Remains of Thomas Hearne, vol. i, 64.Google Scholar

page 56 note 1 Nicolas', Progresses of Queen Elisabeth and Hearne's Remains, iii, 262.Google Scholar