in 1534 and 1634 in the treasury of the royal abbey of St. Denis: "A sword of Charles VII garnished in the centre of its pommel with two gold angels,[1] one with the sun and the other with Our Lady, and it is said by the monks that the said sword did not belong to Charles VII but to Joan the Maid."[2] It may be that these three Victoires were the same blade remounted at various times, or that Victoire was a name given to the sword worn by the king on certain special state occasions. In the inventory of Philippe le Bon of Burgundy in 1426 we also meet with "a little sword, longish, of silver gilt, called La Victoire, and it is in a long case of white silver." The duke likewise possessed another sword called Taillade, which is described in detail in his inventory, as well as a sword styled that of St. George, with a red jasper pommel decorated with silver, and on either side the arms of St. George, whilst his son, Charles the Bold, owned a war sword which was said to have belonged to Bertrand du Guesclin.[3] In the collection at Amboise were also a sword of Charles VII called La bien aimée, and "the good sword which Louis XI carried in his expedition against the Swiss in 1444, called Estrefuse, the grip of white whipcord, and on the long pommel is Our Lady on one side and St. Martin on the other." This sword was no doubt made at Tours, St. Martin being the patron saint of that city. That the desire to possess swords of renowned warriors existed even in the XVIth and XVIIth centuries, I have shown in a paper on ancient blades bearing contemporary spurious inscriptions, as one at Windsor with the name of the Cid, one at Madrid with that of Bernardo del Carpio, one of my own with that of Recared King of the Goths, and others in England with those of the Black Prince and the Bruce.[4] This cult for heroic arms would seem to have led to the formation of the earliest collections of arms and armour of which any record exists, and although it is said that Antony of Burgundy in 1406 began a historical collection at the Castle of Caudenberg at Brussels, which later went by the name of the arsenal, the earliest collection of which any details have been preserved was that formed by Charles VIII of France in the great hall of the Castle of Amboise,[5] an inventory of which was made shortly after his death, and it is rather maddening to the student and collector to think that of all it contained not one piece is known to remain to us. Amongst other armour and arms we find: the armour of Joan of Arc, with its arm-pieces and mittens, and the helmet with a gorget of mail, the border gilt, the inside garnished with crimson satin; the brigandine of Talbot, covered with black velvet all worn, and his black salade with its housing of embroidery on black velvet,
- ↑ Plaques of the size of an angel.
- ↑ Inventaire du Trésor de St. Denis (V. Gay, p. 647).
- ↑ Comte de Laborde, Les Ducs de Bourgogne, Paris, 1849-1851 (Inventaires de Philippe le Bon et Charles le Téméraire).
- ↑ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, June 1900.
- ↑ "55 pièces de bougran rouge . . . pour la grande salle au château d'Amboise où éstoit l'armurerie dud. feu S^r" (Compte de l'écurie du roy en 1498, V. Gay, p. 71).
