Royal Armoury of Madrid

[1] The decision to grant preferential treatment to the Armory dates back at least to the death of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, which occurred on 21 September 1558.

This former armoury was located in the complex of the Royal Stables of the Alcázar of the Habsburgs, built by the master builder Gaspar de Vega between 1556 and 1564 at the behest of King Philip II.

The main floor of the new building was conceived as a large room decorated with tapestries, weapons and outfits in which was installed the entire collection.

Among the most remarkable works are the full armour and weapons that Emperor Charles V used in the Battle of Mühlberg, and which was portrayed by Titian in his famous equestrian portrait housed at the Museo del Prado.

The armoury retains some of the most important pieces of this art in Europe and the world, including several signed by Filippo Negroli, one of the most famous designers in the armourers' guild.

Those belonging to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor occupied mainly the first eight drawers in the southern side, while those of Philip II were stored next to those of his father in the northern wall.

Thus each drawer kept only one type of weapon, dedicated for example to knives, or chain mail, or other objects with common features, duch as arms decorated in damascene.

Other drawers guarded weapons of particular interest to the dynasty, such as the trophies of Mülhberg and Pavia, guns of legendary characters or some symbolic importance, the ceremonial sword of the Catholic Monarchs, the rapier sent by Pope Clement VII to Charles V, the armor sent to Philip II by the shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi or the swords attributed to El Cid, to el Gran Capitán, to Roland and to Boabdil.

The core of the current collection corresponds to the armory guarded by Philip II when he established the Court in Madrid, consisting of his personal armory, but especially that of his father, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, who in turn had retained weapons belonging to his father, Philip I of Castile and his grandparents, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.

Within this group it deserve special mention the helmets and the armor pieces associated with a peculiar prestigious peninsular production, whose workshops have not yet been identified, but are supposed are from Aragonese origin; The Nasrid sultanate of Granada is present through a small but important sample of its panoply, since are preserved an example of each of the three types of weapons of Granadan creation; one genet from the collection of Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria; one leather shield preserved in the armory of Charles V; and a dagger wing associated with a belt with pouch and a holster for a Quran, those latter captured at the Battle of Lucena to Muhammad XII (Boabdil), and those presented to Alfonso XIII by the Marquis of Viana as part of the Villaseca legacy.

The armory of Philip I of Castile is currently divided between the Hofjagd und Rüstkammer (Kunsthistorisches Museum) of Vienna and the Royal Armory of Madrid, where are primarily the weapons used since his marriage with Joanna of Castile, among which a two hands sword with his personal motto, and helmets and testeras of Flemish, German and Italian origin; between these, two helmets by the Milanos workshop of Filippo Negroli and three armor that match only two examples in the Flemish and Spanish production period.

Most of the armours of Charles V and Philip II were forged following the concept of fitting armor invented by Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor: consisted of a base armour provided with reinforcement parts or complement, decorated uniformly, so that the exchange of the different pieces that compose it, could lead to the formation of various figures intended to the combat on foot, to the fair and to the equestrian tournament, to the war in its different variants or to the parade.

In this type of weapons is especially valued the constructive and technical wit, the formal design and the decoration, the latter rich in connotations of all being, from chivalry to the reflection of the ideas and themes of humanism through allegorical, religious, heraldic and / or dynastic, or recreating the classical tradition of the Roman times.

These armourers are given special preference, but both Charles V and Philip II possessed weapons coming from other high-level workshops, such as Mattheus Frawenbrys, Caremolo Mondrone, or Bartolomeo Campi, either because these are specific orders, or by being parts submitted by various personages related to the Spanish Court.