m145"

sanctuary on the abbey of Beaulieu, and latcr confessed his fraud in exchange for his life. In 1498 Warbeck escaped from thc Tower but was recaptured and thereafter confined in a dungcon. The next year hc planned another escape, together with the unfortunate Edward of Clarence, but this was betrayed by spies in the Tower. Henry allowed the plot to proceed almost to completion, then had both Edward and Warbeck executed for planning rebellion.

The last real fighting of the Wars of the Roses had

taken place at Blackheath and the siege of Exctcr, but Clarence had bcen a true małe hcir of the House of Plantagenet and all the time he lived he was a threat to thc House of Tudor. His death truły marked thc end of the Wars of the Roses, and thereafter Henry VII’s reign was peaceful apart from a few minor and futile plots by the exiled Edmund, Earl ofSuffolk, younger brother ofjohn, Earl of Lincoln, and the last possible Yorkist claimant to the throne of England.

TheArmies

In 1341 Edward III had revolutionised the structure of European armies by instituting in England a system of written indentured contracts between the Crown and prominent military leaders. Under this system the military leaders, or ‘captains’ and ‘lieutenants’, contracted with the king to provide an agreed number of men for military service, promising to bring them to a place ofassembly by a certain datę. The indenture set out precisely how long the men would have to serve, their ratę of pay, obligations and privileges. The captains were responsible for paying these men, the king giving securities to repay the money at a later datę.

These captains raised their companies by making a series of similar contracts with knights and men-at-arms, again stipulating the terms of service and the types of soldiers they would be expected to contribute. The captains usually sought these ‘sub-

‘Composite’ armours present researchers with a serious problem. Many armours which have been in private or public collections for a century or morę, and which are labelled as if they were complete and homogenous harnesses, were in fact assembled from different components by ignorant or unscrupulous dealers or curators. Apart from these, there are some surviving armours which would appear to have been madę up in early times from separate components. It would make sense for ‘field’ or ‘ammunition’ armours to be madę up by cannibalising: e.g., the body defences from one harness and the leg defences from another. (Lcft) A composite field armour from Schloss Churburg: basically in the Italian style of c.1480, it has legs from another harness ofc.1450. The right gauntlet is modern. (Right) An even morę mixed armour. The sallet and sabatons are Italian, I5th ccntury; thc bevor, breast and arm defences are German, I5th century; and the legs are early i6th century, but have been modified to give them an earlier appearancc. The tassets are missing. This piece is typical of armours assembled in thc iyth century for collectors who wanted ‘Gothic’ harnesses. (Department of the Environmcnt; and Wallace Collection)

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