Book Series The Inventory of King Henry VIII

The Inventory of King Henry VIII: Arms, Armour and Ordnance

The Military World

Maria Hayward, Philip Ward (eds)

  • Pages: xx + 528 p.
  • Size:215 x 280 mm
  • Illustrations:30 b/w, 171 col., 13 tables b/w., 13 maps b/w
  • Language(s):English
  • Publication Year:2026


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The Inventory is not only a catalogue of magnificence but also a key text for evaluating the successes and failures of the Tudor monarchy under Henry VIII, telling us what once existed, and enabling us to identify surviving objects.

Subject(s)
Summary

On 25 January 1547 Henry VIII died at the palace of Whitehall and in the months that followed, all his possessions, including his arms, armour and ordnance, were inventoried. The resulting manuscript provides a unique insight into the military world during a period when a monarch was expected to take an active part in defence of his or her realm.

The aim of the Inventory Project, established in 1991 by David Starkey and supported by the Society of Antiquaries of London, is to publish the text of that 1547 Inventory, together with specialist essays on each of the principal categories of art and artefacts that it lists. The first phase of the project was completed in 1998 with the publication of the complete transcript of the Inventory, comprising MS 129, held by the Society of Antiquaries, and Harley MS 1419, in the British Library. The first of the three volumes of commentary was published in 2012 and awarded the British Art Book Prize 2014 by the Historians of British Art.

Volume III: Arms, Armour and Ordnance is the second of the three volumes of commentary to be published. This volume focuses on the military world of Henry VIII and his European counterparts. Its essays cover Henry’s maps and history paintings, which were valuable sources of intelligence, non-naval ordnance within the
Inventory, Henry’s personal arms and armour, his stables, key aspects of heraldry and the role of heralds in relation to ceremonies of the late medieval and early Tudor court, and naval ordnance, including a register of ships and munitions.
Richly illustrated with colour plates, the essays offer revealing detail about military capacity, equipment, and techniques of the time.

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction: The Military World of Henry VIII by Maria Hayward

Chapter 1: Cartography, Topography and History Paintings by Peter Barber

Chapter 2: Non-Naval Ordnance in the 1547 Inventory by Sarah Barter-Bailey

Chapter 3: Arms and Armour of the 1547 Inventory by Claude Blair

Chapter 4: Henry VIII's Stables by Peter Edwards

Chapter 5: Some Aspects of Heraldry and the Role of Heralds in Relation to the Ceremonies of the Late Medieval and Early Tudor Court by John Goodall with Thomas Woodcock

Chapter 6: The ‘posie if the kinge’: Heraldry in Henry VIII’s England and in the 1547 Inventory by Maria Hayward

Chapter 7: Naval Ordnance, Munitions and Ships by Alexzandra Hildred

Glossary
Bibliography
Index

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