Review of 'The Tower Armoury in the Fourteenth Century'

Abstract

This book focuses on the records of the Privy Wardrobe, a department of state that was responsible for supplying the king with arms and armour in the Middle Ages. The accounts of the keepers of the Privy Wardrobe survive from the 1320s to the early 15th century and contain a wealth of information about arms, armour and other items in their possession. This is due to the inclusion of detailed inventories, which makes it possible to trace long-term changes over time. The potential of these documents was recognised as long ago as the early 20th century, when the outstanding administrative historian of the Middle Ages, T. F. Tout, drew upon these records to write a seminal article on early gunpowder weapons.(1)