The most outstanding armour is that of Henry VIII, presented to him by Maximilian I It is a superb specimen of the work of Conrad Seusenhofer, and the helmet is without a doubt the finest example of the armourer's craft in existence. There are other armours made for Henry VIII at different stages of his life, with noticeable differences in waist measurement; and panoplies of Charles I, James II, and of the Royal Princes Henry and Charles.
There are also three splendid suits - unfortunately injured by energetic over cleaning in the Dark Ages - which represent the school of Greenwich Armourers, a corporation which will compare with any craftsmen in Europe at any period. Of these the two principal artists were Pickering and the mysterious "Jacobe," subsequently identified as Jacobe Henry Halder, a naturalized British subject, member of the Armourers Company of London, and employed by Queen Elizabeth I from the year 1560 for nearly 40 years.
For many years the Armouries contained only Royal and service armours which had been stored in the Tower from the Restoration, but in 1855 a number of suits and a large number of weapons were purchased at the Bernal sale, and since then little has been added to the collection.
The year 1927, however, witnessed a notable expansion, for the committee of the Royal Artillery Institution have transferred the finest specimens of armour from the Rotunda Collection, Woolwich, to the Armouries, as they considered it was a duty to make these splendid pieces available to the large public which visits the Tower rather than retain them at Woolwich, where few visitors penetrate. This transfer includes the famous Brocas helm, purchased at the Brocas sale in 1834, undoubtedly the finest English tilting helm in existence.
There are also a very fine suit of fluted armour, a large number of swords, staff weapons, and highly decorated firearms, which were acquired by the State in 1815 and since that date have been exhibited in the Rotunda.
About the year 1855 General Lefroy, the compiler of the first catalogue of the Rotunda, discovered a number of Venetian sallades and portions of early Gothic armour at Rhodes, which he brought to England. These are notable additions to the Tower collection, as they are to a large extent in their original condition, while those of the same period which already exist in the Armouries have been cleaned and polished in past times almost out of recognition.