An Important Backplate

An Important Backplate
An Important Backplate
An Important Backplate
An Important Backplate
An Important Backplate
A Rare French 'Toiras' Pikemans Back-Plate, Circa 1625
£0.00
SOLD
ID: 991
Made of steel, shaped to the back and base of the neck, and with an out-turned flange along the bottom, the main edges with plain bold turns bordered by incised double lines, etched with name 'Toiras' centrally above the bottom flange  and retaining the rear ends of the leather shoulder-straps, each covered with a riveted steel plate bordered by incised double lines. 

Provenance: 
Tower of London Armouries
The inscription on this back-plate refers to Jean de Saint-Bonnet, marchal de Toiras (1585-1636), a distinguished French general in the service of Louis XIII, and later the Duke of Savoy. In 1623 he was made governor of Fort Louis, in the port of La Rochelle on the French Atlantic coast, then a Huguenot centre. As a result of a Huguenot rising in 1625, the King went to war with them, and in 1627 his forces besieged La Rochelle. The rebels were supported by Charles I of England, who sent a relief force under the command of the Duke of Buckingham, which landed and occupied the nearby island of Re. It was eventually heavily defeated by the French royal forces, as was another expedition sent in 1628. Toiras played a prominent part in the defeat of the rebels, and the pieces under discussion, which, according to C.J. Ffoulkes were captured 'from a French ship', must have been intended for his troops. 

The Tower Armouries' Remains (inventories) for 1627 and 1688 contain the following entries relating to the Toiras pieces:
1627
'Armes of the Toryas Provisions Backes 236 Brestes 229'
1688
'Armes of Toiras Provon 339 Backs at 8s a pce, 239 Breasts at 8s a pce.'

The number had been reduced to two hundred and thirteen backs and breasts by the time Ffoulkes published his inventory of the Tower Armouries in 1916 (Nos. III. 184-396). A number of these, of which this back-plate is presumably one were sold through Sotheby's in the 1960s. 

C. J. Ffoulkes, Inventory and Survey of the Armouries of the Tower of London, 2 vold. 1916, I, p. 153; 

A.R. Dufty & W. Reid, European Armour in the Tower of London, 1968, p. 9 & pl. CXX

Another reference to these armours appears in Blackmores book 'Arms & Armour of the English Civil Wars';
"...Another indication of the early decline of the use of tassets in a series of pike armours in the Royal Armouries known as the Toiras armours. These were captured from the French in 1627 and are stamped on the breast and backplates with the name of the French Marshall Toiras. Instead of tassets and breastplates have a deep flange at the waist to give some protection..."

D. Blackmore (2003) Arms & Armour of the English Civil War. Royal Armouries. London. 

Dimensions:
Height: 17 Inches (43 cm)

19390

 

You may also be interested in...

RESERVED
A Piece of 15th Century European Mail
A Piece of 15th Century European Mail
£250.00
More Info
RESERVED
A 17th Century Gorget
A 17th Century Gorget
£0.00
More Info