For about 400 years, visitors have come to the Tower of London to see the world's oldest museum - The Line of Kings. This attraction is a remarkable display of armours worn by kings and princes of England. Today the Line of Kings is displayed in the White Tower for visitors to enjoy. Join us for part 1 of this 5-part series exploring the story of this fascinating and unique attraction at the Tower of London.
The Line of Kings is a stunning parade of royal armour first created in the last quarter of the 17th century. Figures wearing gleaming plate armour sit on top of wooden horses, giving visitors a vivid impression of the Tower's past. The collection is currently on display in the White Tower, but the inspiration for the Line of Kings can be found down river in Greenwich, London.
A royal palace existed in Greenwich from the 15th century up until the 17th century. Inventories taken of Greenwich Palace storerooms under Henry VIII indicate that wooden horses existed there by at least 1547. These would have armour mounted on them. By 1629, there were twelve horses recorded in an inventory of objects at Greenwich Palace.
On 5th April 1650, George Payler, Surveyor of the Ordnance, recorded the storehouse at Greenwich Palace included:
Wooden horses with Statues of Men mounted on them, most of them armed with equipage for Horse.
It is unlikely that there was a display of royal armour at the Tower during the period after the execution of King Charles I in 1649, known as the Commonwealth. However, it is thought that many of the essential ingredients of the Line of Kings were brought from Greenwich to the Tower. This was part of a re-organisation of the national armoury.
In 1650-51, the Ordnance officers decided that Edward Annesley should move the old armour from Greenwich Palace to the Tower. Some historians suggest that the wooden horses may also have been brought to London at that time, although no surviving records confirm this. If that was not the case, then those at Greenwich may have been disposed of and a new set made for the Tower. No evidence has been found which proves which of these explanations is correct. There are also no known records of wooden horses at the Tower before 1652.
On 25th March 1652, a young Dutch diplomatic visitor called Lodewijck Huygens visited the displays in the Old Ordnance Storehouses while looking around the Tower. Huygens wrote about the Armouries in his diary, saying there was enough armour stored to equip 10,000 men. This was in addition to:
...two suits of armour worn by Henry VII and two worn by Henry VIII themselves; they were not very costly though. Another remarkable suit of armour here belonged to John of Gaunt, a renowned warrior of a few hundred years ago, who had been more than a head taller than any person of our time...
Some of Henry VIII's armours have survived to the modern day and are still on display at the Tower of London and the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds. While many of his armours were made to impress with the splendour of their design, others were more practical. Henry VIII's foot combat armour, uniquely, was made for full body protection. Find out more about this astonishing example of armour engineering.
With the collapse of the Commonwealth, Charles II was invited to return to England and restore the monarchy. On his restoration, Charles II made an effort to retrieve royal property which had been sold off or disposed of. This included arms and armour from the armouries.
On 4th August 1660, Charles II visited the Tower of London where he ate a meal with Sir John Robinson, the Lieutenant of the Tower. The king requested an audit of all arms, armour, and tools that were at the Tower and other royal sites. Two weeks later, William Legge, Master of the Armouries, was given £100 towards the cost of making a list of all the goods belonging to the Office of Armoury.
The report recorded that in the Lieutenant’s Hall at the Tower, there were ten statues of men dressed in armour sitting on wooden horses. These included Henry VII, Edward III, and William the Conqueror. Other prominent figures included Prince Henry Stuart, Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, and the Earl of Leicester.
This is the earliest evidence of all the figures making up a Horse Armoury at the Tower. However, the inventory raises a problem. Records suggest that the Lieutenant's Hall did not have a high enough ceiling at this date to have housed figures on horseback. Could there have been an error in the inventory? Or is it possible that at this time the display was incomplete?
One thing that the inventory makes very clear is that in the 1660s, the display was made up of a mixture of monarchs and noblemen – hardly a ‘Line of Kings’! There’s no evidence that the display even had that name yet.
By 1660, the Tower of London was no longer used as a royal palace but was still an important crown possession. The Tower held several functions, including as a fortress, a prison, an armoury, and the Mint. Yet over the next 25 years, the Tower became a more popular visitor attraction.
Visitors could enjoy the Royal Menagerie (or zoo), the Crown Jewels, and the Tower Armouries. One such visitor was Willem Schellinks, a Dutch artist who had only arrived in London the previous day. On 15th August 1661, Schellinks took a guided tour of the Tower and described:
...the body armour of several Kings and their horses’ armour are lined up in a row, of very ancient and uncommon fashion, but all well looked after and kept polished. According to their keeper, there is the armour of Prince Henry, King Henry VIII, King Henry VII, Edward III, Charles I, Edward IV, Henry VI, the Duke of Gloucester, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and that of William the Conqueror.
It is likely that Schellinks made a mistake and wrote ‘Duke of Gloucester’ when he was shown the figure of the Earl of Leicester. If that is the case, then his list exactly matches the 1660 inventory.
However, over the next 25 years the Tower also developed as one of London’s top visitor attractions for those who could afford the admission. During the 1660s, the politician and writer Samuel Pepys was a frequent visitor to the Tower on both business and pleasure. Pepys lived and worked nearby at the Navy Board. In 1666, General Patrick Gordon, recorded in his diary that he spent £1 and 13 shillings visiting the Tower of London; a huge sum for the time.
The Tower also attracted foreign visitors who could appreciate the craftsmanship of British arms and armour. Or not, as the case may be. On 23rd April 1669, Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, recorded:
The tower also contains the armoury, in which various sorts of arms are preserved, but they are neither very numerous nor very valuable; among these are some of Henry VIII; of the Duke of Lancaster and of the Earl of Suffolk.
The French mapmaker and traveller, Albert Jouvin de Rochefort, was more impressed. He wrote of his visit in 1672:
Our conductor showed us… some (armour) which had been worn by the different kings of England during their wars; they were all gilded and engraved in the utmost perfection.
Throughout Charles II’s reign the Horse Armoury, as it was called by 1675, seems to have been an important part of the Tower displays of arms and armour. Inventories of the period list ten mounted figures, but changes to the attraction had begun.
A new wooden horse was commissioned from the carpenter Thomas Cass in 1669. One wooden horse and two suits of armour were sent to Windsor Castle in 1681. The horses were repainted by Valentine Bayley in 1682-83. Yet the king would not live long enough to see any further developments. Charles II died in February 1685, and the crown passed to his younger brother, James II.
Find out more about the Line of Kings in our online collection
Far from being a static display, the Line of Kings has undergone changes to reflect changing political landscapes. In part 2 of this series documenting this remarkable attraction, we explore how the Line was used to cement a change in monarchs and how it grew in popularity to become a must-see display for tourists.
The Line of Kings is displayed in the worlds oldest museum, where visitors have admired the arms and armour of English and British monarchs for centuries. From suits of armour designed for young princes to chest plates engraved with declarations of love and union, the Line of Kings is a fascinating look into not only strength of arms but the projection of power etched into metal. The Line of Kings is currently located in the White Tower. Admission is free to visitors with their Tower of London ticket.
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