Royal Armoury
The collection of the Royal Armoury has its origins in the provisions of the will of King Philip II
The collection of the Royal Armoury has its origin in the provisions of the will of King Philip II, who ordered that it not be sold in a public auction after his death, as was the custom, to pay the earthly and spiritual debts of the deceased. This act bound the Armoury to his son, the future Philip III, and his successors. This decision also implied that the collection was considered as inalienable from the Crown of Spain, and today it is considered one of the treasures of Spain's Historical Heritage.
There were two reasons for Philip II's decision to keep this set of weapons together. Firstly, the Armoury had great symbolic and sentimental value, both because it was the collection that best showed the power of the House of Austria, and because it contained the weapons belonging to his father, the Emperor Charles V, whom he admired. Secondly, it was an exceptional collection of deluxe armour and weapons of great material value that needed to be properly preserved. His successors enriched it with parts of their personal armouries and other weapons of diverse origin.
The decision to give preferential treatment to the armoury over the rest of the collections dates back at least to the death of Charles V on 21 September 1558. At the end of 1559, Philip II had already informed the executors of the emperor's will of his decision to buy the imperial armoury at an advantageous price. The establishment of the court in Madrid from 1560 also prompted an order to raise a building for the Armoury in front of the Alcazar and next to the stables. It survived until 1884 when it was closed, but it gave its name to the current Plaza de la Armería.
The main nucleus of the current collection corresponds to the armoury of Emperor Charles V, who had conserved the armour and weapons belonging to his father, King Philip I of Castile, and his grandfathers, King Ferdinand II and Emperor Maximilian I of Austria. To these, Philip II added his personal armoury and the medieval weapons from the Trastamara royal treasury in the Alcazar of Segovia. The collection therefore covers the whole of the 16th century, a period when Europe was in the midst of the Renaissance and during which the Spanish crown dominated the continent's political life. This meant that orders were placed with the main European workshops, which were mainly located in southern Germany and northern Italy, both under the control of the Spanish crown. The most outstanding of these workshops were those led by the Helmschmid, Grosschedel and Negroli families. Along with the objects for personal use, he also kept military trophies such as those of Pavia (1525), Mühlberg (1547) and Lepanto (1571); the diplomatic gifts of the Italian Dukes of Mantua and Urbino, and those sent from Japan to Philip II in his capacity as King of Portugal.
Although the collection's fame lies with the armouries of Charles V and Philip II, the reigns of Philip III and Philip IV (1605-1621-1665) also contributed one of the most important 17th century collections, comprising weapons in royal service and diplomatic or family gifts. Amongst them are those sent in 1604 and 1614 by James I of England and especially the luxurious gift sent in 1603 by Duke Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy.
During the reign of Philip IV, improvements to firearms meant that armour lost all the importance it had had in former times. There are two valuable suits from this last moment of splendour of the art of armour, one given by his aunt, Princess Isabella Clara Eugenia, when she was governor of the Netherlands, and another from her brother the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand when he was governor of Milan. The reigns of Philip III and Philip IV increased the collection of firearms and bladed weapons, especially those forged in the city of Toledo.
After the arrival of the House of Bourbon, the collection continued to be enriched with personal weapons, military trophies and diplomatic gifts, particularly those sent from Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria between 1766 and 1770. In the 17th century, Madrid acquired an important role as one of the main European centres for the production of luxury weapons. In the first decades of the 19th century, the rise of the Basque centres of Eibar and Placencia de las Armas replaced Madrid as Spain's leading manufacturing centres, and have retained this position to this day.
In 1884 a fire destroyed the armoury built by Philip II. Alfonso XII (1857-1875-1885) ordered the construction of its current setting, a building that was completed after his death by his wife, Queen Regent Maria Christina of Habsburg.