Book Recommendation - The Last Knight

Hi All,

Just bought The Last Knight: The Art, Armor, and Ambition of Maximilian I, the catalogue, a somewhat paltry term for a massive and lavish hardback, to the Met's exhibition of Maximilan I's armour and related artifacts.

I've seen some of these pieces in the flesh before but  his personal collection of battle, tournament and ceremenoial armour was hugh.

It contains numerous images of his personal and contemporary armour, and related images such as portraits, Maximilan's self commissioned and self-publicising semi-autobiography - check out the Freyal tounement pictures, and lots of Burgundian and Hapsburg related images.

These are accompanied by a series of essays whose core argument is that he used armour and the image of the knight as part of his public diplomacy campaign.

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Hampden and Chalgrove

Following up from my last post, I cycled past the Battle of Chalgrove site a few weeks ago. Herees the monument to it and Hampden. You may be able to make out his coat of arms.