Children’s Armor in the Armor Court

Four historically significant suits of armor from the Hofjagd- und Rüstkammer, the imperial Habsburg armory, which is now part of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, are on display in the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Armor Court for the next three years. The armory’s important collections date back to around 1500, when the Habsburgs, who had held the throne of the Holy Roman Empire without interruption since 1440, were at the height of their power. This collaboration with the CMA has gone on since 2014 thanks to the generous support of the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Foundation.

The current loans from the court hunting and armory collection focus on an aspect that has received little attention to date: children’s armor and weapons. Any nobleman who wanted to become a good (tournament) fighter had to start training at an early age. Military education therefore played an important role in the upbringing of boys. 

In the Middle Ages, noblemen generally had the option of a knightly or ecclesiastical career, the latter especially for younger sons. From around the age of seven, boys were educated by other men. In early adolescence, sons left their homes to be prepared for future roles in knightly society as squires in the company of peers at important courts. The focus in these roles was on training and practicing physical abilities and skills that were essential—of almost existential importance, even—to members of the armored ruling class. This training primarily concerned the handling of weapons and horses. 

The first stage of this education was practice as an archer, before an adolescent knight received intensive physical and riding training. In the aristocratic milieu, young nobles often had knightly tutors at their sides. As a boy’s physical strength grew, he familiarized himself with actual knightly weapons. Physical fitness through sporting exercise and, in particular, the training of knightly riding and weaponry techniques was fundamental, both for hunting and for tournaments and battles.

As squires, the young men not only had to train in physical skills on their way to becoming knights but also learn the norms and values of chivalric courtly culture. Traditional, heroic virtues of warrior nobility were expanded to include traditions of courtliness, with core values of moderation, constancy, gentleness, and, in particular, generosity, as well as cheerfulness, kindness, graciousness, and pleasant appearance. 

As a central manifestation of chivalric society, a tournament offered individuals who had undergone knightly training the opportunity to achieve honor and glory as an important forum and instrument of noble communication and self-assurance. Here, friendships could be made, marriages arranged, and knightly and courtly behavior displayed. Tournaments also served as practice for war, and their social, cultural, and political functions increasingly came into focus in the late Middle Ages. Tournaments exerted a special pull on nobles from an early age. The squire period ended with the ceremonial induction into knighthood, which was often performed by the lord of the respective court or another high-ranking person.

The importance of training as a knight is documented today above all by numerous children’s suits of armor, of which the Vienna collections have several outstanding examples. Most of these can be traced back to specific members of the House of Habsburg. The suits show how boys outgrew their armor as they aged and needed new, larger pieces. Depending on rank and wealth, in seasons of growth, either a completely new suit of armor was made or an existing older suit of armor was reused or purchased.

Since the opening of the CMA, the collection of weapons and armor has played a particularly important role for children and young people. As early as the 1920s, special events were offered at the museum for children to practice with medieval weapons, just like the budding medieval knights whose suits are on view now thanks to the Hofjagd- und Rüstkammer. In this installation, a few pieces from the CMA’s collection of children’s armor are shown alongside these magnificent loans.