THE FALL OF THE KINGDOM OF GRANADA

These figures are largely based upon late 15th carved panels illustrating the conquest of the Kingdom of Granada in the choir of Toledo Cathedral
Grenadine infantryBody armour seems to have been much rarer among the troops of Granada than among their Christian foes, though salet helmets were widespread. A few men also wore armour which, like the helmets, appears to have been pf spanish or Italian origin. This man has a helmet which has been decorated locally. His breast and back plates are from a captured Spanish armour and are worn over a coat-of-plates. The long-hafted ball and chain may have been a siege weapon while his slightly curved sabre probably reflected Moroccan or even Ottoman Turkish influence on these last Grenadine armies.

 
moors Grenadine urban militiamanIt seems that every able-bodied man took part in the last desperate defence of the kingdom of Granada. This wealthy but unarmoured citizen wears civilian clothes that indicate just how different, and indeed how ‘Spanish’, Granada’s costume had become compared to that of North Africa. Equally remarkable is the fact that such fighters still used slings at a time when their foes had adopted firearms.

Spanish hand-gunner

This figure illistrates the degree of modernisation seen in the armies of late 15th Castile and Aragon, now effectively united under Ferdinand and Isabella. Italian influence predominated and it was troops such as these who were soon to conquer a vast empire in the Americas. He wears a plated cuirass, including its laminated fauld, under a fashionably ‘puffed’ jacket and he is armed with an effective matchlock gun plus sword and buckler.