Again, under Charles I, in the appeal of the Company to the Crown, leave to use the mark is requested “because divers cutlers, smythes, tynkers & other botchers of arms by their unskillfulness have utterly spoiled many armes, armours, &c.” The Company seems to have existed during the reign of Edward II, but was not then incorporated, and with the exception of the document transcribed in Appendix A, there is but little evidence of their existence before the date of 31st Henry VI, in which year a Charter of Incorporation was granted. This deals mostly with questions relating to religious observances, the gild-chapel and like matters. A report to the Court of Aldermen, dated 20th Eliz. (1578), as to right of search for armour, etc., states that “the Armourers did shewe us that in Kinge Edward the Second his time, the Lord Maior and his bretheren did then graunte the serche unto the Armourers.” As has been noticed before, the fact that armour plates were expensive and difficult to forge will account for the scarcity of examples of the defensive equipment up to the sixteenth century. Either the suit was remade or, having been cast aside, it was utilized by the common soldier as well as might be. It was only when the age of the firearm was reached that armour was left in its perfect state and was not improved upon. We have therefore but little to show whether the English armourers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were more or less expert than their foreign rivals, but, from other examples of metal-work that remain to us, we are forced to the conclusion that the foreigner was our superior. At the same time we find on more than one occasion that the English armourer claims to equal his foreign rival; but whether these claims were ever proved we are unable to decide without actual examples of the craft work or documentary evidence. In Appendix J is printed an appeal from Capt. John Martin in 1624 for leave to import German “platers” to teach English armourers, with the hope that this will establish a home trade and will stop the import of foreign work. At the same time the very fact of this request shows that the craft in England in the reign of James I was not in a very flourishing condition. On the other hand, in 1590 the Armourers of London petitioned Queen Elizabeth to purchase only home products, because they can furnish her with “farre better armors than that wch cometh from beyond the seas.” [Illustration: FIG. 63. Design on manifer of suit made for Henry, Prince of Wales, by Pickering, _circ._ 1611. Windsor Castle. Half-size (from a rubbing).]