Armour then underwent a great change about the end of the fifteenth century, during the reign of the Emperor Maximilian (died 1519), when fluted armour (_armatura spigolata_) came into fashion. The change was radical and abrupt, being obviously suggested by the civil dress of the period. The transition was so sharp as to convey the idea that the change was by order. The beautiful Gothic lines, ridgings, and indented outlines disappear, and the form becomes stiffer and less elegant in every way. The breastplate is shorter and more globular, and fringed at the top by a projecting piping; the more graceful épaulières change into pauldrons, often of unequal size, and the pretty rondelles become unnecessary for the time being; but they were resumed at a later period. Coudières and genouillières are smaller, while tuilles are replaced by tassets of laminated plates. Sollerets became very broad and clumsy, in absolute contrast to the “souliers à la poulaine.” It seems in every way probable that this style of armour, though like the “Gothic,” so closely associated with Germany, may have had its origin in Italy; for the Germans in contemporary writings call it “Milanese.” Henry VIII. ordered many suits at Florence. The helmet, the armet, and a little later the burgonet, are nearly as much associated with “Maximilian” armour as the sallad is with the “Gothic”; and the gorget proper replaces the mentonnière, or in other words, the bavier of the armet took the place of the neck and chin-piece.[32] Another prominent feature is the general use of pikeguards, which stand out at the head of the pauldrons to protect the neck of the wearer from pike thrusts. There are some fine suits of this armour in the Tower of London, presented by the Emperor Maximilian to our Harry the Eighth. An illustration is given in Fig. 20 of a typical suit in the collection of Prince Carl of Prussia, now in the Zeughaus, Berlin. The details are as follow, and bear out the general descriptions of the class already given in these notes:--The suit is fluted throughout, except the jambs, which are nearly always plain. The helmet is the armet, and this example sufficiently indicates the date of the armour; both form and workmanship are good. Instead of the large “Gothic” mentonnière, there is a gorget and the bavier. The pauldrons, which are uneven in size, are surmounted by pikeguards; the left pauldron is the larger. These pieces consist of front and back plates, an innovation of the sixteenth century. The cuirass is shorter than the later Gothic form, more globular, and cut straight at the top with a rope-like rim. The backplate terminates in a garde-de-reine of three lames. Gauntlets are of the mitten type, with narrower lames than in the form immediately preceding, and there is a twisted ridge across the knuckles. The coudières are sharply rounded over the elbow joint with bivalve guards. The taces are in four lames, and the tassets buckled on; there is the