Augsburg, 1556

Desiderius Helmschmid dressed and ate. He had work to do after noon with the city council - the reformers were causing trouble once again, the town’s peace and Charles’ aside. Desiderius said a brief prayer to the Virgin that they would not vex him too much this day. Desiderius had few true troubles, but he did have concerns. He was concerned for his city, divided by creed and now under a new Emperor. He was concerned for Christendom, beset by heretics on the one hand and the Turks on the other. And he was concerned for himself, though he did not like to think of it.

After all, what cause had he for concern? There was a new Emperor and a new King in Spain and Naples. But they were the brother and son to his greatest patron, Charles. Charles had been a man who had loved his family’s work so much that he had taken it with him to retire to the monastery in Yuste. His Imperial Majesty had esteemed Desiderius’s father Kolman so much he had always given him the bestcommissions, invited him to Spain more than once, and gifted him thousands of florins. And were the new king and the new Emperor not of the same line which had patronized his family’s workshops for three generations, the house of Habsburg? Desiderius asked his daughter to fetch him the book of his family’s greatest works, the album which showed his father’s works and those of his grandfather Lorenz. He thanked her and took the volume from her, a folio bound in calf. He had nowhere to be this morning - no business with the council until after noon, and no commissions for his workshop at this time. Thus he sat by his fire and leafed through his family’s great works.

He looked through his grandfather’s works for the Emperor Frerderick. He had no memory of Lorenz, but he knew his work - it spanned the days from the old fluted style to the new rounded style, from sallets to armets and close helms. Lorenz had changed with the times, and always adopted the latest fashions and techniques - etching, embossing, fire-gilding. He had perfected a way to fire-gild steel so as not to lose its temper (by gilding it as you tempered it after the quench). His work had made him wealthy and beloved of Emperors and Dukes. Desiderius turned the pages through the works made for Maximilian by his father and grandfather - magnificent harnesses for war, heavy harnesses for his Imperial Majesty’s beloved jousts, and fantastic helmets for parades - embossed cunningly and gilt. Maximilian had had many armourers, and even founded his armoury in Innsbruck with the Seusenhofers, but he had always patronized the Helmschmids and Augsburg. Desiderius himself hardly remembered Emperor Maximilian. Kolman had always said that Maximilian was a true German, and that his grandson was from everywhere at once, a man for all Christendom. For his part Desiderius had always thought Charles was rather Flemish or Brabantine, but he supposed he did not know what to expect of a Universal Christian Prince - save that he would act like someone in a book by Erasmus.

Whatever Charles was, he was not a Spaniard, not like his son. Desiderius did not need the book to remember his works for Phillip, for he had done his finest work the Prince of Asturias, now the King - a great harness with sunken and gilt bands, etched by Hopfer, a cunning anime armour embossed and damascened, complete with a shield. With that Desiderius had beaten Negroli at his own game. And unlike Negroli he could make harnesses for war as well, and temper them too.

Desiderius rose and kissed his daughter on the cheek and walked out into the street. He would take the air. There were no commissions yet, it was true, but Phillip would need armour. He would have tournaments in Spain and wars in Flanders and Italy and Tunisia, against Frenchmen and Turks. His empire was vast and he had many enemies, which meant many wars. And wars were always good for business, until the Last Judgement came and people like Desiderius had no business left at all in the New Jerusalem - perhaps a parade armour for the Archangel Michael. As Desiderius walked through the streets of Augsburg he needed no reminder that he was the greatest armourer in this city of great armourers. He was the first among the nearly two dozen master armourers, the wealthiest, best-read and most refined of a line of master artists, the heir to his own illustrious house just as Phillip was heir to his. Business would come.