Charles F$ Saddle

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 211, 7 September 1936, Page 3

Charles F$ Saddle

USED BY KING EDWARD

When King Edward VIII. took part in tho Trooping of tho Colour ccrcnionv recently and later reviewed tho

Grenadier, Irish, Scots and V elsh

Guards ou the Horse Guards Parade, he bestrode a saddle that was utterly unlike tkoso ou the mounts of tho officers who surrounded him. ''Only oue paper, in its photographs of the scene, identified it by a caption: “He rode a fine bay, which was saddled with the richly embroidered State saddle made for Charles 1.” Nothing is said, however, about it# accessories —bridle, snaffle and martingale—which the photographs reveal us Aioorish, save for tho missing blinkers, which ouco bore the Stuart arms, amt hoods of the stirrups. Distincllty seventeenth century English, however, were the bearskin holsters which hung from each side of the pommel, aud had once held, if they did not then, the gold-mounted horse pistols, a present from Charles I.’a chum, the Duke of Buckingham. This saddle is very conspicuous in the pictures showing the ill-fated Stuart King v'atcliing from an eminence the battle of Naseby or observing other engagements between his troops and the New Alodel Army of Parliament under Oliver Cromwell, in the campaign of 1645. If Edward VIII. actually made use of Charles l.’s saddle, aud not a copy, tlio fact is an ccomium on the durability of Cordovan leather. When Prince Charles, accompanied by tho Duke of Buckingham, went to tho ALadrid Court, in 1023, to sue lor the hand of the Infanta Maria, daughter of Philip 111. of Spain, they amazed the grandees by Their horsemanship, although their saddles were little more than sheets of cowhide strapped to the horse’s back. When they returned to Loudon, after the rupture of the potential nuptials, the .Duke carried with him a roll ot Cordovan goatskin and some designs ot the Aioorish saddles then in voguo at, the Court of Aladrid. The Duke is said to have modified these designs, particularly in the matter of the holsters, and turned the result of his artistry and the pelts over to John Wymcss, saddler to his Majesty James 1., with orders for two saddles, oue for his Royal friend and the other for- himself. The subsequent history of the Duke’s saddio is not known. There is no record of it after his assassiuation in IG2S. But tho other saddle may be plainly seen in tho equestrian portraits of Charles, both before and after his succession in 1G25, and down to tho time of his execution nearly a quarter of a century later. Since then it is believed to have reposed in tho museum of the armoury at Buckingham Palace, although, according to some accounts, it is the Duke’s saddle which has been, preserved.