King henry viii founded the royal armour workshop at greenwich palace in 1515 top rank craftsmen were brought in from germany to greenwich and the foot combat armour is the first surviving example of their work the suit is extremely unusual encasing the whole of the body in armour and leaving no gaps at all there are only 2 or 3 other suits of armour in the world that cover so much of the body the suit of armour was produced for the king39s use at the field of cloth of gold the original