In this essay, the development of the Armour-smith craftsmanship in Sweden at the court of the Vasa kings, in the years 1540 – 1564, is described focusing on the royal armours commissioned in Sweden and abroad by the Vasa kings in person. This essay interprets the ways in which the Vasa kings achieved brilliant clothing and bodily adornment in order to confirm seigniorial status in the eyes of their peers and other subjects. It displays the political ambitions and strategy employed by Gustav Vasa and Erik XIV in particular, when creating a royal image through large investments and acquisitions of foreign arms and armour masterpieces, as in employing European craftsmen. As their peers, the Vasa kings did not limit their use of protective garments to the battlefield but these were worn during public spectacles and parades celebrating jousts, feast days, aristocratic weddings and entries of various sorts, thus decorations and etchings reflecting Swedish mythology, history and political symbolism. This dissertation also highlights the development of Sweden’s first Royal armour-smith production centre in Arboga and its aim of developing Sweden’s self-sustained production of arms and armour. Furthermore, it also displays the Vasa kings role as mecenes through a strategy of selective acquisitions and commissions of works of art, including arms and armour, which came to shape renaissance taste and etiquette in Sweden.