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Title: The History of Chivalry; Or, Knighthood and Its Times, Volume 1 (of 2)

Author: Charles Mills

Release date: June 17, 2012 [eBook #40021]

Language: English

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  The History of Chivalry
  or
  Knighthood and its times.


  By CHARLES MILLS, Esqr.
  Author of the History of the Crusades


  IN TWO VOLUMES.

  Vol: I.


  [Illustration: Engraved by A. Le Petit
  from a sketch by R. W. Sievier.]


  London.
  Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green
  MDCCCXXV.




PREFACE.


The propriety of my writing a History of Chivalry, as a companion to my
History of the Crusades, was suggested to me by a friend whose
acquaintance with middle-age lore forms but a small portion of his
literary attainments, and whose History of Italy shows his ability of
treating, as well as his skill in discovering, subjects not hitherto
discussed with the fulness which their importance merits.[1]

The works of Menestrier and Colombiere sleep in the dust of a few ancient
libraries; and there are only two other books whose express and entire
object is a delineation of the Institutions of chivalry. The first and
best known is the French work called "Mémoires sur l'ancienne Chevalerie;
considérée comme un Etablissement Politique et Militaire. Par M. de la
Curne de Sainte Palaye, de l'Académie Françoise," &c. 2 tom. 12mo. Paris,
1759. The last half, however, of the second volume does not relate to
chivalry, and therefore the learned Frenchman cannot be charged with
treating his subject at very great length.[2] It was his purpose to
describe the education which accomplished the youth for the distinction of
knighthood, and this part of his work he has performed with considerable
success. But he failed in his next endeavour, that of painting the martial
games of chivalry, for nothing can be more unsatisfactory than his account
of jousts and tournaments. As he wished to inform his readers of the use
which was made in the battle field of the valour, skill, and experience of
knights, a description of some of the extraordinary and interesting
battles of the middle ages might have been expected. Here also
disappointment is experienced; neither can any pleasure be derived from
perusing his examination of the causes which produced the decline and
extinction of chivalry, and his account of the inconveniences which
counterbalanced the advantages of the establishment.

Sainte Palaye was a very excellent French antiquarian; but the limited
scope of his studies disqualified him from the office of a general
historian of chivalry. The habits of his mind led him to treat of
knighthood as if it had been the ornament merely of his own country. He
very rarely illustrates his principles by the literature of any other
nation, much less did he attempt to trace their history through the
various states of Europe. He has altogether kept out of sight many
characteristic features of his subject. Scarcely any thing is advanced
about ancient armour; not a word on the religious and military orders; and
but a few pages, and those neither pleasing nor correct, on woman and
lady-love. The best executed part of his subject regards, as I have
already observed, the education of knights; and he has scattered up and
down his little volume and a half many curious notices of ancient manners.

The other work is written in the German language, and for that reason it
is but very little known in this country. It is called Ritterzeit und
Ritterwesen, (two volumes octavo, Leipzig, 1823,) and is the substance of
a course of lectures on chivalry delivered by the author, Mr. Büsching, to
his pupils of the High School at Breslau. The style of the work is the
garrulous, slovenly, ungrammatical style which lecturers, in all
countries, and upon all subjects, think themselves privileged to use. A
large portion of the book is borrowed from Sainte Palaye; much of the
remainder relates to feudalism and other matters distinct from chivalry:
but when the writer treats of the state of knighthood in Germany I have
found his facts and observations of very great value.

Attention to the subjects of the middle ages of Europe has for many years
been growing among us. It was first excited by Warton's history of our
national verse, and Percy's edition of the Relics of ancient English
Poetry. The romances of chivalry, both in prose and metre, and the
numberless works on the Troubadour, and every other description of
literature during the middle ages which have been published within the
last few years, have sustained the interest. The poems of Scott convinced
the world that the chivalric times of Europe can strike the moral
imagination as powerfully and pleasingly in respect of character, passion,
and picturesqueness of effect, as the heroic ages of Greece; and even very
recently the glories of chivalry have been sung by a poetess whom Ariosto
himself would have been delighted to honour.[3] Still, however, no attempt
has been hitherto made to describe at large the institutions of
knighthood, the foundation of all that elegant superstructure of poetry
and romance which we admire, and to mark the history of chivalry in the
various countries of Europe. Those institutions have, indeed, been allowed
a few pages in our Encyclopædias; and some of the sketches of them are
drawn with such boldness and precision of outline that we may regret the
authors did not present us with finished pictures. Our popular historians
have but hastily alluded to the subject; for they were so much busied with
feudalism and politics, that they could afford but a small space for the
play of the lighter graces of chivalry.

For a description, indeed, of antique manners, our materials are not so
ample as for that of their public lives. But still the subject is not
without its witnesses. The monkish chroniclers sometimes give us a glimpse
of the castles of our ancestors. Many of the knights in days of yore had
their biographers; and, for the most interesting time of chivalry, we
possess an historian, who, for vividness of delineation, kindliness of
feeling, and naïveté of language, is the Herodotus of the middle ages.

"Did you ever read Froissart?"

"No," answered Henry Morton.

"I have half a mind," rejoined Claverhouse, "to contrive that you should
have six months' imprisonment, in order to procure you that pleasure. His
chapters inspire me with more enthusiasm than even poetry itself."

Froissart's[4] history extends from the year 1316 to 1400. It was begun by
him when he was twenty years old, at the command of his dear lord and
master, Sir Robert of Namur, Lord of Beaufort. The annals from 1326 to
1356 are founded on the Chronicles compiled by him whom he calls "The
Right Reverend, discreet, and sage Master John la Bele, sometime canon in
St. Lambertis of Liege, who with good heart and due diligence did his true
devoir in writing his book; and heard of many fair and noble adventures
from his being well beloved, and of the secret counsel of the Lord Sir
John of Hainault." Froissart corrected all this borrowed matter on the
information of the barons and knights of his time regarding their
families' gestes and prowesses. He is the chronicler both of political
events and of chivalric manners. Of his merits in the first part of his
character it falls not within my province to speak. For the office of
historian of chivalry no man could present such fair pretensions. His
father being a herald-painter, he was initiated in his very early years
into that singular form of life which he describes with such picturesque
beauty. "Well I loved," as he says of his youth, in one of his poems, "to
see dances and carolling, and to hear the songs of minstrels and tales of
glee. It pleased me to attach myself to those who took delight in hounds
and hawks. I was wont to toy with my fair companions at school, and
methought I had the art well to win the grace of maidens."--"My ears
quickened at the sound of opening the wine-flask, for I took great
pleasure in drinking, and in fair array, and in fresh and delicate viands.
I loved to see (as is reason) the early violets, and the white and red
roses, and also chambers brilliantly lighted; dances and late vigils, and
fair beds for my refreshment; and for my better repose, I joyously quaffed
a night-draught of claret, or Rochelle wine mingled with spice."

Froissart wrote his Chronicles "to the intent that the honourable and
noble adventures of feats of arms, done and achieved in the wars of France
and England, should notably be enregistered, and put in perpetual memory;
whereby the preux and hardy might have ensample to encourage them in their
well-doing."[5] To accomplish his purpose, he followed and frequented the
company of divers noble and great lords, as well in France, England, and
Scotland, as in other countries; and in their chivalric festivals he
enquired for tales of arms and amours. For three years he was clerk of the
chamber to Philippa of Hainault, wife of Edward III. He travelled into
Scotland; and, though mounted only on a simple palfrey, with his trunk
placed on the hinder part of his saddle, after the fashion in which a
squire carried the mail-harness of a knight, and attended only by a
greyhound, the favourite dog of the time, instead of a train of varlets,
yet the fame of his literary abilities introduced him to the castle of
Dalkeith, and the court of the Scottish King.

He generally lived in the society of nobles and knights,--at the courts of
the Duke of Brabant, the Count of Namur, and the Earl of Blois. He knew
and admired the Black Prince, Du Guesclin, the Douglas, and Hotspur; and
while this various acquaintance fitted him to describe the circumstances
and manners of his times, it prevented him from the bias of particular
favouritism. The character of his mind, rather than his station in life,
determined his pursuits. His profession was that of the church: he was a
while curate of Lestines, in the diocese of Liege; and, at the time of his
death, he was canon and treasurer of the collegiate church of Chimay. But
he was a greater reader of romances than of his breviary; and, churchman
though he was, knighthood itself could not boast a more devoted admirer
of dames and damsels. He was, therefore, the very man to describe the
chivalric features of his time.

The romances of chivalry are another source of information. Favyn says,
with truth and fancy, "The greater part of antiquities are to be sought
for and derived out of the most ancient tales, as well in prose as verse,
like pearls out of the smoky papers of Ennius." The romance-writers were
to the middle ages of Europe what the ancient poets were to Greece,--the
painters of the manners of their times. As Sir Walter Scott observes, "We
have no hesitation in quoting the romances of chivalry as good evidence of
the laws and customs of knighthood. The authors, like the artists of the
period, invented nothing, but, copying the manners of the age in which
they lived, transferred them, without doubt or scruple, to the period and
personages of whom they treated."

From all these sources of information I have done my devoir, in the
following pages, to describe the origin of chivalry; and, after escaping
from the dark times in which it arose, to mark the various degrees of the
personal nobility of knighthood. An enquiry into the nature and duties of
the chivalric character then will follow; and we cannot pass, without
regard and homage, the sovereign-mistress and lady-love of the adventurous
knight. After viewing our cavalier in the gay and graceful pastime of the
tournament, and pausing a while to behold him when a peculiar character of
religion was added to his chivalry, we shall see him vault upon his good
steed; and we will accompany him in the achievement of his high and hardy
emprises in Britain, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy.

As a view of chivalry is, from its nature, a supplement or an appendix to
the history of Europe, I have supposed my readers to be acquainted with
the general circumstances of past ages, and therefore I have spoken of
them by allusion rather than by direct statement. I have made the
following work as strictly chivalric as the full and fair discussion of my
subject would permit me, avoiding descriptions of baronial and feudal
life, except in its connection with knighthood. I have not detailed
military circumstances of former times, unless they proceeded from
chivalric principles, or were invested with chivalric graces. Thus the
celebrated battle of the Thirty had nothing in it of a knightly character,
and therefore I have left it unnoticed. Judicial combats had their origin
in the state of society from which both feudalism and chivalry sprang; but
they were not regulated by the gentle laws of knighthood, and therefore
have not been described by me. I have not imposed any dry legal facts and
discussions upon my readers; for the incidents attached to the tenure of
land called the tenure in chivalry were strictly feudal; and the courts of
the constable and marshal, holding cognisance as they did of all matters
regarding war, judicial combats, and blazonry of arms, relate not so much
to chivalry as to the general preservation of the peace of the land, and
the good order of society. And it should be mentioned, that it has not
been my purpose to give a minute history of every individual cavalier: for
a work strictly confined to biographical detail, however convenient it
might be for occasional reference, would be tiresome and tedious by reason
of the repetition of circumstances only varied with the difference of
names, and would be any thing but historical. I have brought the great
characters of chivalry, who have received but slight attention from the
political historian, in illustration of the principles of knighthood. Thus
full-length portraits of those English knights of prowess, Sir John
Chandos and Sir Walter Manny, will be more interesting than pictures of
Edward III. and the Black Prince, whose features are so well known to us.
From the lives of these royal heroes I have therefore only selected such
chivalric circumstances as have not been sufficiently described and dwelt
upon, or which it was absolutely incumbent on me to state, in order to
preserve an unbroken thread of narrative.

I shall not expatiate on the interest and beauty of my subject, lest I
should provoke too rigid an enquiry into my ability for discussing it. I
shall therefore only conclude, in the good old phrase of Chaucer,--

  "Now, hold your mouth, pour charitie,
  Both knight and lady free,
    And herkneth to my spell,
  Of battaille and of chivalry,
  Of ladies' love and druerie,
    Anon I wol you tell."


    While these volumes were passing through the press, the Tales of the
    Crusaders appeared. In the second of them is contained a series of
    supposed propositions from Saladin for peace between his nation and
    the English. The conclusion of those propositions is thus
    expressed:--"Saladin will put a sacred seal on this happy union
    betwixt the bravest and noblest of Frangistan and Asia, by raising to
    the rank of his royal spouse a Christian damsel, allied in blood to
    King Richard, and known by the name of the Lady Edith of Plantagenet,"
    vol. iv. pp. 13, 14. Upon this passage of his text the author remarks
    in a note: "This may appear so extraordinary and improbable a
    proposition that it is necessary to say such a one was actually made.
    The historians, however, substitute the widowed Queen of Naples,
    sister of Richard, for the bride, and Saladin's brother for the
    bridegroom. They appear to be ignorant of the existence of Edith of
    Plantagenet. See MILL'S (MILLS') History of the Crusades, vol. ii. p.
    61."

    In that work I observe, that "Richard proposed a consolidation of the
    Christian and Muhammedan interests; the establishment of a government
    at Jerusalem, partly European and partly Asiatic; and these schemes of
    policy were to be carried into effect by the marriage of Saphadin
    (Saladin's brother) with the widow of William King of Sicily."

    M. Michaud, the French historian of the Crusades, makes a similar
    statement. He says that Richard "fit d'autres propositions, auxquelles
    il intéressa adroitement l'ambition de Malec Adel, frère du Sultan. La
    veuve du Guillaume de Sicile fut proposée en marriage au Prince
    Musulman." Hist. des Croisades, vol. ii. p. 414.

    Whether or no "the historians" are ignorant of the existence of "Edith
    of Plantagenet" is not the present question. The question is, which of
    the two opposite statements is consistent with historical truth. The
    statement of M. Michaud and myself is supported by the principal
    Arabic historians, by writers, who, as every student in history knows,
    are of unimpeachable credit. Bohadin, in his life of Saladin, says,
    that "the Englishman was desirous that Almalick Aladin should take his
    sister to wife. (Her brother had brought her with him from Sicily,
    when he passed through that island, to the deceased lord of which she
    had been married."[6]) To the same effect Abulfeda observes, "Hither
    came the embassadors of the Franks to negotiate a peace; and offered
    this condition, that Malek al Adel, brother of the Sultan, should
    receive the sister of the King of England in marriage, and Jerusalem
    for a kingdom."[7] That this sister, Joan, the widowed Queen of
    Sicily, was with Richard in the Holy Land is proved by a passage in
    Matthew Paris, p. 171. She and the wife of Richard are mentioned
    together, and no other person of royal rank.

    Thus, therefore, "the historians" are correct in their statement, that
    the matrimonial proposition was made by the English to Saladin, and
    that the parties were to be the brother of Saladin and the widowed
    Queen of Sicily. The novelist has not supported his assertion by a
    single historical testimony; and we may defy him to produce a tittle
    of evidence on his side.

    In the composition of his tales, the author of Waverley has seldom
    shown much respect for historical keeping. But greater accuracy than
    his no person had a right to expect in the text of a mere novel; and
    as long as he gave his readers no excuse for confounding fiction with
    truth, the play of his brilliant and excursive imagination was
    harmless. Thus in the Talisman, the poetical antiquarian only smiles
    when he finds the romance of the Squire of Low Degree quoted as
    familiar to the English long before it was written; and when, in the
    Betrothed, Gloucester is raised into a bishoprick three centuries and
    a half before the authentic æra, we equally admit the author's licence
    of anachronism. On these two occasions, as in innumerable other
    instances, in which the novelist, whether intentionally or
    unwittingly, has strayed from the path of historical accuracy, he has
    never given formal warranty for the truth of his statements, and he is
    entitled to laugh at the simple credulity which could mistake his
    Tales for veracious chronicles: But his assertion respecting the
    marriage of Saladin with his "Edith of Plantagenet" is a very
    different case. For here he throws aside the fanciful garb of a
    novelist, and quits the privilege of his text, that he may gravely
    and critically vouch in a note for the errors of our historians, and
    his own superior knowledge. If this can possibly be done merely to
    heighten the illusion of his romance, it is carrying the jest a little
    too far; for the preservation of historical truth is really too
    important a principle to be idly violated. But if he seriously
    designed to unite the province of the historian with that of the
    novelist, he has chosen a very unlucky expedient for his own
    reputation; and thus, in either case, he has rather wantonly led his
    readers into error, and brought against others a charge of ignorance,
    which must recoil more deservedly on himself.




CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.


                                                                      Page

  CHAP. I. THE ORIGIN AND FIRST APPEARANCES OF CHIVALRY IN EUROPE.

  General nature of chivalry ... Military and moral chivalry ...
  Origin of chivalry ... Usages of the Germans ... Election of
  soldiers ... Fraternity ... Dignity of obedience ... Gallantry
  ... The age of Charlemagne ... Chivalry modified by religion ...
  Ceremonies of Anglo-Saxon inauguration ... Chivalry sanctioned by
  councils, and regarded as a form of Christianity ... Nature of
  chivalric nobility ... Its degrees ... Knight banneret ... His
  qualifications ... By whom created ... His privileges ... His
  relation to the baron ... And incidentally of the war-cry and the
  escutcheon ... The knight ... Qualifications for knighthood ...
  By whom created ... The squirehood ... General view of the other
  chapters on the institutions of chivalry                               1


  CHAP. II. THE EDUCATION OF A KNIGHT. THE CEREMONIES OF
  INAUGURATION AND OF DEGRADATION.

  Description in romances of knightly education ... Hawking and
  hunting ... Education commenced at the age of seven ... Duties of
  the page ... Personal service ... Love and religion ... Martial
  exercises ... The squire ... His duties of personal service ...
  Curious story of a bold young squire ... Various titles of
  squires ... Duties of the squire in battle ... Gallantry ...
  Martial exercises ... Horsemanship ... Importance of squires in
  the battle-field ... Particularly at the battle of Bovines ...
  Preparations for knighthood ... The anxiety of the squire
  regarding the character of the knight from whom he was to receive
  the accolade ... Knights made in the battle-field ...
  Inconveniences of this ... Knights of Mines ... General
  ceremonies of degradation ... Ceremonies in England                   26


  CHAP. III. THE EQUIPMENT.

  Beauty of the chivalric equipment ... The lance ... The pennon
  ... The axe, maule, and martel ... The sword ... Fondness of the
  knight for it ... Swords in romances ... The shield ... Various
  sorts of mail ... Mail ... Mail and plate ... Plate harness ...
  The scarf ... Surcoats ... Armorial bearings ... Surcoats of the
  military orders ... The dagger of mercy ... Story of its use ...
  Value of enquiries into ancient armour ... A precise knowledge
  unattainable ... Its general features interesting ... The broad
  lines of the subject ... Excellence of Italian armour ... Armour
  of the squire, &c. ... Allegories made on armour ... The horse of
  the knight                                                            65


  CHAP. IV. THE CHIVALRIC CHARACTER.

  General array of knights ... Companions in arms ... The nature of
  a cavalier's valiancy ... Singular bravery of Sir Robert Knowles
  ... Bravery incited by vows ... Fantastic circumstances ... The
  humanities of chivalric war ... Ransoming ... Reason of
  courtesies in battles ... Curious pride of knighthood ...
  Prisoners ... Instance of knightly honour ... Independence of
  knights, and knight-errantry ... Knights fought the battles of
  other countries ... English knights dislike wars in Spain ...
  Their disgust at Spanish wines ... Principles of their active
  conduct ... Knightly independence consistent with discipline ...
  Religion of the knight ... His devotion ... His intolerance ...
  General nature of his virtue ... Fidelity to obligations ...
  Generousness ... Singular instance of it ... Romantic excess of
  it ... Liberality ... Humility ... Courtesy ... EVERY-DAY LIFE OF
  THE KNIGHT ... Falconry ... Chess playing ... Story of a knight's
  love of chess ... Minstrelsy ... Romances ... Conversation ...
  Nature and form of chivalric entertainments ... Festival and vow
  of the pheasant                                                      117


  CHAP. V. DAMES AND DAMSELS, AND LADY-LOVE.

  Courtesy ... Education ... Music ... Graver sciences ... Dress
  ... Knowledge of medicine ... Every-day life of the maiden ...
  Chivalric love ... The idolatry of the knight's passion ...
  Bravery inspired by love ... Character of woman in the eyes of a
  knight ... Peculiar nature of his love ... Qualities of knights
  admired by women ... A tale of chivalric love ... Constancy ...
  Absence of jealousy ... Knights asserted by arms their mistress's
  beauty ... Penitents of love ... Other peculiarities of chivalric
  love ... The passion universal ... Story of Aristotle ...
  Chivalric love the foe to feudal distinctions ... But preserved
  religion ... When attachments were formed ... Societies of
  knights for the defence of ladies ... Knights of the lady in the
  green field ... Customs in England ... Unchivalric to take women
  prisoners ... Morals of chivalric times ... Heroines of chivalry
  ... Queen Philippa ... The Countess of March ... Tales of Jane of
  Mountfort and of Marzia degl' Ubaldini ... Nobleness of the
  chivalric female character                                           181


  CHAP. VI. TOURNAMENTS AND JOUSTS.

  Beauty of chivalric sports ... Their superiority to those of
  Greece and Rome ... Origin of tournaments ... Reasons for holding
  them ... Practice in arms ... Courtesy ... By whom they were held
  ... Qualifications for tourneying ... Ceremonies of the
  tournament ... Arrival of the knights ... Publication of their
  names ... Reasons for it ... Disguised knights ... The lists ...
  Ladies the judges of the tournament ... Delicate courtesy at
  tournaments ... Morning of the sports ... Knights led by ladies,
  who imitated the dress of knights ... Nature of tourneying
  weapons ... Knights wore ladies' favours ... The preparation ...
  The encounter ... What lance-strokes won the prize ... Conclusion
  of the sports ... The festival ... Delivery of the prize ...
  Knights thanked by ladies ... The ball ... Liberality ...
  Tournaments opposed by the popes ... The opposition unjust ...
  The joust ... Description of the joust to the utterance ... Joust
  between a Scotch and an English knight ... Jousting for love of
  the ladies ... A singular instance of it ... Joust between a
  French and an English squire ... Admirable skill of jousters ...
  Singular questions regarding jousts ... An Earl of Warwick ...
  Celebrated joust at St. Inglebertes ... Joust between Lord Scales
  and the Bastard of Burgundy ... The romance of jousts ... The
  passage of arms ... Use of tournaments and jousts                    258


  CHAP. VII. THE RELIGIOUS AND MILITARY ORDERS OF KNIGHTHOOD.

  General principles of the religious orders ... Qualifications for
  them ... Use of these orders to Palestine ... Modern history of
  the Knights Templars ... Their present existence and state ...
  Religious orders in Spain ... That of St. James ... Its objects
  ... Change of its objects ... Order of Calatrava ... Fine
  chivalry of a monk ... Fame of this order ... Order of Alcantara
  ... Knights of the Lady of Mercy ... Knights of St. Michael ...
  Military orders ... Imitations of the religious orders ...
  Instanced in the order of the Garter ... Few of the present
  orders are of chivalric origin ... Order of the Bath ... Dormant
  orders ... Order of the Band ... Its singular rules ... Its noble
  enforcement of chivalric duties towards woman ... Order of
  Bourbon ... Strange titles of orders ... Fabulous orders ... The
  Round Table ... Sir Launcelot ... Sir Gawain ... Order of the
  Stocking ... Origin of the phrase Blue Stocking                      332


  CHAP. VIII. PROGRESS OF CHIVALRY IN ENGLAND, FROM THE NORMAN
  CONQUEST TO THE CLOSE OF THE REIGN OF EDWARD II.

  Chivalry connected with feudalism ... Stipendiary knights ...
  Knighthood a compulsory honour ... Fine instance of chivalry in
  the reign of Edward I. ... Effect of chivalry in Stephen's reign
  ... Troubadours and romance writers in the reign of Henry II. ...
  Chivalric manners of the time ... Coeur de Lion the first
  chivalric king ... His knightly bearing ... John and Henry III.
  ... Edward I. ... His gallantry at a tournament ... His
  unchivalric cruelties ... He possessed no knightly courtesy ...
  Picture of ancient manners ... Edward II. ... Chivalric
  circumstance in the battle of Bannockburn ... Singular effect of
  chivalry in the reign of Edward II.                                  382




THE HISTORY OF CHIVALRY.




CHAP. I.

THE ORIGIN AND FIRST APPEARANCES OF CHIVALRY IN EUROPE.

    _General Nature of Chivalry ... Military and Moral Chivalry ... Origin
    of Chivalry ... Usages of the Germans ... Election of Soldiers ...
    Fraternity ... Dignity of Obedience ... Gallantry ... The Age of
    Charlemagne ... Chivalry modified by Religion ... Ceremonies of
    Anglo-Saxon Inauguration ... Chivalry sanctioned by Councils, and
    regarded as a Form of Christianity ... Nature of Chivalric Nobility
    ... Its Degrees ... Knight Banneret ... His Qualifications ... By whom
    created ... His Privileges ... His relation to the Baron ... And
    incidentally of the War-Cry and the Escutcheon ... The Knight ...
    Qualifications for Knighthood ... By whom created ... The Squirehood
    ... General View of the other Chapters on the Institutions of
    Chivalry._


There is little to charm the imagination in the first ages of Chivalry. No
plumed steeds, no warrior bearing on his crested helm the favour of his
lady bright, graced those early times. All was rudeness and gloom. But
the subject is not altogether without interest, as it must ever be curious
to mark the causes and the first appearances in conduct of any widely
spread system of opinions.

[Sidenote: Nature of Chivalry.]

The martial force of the people who occupied northern and central Europe
in the time of the Romans, was chiefly composed of infantry[8]; but
afterwards a great though imperceptible change took place, and, during all
the long period which forms, in historic phrase, the middle ages, cavalry
was the strongest arm of military power. Terms, expressive of this martial
array, were sought for in its distinguishing circumstances. Among the
ruins of the Latin language, _caballus_ signified a horse, _caballarius_ a
horseman, and _caballicare_, to ride; and from these words all the
languages that were formed on a Latin basis, derived their phrases
descriptive of military duties on horseback. In all languages of Teutonic
origin, the same circumstance was expressed by words literally signifying
service. The German _knight_, the Saxon _cnight_, are synonymous to the
French _cavalier_, the Italian _cavaliere_, and the Spanish _caballero_.
The word _rider_ also designated the same person, preceded by, or standing
without, the word _knight_.

[Sidenote: Military and Moral Chivalry.]

In the kingdoms which sprang from the ruins of the Roman empire, every
king, baron, and person of estate was a knight; and therefore the whole
face of Europe was overspread with cavalry. Considered in this aspect, the
knighthood and the feudalism of Europe were synonymous and coexistent. But
there was a chivalry within this chivalry; a moral and personal
knighthood; not the well-ordered assemblage of the instruments of
ambition, but a military barrier against oppression and tyranny, a
corrective of feudal despotism and injustice. Something like this
description of knighthood may be said to have existed in all ages and
countries. Its generousness may be paralleled in Homeric times, and vice
has never reigned entirely without control. But the chivalry, the gallant
and Christian chivalry of Europe, was purer and brighter than any
preceding condition of society; for it established woman in her just rank
in the moral world, and many of its principles of action proceeded from a
divine source, which the classical ancients could not boast of.

[Sidenote: Origin of Chivalry.]

[Sidenote: Usages of the Germans.]

[Sidenote: Election of Soldiers.]

Some of the rules and maxims of chivalry had their origin in that state of
society in which the feudal system arose; and regarded particularly in a
military light, we find chivalry a part of the earliest condition of a
considerable part of the European world. The bearing of arms was never a
matter of mere private choice. Among the Germans, it rested with the
state to declare a man qualified to serve his country in arms. In an
assembly of the chiefs of his nation, his father, or a near relation,
presented a shield and a javelin to a young and approved candidate for
martial honours, who from that moment was considered as a member of the
commonwealth, and ranked as a citizen. In northern as well as in central
Europe, both in Scandinavia and Germany, the same principle was observed;
and a young man at the age of fifteen became an independent agent, by
receiving a sword, a buckler, and a lance, at some public meeting.[9]

[Sidenote: Fraternity.]

The spirit of clanship, or fraternity, which ran through the chivalry of
the middle ages, is of the remotest antiquity. It existed in Germany, in
Scandinavia, and also in Gaul.[10] In all these countries, every young
man, when adorned with his military weapons, entered the train of some
chief; but he was rather his companion than his follower; for, however
numerous were the steps and distinctions of service, a noble spirit of
equality ran through them all. These generous youths formed the bulwark of
their leader in war, and were his ornament in peace. This spirit of
companionship shewed itself in all its power and beauty in the field. It
was disgraceful for a prince to be surpassed in valour by his companions;
their military deeds were to be heroic, but the lustre of them was never
to dim the brightness of his own fame. The chief fought for victory, the
followers fought for their chief. The defence of the leader in battle, to
die with him rather than to leave him, were, in the minds of the military
fathers of Europe, obvious and necessary corollaries of these principles.
The spirit of companionship burnt more fiercely in remote ages, than in
times commonly called chivalric; for if, by the chance of war, a person
was thrown into the hands of an enemy, his military companions would
surrender themselves prisoners, thinking it disgraceful to live in
security and indolence, when their chief and associate was in misery.[11]

And to bring the matter home to English readers, it may be mentioned, that
in the history of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, many instances are recorded
where vassals refused to survive their lord. Cyneheard, brother of the
deposed king Sigebyrcht, slew the usurper Cynewulf; and though he offered
freedom to the attendants of the slain, yet they all preferred death to
submission to a new lord, and they died in a vain and wild endeavour to
revenge him. Immediately afterwards fortune frowned on Cyneheard, and his
eighty-four companions, save one, were slain, though liberty had been
offered to them; but declaring that their generosity was not inferior to
the generosity of the attendants of Cynewulf, they perished in a hopeless
battle.[12]

[Sidenote: Dignity of obedience.]

The feeling which, in chivalric times, became designated as the dignity of
obedience, may be traced in these circumstances, but it is more clearly
shewn in a singular record of the domestic manners of ancient Europe; for
we learn from Athenæus, in his treatise of the suppers of the Celts, that
it was the custom of the Gaulish youths to stand behind the seats, and to
attend upon their fathers during the principal daily meal.[13] Here we see
the germ, if not of the duties of the squire to the knight, yet of the
feeling which suggested their performance. The beautiful subordination of
chivalry had its origin in the domestic relations of life; obedience
became virtuous when nature sanctioned it, and there could be no loss of
personal consideration in a youth performing services which his own father
had performed, and which, as years and circumstances advanced, would be
rendered to himself.

[Sidenote: Gallantry.]

The gallantry of knighthood, that quality which distinguishes, and
distinguishes so much to its advantage, the modern from the ancient world,
was not created by any chivalric institution. We know indeed that it was
cradled in the same sentiments which nursed the other principles of
chivalry, but its birth is lost in the remoteness of ages; and I would
rather dwell in my ignorance of the precise period of its antiquity, than
think with Plutarch that the feeling arose from a judicious opinion
delivered by some women on occasion of a particular dispute between a few
of the Celtic tribes.[14] It was in truth the virtue of the sex, and not
any occasional or accidental opinion, that raised them to their high and
respectful consideration. The Roman historian marked it as a peculiarity
among the Germans, that marriage was considered by them as a sacred
institution[15], and that a man confined himself to the society of one
wife. The mind of Tacitus was filled with respect for the virtuous though
unpolished people of the north; and, reverting his eyes to Rome, the
describer of manners becomes the indignant satirist, and he exclaims, that
no one in Germany dares to ridicule the holy ordinance of marriage, or to
call an infringement of its laws a compliance with the manners of the
age.[16] In earlier times, when the Cimbri invaded Italy, and were
worsted by Marius, the female Teutonic captives wished to be placed among
the vestal virgins, binding themselves to perpetual chastity, but the
Romans could not admire or sympathize with such lofty-mindedness, and the
women had recourse to death, the last sad refuge of their virtue. Strabo
picturesquely describes venerable and hoary-headed prophetesses seated at
the council of the Cimbri, dressed in long linen vestments of shining
white. They were not only embassadresses, but were often entrusted with
the charge of governing kingdoms.[17] The courage of the knight of
chivalry was inspired by the lady of his affections, a feature of
character clearly deducible from the practice among the German nations, of
women mingling in the field of battle with their armed brothers, fathers,
and husbands. Women were always regarded as incentives to valour, and when
warring with a nation of different manners, the German general could
congratulate his soldiers on having motives to courage, which the enemy
did not possess.[18] The warrior of the north, like the hero of chivalry,
hoped for female smiles from his skill in athletic and martial exercises;
and we may take the anecdote as an instance of the general manners of
European antiquity, that the chief anxiety of a Danish champion, who had
lost his chin and one of his cheeks by a single stroke of a sword, was,
how he should be received by the Danish maidens, when his personal
features had been thus dreadfully marred.--"The Danish girls will not now
willingly or easily give me kisses, if I should perhaps return home," was
his complaint.

Harald the Valiant was one of the most eminent adventurers of his age. He
had slain mighty men; and after sweeping the seas of the north as a
conqueror, he descended to the Mediterranean, and the shores of Africa.
But a greater power now opposed him, and he was taken prisoner, and
detained for some time at Constantinople. He endeavoured to beguile his
gloomy solitude by song; but his muse gave him no joy, for he complains
that the reputation he had acquired by so many hazardous exploits, by his
skill in single combat, riding, swimming, gliding along the ice, darting,
rowing, and guiding a ship through the rocks, had not been able to make
any impression on Elissiff, or Elizabeth, the beautiful daughter of
Yarilas, king of Russia.[19]

[Sidenote: The Age of Charlemagne.]

Such were the features of the ancient character of Europe, that formed the
basis of the chivalry of the middle ages; such was chivalry in its rude,
unpolished state, the general character of the whole people, rather than
the moral chastener of turbulence and ferocity. From receiving his weapons
in an assembly of the nation; associating in clans; protecting and
revering women; performing acts of service, when affection and duty
commanded them: from these simple circumstances and qualities, the most
beautiful form of manners arose, that has ever adorned the history of man.
It is impossible to mark the exact time when these elements were framed
into that system of thought and action which we call Chivalry. Knighthood
was certainly a feature and distinction of society before the days of
Charlemagne, and its general prevalence in his time is very curiously
proved, by the permission which he gave to the governor of Friesland to
make knights, by girding them with a sword, and giving them a blow.[20]

[Sidenote: Chivalry modified by Religion.]

But the key-stone of the arch was wanting, and religion alone could
furnish it. A new world of principles and objects was introduced. The
defence of the church was one great apparent aim of knightly enterprise,
and on this principle, narrow and selfish as it was, many of the
charities of Christianity were established. The sword was blessed by the
priest, before it was delivered to the young warrior. By what means this
amalgamation was effected, we know not; the less interesting matter, the
date of the circumstance can be more easily ascertained. It was somewhere
between the ninth and the eleventh centuries. It surely was not the custom
in the days of Charlemagne, for he girt the military sword on his son
Louis the Good, agreeably to the rude principles of ancient Germanic
chivalry[21], without any religious ceremonies; and a century afterwards
we read of the Saxon monarch of England, Edward the Elder, cloathing
Athelstan in a soldier's dress of scarlet, and fastening round him a
girdle ornamented with precious stones, in which a Saxon sword in a sheath
of gold was inserted.[22] In the century following, however, during the
reign of Edward the Confessor, we meet with the story of Hereward, a very
noble Anglo-Saxon youth, being knighted by the Abbot of Peterborough. He
made confession of his sins, and, after he had received absolution, he
earnestly prayed to be made a legitimate _miles_ or knight.

[Sidenote: Ceremonies of Anglo-Saxon inauguration.]

It was the custom of the English, continues the historian, for every one
who wished to be consecrated into the legitimate militia, to confess his
sins to a bishop, abbot, monk, or other priest, in the evening that
preceded the day of his consecration, and to pass the night in the church,
in prayer, devotion, and mortifications. On the next morning it was his
duty to hear mass, to offer his sword on the altar, and then, after the
Gospel had been read, the priest blessed the sword, and placed it on the
neck of the _miles_, with his benediction. The sacrament of the Lord's
Supper was then communicated to the knight.[23] This passage, though
professedly descriptive only of the military customs of England, may be
applied to the general state of Europe, with the exception of Normandy,
whose people despised the religious part of the ceremony. But this feeling
of dislike did not endure through all ages, for there is abundant evidence
to prove, that in the reign of the Norman dynasty in England, the
ceremonies of knighthood were religious as well as military; and in the
same, the eleventh, century, the usage was similar over all Continental
Europe.

[Sidenote: Chivalry sanctioned by Councils, and regarded as a form of
Christianity.]

The eleventh century is a very important epoch in the history of chivalry;
for it was declared by the celebrated Council of Clermont, (which
authorised the first Crusade) that every person of noble birth, on
attaining twelve years of age, should take a solemn oath before the bishop
of his diocese, to defend to the uttermost the oppressed, the widows, and
orphans; that women of noble birth, both married and single, should enjoy
his especial care; and that nothing should be wanting in him to render
travelling safe, and to destroy tyranny. In this decree we observe, that
all the humanities of chivalry were sanctioned by legal and ecclesiastical
power; and that it was intended they should be spread over the whole face
of Christendom, in order to check the barbarism and ferocity of the times.

The form of chivalry was martial; but its objects were both religious and
social, and the definition of the word from military circumstances ceased
to express its character. The power of the clergy was shewn in a singular
manner. Chivalry was no longer a soldierly array, but it was called the
Order, the Holy Order, and a character of seriousness and solemnity was
given to it.[24] It was accounted an honourable office, above all offices,
orders, and acts of the world, except the order of priesthood, for that
order appertained to the holy sacrament of the altar. The knightly and
clerical characters were every where considered as convertible, and the
writers of romances faithfully reflected manners, when their hero at the
commencement of the tale was a Sir Knight, and when at the close of his
quests, we find him a Sir Priest;

    "And soothly it was said by common fame,
    So long as age enabled him thereto,
    That he had been a man of mickle name,
    Renowned much in arms and derring do.
    But being aged now, and weary too
    Of war's delight, and world's contentious toil,
    The name of Knighthood he did disavow;
    And hanging up his arms and warlike spoil,
  From all this world's incumbrance did himself assoil."[25]

[Sidenote: Nature of Chivalric Nobility.]

Knighthood was an institution perfectly peculiar to the military and
social state of our ancestors. There was no analogy between the knights of
chivalry and the equites of Rome, for pecuniary estate was absolutely
necessary for the latter; whereas, though the European cavalier was
generally a man of some possessions, yet he was often a person promoted
into the order of chivalry, solely as a reward for his redoubted behaviour
in battle. The Roman equites discharged civil functions regarding the
administration of justice and the farming of the public revenue; but the
chivalry of the middle ages had no such duties to perform. Knighthood was
also distinct from nobility; for the nobility of Europe were the governors
and lords of particular districts of a country, and although originally
they held their dignities only for life, yet their title soon became
hereditary. But knighthood was essentially and always a personal
distinction. A man's chivalry died with him. It was conferred upon
noblemen and kings, not being like their other titles, the subject of
inheritance. It was not absorbed in any other title of rank, and the
common form of address, Sir[26] King, shews its high consideration. In the
writs of summons to parliament, the word _Chevalier_ sometimes followed
the baronial title, and more frequently the barons were styled by their
martial designation, than named by the titles of their baronies.[27]

[Sidenote: Its degrees.]

There were three degrees in the Chivalry of Europe, Knights-Banneret,
Knights, and Esquires.

[Sidenote: Knight-Banneret.]

[Sidenote: His qualifications.]

[Sidenote: By whom created.]

A soldier must have passed through the ranks of esquire and knight, before
he could be classed with the knights-banneret. That high dignity could
only be possessed by a knight who had served for a length of years in the
wars, and with distinction, and who had a considerable retinue of
men-at-arms, and other soldiers. To avoid the inconveniences of too minute
a division of the martial force of a country, every knight-banneret ought
to have had fifty[28] knights and squires under his command, each being
attended by one or more horse soldiers, armed with the cross-bow, or with
the long-bow and axe. Several followers on foot completed the equipment.
But as we often meet with instances of elevating men of very few
followers[29] to the rank of knights-banneret, it is probable that kings
usurped the right of conferring the distinction upon their favorites, or
men of fame, not chusing that any title of merit should be demanded as a
right, or that the royal name should be used only as a passive instrument;
for a knight who had proved his chivalry and power, could demand from his
sovereign the distinction of banneret. The laws and usages of the world
allowed the well-tried and nobly attended soldier to carry his emblazoned
pennon to the constable or marshal of the army before or after a battle,
and in the field of contest itself, and require leave to raise his banner.
A herald exhibited the record of his claim to the distinction, and the
leader of the forces cut off the end of the pennon, and this military
ensign then became a square banner. A brief exhortation to valiancy and
honour was generally added by the constable or herald. These were the
whole ceremonies of creation.

[Sidenote: His privileges.]

The privileges of a knight-banneret were considerable. He did not fight
under the standard of any baron, but he formed his soldiers under his
own. Like the rest of the feudal force, he was subject to the commands of
the king; but his pride was not galled by being obliged to obey the
behests of men of his own rank.

[Sidenote: His relation to the Baron.]

[Sidenote: The war-cry.]

Every Baron had his banner, and a feudal array of knights, men-at-arms,
and others, was numbered by its banners. The banneret and the baron were
therefore soldiers of equal authority. The banneret, too, like the baron,
had his words of courage, his cry of arms, which he shouted before a
battle, in order to animate his soldiers to the charge, and whose sound,
heard in the moment of direst peril, rallied the scattered troops by the
recollection of the glories of their commander's house, and their own
former achievements. The war-cry was also the underwritten ornament of the
armorial shield, and worked on the surcoat and banner, and was carved on
the tomb both of the knight-banneret and the baron. Each of these
representatives of chivalry and nobility had his square escutcheon. The
wife of a banneret was styled _une dame bannerette_, and the general title
of his family was a _hostel bannière_.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: The Knight.]

The second and most numerous class of chivalric heroes consisted of
Knights, who were originally called Bas-Chevaliers, in contradiction to
the first class, but in the course of time the word bachelor designated
rather the esquire, the candidate for chivalry, than the cavalier himself.
These knights of the second class were in Spain called _Cavalleros_, in
distinction from the _riccos hombres_, or knights-banneret; and in France,
the illiberal and degrading title of _pauvres hommes_ was sometimes
applied to them, to mark their inferiority to the bannerets.

[Sidenote: Qualifications for knighthood.]

A general qualification for knighthood was noble or gentle birth, which,
in its widest signification, expressed a state of independence. Noblemen
and gentlemen were words originally synonymous, describing the owners of
fiefs. In countries where there were other forms of tenure, some military
merit in the occupiers of land seems to have been necessary for elevation
to the class of gentlemen. The mere frankelein was certainly not entitled
to the designation of gentle; but if he became a distinguished man, an
honorary rank was given to the family, and they were esteemed noble.[30]
It is scarcely necessary to mention, that that distinction could alone be
obtained by military achievements; for in the early periods of society,
the only path to glory was stained with blood. The gentility of a father
was more regarded than that of a mother[31]; and in strictness, if a man
were not noble on his paternal side, his lord might cause his spurs to be
cut off on a dunghill.[32] The amount of estate necessary for knighthood
was not regulated by any chivalric institution. But the expence of the
order was by no means inconsiderable. His inauguration was a scene of
splendour; and liberality was one of the chiefest duties of his character.
He could not travel in quest of adventures without some charge[33], and
his squire and other personal attendants were of course maintained by him.
Though a man, says Froissart, be never so rich, men of arms and war waste
all; for he that will have service of men of war, they must be paid truly
their wages, or else they will do nothing available.[34] The knight's
harness for the working day was not without its ornaments; and the
tournament was rendered splendid by the brilliancy of his armour and his
steed's caparisons. There was always a rivalry of expence among knights
who formed an expedition; and of all the recorded instances of this
feeling, perhaps the most interesting one is furnished by Froissart.
Speaking of a projected invasion of England by the French about the year
1386, he says, that gold and silver were no more spared than though they
had rained out of the clouds, or been skimmed from the sea. The great
lords of France sent their servants to Sluse, to apparel and make ready
their provisions and ships, and to furnish them with every thing needful.
Every man garnished his ship, and painted it with his arms. Painters had
then a good season, for they had whatever they desired. They made banners,
pennons, and standards of silk so goodly, that it was a marvel to behold
them; also they painted the masts of their ships from the one end to the
other, glittering with gold, and devices, and arms; and especially the
Lord Guy de la Tremouille garnished his ship richly; the paintings cost
more than two thousand francs.[35]

[Sidenote: By whom created.]

We have seen that originally a body of soldiers was selected by the state
from the general mass of the people. Afterwards, kings and nobles in their
several jurisdictions maintained the power of creation. It was also
assumed by the clergy, but not retained long; nor were they anxious to
recover it, for, as they assisted in the religious ceremonies of
inauguration, they possessed a considerable share of power by the milder
means of influence. Knighthood never altogether lost its character of
being a distinction, a reward of merit, presumed, indeed, rather than
proved, in the original instances which have been mentioned. But though it
was often bestowed as an ornament of custom on the nobility and gentry of
a state, yet it often was the bright guerdon of achievements in arms. Of
military merit every knight was supposed to be a sufficient judge; and
therefore every knight had the power of bestowing its reward. Men-at-arms
and other soldiers were often exalted to the class of knights, and the
honour was something more than a chimera of the imagination; for the title
and consideration of a gentleman immediately accompanied the
creation.[36] Thus, in the time of Richard II., the governor of Norwich,
called Sir Robert Sale, was no gentleman born, says Froissart; but he had
the grace to be reputed sage and valiant in arms, and for his valiantness
King Edward had made him a knight. The same sovereign also knighted a
man-at-arms, who had originally been a tailor, and who, after the
conclusion of the king's wars in France, crossed the Alps into Italy, and
under the name of Sir John Hawkwood, headed the company of White or
English adventurers, so famous in the Italian wars.[37]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Squirehood.]

The third and last class of Chivalry was the Squirehood. It was not
composed of young men who carried the shields of knights, and were
learning the art of war; but the squires were a body of efficient
soldiers, inferior in rank to the knight, and superior to the
men-at-arms.[38] They had been originally intended for the higher classes
of chivalry, but various considerations induced them to remain in the
lowest rank. It was a maxim in chivalry, that a man had better be a good
esquire than a poor knight. Many an esquire, therefore, declined the honor
of knighthood, on account of the slenderness of his revenues. Edward III.,
during his wars in France, would have knighted Collart Dambreticourte, the
esquire of his own person; but the young man declined the honor, for, to
use his own simple phrase, he could not furnish his helmet.[39] Barons,
knights, and esquires, form Froissart's frequent description of the parts
of an army; and although there were many young men in the field, who,
released from their duties on knights, were aiming at distinction, yet
there were many more who remained squires during all their military
career, and therefore became recognised as a part of the chivalric array.
Some men of small landed estate, wishing to avoid the expences and the
duties of knighthood, remained esquires. They lost nothing of real power
by their prudence, for they were entitled to lead their vassals into the
field of battle under a penoncele, or small triangular streamer, as the
knight led his under a pennon, or a banneret his under a banner. Military
honours and commands also could be reached by the squirehood, as well as
by the knighthood of a country. Both classes were considered gentle, and
were entitled to wear coat armour.

       *       *       *       *       *

Such was the general form of the personal nobility of Chivalry. Some parts
of the outline varied in different countries, as will be seen when we
watch its progress through Europe; but previously to that enquiry, the
education, the duties, and the equipment of the knight require
description; and as _loyauté aux dames_ is the motto alike of the writers
and the readers of works on Chivalry, I shall make no apology for
suspending the historical investigation, while I endeavour to portray the
lady-love of the gallant cavalier, and delay my steps in that splendid
scene of beauty's power, the Tournament.




CHAP. II.

THE EDUCATION OF A KNIGHT. THE CEREMONIES OF INAUGURATION AND OF
DEGRADATION.

    _Description in Romances of Knightly Education ... Hawking and Hunting
    ... Education commenced at the age of Seven ... Duties of the Page ...
    Personal Service ... Love and Religion ... Martial Exercises ... The
    Squire ... His Duties of Personal Service ... Curious Story of a bold
    young Squire ... Various Titles of Squires ... Duties of the Squire in
    Battle ... Gallantry ... Martial Exercises ... Horsemanship ...
    Importance of Squires in the Battle Field ... Particularly at the
    Battle of Bovines ... Preparations for Knighthood ... The Anxiety of
    the Squire regarding the Character of the Knight from whom he was to
    receive the Accolade ... Knights made in the Battle Field ...
    Inconveniences of this ... Knights of Mines ... General Ceremonies of
    Degradation ... Ceremonies in England._


[Sidenote: Description in Romances of knightly education.]

The romances of Chivalry, in their picturesque and expressive
representation of manners, present us with many interesting glimpses of
the education in knighthood of the feudal nobility's children. The romance
of Sir Tristrem sings thus;

  "Now hath Rohant in ore[40],
    Tristrem, and is full blithe,
  The childe he set to lore,
    And lernd him al so swithe[41];
  In bok while he was thore
    He stodieth ever that stithe[42],
  Tho that bi him wore
    Of him weren ful blithe,
        That bold.
    His craftes gan he kithe[43],
  Oyaines[44] hem when he wold.

  "Fiftene yere he gan him fede,
    Sir Rohant the trewe;
  He taught him ich alede[45]
    Of ich maner of glewe;[46]
  And everich playing thede,
    Old lawes and newe.
  On hunting oft he yede[47],
    To swich alawe he drewe,
        Al thus;
    More he couthe[48] of veneri
  Than couthe Manerious."

Very similar to this picture is the description of the education of Kyng
Horn, in the romance which bears his name.

  "Stiward tac thou here,
  My fundling for to lere
  Of thine mestere,
  Of wode and of ryvere,
  Ant toggen o' the harpe,
  With is nayles sharpe;
  Ant tech him alle the listes
  That thou ever wystes
  Byfore me to kerven,
  Ant of my coupe to serven;
  Ant his feren devyse
  With ous other servise.
  Horn, child, thou understand
  Tech him of harpe and of song."[49]

For only one more extract from the old romances, shall I claim the
indulgence of my readers in the words of the minstrel,

  "Mekely, lordynges gentyll and fre,
  Lysten awhile and herken to me."

The life of Sir Ipomydon is a finished picture of knightly history. His
foster-father, Sir Tholomew,

  ----"a clerk he toke
  That taught the child upon the boke
  Bothe to synge and to rede,
  And after he taught him other dede.
  Afterwards to serve in halle,
  Both to grete and to small.
  Before the king meat to kerve
  Hye and low feyre to serve.
  Both of houndis and hawkis game,
  After he taught him all and same,
  In se, in field, and eke in river,
  In wood to chase the wild deer;
  And in the field to ride a steed,
  That all men had joy of his deed."

[Sidenote: Hunting and Hawking.]

The mystery of rivers and the mystery of woods were important parts of
knightly education. The mystery of woods was hunting; the mystery of
rivers was not fishing, but hawking, an expression which requires a few
words of explanation. In hawking, the pursuit of water-fowls afforded most
diversion. Chaucer says that he could

  "ryde on hawking by the river,
  With grey gos hawk on hand."

The favourite bird of chase was the heron, whose peculiar flight is not
horizontal, like that of field birds, but perpendicular. It is wont to
rise to a great height on finding itself the object of pursuit, while its
enemy, using equal efforts to out-tower it, at length gains the advantage,
swoops upon the heron with prodigious force, and strikes it to the ground.
The amusement of hawking, therefore, could be viewed without the
spectators moving far from the river's side where the game was sprung; and
from that circumstance it was called the mystery of rivers.[50]

But I shall attempt no further to describe in separate portions the
subjects of knightly education, and to fill up the sketches of the old
romances; for those sketches, though correct, present no complete outline,
and the military exercises are altogether omitted. We had better trace the
cavalier, through the gradations of his course, in the castle of his lord.

       *       *       *       *       *

The education of a knight generally commenced at the age of seven or eight
years[51], for no true lover of chivalry wished his children to pass their
time in idleness and indulgence. At a baronial feast, a lady in the full
glow of maternal pride pointed to her offspring, and demanded of her
husband whether he did not bless Heaven for having given him four such
fine and promising boys. "Dame," replied her lord, thinking her
observation ill timed and foolish, "so help me God and Saint Martin,
nothing gives me greater sorrow and shame than to see four great sluggards
who do nothing but eat, and drink, and waste their time in idleness and
folly." Like other children of gentle birth, therefore, the boys of this
noble Duke Guerin of Montglaive, in spite of their mother's wishes,
commenced their chivalric exercises.[52] In some places there were
schools appointed by the nobles of the country, but most frequently their
own castles served. Every feudal lord had his court, to which he drew the
sons and daughters of the poorer gentry of his domains; and his castle was
also frequented by the children of men of equal rank with himself, for
(such was the modesty and courtesy of chivalry) each knight had generally
some brother in arms, whom he thought better fitted than himself to grace
his children with noble accomplishments.

[Sidenote: Duties of the Page.]

[Sidenote: Personal Service.]

The duties of the boy for the first seven years of his service were
chiefly personal. If sometimes the harsh principles of feudal
subordination gave rise to such service, it oftener proceeded from the
friendly relations of life; and as in the latter case it was voluntary,
there was no loss of honourable consideration in performing it. The
dignity of obedience, that principle which blends the various shades of
social life, and which had its origin in the patriarchal manners of early
Europe, was now fostered in the castles of the feudal nobility. The
light-footed youth attended the lord and his lady in the hall, and
followed them in all their exercises of war and pleasure; and it was
considered unknightly for a cavalier to wound a page in battle. He also
acquired the rudiments of those incongruous subjects, religion, love, and
war, so strangely blended in chivalry; and generally the intellectual and
moral education of the boy was given by the ladies of the court.

[Sidenote: Love and Religion.]

From the lips of the ladies the gentle page learned both his catechism and
the art of love, and as the religion of the day was full of symbols, and
addressed to the senses, so the other feature of his devotion was not to
be nourished by abstract contemplation alone. He was directed to regard
some one lady of the court as the type of his heart's future mistress; she
was the centre of all his hopes and wishes; to her he was obedient,
faithful, and courteous.

While the young Jean de Saintré was a page of honour at the court of the
French king, the Dame des Belles Cousines enquired of him the name of the
mistress of his heart's affections. The simple youth replied, that he
loved his lady mother, and next to her, his sister Jacqueline was dear to
him. "Young man," rejoined the lady, "I am not speaking of the affection
due to your mother and sister; but I wish to know the name of the lady to
whom you are attached _par amours_." The poor boy was still more confused,
and he could only reply, that he loved no one _par amours_. The Dame des
Belles Cousines charged him with being a traitor to the laws of chivalry,
and declared that his craven spirit was evinced by such an avowal.
"Whence," she enquired, "sprang the valiancy and knightly feats of
Launcelot, Gawain, Tristram, Giron the courteous, and other ornaments of
the round table; of Ponthus, and of those knights and squires of this
country whom I could enumerate: whence the grandeur of many whom I have
known to arise to renown, except from the noble desire of maintaining
themselves in the grace and esteem of the ladies; without which
spirit-stirring sentiment they must have ever remained in the shades of
obscurity? And do you, coward valet, presume to declare that you possess
no sovereign lady, and desire to have none?"

Jean underwent a long scene of persecution on account of his confession of
the want of proper chivalric sentiment, but he was at length restored to
favour by the intercession of the ladies of the court. He then named as
his mistress Matheline de Coucy, a child only ten years old. "Matheline is
indeed a pretty girl," replied the Dame des Belles Cousines, "but what
profit, what honour, what comfort, what aid, what council for advancing
you in chivalrous fame can you derive from such a choice? You should elect
a lady of noble blood, who has the ability to advise, and the power to
assist you; and you should serve her so truly, and love her so loyally,
as to compel her to acknowledge the honourable affection which you
entertain for her. For, be assured, that there is no lady, however cruel
and haughty she may be, but through long service, will be induced to
acknowledge and reward loyal affection with some portion of mercy. By such
a course you will gain the praise of worthy knighthood, and till then I
would not give an apple for you or your achievements: but he who loyally
serves his lady will not only be blessed to the height of man's felicity
in this life, but will never fall into those sins which will prevent his
happiness hereafter. Pride will be entirely effaced from the heart of him
who endeavours by humility and courtesy to win the grace of a lady. The
true faith of a lover will defend him from the other deadly sins of anger,
envy, sloth, and gluttony; and his devotion to his mistress renders the
thought impossible of his conduct ever being stained with the vice of
incontinence."[53]

[Sidenote: Martial exercises.]

The military exercises of the page were not many, and they were only
important, inasmuch as they were the earliest ideas of his life, and that
consequently the habits of his character were formed on them. He was
taught to leap over trenches, to launch or cast spears and darts, to
sustain the shield, and in his walk to imitate the measured tread of the
soldier. He fought with light staves against stakes raised for the nonce,
as if they had been his mortal enemies, or met in encounters equally
perilous his youthful companions of the castle.[54] During the seven years
of these instructions he was called a valet, a damoiseau, or a page. The
first title was of the most ancient usage, and was thoroughly chivalric;
the second is of nearly equal authority[55], but the word page was not
much used till so late a period as the days of Philip de Comines.[56]
Before that time it was most frequently applied to the children of the
vulgar.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: The squire.]

[Sidenote: His duties of personal service.]

The next titles of the candidate for chivalry were armiger, scutifer or
escuyer: but though these words denoted personal military attendance, yet
his personal domestic service continued for some time. He prepared the
refection in the morning, and then betook himself to his chivalric
exercises. At dinner he, as well as the pages, furnished forth and
attended at the table, and presented to his lord and the guests the water
wherewith they washed their hands before and after the repast. The knight
and the squire never sat before the same table, nor was even the relation
of father and son allowed to destroy this principle of chivalric
subordination. We learn from Paulus Warnefridus, the historian of the
Lombards in Italy, that among that nation the son of a king did not dine
with his father, unless he had been knighted by a foreign sovereign.[57]
Such too was the practice among nations whose chivalry wore a brighter
polish than it shone with among the Italian Lombards. In Arragon, no son
of a knight sat at the table of a knight till he had been admitted into
the order.[58] The young English squire in the time of Edward III. carved
before his fader at the table; and again, in the Merchant's Tale, it is
said,--

  "All but a squire that hight Damian,
  That carft before the knight many a day."

[Sidenote: Curious story of a squire.]

And about the same time the sewers and cup-bearers of the Earl of Foix
were his sons.[59] The squire cup-bearer was often as fine and spirited a
character as his knight. Once, when Edward the Black Prince was sojourning
in Bourdeaux, he entertained in his chamber many of his English lords. A
squire brought wine into the room, and the prince, after he had drank,
sent the cup to Sir John Chandos, selecting him as the first in honour,
because he was constable of Acquitain. The knight drank, and by his
command the squire bore the cup to the Earl of Oxenford, a vain, weak man,
who, unworthy of greatness, was ever seeking for those poor trifles which
noble knights overlooked and scorned. Feeling his dignity offended that he
had not been treated according to his rank, he refused the cup, and with
mocking gesture desired the squire to carry it to his master, Sir John
Chandos. "Why so?" replied the youth, "he hath drank already, therefore
drink you, since he hath offered it to you. If you will not drink, by
Saint George, I will cast the wine in your face." The Earl, judging from
the stern and dogged manner of the squire that this was no idle threat,
quietly set the cup to his mouth.[60]

After dinner the squires prepared the chess tables or arranged the hall
for minstrelsy and dancing. They participated in all these amusements; and
herein the difference between the squire and the mere domestic servant was
shown. In strictness of propriety the squire's dress ought to have been
brown, or any of those dark colours which our ancestors used to call
'_sad_.' But the gay spirit of youth was loth to observe this rule.

  "Embroudered was he, as it were a mede,
  Alle ful of freshe floures, white and rede."

His dress was never of the fine texture, nor so highly ornamented as that
of the knight. The squires often made the beds of their lords, and the
service of the day was concluded by their presenting them with the vin du
coucher.

  "Les lis firent le Escuier,
  Si coucha chacun son seignor."

[Sidenote: Various titles of squires.]

Personal service was considered so much the duty of a squire that his
title was always applied to some particular part of it. The squires of a
lord had each his respective duties--one was the squire of the chamber, or
the chamberlain; and another the carving squire. Every branch of the
domestic arrangements of the castle was, under the charge of an aspirant
to chivalry. Spenser, who has opened to us so many interesting views of
chivalric manners, has admirably painted the domestic squire discharging
some of his duties:--

  "There fairly them receives a gentle squire,
  Of mild demeanour and rare courtesy,
  Right cleanly clad in comely sad attire;
  In word and deed that show'd great modesty,
  And knew his good to all of each degree,
  Hight reverence. He them with speeches meet,
  Does faire entreat, no courting nicety,
  But simple, true, and eke unfained sweet,
  As might become a squire so great persons to greet."[61]

[Sidenote: His duties in battle.]

The most honorable squire was he that was attached to the person of his
lord; he was called the squire of the body, and was in truth for the time
the only military youth of the class: every squire, however, became in
turn by seniority the martial squire. He accompanied his lord into the
field of battle, carrying his shield and armour, while the page usually
bore the helmet.[62] He held the stirrup, and assisted the knight to arm.
There was always a line of squires in the rear of a line of knights; the
young cavaliers supplying their lords with weapons, assisting them to rise
when overthrown, and receiving their prisoners.[63] The banner of the
banneret and baron was displayed by the squire. The pennon of the knight
was also waved by him when his leader was only a knight, and conducted so
many men-at-arms, and other vassals, that, to give dignity and importance
to his command, he removed his pennon from his own lance to that of his
attendant. We can readily believe the historians of ancient days, that it
was right pleasant to witness the seemly pride and generous emulation with
which the squires of the baron, the banneret, and the knight displayed the
various ensigns of their master's chivalry.

[Sidenote: Gallantry.]

But whatever were the class of duties to which the candidate for chivalry
was attached, he never forgot that he was also the squire of dames. During
his course of a valet he had been taught to play with love, and as years
advanced, nature became his tutor. Since the knights were bound by oath
to defend the feebler sex, so the principle was felt in all its force and
spirit by him who aspired to chivalric honours. Hence proceeded the
qualities of kindness, gentleness, and courtesy. The minstrels in the
castle harped of love as well as of war, and from them (for all young men
had not, like Sir Ipomydon, clerks for their tutors) the squire learnt to
express his passion in verse. This was an important feature of chivalric
education, for among the courtesies of love, the present of books from
knights to ladies was not forgotten, and it more often happened than
monkish austerity approved of, that a volume, bound in sacred guise,
contained, not a series of hymns to the Virgin Mary, but a variety of
amatory effusions to a terrestrial mistress.[64] Love was mixed in the
mind of the young squire with images of war, and he, therefore, thought
that his mistress, like honour, could only be gained through difficulties
and dangers; and from this feeling proceeded the romance of his passion.
But while no obstacle, except the maiden's disinclination, was in his way,
he sang, he danced, he played on musical instruments, and practised all
the arts common to all ages and nations to win the fair. In Chaucer, we
have a delightful picture of the manners of the squire:--

  "Singing he was or floyting all the day,
  He was as fresh as is the month of May.[65]
  He could songs make, and well endite,
  Just and eke dance, and well pourtraie and write;
  So hote he loved, that by nighterdale (night time)
  He slept no more than doth the nightingale."

[Sidenote: Martial exercises.]

Military exercises were mingled with the anxieties of love. He practised
every mode by which strength and activity could be given to the body. He
learnt to endure hunger and thirst; to disregard the seasons' changes, and
like the Roman youths in the Campus Martius, when covered with dust, he
plunged into the stream that watered the domains of his lord. He
accustomed himself to wield the sword, to thrust the lance, to strike with
the axe, and to wear armour. The most favourite exercise was that which
was called the Quintain: for it was particularly calculated to practise
the eye and hand in giving a right direction to the lance. A half figure
of a man, armed with sword and buckler, was placed on a post, and turned
on a pivot, so that if the assailant with his lance hit him not on the
middle of the breast but on the extremities, he made the figure turn
round, and strike him an ill-aimed blow, much to the merriment of the
spectators. The game of the Quintain was sometimes played by hanging a
shield upon a staff fixed in the ground, and the skilful squire riding
apace struck the shield in such a manner as to detach it from its
ligatures.[66]

[Sidenote: Horsemanship.]

But of all the exercises of chivalry, none was thought so important as
horsemanship.

  "Wel could he sit on horse and fair ride,"

is Chaucer's praise of his young squire. Horsemanship was considered the
peculiar science of men of gentle blood. That Braggadochio had not been
trained in chivalry was apparent from his bad riding. Even his valiant
courser chafed and foamed, for he disdained to bear any base burthen.[67]

Notions of religion were blended with those of arms in the mind of the
squire, for his sword was blessed by the priest, and delivered to him at
the altar. As he advanced to manhood he left to younger squires most of
the domestic duties of his station. Without losing his title of squire he
became also called a bachelor, a word also used to designate a young
unmarried knight. He went on military expeditions. The squire in Chaucer,
though but twenty years old, had

          "Sometime been in chevauchee,
  In Flanders, in Artois, and in Picardy."

Love was the inspirer of his chivalry: for he

  "Bore him well, as of so little space,
  In hope to stonden in his lady's grace."[68]

[Sidenote: Importance of squires in battles.]

[Sidenote: Particularly at the battle of Bovines.]

For the squire, instead of being merely the servant of the knight, often
periled himself in his defence. When the knight was impetuous beyond the
well-tempered bravery of chivalry, the admirer of his might followed him
so close, and adventured himself so jeopardously, as to cover him with his
shield.[69] A valiant knight, Ernalton of Saint Colombe, was on the point
of being discomfited by a squire called Guillonet, of Salynges; but when
the squire of Sir Ernalton saw his master almost at utterance, he went to
him, and took his axe out of his hands, and said, "Ernalton, go your way,
and rest you; ye can no longer fight;" and then with the axe he went to
the hostile squire, says Froissart, and gave him such a stroke on the head
that he was astonied, and had nigh fallen to the earth. He recovered
himself, and aimed a blow at his antagonist, which would have been fatal,
but that the squire slipped under it, and, throwing his arms round
Guillonet, wrestled, and finally threw him. The victor exclaimed that he
would slay his prostrate foe, unless he would yield himself to his master.
The name of his master was asked: "Ernalton of Saint Colombe," returned
the squire, "with whom thou hast fought all this season." Guillonet seeing
the dagger raised to strike him, yielded him to render his body prisoner
at Lourde within fifteen days after, rescue or no rescue.[70] The squires
were brought into the _mêlée_ of knights, at the famous battle of Bovines,
on the 27th of July, 1214. The force of Philip Augustus was far inferior
in number to that of the united Germans and Flemish; and, in order to
prevent them from surrounding him, he lengthened his line by placing the
squires at the two extremities of the knights. The mail-clad chivalry of
the emperor Otho were indignant at such soldiers daring to front them; but
the young warriors were not dismayed by haughty looks and contumelious
speeches, and their active daring mainly contributed to the gaining of the
victory, the most considerable one that France had ever obtained.[71]

[Sidenote: Preparations for knighthood.]

Seldom before the age of twenty-one was a squire admitted to the full
dignity of chivalry. Chaucer's squire was twenty, and had achieved feats
of arms. St. Louis particularly commanded that the honour of knighthood
should not be conferred upon any man under the age of twenty-one. As the
time approached for the completing and crowning of his character, his
religious duties became more strictly enforced. Knighthood was
assimilated, as much as possible, to the clerical state, and prayer,
confession, and fasting were necessary for the candidate for both. The
squire had his sponsors, the emblems of spiritual regeneration were
applied to him, and the ceremonies of inauguration commenced by
considering him a new man. He went into a bath, and then was placed in a
bed. They were symbolical, the bath of purity of soul, and the bed of the
rest which he was hereafter to enjoy in paradise. In the middle ages
people generally reposed naked[72], and it was not till after he had slept
that the neophyte was clad with a shirt. This white dress was considered
symbolical of the purity of his new character. A red garment was thrown
over him to mark his resolution to shed his blood in the cause of Heaven.
The vigil of arms was a necessary preliminary to knighthood. The night
before his inauguration he passed in a church, armed from head to
foot[73], and engaged in prayer and religious meditation. One of the last
acts of preparation was the shaving of his head to make its appearance
resemble that of the ecclesiastical tonsure. To part with hair was always
regarded in the church as a symbol of servitude to God.[74]

[Sidenote: The inauguration.]

The ceremony of inauguration was generally performed in a church, or hall
of a castle, on the occasion of some great religious or civic festival.
The candidate advanced to the altar, and, taking his sword from the scarf
to which it was appended, he presented it to the priest, who laid it upon
the altar, praying that Heaven would bless it, and that it might serve for
a protection of the church, of widows, and orphans, and of all the
servants of God against the tyrannies of pagans and other deceivers, in
whose eyes he mercifully hoped that it would appear as an instrument of
terror. The young soldier took his oaths of chivalry; he solemnly swore to
defend the church, to attack the wicked, to respect the priesthood, to
protect women and the poor, to preserve the country in tranquillity, and
to shed his blood, even to its last drop, in behalf of his brethren. The
priest then re-delivered the sword to him with the assurance that, as it
had received God's blessing, he who wielded it would prevail against all
enemies and the adversaries of the church. He then exhorted him to gird
his sword upon his strong thigh, that with it he might exercise the power
of equity to destroy the hopes of the profane, to fight for God's church,
and defend his faithful people, and to repel and destroy the hosts of the
wicked, whether they were heretics or pagans. Finally, the soldier in
chivalry was exhorted to defend widows and orphans, and to restore and
preserve the desolate, to revenge the wronged, to confirm the virtuous;
and he was assured that by performing these high duties he would attain
heavenly joys.[75]

The young warrior afterwards advanced to the supreme lord in the assembly,
and knelt before him with clasped hands;--an attitude copied from feudal
manners, and the only circumstance of feudality in the whole ceremony. The
lord then questioned him whether his vows had any objects distinct from
the wish to maintain religion and chivalry. The soldier having answered in
the negative, the ceremony was permitted to advance. He was invested with
all the exterior marks of chivalry. The knights and ladies of the court
attended on him, and delivered to him the various pieces of his
harness.[76] The armour varied with the military customs of different
periods and of different countries, but some matters were of permanent
usage. The spurs were always put on first, and the sword was belted on
last. The concluding sign of being dubbed or adopted into the order of
knighthood was a slight blow[77] given by the lord to the cavalier, and
called the accolade, from the part of the body, the neck, whereon it was
struck. The lord then proclaimed him a knight in the name of God and the
saints, and such cavaliers as were present embraced their newly-made
brother. The priest exhorted him to go forth like a man, and observe the
ordinances of heaven. Impressed with the solemnity of the scene, all the
other knights renewed in a few brief and energetic sentences their vows of
chivalry; and while the hall was gleaming with drawn swords, the man of
God again took up the word, blessing him who had newly undertaken, and
those who had been long engaged in holy warfare, and praying that all the
hosts of the enemies of heaven might be destroyed by Christian chivalry.
The assembly then dispersed. The new knight, on leaving the hall, vaulted
on his steed, and showed his skill in the management of the lance, that
the admiring people might know that a cavalier had been elected for their
protection. He distributed largesses among the servants and minstrels of
the castle, for whoso received so great a gift as the order of chivalry
honoured not his order if he gave not after his ability. The remainder of
the day was passed in congratulation and festivity.[78]

Many of the most virtuous affections of the heart wound themselves round
that important circumstance in a man's life, his admission into
knighthood. He always regarded with filial piety the cavalier who invested
him with the order. He never would take him prisoner if they were ranged
on opposite sides, and he would have forfeited all title to chivalric
honours if he had couched his lance against him.

[Sidenote: Squires anxious to be knighted by great characters.]

A noble aspirant to chivalry would only receive the accolade from a
warrior, whose fame had excited his emulation, or sometimes the feelings
of feudal attachment prevailed over the higher and sterner sense of
chivalry. In expectation of a battle, the Earl of Buckingham called forth
a gentle squire of Savoy, and said, "Sir, if God be pleased, I think we
shall this day have a battle; therefore I wish that you would become a
knight." The squire excused himself by saying, "Sir, God thank you for the
nobleness that ye would put me unto; but, Sir, I will never be knight
without I am made by the hands of my natural lord, the Earl of Savoy."[79]

A very singular tribute was paid to bravery during the famous battle of
Homildon Hill. When the cloth-yard arrows of the English yeomen were
piercing the opposite line through and through, Sir John Swinton exhorted
the Scotsmen not to stand like deer to be shot at, but to indulge their
ancient courage and meet their enemy hand to hand. His wish, however, was
echoed only by one man, Adam Gordon, and between their families a mortal
feud existed. Generously forgetting the hatred which each house bore to
the other, Gordon knelt before Swinton, and solicited to be knighted by so
brave a man. The accolade was given, and the two friends, like companions
in arms, gallantly charged the English. If a kindred spirit had animated
the whole of the Scottish line the fate of the day might have been
reversed; but the two noble knights were only supported by about an
hundred men-at-arms devoted to all their enterprises; and they all
perished.[80]

[Sidenote: Knights made in battle-field.]

[Sidenote: Inconvenience of this.]

The ceremonies of inauguration which have been described were gone through
when knighthood was conferred on great and public occasions of festivity,
but they often gave place to the power of rank and circumstances. Princes
were exempted from the laborious offices of page and squire. Men were
often adopted into chivalry on the eve of a battle, as it was considered
that a sense of their new honours would inspire their gallantry. Once
during the war of our Black Prince in Spain, more than three hundred
soldiers raised their pennons; many of them had been squires, but in one
case the distinction was entirely complimentary, for Peter the Cruel, who
could boast neither chivalric qualities nor chivalric services, was
dubbed. There was scarcely a battle in the middle ages which was not
preceded or followed by a large promotion of men to the honour of
knighthood. Sometimes, indeed, they were regularly educated squires, but
more frequently the mere contingency of the moment was regarded, and
soldiers distinguished only for their bravery and ungraced by the gentle
virtues of chivalry were knighted. We often read of certain squires being
made cavaliers and raising their pennons, but very often no pennons were
raised, that is to say, the men who were knighted were not able to summon
round their lances a single man-at-arms; hence it ocurred that the world
was overspread with poor knights, some of whom brought chivalry into
disgrace by depredations and violence; others wandered about the world in
quest of adventures, and let out their swords to their richer brethren. In
the romance of Partenopex of Blois, there is a picture of a knight of this
last class.

  "So riding, they o'ertake an errant knight,
  Well hors'd, and large of limb, Sir Gaudwin hight,
  He nor of castle nor of land was lord,
  Houseless he reap'd the harvest of the sword;
  And now, not more on fame than profit bent,
  Rode with blithe heart unto the tournament;
  For cowardice he held it deadly sin,
  And sure his mind and bearing were akin,
  The face an index to the soul within;
  It seem'd that he, such pomp his train bewray'd,
  Had shap'd a goodly fortune by his blade;
  His knaves were point device, in livery dight,
  With sumpter nags, and tents for shelter in the night."

[Sidenote: Knights of Mines.]

Cavaliers sometimes took their title from the place where they were
knighted: a very distinguished honor was to be called a Knight of the
Mines, which was to be obtained by achieving feats of arms in the
subterranean process of a siege. The mines were the scenes of knightly
valour; they were lighted up by torches; trumpets and other war
instruments resounded, and the general affair of the siege was suspended,
while the knights tried their prowess; the singularity of the mode of
combat giving a zest to the encounters. No prisoners could be taken, as a
board, breast high, placed in the passage by mutual consent, divided the
warriors. Swords or short battle-axes were the only weapons used.

In the year 1388, the castle of Vertueill, in Poictou, then held by the
English, was besieged by the Duke of Bourbon. Its walls raised on a lofty
rock were not within the play of the battering ram, and therefore the
tedious operation of the mine was resorted to: both parties frequently met
and fought in the excavated chambers, and a battle of swords was one day
carried on between Regnaud de Montferrand, the squire of the castle, and
the Duke of Bourbon, each being ignorant of the name and quality of the
other. At length the cry "Bourbon, Bourbon! Our Lady!" shouted by the
attendants of the Duke, in their eager joy at the fray, struck the ears of
the squire, and arrested his hand. He withdrew some paces, and enquired
whether the duke were present: when they assured him of the fact, he
requested to receive the honour of knighthood in the mine, from the hands
of the duke, and offering to deliver up the castle to him in return for
the distinction, and from respect for the honour and valour he found in
him. Never was a castle in the pride of its strength and power gained by
easier means. The keys were delivered to the Duke of Bourbon by Regnaud de
Montferrand, and the honor of knighthood, with a goodly courser and a
large golden girdle, were bestowed on the squire in return.[81]

[Sidenote: General ceremonies of degradation.]

Such were the various ceremonies of chivalric inauguration. Those of
degradation should be noticed. What the offences were which were
punishable by degradation it is impossible to specify. If a knight
offended against the rules of the order of chivalry he was degraded,
inasmuch as he was despised by his brother knights; and as honour was the
life-blood of chivalry, he dreaded contempt more than the sword. Still,
however, there were occasions when a knight might be formally deprived of
his distinctions. The ceremony of degradation generally took place after
sentence, and previous to the execution of a legal judgment against
him.[82] Sometimes his sword was broken over his head, and his spurs were
chopped off; and, to make the bitterness of insult a part of the
punishment, these actions were performed by a person of low condition; but
at other times the forms of degradation were very elaborate. The knight
who was to be degraded was in the first instance armed by his brother
knights from head to foot, as if he had been going to the battle-field;
they then conducted him to a high stage, raised in a church, where the
king and his court, the clergy, and the people, were assembled; thirty
priests sung such psalms as were used at burials; at the end of every
psalm they took from him a piece of armour. First, they removed his
helmet, the defence of disloyal eyes, then his cuirass on the right side,
as the protector of a corrupt heart; then his cuirass on the left side, as
from a member consenting, and thus with the rest; and when any piece of
armour was cast upon the ground, the king of arms and heralds cried,
"Behold the harness of a disloyal and miscreant knight!" A basin of gold
or silver full of warm water was then brought upon the stage, and a herald
holding it up, demanded the knight's name. The pursuivants answered that
which in truth was his designation. Then the chief king of arms said,
"That is not true, for he is a miscreant and false traitor, and hath
transgressed the ordinances of knighthood." The chaplains answered, "Let
us give him his right name." The trumpets sounded a few notes, supposed to
express the demand, "what shall be done with him?" The king, or his chief
officer, who was present replied, "Let him with dishonour and shame be
banished from my kingdom as a vile and infamous man, that hath offended
against the honour of knighthood." The heralds immediately cast the warm
water upon the face of the disgraced knight, as though he were newly
baptized, saying, "Henceforth thou shalt be called by thy right name,
Traitor." Then the king, with twelve other knights, put upon them mourning
garments, declaring sorrow, and thrust the degraded knight from the stage:
by the buffettings of the people he was driven to the altar, where he was
put into a coffin, and the burial-service of the church was solemnly read
over him.[83]

[Sidenote: Ceremonies in England.]

The English customs regarding degradation are minutely stated by Stowe in
the case of an English knight, Sir Andrew Harcley, Earl of Carlisle who
(in the time of Edward II.) was deprived of his knighthood, previously to
his suffering the penalties of the law for a treasonable correspondence
with Robert Bruce. "He was led to the bar as an earl, worthily apparelled,
with his sword girt about him, horsed, booted, and spurred, and unto him
Sir Anthony Lucy (his judge) spoke in this manner: 'Sir Andrew,' quoth he,
'the king for thy valiant service hath done thee great honour, and made
thee Earl of Carlisle, since which time thou as a traitor to thy lord, the
king, led his people, that should have helped him at the battle of
Heighland, away by the county of Copland, and through the earldom of
Lancaster, by which means our lord the king was discomfited there of the
Scots, through thy treason and falseness; whereas, if thou haddest come
betimes, he hadde had the victory, and this treason thou committed for the
great sum of gold and silver that thou received of James Douglas, a Scot,
the king's enemy. Our lord the king wills, therefore, that the order of
knighthood, by the which thou received all the honour and worship upon thy
body, be brought to nought, and thy state undone, that other knights of
lower degree may after thee beware, and take example truly to serve.' Then
commanded he to hew his spurs from his heels, then to break his sword over
his head, which the king had given him to keep and defend his land
therewith, when he made him earl. After this, he let unclothe him of his
furred tabard, and of his hood, of his coat of arms, and also of his
girdle; and when this was done, Sir Anthony said unto him, 'Andrew,' quoth
he, 'now art thou no knight, but a knave; and for thy treason the king
wills that thou shalt be hanged and drawn, and thy head smitten off from
thy body, and burned before thee, and thy body quartered, and thy head
being smitten off, afterwards to be set upon London bridge, and thy four
quarters shall be sent into four good towns of England, that all others
may beware by thee;' and as Sir Anthony Lucy had said, so was it done in
all things, on the last day of October."[84]




CHAP. III.

THE EQUIPMENT.

    _Beauty of the chivalric Equipment ... The Lance ... The Pennon ...
    The Axe, Maule, and Martel ... The Sword ... Fondness of the Knight
    for it ... Swords in Romances ... The Shield ... Various sorts of Mail
    ... Mail ... Mail and Plate ... Plate Harness ... The Scarf ...
    Surcoats ... Armorial Bearings ... Surcoats of the Military Orders ...
    The Dagger of Mercy ... Story of its Use ... Value of Enquiries into
    ancient Armour ... A precise Knowledge unattainable ... Its general
    Features interesting ... The broad Lines of the Subject ... Excellence
    of Italian Armour ... Armour of the Squire, &c. ... Allegories made on
    Armour ... The Horse of the Knight._


The fierce equipage of war deserves a fuller consideration than was given
to it in the last chapter. The horse whereon the knight dashed to the
perilous encounter should be described, the weapons by which he
established the honour of his fame and the nobleness of his mistress's
beauty deserve something more than a general notice. Never was military
costume more splendid and graceful than in the days which are emphatically
called "the days of the shield and the lance." What can modern warfare
present in comparison with the bright and glittering scene of a goodly
company of gentle knights pricking on the plain with nodding plumes,
emblazoned shields, silken pennons streaming in the wind, and the scarf,
that beautiful token of lady-love, crossing the strong and polished steel
cuirass.

[Sidenote: The lance.]

The lance was the chief offensive weapon of the knight: its staff was
commonly formed from the ash-tree.

[Sidenote: The pennon.]

Its length was fitted to the vigour and address of him who bore it, and
its iron and sharpened head was fashioned agreeably to his taste.[85] To
the top of the wooden part of the lance was generally fixed an ensign, or
piece of silk, linen, or stuff. On this ensign was marked the cross, if
the expedition of the soldier had for its object the Holy Land, or it bore
some part of his heraldry; and in the latter case, when the lance was
fixed in the ground near the entrance of the owner's tent, it served to
designate the bearer. Originally this ensign was called a gonfanon, the
combination of two Teutonic words, signifying war and a standard.
Subsequently, when the ensign was formed of rich stuffs and silks, it was
called a pennon, from the Latin word pannus.[86] The pennon cannot be
described from its exact breadth, for that quality of it varied with the
different fancies of knights, and it had sometimes one, but more often two
indentations at the end.

When the pennon was cut square on occasion of a simple knight becoming a
knight banneret it received the title of a banner, the ancient German word
for the standard of a leader, or prince.[87]

[Sidenote: The axe.]

[Sidenote: The maule and martel.]

To transfix his foe with a lance was the ordinary endeavour of a knight;
but some cavaliers of peculiar hardihood preferred to come to the closest
quarters, where the lance could not be used. The battle-axe, which they
therefore often wielded, needs no particular description. But the most
favourite weapons were certain ponderous steel or iron hammers, carrying
death either by the weight of their fall or the sharpness of the edge.
They were called the martel and the maule, words applied indifferently in
old times; for writers of days of chivalry cared little about extreme
accuracy of diction, not foreseeing the fierce disputes which their want
of minuteness in description would give rise to. This was the weapon which
ecclesiastics used when they buckled harness over rochet and hood, and
holy ardour impelled them into the field; for the canons of the church
forbad them from wielding swords, and they always obeyed the letter of the
law. Some cavaliers, in addition to their other weapons, carried the
mallet, or maule, hanging it at their saddle bow, till the happy moment
for 'breaking open skulls' arrived. When it was used alone, this
description of offensive armour was rather Gothic than chivalric; yet the
rudeness of earlier ages had its admirers in all times of chivalry, the
affected love of simplicity not being peculiar to the present day. A lance
could not execute half the sanguinary purposes of Richard Coeur de Lion,
and it was with a battle-axe[88], as often as with a sword, that he
dashed into the ranks of the Saracens. Bertrand du Guesclin had a
partiality for a martel, and so late as the year 1481 the battle-axe was
used.

Among the hosts of the Duke of Burgundy was a knight named Sir John
Vilain. He was a nobleman from Flanders, very tall, and of great bodily
strength: he was mounted on a good horse, and held a battle-axe in both
hands. He pressed his way into the thickest part of the battle, and,
throwing his bridle on the neck of his steed, he gave such mighty blows on
all sides with his battle-axe that whoever was struck was instantly
unhorsed, and wounded past recovery.[89] Generally speaking, however, the
polite and courteous knights of chivalry thought it an ungentle practice
to use a weapon which was associated with ideas of trade; and the
romance-writers, who reflect the style of thinking of their times,
commonly give the lance to the knight, and the axe or mallet to some rude
and ferocious giant.[90]

[Sidenote: The sword.]

[Sidenote: Fondness of the knight for it.]

The usual weapon for the press and mêlée was the sword, and there were a
great many interesting associations attached to it. The knight threw round
it all his affections. In that weapon he particularly trusted. It was his
_good_ sword, and with still more confidence and kindness he called it his
_own good_ sword. He gave it a name, and engraved on it some moral
sentence, or a word referring to a great event of his life. Not indeed
that these sentences were confined to the sword; they were sometimes
engraven on the frontlet of the helmet, or even on the spurs[91], but the
hilt or blade of the sword were their usual and proper places. The sword
rather than the lance was the weapon which represented the chivalry of a
family, and descended as the heir loom of its knighthood. When no one
inherited his name, there was as much generous contention among his
friends to possess his good sword, as in the days of Greece poetry has
ascribed to the warriors who wished for the armour of Achilles.[92] The
sword was the weapon which connected the religious and military parts of
the chivalrique character. The knight swore by his sword, for its cross
hilt was emblematical of his Saviour's cross.

  David in his daies dubbed knights,
  And did hem _swere on her sword_ to serve truth ever.
                                  P. PLOUGHMAN.

The word Jesus was sometimes engraven on the hilt to remind the wearer of
his religious duties. The sword was his only crucifix, when mass was said
in the awful pause between the forming of the military array and the
laying of lances in their rests. It was moreover his consolation in the
moment of death. When that doughty knight of Spain, Don Rodrigo Frojaz was
lying upon his shield, with his helmet for a pillow, he kissed the cross
of his sword in remembrance of that on which the incarnate son of God had
died for him, and in that act of devotion rendered up his soul into the
hands of his Creator.[93]

The handle of the sword was also remarkable for another matter. The
knight, in order not to lose the advantage of having his seal by him,
caused it to be cut in the head of his sword, and thus by impressing his
seal upon any wax attached to a legal document, he exhibited his
determination to maintain his obligation by the three-fold figure of his
seal, the upholden naked sword, and the cross.[94]

The sword of the knight was held in such high estimation, that the name of
its maker was thought worthy of record. Thus when Geoffery of Plantagenet
received the honor of knighthood, a sword was brought out of the royal
treasury, the work of Galan, the best of all sword smiths.[95] Spain was
always famous for the temper and brilliancy of its swords. Martial speaks
in several places of the Spanish swords which, when hot from the forge,
were plunged in the river Salo near Bilbilis in Celtiberia. The armourers
at Saragossa were as renowned in days of chivalry as those of Toledo in
rather later times, for it was not only the sword of Toledo that became a
proverbial phrase for the perfection of the art. Sometimes the armourers
had establishments in both towns. The excellence, however, of the swords
of Julian del Rey, who lived both at Saragossa and Toledo, is referred to
by the keeper of the lions in Don Quixote. The weapons of this artist had
their peculiar marks. El perillo, a little dog; el morillo, a Moor's head,
and la loba, a wolf.[96]

But perhaps it may be thought I am passing the bounds of my subject. To
return then to earlier days. The girdle round the waist, or the bauldrick
descending from the shoulder across the body was simple tanned leather
only, or sometimes its splendour rivalled that of prince Arthur in the
Fairy Queen.

  Athwart his breast a bauldrick brave he ware
  That shind like twinkling stars, with stones most precious rare;

      *       *       *       *       *

  And in the midst thereof, one precious stone
  Of wond'rous worth, and eke of wondrous mights,
  Shapt like a lady's head, exceeding shone,
  Like Hesperus among the lesser lights,
  And strove for to amaze the weaker sights:
  Thereby his mortal blade full comely hung
  In ivory sheath, ycarv'd with curious slights,
  Whose hilt was burnish'd gold, and handle strong
  Of mother perle, and buckled with a golden tong.
                                  Book 1. c. 7. st. 29, 30.


[Sidenote: Swords in romances.]

Many of the historical circumstances just now related regarding the sword
of the knight are pleasingly exaggerated in the beautiful extravagancies
of romantic fabling. The most famous sword in the imagination of our
ancestors was that of king Arthur; it was called Escalibert (corrupted
into Caliburn). The romance of Merlin thus explains the name. Escalibert
est un nom Ebricu qui vault autant à dire en Français, comme tres cher fer
et acier, et aussi dissoyent il vrai. The history of this sword enters
largely into the romances of Arthur, and the knights of the round table,
and the subject was fondly cherished by those who detailed the exploits of
other heroes. The fame of Caliburn was remembered when Richard the first
went to the East. The romances affirm that he wore the terrible and trusty
sword of Arthur. But, instead of mowing down ranks of Saracens with it, he
presented it to Tancred, king of Sicily.

  And Richard at that time gaf him a faire juelle.
  The good sword Caliburne, which Arthur luffed so well.[97]

The romancers followed the practices of the northern scalds[98], of naming
the swords of knights: that of Sir Bevis of Hampton was called Morglay;
and that of the Emperor Charlemagne himself Fusberta joyosa.[99] The poets
were also as faithful delineators of manners as their predecessors the
romance writers had been, and therefore we find in Ariosto that the sword
of the courteous Rogero was called Balisarda, and that of Orlando,
Durindana.

In the romance of Sir Otuel, the address of the same Orlando to his sword
is perfectly in the spirit of chivalry.

  Then he began to make his moan
  And fast looked thereupon,
    As he held it in his hond.
  "O sword of great might,
  Better bare never no knight,
    To win with no lond!
  Thou hasty--be in many batayle,
  That never Sarrazin, sans fayle
    Ne might thy stroke withstond.
  Go! let never no paynim
  Into battle bear him,
    After the death of Roland!
  O sword of great powere,
  In this world n'is nought thy peer,
    Of no metal y--wrought;
  _All Spain and Galice_,
  Through grace of God and thee y--wis,
    To Christendom ben brought.
  Thou art good withouten blame;
  In thee is graven the holy name
    That all things made of nought."[100]

Regarding inscriptions on swords mentioned in the concluding lines, there
is a very interesting passage in the romance of Giron the courteous. On
one occasion where the chaste virtue of that gentle knight and noble
companion of Arthur was in danger, his spear, which he had rested against
a tree, fell upon his sword, and impelled it into a fountain. Giron
immediately left the lady with whom he was conversing, and ran to the
water. He snatched the weapon from the fountain, and, throwing away the
scabbard, began to wipe the blade. Then his eyes lighted on the words
that were written on the sword, and these were the words that were thus
written:--Loyaulte passe tout, et faulsete si honneit tout, et deceit tous
hommes dedans quals elle se herberge. This sentence acted with talismanic
power upon the heart of that noble knight Giron the courteous, and so his
virtue was saved.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: The shield.]

[Sidenote: Impresses.]

Leaving those pictures of manners which the old romances have painted, I
come to the defensive harness of the knight, a subject which has many
claims to attention. The shield was held in equal esteem in chivalric as
in classic times; for

  "To lose the badge that should his deeds display,"

was considered the greatest shame and foulest scorn that could happen to a
knight. The shape of the shield was oblong or triangular, wide at the top
for the protection of the body, and tapering to the bottom.[101] Other
shapes were given to it agreeably to the fancy of the knight, and it was
plain or adorned with emblazonry of arms and other ornaments of gold and
silver, according to his estate, and the simplicity or comparative
refinement of his age. Some knights, as gentle as brave, adorned their
shields with a portrait of their lady-love[102], or stamped on them
impresses quaint, with a device emblematical of their passion. Knights
formed of sterner stuff retained their heraldic insignia, and their
mottoes breathed war and homicide; but gallant cavaliers shewed the
gentleness of their minds, and their impressed sentences were sometimes
plain of meaning, but oftener dark to all, except the knight himself, and
the damsel whose playful wit had invented them. We can readily imagine
that those amorous devices and impresses were not so frequently used in
the battle field as in the tournament, and that they were sometimes worn
together with gentilitial distinctions.

[Sidenote: Various sorts of mail.]

The casing of the body is a very curious subject of enquiry. The
simplicity of ancient times, in using the skins of beasts, is marked in
the word _loricum_, from the word _lorum_, a thong, and the word
_cuirasse_ is traceable to _cuir_, leather. Body harness has three general
divisions; mail; plate and mail mixed; plate mail entirely. Rows of iron
rings, sown on the dress, were the first defences, and then, for
additional defence, a row of larger rings was laid over the first. These
rings gave way to small iron plates which lapped over each other, and this
variety of mail is interesting, for armour now resembled the _lorica
squammata_ of the Romans, and hence ancient mail of this description has
generally been called scale-mail, while the ordinary appearance of armour
being like the meshes of a net, gained it the title of mail from the
_macula_ of the Latins, and the _maglia_ of the Italians. Sometimes the
plates were square, and sometimes of a lozenge form: but it would be
considering the matter much too curiously to divide armour into as many
species as the shapes and forms which a small piece of iron or steel was
capable of being divided into.[103]

All this variety of mail harness was sown on an under garment of leather
or cloth, or a more considerable wadding of various sorts of materials,
and called a gambeson. If the garment were a simple tunic or frock the
whole was called a hauberk. The lower members were defended by
_chausses_, which may be intelligible to modern understandings by the
words breeches or pantaloons. When the mailed frock and _chausses_ were
joined, the union was called the haubergeon. In each case, the back and
crown of the head were saved harmless by a hood of mail, which sometimes
formed part of the hauberk or haubergeon, and sometimes was detached. In
Spain, the hood and the other parts of the dress were united, if the case
of the Cid be held as evidence of the general state of manners; for after
his battles, he is always represented as slowly quitting the field with
his gory hood thrown back. The mail covered also the chin, and sometimes
the mouth; in the latter case the office of breathing being entirely
committed to the care of the nose. Finally, the sleeves of the jacket were
carried over the fingers, and a continuation of the _chausses_ protected
the toes.

  "A goodly knight all armed in harness meet
  That from his head no place appeared to his feete."

It is curious that foppery in armour began at the toe. It was the fashion
for the knight to have the toe of the mail several inches in length and
inclining downwards. To fight on foot with such incumbrances was
impossible, and, therefore the enemies of the crusaders (for foppery
prevailed even in religious wars) shot rather at the horses than at the
men. The fashion I am speaking of crossed the Pyrenees, for in the
pictorial representation of a tournament at Grenada, between Moorish and
Christian knights, the former are drawn with the broad shovel shoes of
their country, while the latter have long pointed shoes, like the
cavaliers of the North.

Such were the various descriptions of mail armour from the earliest æra of
chivalry to the thirteenth century. They were worn at different times in
different countries, and often in the same country at the same time by
different individuals: but at length so excellent an improvement was made
in chain mail, that military fashion could have no longer any pretence for
variety. The different descriptions of mail armour show the skill of the
iron-smiths among our ancestors, and that they were capable of inventing
the next and last great change. But as it was made at a time when the
Asiatic mode of warfare was known in Europe, and as the improvement I am
about to mention was the general mode of the Saracenian soldiers, it is as
probable that it was borrowed, as that it was invented. The rings of mail
were now no longer sewn on the dress, but they were interlaced, each ring
having four others inserted into it, and consequently the rings formed a
garment of themselves. The best coats of mail were made of double
rings.[104] The admirable convenience of this twisted or reticulated mail
secured its general reception. A knight was no longer encumbered by his
armour in travelling. His squire might be the bearer of his mail, for it
was both flexible and compact, or it could be rolled upon the hinder part
of a saddle.

[Sidenote: Mail and plate.]

[Sidenote: Plate harness.]

Before, however, this last great improvement in mail-armour took place,
changes were made in that general description of harness which foretold
its final fall, although it might be partially and for a time supported by
any particular invention of merit. Plates of solid steel or iron were
fixed on the breast or other parts of the body, where painful experience
had assured the wearer of the insufficiency of his metal rings. The new
fashion of reticulated mail added nothing to the strength of defence, and,
therefore, ingenuity and prudence were ever at work to make defensive
armour equal to offensive. New plates continually were added, and many of
them received their titles from the parts of the body which they were
intended to defend: the pectoral protected the breast, the cuisses were
for the thighs, the brassarts for the arms, the ailettes for the
shoulders, while the gorget defended the throat, and a scaly gauntlet
gloved the hand. The cuirass was the title for the defence of the breast
and the back. This mixed harness gained ground till the knight had nearly
a double covering of mail and plate. The plate was then found a perfect
defence, and the mail was gradually thrown aside; and thus, finally, the
warrior was entirely clad in steel plates. This harness was exceedingly
oppressive to the limbs, and therefore we find the circumstance so
frequently mentioned in old writers, that when a knight alighted at his
hostel or inn, he not only doffed his armour, but went into a bath. No
wonder that it was necessary to keep changes of dress to present to the
cavaliers who arrived. Plate-armour must have been as destructive of
clothes as the old chain mail, and describing his knight, Chaucer says,

  "Of fustian he wered a gipon
  Alle besmotred with his habergeon.
  For he was of late y come fro his viage,
  And wente for to don his pilgrimage."

The plate harness was in one respect far more inconvenient than the armour
it superseded. The coat of chain mail could be put on or slipped off with
instantaneous celerity; but the dressing of a plate-armed knight was no
simple matter.

                  "From the tents
  The armourers, accomplishing the knights,
  With busy hammers closing rivets up,
  Give dreadful note of preparation."

Besides this deprivation of rest before a battle, the knight, in order to
prevent surprise, was obliged to wear his heavy harness almost constantly.

It is curious to observe, that chain mail formed some part of the harness
of a knight until the very last days of chivalry, chivalric feelings
seeming to be associated with that ancient form of armour. It was _let
into_ the plates round the neck, and thus there was a collar or tippet of
mail; and it also generally hung over other parts of the body, where,
agreeably to its shape and dimensions, it became, if I may again express
myself in the language of ladies, if not of antiquarians, an apron or a
short petticoat.

[Sidenote: The scarf.]

[Sidenote: Surcoats.]

The armour of the knight was often crossed by a scarf of silk embroidered
by his lady-love. He wore also a dress which in different times was
variously designated as a surcoat, a cyclas, or a tabard. It was long[105]
or short, it opened at the sides, in the back, or in the front, as fashion
or caprice ruled the wearer's mind; but it was always sleeveless.
Originally simple cloth was its material; but as times and luxury advanced
it became richer. For the reason that this sort of dress was almost the
only one in which the lords, knights, and barons could display their
magnificence, and because it covered all their clothing and armour, they
had it usually made of cloths of gold or silver, of rich skins, furs of
ermine, sables, minever, and others.[106] There was necessarily more
variety in the appearance of the surcoat than in that of any other part
of his harness, and hence it became the distinction of a knight. In public
meetings and in times of war the lords and knights were marked by their
coats of arms; and when they were spoken of, or when any one wished to
point them out by an exterior sign, it was sufficient to say, that he
wears a coat of or, argent, gules, sinople, sable, gris, ermine, or vair,
or still shorter, he bears or, gules, &c. the words coat of arms being
understood. But as these marks were not sufficient to distinguish in
solemn assemblies, or in times of war every lord, when all were clothed in
coats of arms of gold, silver, or rich furs, they, in process of time,
thought proper to cut the cloths of gold, and silver, and furs, which they
wore over their armour, into various shapes of different colours,
observing, however, as a rule never to put fur on fur, nor cloths of gold
on those of silver, nor those of silver on gold; but they intermixed the
cloths with the furs, in order to produce variety and relief.[107] With
these cloths and furs were mingled devices or cognizances symbolical of
some circumstance in the life of the knight, and with the crest the whole
formed in modern diction the coat of arms.

[Sidenote: Armorial bearings.]

Every feudal lord assumed the right of chusing his own armorial
distinctions: they were worn by all his family, and were hereditary. It
was also in his power to grant arms to knights and squires as marks of
honour for military merit; and from all these causes armorial distinctions
represented the feudalism, the gentry, and the chivalry of Europe. One
knight could not give more deadly offence to another than by wearing his
armorial bearings without his permission, and many a lance was broken to
punish such insolence. Kings, as their power arose above that of the
aristocracy, assumed the right of conferring these distinctions;--an
assumption of arms without royal permission was an offence, and the
business of heralds was enlarged from that of being mere messengers
between hostile princes into a court for the arranging of armorial
honours. Thus the usurpation of kings was beneficial to society, for
disputes regarding arms and cognisances were settled by heralds and not by
battle.

It is totally impossible to mark the history of these circumstances.
Instances of emblazoned sopra vests are to be met with in times anterior
to the crusades. They were worn during the continuance of mail and of
mixed armour: but they gradually went out of usage as plate armour became
general, it being then very much the custom to enamel or emboss the
heraldic distinctions on the armour itself, or to be contented with its
display on the shield or the banner. On festival occasions and
tournaments, however, all the gorgeousness of heraldic splendour was
exhibited upon the cyclas or tabard.

[Sidenote: Surcoats of the military orders.]

A word may be said on the surcoats of the military orders. The knights of
St. John and the Temple wore plain sopra vests, and their whole harness
was covered by a monastic mantle, marked with the crosses of their
respective societies. The colour of the mantle worn by the knights of St.
John was black, and from that colour being the usual monastic one, they
were called the military friars. Their cross was white. The brethren of
the Temple wore a white mantle with a red cross, and hence their frequent
title, the Red Cross Knights.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Helmets.]

The history of the covering of the head is not altogether unamusing. The
knight was not contented to trust the protection of that part of himself
to his mailed hood alone; he wore a helmet, whose shape was at first
conical, then cylindrical, and afterwards resumed its pristine form. The
defence of the face became a matter of serious consideration, and a broad
piece of iron was made to connect the frontlet of the helm with the mail
over the mouth.[108] This nasal piece was not in general use, it being a
very imperfect protection from a sword-cut, and the knight found it of
more inconvenience than service when his vanquisher held him to earth by
it. Cheek-pieces of bars, placed horizontally or perpendicularly, attached
to the helmet, were substituted or introduced. Then came the aventaile, or
iron mask, joined to the helmet, with apertures for the eyes and mouth. It
was at first fixed and immoveable, but ingenuity afterwards assisted those
face defences. By means of pivots the knight could raise or let fall the
plates or grating before the face, and the defence was called a vizor.
Subsequently, plates were brought up from the chin, and this moveable
portion of the helmet was called, as most people know, the bever, from the
Italian _bevere_, to drink. In early times the helmet was without
ornament; it afterwards (though the exact time it is impossible to fix)
was surmounted by that part of the armorial bearings called the crest. A
lady's glove or scarf was often introduced, and was not the least
beautiful ornament. The Templars and the knights of St. John were not
permitted to adorn their helmets with the tokens either of nobility or of
love; the simplicity of religion banishing all vain heraldic distinctions,
and the soldier-priests being obliged, like the monks themselves, to
pretend to that ascetic virtue which was so highly prized in the middle
ages.

All the splendour of chivalry is comprised in the helmet of prince Arthur.

    "His haughty helmet, horrid all with gold,
    Both glorious brightness and great terror bred;
    For all the crest a dragon did enfold
    With greedy paws, and over all did spred
    His golden wings: his dreadful hideous head
    Close couched on the bever, seem'd to throw
    From flaming mouth bright sparkles fiery red,
    That sudden horror to faint hearts did show,
  And scaly tail was stretch'd adowne his back full low.

    "Upon the top of all his lofty crest
    A bunch of hairs discoloured diversely,
    With sprinkled pearl and gold full richly drest,
    Did shake and seem'd to dance for jollity,
    Like to an almond-tree ymounted hye
    On top of green Selinis all alone,
    With blossoms brave bedecked daintily;
    Whose tender locks do tremble every one
  At every little breath that under heaven is blown."[109]

The helmet, with its vizor and bever, was carried by the squire, or page,
on the pommel of his saddle, a very necessary measure for the relief of
the knight, particularly when the sarcasm of the Duke of Orleans was
applicable, that "if the English had any intellectual armour in their
heads, they could never wear such heavy head-pieces."[110]

The reader should know, with the barber in Don Quixote, that, except in
the hour of battle, a knight wore only an open casque, or bacinet, a light
and easy covering. The bacinet derived its title from its resemblance to a
basin; but the word was sometimes used, however improperly, for the
helmet, the close helmet of knighthood. A vizor might be attached to the
bacinet, and then the covering for the head became a helmet. Bacinez à
visieres are often spoken of.

The helmet of war appeared to complete the perfection of defensive
harness; for the lance broke hurtless on the plate of steel, the arrow and
quarrel glanced away, and it is only in romance that we read of swords
cutting through a solid front of iron, or piercing both plate and mail, as
some bolder spirits say.

  "From top to toe no place appeared bare,
  That deadly dint of steel endanger may."[111]

[Sidenote: The dagger of mercy.]

The only way by which death could be inflicted was by thrusting a lance
through the small holes in the vizor. Such a mode of death was not very
common, for the cavalier always bent his face almost to the saddle-bow
when he charged. The knight, however, might be unhorsed in the shock of
the two adverse lines, and he was in that case at the mercy of the foe who
was left standing. But how to kill the human being inclosed in the rolling
mass of steel was the question; and the armourer, therefore, invented a
thin dagger, which could be inserted between the plates. This dagger was
called the dagger of mercy, apparently a curious title, considering it was
the instrument of death; but, in truth, the laws of chivalry obliged the
conqueror to shew mercy, if, when the dagger was drawn, the prostrate foe
yielded himself, rescue or no rescue.

       *       *       *       *       *

It may be noticed that a dagger or short sword was worn by the knight even
in days of chain mail, for the hauberk was a complete case.

  "Straight from his courser leaps the victor knight,
  And bares his deadly blade to end the fight;
  The uplifted hauberk's skirt he draws aside,
  In his foe's flank the avenging steel is dyed."[112]

[Sidenote: Story of its use.]

Froissart's pages furnish us with an interesting tale, descriptive of the
general chivalric custom, regarding the dagger of mercy. About the year
1390, the lord of Langurante in Gascony rode forth with forty spears and
approached the English fortress called Cadilhac. He placed his company in
ambush, and said to them, "Sirs, tarry you still here, and I will go and
ride to yonder fortress alone, and see if any will issue out against us."
He then rode to the barriers of the castle, and desired the keeper to shew
to Bernard Courant, their captain, how that the lord Langurante was there,
and desired to joust with him a course. "If he be so good a man, and so
valiant in arms as it is said," continued the challenger, "he will not
refuse it for his ladies sake: if he do, it shall turn him to much blame,
for I shall report it wheresoever I go, that for cowardice he hath refused
to run with me one course with a spear."

A squire of Bernard reported this message to his master, whose heart
beginning to swell with ire, he cried, "Get me my harness, and saddle my
horse; he shall not go refused." Incontinently he was armed, and mounted
on his war steed, and taking his shield and spear, he rode through the
gate and the barriers into the open field. The lord Langurante seeing him
coming was rejoiced, and couched his spear like a true knight, and so did
Bernard. Their good horses dashed at each other, and their lances struck
with such equal fierceness that their shields fell in pieces, and as they
crossed Bernard shouldered sir Langurante's horse in such a manner that
the lord fell out of the saddle. Bernard turned his steed shortly round,
and as the lord Langurante was rising, his foe, who was a strong as well
as a valiant squire, took his bacinet with both his hands, and wrenching
it from his head, cast it under his horse's feet. On seeing all this the
lord of Langurante's men quitted their ambush, and were coming to the
rescue of their master, when Bernard drew his dagger, and said to the
lord, "Sir, yield you my prisoner, rescue or no rescue; or else you are
but dead." The lord, who trusted to the rescue of his men, spoke not a
word; and Bernard then gave him a death-blow on his bare head, and dashing
spurs into his horse, he fled within the barriers.[113]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Value of enquiries into ancient armour.]

Such was the general state of armour in days of chivalry. A more detailed
account of the subject cannot be interesting; for what boots it to know
the exact form and dimensions of any of the numerous plates of steel that
encased the knight. Nor indeed was any shape constant long; for fashion
was as variable and imperious in all her changes in those times as in
ours; and as we turn with contempt from the military foppery of the
present day, little gratification can be expected from too minute an
inspection of the vanities of our forefather. Chaucer says,

  "With him ther wenten knights many on,
  Some wol ben armed in an habergeon,
  And in a breast-plate, and in a gipon;
  And som wol have a pair of plates large;
  And som wol have a pruse sheld or a targe.
  Som wol ben armed on his legges well,
  And have an axe, and some a mace stele.
  Ther n'is no newe guise, that it n'as old.
  _Armed they weren_, as I have you told,
  _Everich after his opinion_."

[Sidenote: A precise knowledge unattainable.]

A chronological history of armour, minutely accurate, is unattainable, if
any deduction may be made from the books of laborious dulness which have
hitherto appeared on the armour of different countries. Who can affirm
that the oldest specimen which we possess of any particular form of
harness is the earliest specimen of its kind? No one can determine the
precise duration of a fashion; for after ruling the world for some time it
suddenly disappears, but some years afterwards it rears it's head again to
the confusion and dismay of our antiquarians.

Our best authorities sometimes fail us. The monumental effigies were not
always carved at the moment of the knight's death: that the bust is
tardily raised to buried merit is not the peculiar reproach of our times.
It is complimenting the sculptors of the middle ages too highly if we
suppose that they did not sometimes violate accuracy, in order to
introduce some favorite fashion of their own days. As for the
illuminations of manuscripts which are so much boasted of, they are often
the attempts of a scribe to imitate antiquity, beautiful in respect of
execution, but of problematical accuracy, and more frequently mark the age
when the manuscript was copied, than that when the work was originally
written. We know that violation of costume was common in the romances.
Thus, in the Morte d'Arthur, an unknown knight, completely armed, and
having his vizor lowered so as to conceal his features, entered the hall
of the king. Again,

  "Cometh sir Launcelot du Lake,
  Ridand right into the hall;
  His steed and armour all was blake
  His visere over his eyen falle,"[114]

Now if the romance whence the above lines are extracted is to be
considered as a picture of the earliest days of chivalry it is certainly
incorrect, for it was not before the middle age of knighthood that the
face was concealed by a vizor, the earlier defence of the nasal piece
certainly not serving as a mask. The romances are unexceptionable
witnesses for the general customs of chivalry, but we cannot fix their
statements to any particular time, for they were varied and improved by
successive repetitions and transcriptions, and when they were rendered
into prose still further changes were made in order to please the taste of
the age. Thus, in an old Danish romance, a knight fighting for his lady
remains on his horse; but when in the fifteenth century the tale was
translated into the idioms of most chivalric countries, he is represented
as alighting from his milk-white steed and giving it to his fair companion
to hold; and the reason of this departure from the old ballad was, that
the translators, wishing to make their work popular, adapted it to the
manners of the age; and it was the general fashion then for the knights to
dismount when they fought.

[Sidenote: Its general features interesting]

In spite of all our attempts at chronological accuracy, something or other
is perpetually baffling us. We commonly think that mixed armour was the
defensive harness in the days of our Edward the Third; but in Chaucer's
portrait of the knightly character of that time, only the haubergeon is
assigned to the cavalier. Plate-armour seems to have been the general
costume of the fifteenth century; and in any pictorial exhibition of the
murder of John Duke of Burgundy in the year 1419, the artist who should
represent the Duke as harnessed in chain-mail, would be condemned by a
synod of archæologists as guilty of an unpardonable anachronism; yet we
know, on the unquestionable authority of Monstrelet, that when the Duke
lay on the ground, Olivier Layet, assisted by Pierre Frotier, thrust a
sword under the haubergeon into his belly; and that after he had been thus
cruelly murdered, the Dauphin's people stripped from him his coat of
mail.[115] But though it is difficult to determine the fashion of any part
of armour in any particular century, and life may afford nobler
occupations than considering the precise year and month when the Normans
gave up the clumsy expedient of inserting the sword through a hole in the
hauberk, and adopted the more graceful and convenient form of a
belt[116], yet viewing the subject of armour in some of its broad
features, matter of no slight interest may be found. We may not regard the
precise form and fashion of a warrior's scarf, or care to enquire whether
the embroidery were worked with gold or silver, but the general fact
itself involves the state of manners and feelings among our ancestors: it
carries us to the lady's bower where she was working this token of love;
our fancy paints the time and mode of bestowing it; and we follow it
through all the subsequent career of the knight as his silent monitor to
courage and loyalty.

[Sidenote: The broad lines of the subject.]

It is curious also to mark the perpetual efforts of defensive armour to
meet the improvements in the art of destruction. Chain-mail was found an
inadequate protection; plates of steel were added, and still this mixed
harness did not render the body invulnerable. The covering of steel alone
at length became complete, and defensive harness reached its perfection.
It is utterly impossible for us to state with accuracy the year when
plate-armour began to be mixed with chain-mail in any particular country,
or to determine what particular part of the body the first plate that was
used defended; but the general features of the subject are known well
enough to enable us to sketch to our imagination the military costume of
some of the most remarkable events in the warfare of the middle ages. In
the first crusade, the armour was in the rude state of mail worn on the
tunic. There was the emblazoned surcoat, for that part of dress was of
very early use; the hood was the common covering of the head, and when the
helmet was worn it was of the simplest form, and occasionally had a nasal
piece. The crusades began at the close of the eleventh century, and before
the end of the thirteenth, not only was the hauberk composed of twisted
mail, but mixed armour of plate and mail was common. The English wars in
France during the reign of our Edward III. are the next subject to which
our chivalric recollections recur. By that time plate had attained a
general predominance over chain-mail. Perhaps, at no period of chivalry
was armour more beautiful than in those days when France was one vast
tilting ground for the culled and choice-drawn cavaliers of the two mighty
monarchies of Europe. It was equally removed from the gloomy sternness of
chain-mail, and the elaborate foppery of embossed steel: its solid plates
satisfied the judicious eye by showing that the great principle of armour
was chiefly attended to, and the surcoat and scarf gave the warrior's
harness a character of neat and simple elegance. The horses, too, were
barded in the most vulnerable parts; the symmetry of the form not being
obscured, as it was in after-times by a casing of steel which left only
part of the legs free of action. The helmet had its crest and silken
ornament; the former being the sign of nobility, the latter of love: and
no warriors were so justly entitled to those graceful tokens of ladies'
favour, as the warriors of Edward III., for love was the inspiring soul of
their chivalry.[117]

In the second series of our French wars complete plate-armour was in
general fashion. Gradually, as armour became more and more ponderous, the
knights preferred to fight on foot with their lances. That mode of
encounter was found best fitted for the display of skill, for in the rude
encounter of the horses many cavaliers were thrown, and the field
presented a ludicrous spectacle of rolling knights.[118] Some traces of
the custom of cavalry dismounting may be found in the twelfth century. The
practice grew as plate-armour became mixed with mail; and when complete
suits of steel were worn, knights sought every occasion of dismounting;
and they were wont to break their lances short for the convenience of the
close conflict.

As the spirit of chivalry died away, the military costume of chivalry
increased in brilliancy and splendour. Ingenuity and taste were
perpetually varying decorations: the steel was sometimes studded with
ornaments of gold and silver, and sometimes the luxury of the age was
displayed in a complete suit of golden armour.

                "In arms they stood
  Of golden panoply, refulgent host."

But such splendour was only exhibited in the courteous tournament; less
costly armour sheathed the warrior of the working day. Armour gradually
fell out of use as infantry began to be considered and felt as the
principal force in war. It was not, however, till the beginning of the
seventeenth century that the proud nobility of Europe would abandon the
mode of combat of their ancestors, and no longer hope that their iron
armour of proof should hang up in their halls as an incentive to their
children's valour. "They first laid aside the jambes or steel boots; then
the shield was abandoned, and next the covering for the arms. When the
cavalry disused the lance, the cuisses were no longer worn to guard
against its thrust, and the stout leathern or buff coat hung down from
beneath the body armour to the knees, and supplied the place of the
discarded steel. The helmet was later deprived of its useless vizor; but
before the middle of the seventeenth century nothing remained of the
ancient harness but the open cap and the breasts and backs of steel, which
the heavy cavalry of the Continent have more or less worn to our times. In
our service these have been but lately revived for the equipment of the
finest cavalry in Europe, the British Life-guards, who, unaided by such
defences, tore the laurels of Waterloo from the cuirassiers of
France."[119]

[Sidenote: Excellence of Italian armour.]

The history of armour would be interesting in another point of view, if
any of the great battles in the middle ages had been decided by the
superior qualities of any particular weapon possessed by either side. No
such circumstances are recorded. Nor can we trace the progress of armour
through the various countries of chivalry. But the superiority of Italian
civilisation, and our knowledge that the long-pointed sword was invented
in Italy, authorise our giving much honour to the Italians; and we also
know that down to the very latest period of chivalric history Milanese
armour was particularly esteemed.[120] Germany, as far as the ancient
martial costume of that country is known, can claim nothing of invention,
nor did armour always take in that country during its course from Italy
through other lands. France quickly received all the varieties in armour
of Italian ingenuity, and in a few years they, passed into England. This
geographical course was not however the usual mode of communicating ideas
in chivalric ages. Knights of various countries met in tournaments, and
in those splendid scenes every description of armour was displayed, and
fashions were interchanged.

Notwithstanding the general similarity of costume which these gallant and
friendly meetings of cavaliers in tournaments were likely to produce, each
nation had its peculiarities which it never resigned. Thus it may be
mentioned that the swords of the Germans and also of the Normans were
always large, and that those of the French were short. As the bow was the
great weapon of the Normans, the attendants of the English knights used
the bow more frequently than similar attendants in any other country. The
peasantry of Scotland, in spite of repeated statutes, never would use the
bow: spears and axes were their weapons, while their missiles were
cross-bows and culverins. The mace was also a favourite, and their swords
were of excellent temper. Their defensive armour was the plate-jack,
hauberk, or brigantine; and a voluminous handkerchief round their neck,
"not for cold but for cutting," as one of their writers describes it.
Almost all the Scottish forces, except a few knights, men-at-arms, and the
border prickers, who formed excellent light cavalry, acted upon
foot.[121]

[Sidenote: Of the knight's armour; of the squire, &c.]

Little need be said concerning the military costume of the esquire, and
the men-at-arms. The esquire wore silver spurs in distinction from the
golden spurs of the knight; but when an esquire as a member of the third
class of chivalry held a distinct command, he was permitted to bear at the
end of his lance a penoncel, or small triangular streamer. In countries
where the bow was not used, the weapons of the men-at-arms were generally
the lance and the sword. This was the case when the knight led his
personal retainers to battle; but when his followers were the people of
any particular town which he protected, few chivalric arms were borne, and
the bill more frequently than the spear was brought into the field. The
cross-bow can hardly be considered a weapon of chivalry. It required no
strength of arm like the long-bow; it allowed none of that personal
display which was the soul of knighthood. The popes, to their honour,
frequently condemned its use; and it was more often bent by mercenaries
than the regular attendants of knights.

The men-at-arms generally fought on horseback, and it often happened that
archers, after the Asiatic mode, were mounted. The defensive armour of the
knight's attendants was not so complete as his own, for they could not
afford its costliness, and difference of rank was marked by difference of
harness. Thus, in France, only persons possessed of a certain estate were
permitted to wear the haubergeon, while esquires had nothing more than a
simple coat of mail, without hood or hose[122], though their rank in
nobility might equal that of the knights. The men-at-arms had generally
the pectoral and the shield, and the morion or open helmet, without vizor
or beaver. They frequently wore a long and large garment called the
aketon, gambeson, or jack, formed of various folds of linen cloth or
leather: but it is totally impossible to give any useful or interesting
information on a subject which caprice or poverty perpetually varied.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Allegories made on armour.]

Armour had other purposes in the mind of the knight besides its common and
apparent use. Days of chivalry were especially times when imagination was
in its freest exercise, and every thing was full of allegories and
recondite meanings. To the knight a sword was given in resemblance of a
cross to signify the death of Christ, and to instruct him that he ought to
destroy the enemies of religion by the sword. This is intelligible; but
there is something apparently arbitrary in the double edge signifying that
a knight should maintain chivalry and justice. The spear, on account of
its straitness, was the emblem of truth, and the iron head meant
strength, which truth should possess. The force and power of courage were
expressed by the mace. The helmet conveyed the idea of shamefacedness; and
the hauberk was emblematical of the spiritual panoply which should protect
a man and a soldier from the vices to which his nature was liable. The
spurs meant diligence. The gorget was the sign of obedience; for as the
gorget went about the neck protecting it from wounds, so the virtue of
obedience kept a knight within the commands of his sovereign and the order
of chivalry; and thus neither treason nor any other foe to virtue
corrupted the oath he had taken to his lord and knighthood. The shield
showed the office of a knight; for as the knight placed his shield between
himself and his enemy, so the knight was the barrier between the king and
the people, and as the stroke of a sword fell upon the shield and saved
the knight, so it behoved the knight to present his body before his lord
when he was in danger. The equipment and barding of the horse furnished
also subjects of instruction. The saddle meant safety of courage; for as
by the saddle a knight was safe on his horse, so courage was the knight's
best security in the field. The great size of the saddle was regarded as
emblematical of the greatness of the chivalric charge. It was added, that
as the head of a horse went before its rider, so should reason precede
all the acts of a knight; and as the armour at the head of a horse
defended the horse, so reason kept the knight from blame. The defensive
armour of a horse illustrated the necessity of wealth to a knight; for a
knight without estate could not maintain the honours of chivalry, and be
protected from temptation, for poverty opens the door to treason and vice.

It was in this manner that the romantic imaginations of the knights of
chivalry drew moralities from subjects apparently little capable of
furnishing instruction; and then assuming a more sober and rational tone,
they would exclaim that chivalry was not in the horse, nor in the arms,
but was in the knight, who taught his horse well, and accustomed himself
and his sons to noble actions and virtuous deeds; and a foul and recreant
knight, who taught himself and his son evil works, converted one into the
other, the cavaleresque and equestrian qualities, making himself and his
son beasts, and his horse a knight.[123]

[Sidenote: The horse of the knight.]

Before we close our account of the cavalier's equipment, something must be
said regarding his steed, his _good_ steed, as he was fond of calling him.
The horse of the knight was necessarily an animal of great power when his
charge was a cavalier with his weighty armour. The horses of Spain were
highly famed. In the country itself those of Asturia were preferred, but
in other chivalric states they regarded not the particular province
wherein the horse was bred.[124] The favourite steed of William the
Conqueror came from Spain. The crusades were certainly the means of
bringing Asiatic horses into Europe; and it was found that the Arabian,
though smaller than the bony charger of the west, had a compensating power
in his superior spirit. French and English romance writers were not from
natural prejudices disposed to praise any productions of Heathenesse, yet
the Arabian horse is frequently commended by them. That doughty knight,
Guy, a son of Sir Bevis of Hampton,

  ----"bestrode a _Rabyte_,[125]
  That was mickle and nought _light_,[126]
  That Sir Bevis in Paynim lond
  Had iwunnen with his hond."

The Arab horse was the standard of perfection, as is evident from the
romancer's praise of the two celebrated steeds, Favel and Lyard, which
Richard Coeur de Lion procured at Cyprus.

  "In the world was not their peer,
  Dromedary, nor destreer,
  Steed, Rabyte, ne Camayl,
  That ran so swift sans fail.
  For a thousand pounds of gold
  Should not that one be sold."

The Arabian horse must have been already prepared for part of the
discipline of a chivalric horse. On his own sandy plains he had been
accustomed to stop his career when his fleetness had cast the rider from
his seat; and in the encounter of lances so often were knights overthrown,
that to stand firm, ready to be mounted again, was a high quality of a
good horse. The steed of the Cid was very much celebrated in Spain; and,
in acknowledgment for an act of great kindness, the owner wished to
present him to the king, Alfonso of Castile. To induce the king to accept
him, he showed his qualities.

  "With that the Cid, clad as he was in mantle furr'd and wide,
  On Bavieca vaulting, put the rowel in his side;
  And up and down, and round and round, so fierce was his career,
  Stream'd like a pennon on the wind Ruy Diaz' minivere.

  And all that saw them prais'd them,--they lauded man and horse,
  As matched well, and rivalless for gallantry and force.
  Ne'er had they look'd on horseman might to this knight come near,
  Nor on other charger worthy of such a cavalier.

  Thus, to and fro a-rushing, the fierce and furious steed,
  He snapp'd in twain his hither rein:--'God pity now the Cid;'
  'God pity Diaz,' cried the Lords;--but when they look'd again,
  They saw Ruz Diaz ruling him with the fragment of his rein;
  They saw him proudly ruling, with gesture firm and calm,
  Like a true Lord commanding,--and obey'd as by a lamb.

  And so he led him foaming and panting to the king,
  But 'No,' said Don Alphonso, 'it were a shameful thing
  That peerless Bavieca should ever be bestrid
  By any mortal but Bivar,--mount, mount again, my Cid.'"[127]

It has been often said that the knight had always his ambling palfrey, on
which he rode till the hour of battle arrived; and that the war-horse,
from the circumstance of his being led by the right hand of the squire,
was called dextrarius.[128] With respect to sovereigns and men of great
estate this was certainly the custom, but it was by no means a general
chivalric practice. Froissart's pages are a perfect picture of knightly
riding and combatting; and each of his favorite cavaliers seems to have
had but one and the same steed for the road and the battle-plain. Even
romance, so prone to exaggerate, commonly represents the usage as similar;
for when we find that a damsel is rescued, she is not placed upon a spare
horse, but the knight mounts her behind himself.[129]

The _destrier_, _cheval de lance_, or war-steed, was armed or barded[130]
very much on the plan of the harness of the knight himself, and was
defended, therefore, by mail or plate, agreeably to the fashion of the
age. His head, chest, and flanks were either wholly or partially
protected, and sometimes, on occasions of pomp, he was clad in complete
steel, with the arms of his master engraven or embossed on his bardings.
His caparisons and housings frequently descended so low that they were
justly termed bases, from the French _bas à bas_, upon the ground. His
head, too, was ornamented with a crest, like the helmet of a knight. The
bridle of the horse was always as splendid as the circumstances of the
knight allowed; and thus a horse was often called Brigliadore, from
_briglia d'oro_, a bridle of gold. The knight was fond of ornamenting the
partner of his perils and glories. The horse was not always like that of
Chaucer's knight;

  "His hors was good, but he was not gay."

Bells were a very favourite addition to the equipment of a horse,
particularly in the early times of chivalry. An old Troubadour poet,
Arnold of Marsan, states very grave reasons for wearing them. He says,
"Let the neck of the knight's horse be garnished with bells well hung.
Nothing is more proper to inspire confidence in a knight, and terror in an
enemy." The war-horse of a soldier of a religious order of knighthood
might have his collar of bells, for their jangling was loved by a monk
himself.

  "And when he rode men might his bridel hear,
  Gingeling in a whistling wind as clere,
  And eke as loud as doth the chapel bell."

But here the comparison ceases, for the horse-furniture of the religious
soldiers was ordered to be free from all golden and silver ornaments.[131]
This regulation was however ill observed; for the knights-templars in the
middle of the thirteenth century were censured for having their bridles
embroidered, or gilded, or adorned with silver.[132]




CHAP. IV.

THE CHIVALRIC CHARACTER.

    _General Array of Knights ... Companions in Arms ... The Nature of a
    Cavalier's Valiancy ... Singular Bravery of Sir Robert Knowles ...
    Bravery incited by Vows ... Fantastic Circumstances ... The Humanities
    of Chivalric War ... Ransoming ... Reason of Courtesies in Battles ...
    Curious Pride of Knighthood ... Prisoners ... Instance of Knightly
    Honour ... Independence of Knights, and Knight Errantry ... Knights
    fought the Battles of other Countries ... English Knights dislike Wars
    in Spain ... Their Disgust at Spanish Wines ... Principles of their
    active Conduct ... Knightly Independence consistent with Discipline
    ... Religion of the Knight ... His Devotion ... His Intolerance ...
    General Nature of his Virtue ... Fidelity to Obligations ...
    Generousness ... Singular Instance of it ... Romantic excess of it ...
    Liberality ... Humility ... Courtesy ..._ EVERY DAY LIFE OF THE KNIGHT
    _... Falconry ... Chess playing ... Story of a Knight's Love of Chess
    ... Minstrelsy ... Romances ... Conversation ... Nature and Form of
    Chivalric Entertainments ... Festival and Vow of the Pheasant._


[Sidenote: General array of knights.]

The knight was accompanied into the field by his squires and pages, by his
armed vassals on horseback and on foot, all bearing his cognisance. The
number of these attendants varied necessarily with his estate, and also
the occasion that induced him to arm; and I should weary, without
instructing my readers, were I to insert in these volumes all the petty
details of history regarding the amount of force which in various
countries, and in different periods of the same country's annals,
constituted, to use the phraseology of the middle ages, the complement of
a lance. Armies were reckoned by lances, each lance meaning the knight
himself with his men-at-arms, or lighter cavalry, and his foot soldiers.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Companions in arms.]

The knight was not only supported by his vassals, who formed the furniture
of his lance, but by his brother in arms, when such an intercourse
subsisted between two cavaliers; and instances of such unions are
extremely frequent in chivalric history: they may be met with in other
annals. In the early days of Greece, brotherhood in arms was a well-known
form of friendship: the two companions engaged never to abandon each other
in affairs however perilous, and in pledge of their mutual faith they
exchanged armour. No stronger proof of affection could be given than thus
parting with what they held most dear. Among barbarous people the
fraternity of arms was established by the horrid custom of the new
brothers drinking each other's blood: but if this practice was barbarous,
nothing was farther from barbarism than the sentiment which inspired it.

The chivalry of Europe borrowed this sacred bond from the Scandinavians,
among whom the future brothers in arms mingled their blood, and then
tasted it.

  "Father of slaughter, Odin, say,
  Rememberest not the former day,
  When ruddy in the goblet stood,
  For mutual drink, our blended blood?
  Rememberest not, thou then dids't swear,
  The festive banquet ne'er to share,
  Unless thy brother Lok was there?"[133]

This custom, like most others of Pagan Europe, was corrected and softened
by the light and humanity of religion. Fraternal adoptions then took place
in churches, in presence of relations, and with the sanction of priests.
The knights vowed that they would never injure or vilify each other, that
they would share each other's dangers; and in sign of the perfection of
love, and of true unity, and in order to possess, as much as they could,
the same heart and resolves, they solemnly promised true fraternity and
companionship of arms.[134] They then received the holy sacrament, and the
priest blessed the union. It was a point rather of generous understanding
than of regular convention, that they would divide equally all their
acquisitions. Of this custom an instance may be given. Robert de Oily and
Roger de Ivery, two young gentlemen who came into England with the duke of
Normandy, were sworn brothers. Some time after the conquest, the king
granted the two great honours of Oxford, and St. Waleries, to Robert de
Oily, who immediately bestowed one of them, that of St. Waleries, on his
sworn brother, Roger de Ivery[135].

Fraternity of arms was entered into for a specific object, or general
knightly quests, for a limited term, or for life. It did not always occur,
however, that the fraternity of arms was established with religious
solemnities: but whatever might have been the ceremonies, the obligation
was ever considered sacred; so sacred, indeed, that romance writers did
not startle their readers by a tale, whose interest hangs upon the
circumstance of a knight slaying his two infant children for the sake of
compounding a medicine with their blood which should heal the leprosy of
his brother in arms.[136]

This form of attachment was the strongest tie in chivalry.

  "From this day forward, ever mo
  Neither fail, either for weal or wo,
  To help other at need,
  Brother, be now true to me,
  And I shall be as true to thee."

So said Sir Amylion to Sir Amys, and it was the common language of
chivalry. Friendship was carried to the romantic extremity of the Homeric
age. Brethren in arms adopted all the enmities and loves of each other,

  "A generous friendship no cold medium knows,
  Burns with one love, with one resentment glows."

And so powerful was the obligation that it even superseded the duty of
knighthood to womankind. A lady might in vain have claimed the protection
of a cavalier, if he could allege that at that moment he was bound to fly
to the succour of his brother in arms.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Qualities of the chivalric character.]

Thus accompanied, the knight proceeded to achieve the high emprises of his
noble and gallant calling. Both the principles and the objects of chivalry
having been always the same, a general similarity of character existed
through all the chivalric ages; and as certain moral combinations divide
human nature into classes, so the knight was a distinct character, and the
qualities peculiar to his order may be delineated in one picture,
notwithstanding individual and national variations, which had better be
described when we come to mark the degrees of the influence of chivalry in
the different countries of Europe.

[Sidenote: The nature of their valiancy.]

[Sidenote: Singular bravery of Sir Robert Knowles.]

The courage of the knight is the part of his character which naturally
calls for our first attention. It was daring and enterprising: but I
cannot insist upon recklessness of danger as the quality of chivalry only,
for in every nation's battles, to be the first to advance and the last to
retreat have been the ambition of warriors. The knight however cared
little for the cause or necessity of his doing battle so that he could
display his valour. About the year 1370, Sir Robert Knowles marched
through France, and laid waste the country as far as the very gates of the
capital. A knight was in his company, who had made a vow that he would
ride to the walls or gates of Paris, and strike at the barriers[137] with
a spear. And for the finishing of his vow he departed from his company,
his spear in his hand, his shield suspended from his neck, armed at all
points, and mounted on a good horse, his squire following him on another,
with his helmet. When he approached Paris he put on the glittering
head-piece, and leaving his squire behind him, and dashing his spurs into
his steed, he rode at full career to the barriers which were then open.
The French lords, who were there, weened that he would have entered the
town, but that was not his mind, for when he had struck the barriers
according to his vow, he turned his rein and departed. Then the knights of
France immediately divined his purpose, and cried, "Go your way; you have
right well acquitted yourself."[138]

About the same time a band of English knights advanced to the French town
of Noyon, and spread their banners abroad, as a defiance to the garrison.
But the French made no sally; and a Scottish knight, named Sir John
Swinton, impatient of rest, departed from his company, his spear in his
hand, and mounted on a _cheval de lance_, his page behind him, and in that
manner approached the barriers. He then alighted, and saying to his page,
"Hold, keep my horse, and depart not hence," he went to the barriers.
Within the pallisades were many good knights, who had great marvel what
this said knight would do. Then Swinton said to them, "Sirs, I am come
hither to see you; as you will not issue out of your barriers, I will
enter them, and prove my knighthood against yours. Win me if you can!" He
then fought with the French cavaliers, and so skilfully, that he wounded
two or three of them; the people on the walls and the tops of the houses
remaining still, for they had great pleasure to regard his valiantness,
and the gallant knights of France charged them not to cast any missiles
against him, but to let the battle go fairly and freely forward. So long
they fought that at last the page went to the barriers, and said to his
master, "Sir, come away; it is time for you to depart, for your company
are leaving the field." The knight heard him well, and then gave two or
three strokes about him, and armed as he was he leapt over the barriers,
and vaulting upon his horse behind his faithful page, he waved his hand to
the Frenchmen, and cried, "Adieu, Sirs, I thank you." He then urged his
noble horse to speed, and rode to his own company. This goodly feat of
arms was praised by many folks.[139]

[Sidenote: Bravery incited by vows.]

This love of causeless perils was often accompanied by curious
circumstances. On the manners of the ancestors of the heroes of chivalry
it has been said,

  "In the caverns of the west,
  By Odin's fierce embrace comprest,
  A wond'rous boy shall Rinda bear,
  Who ne'er shall comb his raven hair,
  Nor wash his visage in the stream,
  Nor see the sun's departing beam,
  Till he on Hoder's corse shall smile
  Flaming on the fun'ral pile!"

[Sidenote: Fantastic circumstances.]

And king Harold made a solemn vow never to clip or comb his hair till he
should have extended his sway over the whole country. Tacitus informs us,
that the youthful Germans, particularly those among the Catti, did not
shave the hair from the head or chin until they had achieved renown in
arms. The same feeling influenced the knight of chivalry. He was wont to
wear a chain on his arm or leg until he had performed some distinguishing
exploit; and when his merit became conspicuous, the mark of thraldom was
removed with great solemnity.[140] A young knight would not at first
assume his family arms, but wore plain armour and shield without any
device till he had won renown. He would even fight blindfold, or pinion
one of his hands to his body, or in some other manner partially disable
himself from performing his deed, of arms. Before the gate of Troyes there
was an English squire, resolved to achieve some high and romantic feat.
His companions were unable to judge whether or not he could see, but with
his spear in his hand, and his targe suspended from his neck, he
recklessly spurred his horse to the barriers, leaped over them, and
careered to the gate of the town, where the Duke of Burgundy and other
great lords of France were standing. He reined round his foaming steed and
urged him back towards the camp. The duke shouted applause at his
boldness: but some surrounding men-at-arms had not the same generous
sympathy for noble chivalry, and they hurled their lances like javelins at
the brave squire, till they brought him and his horse dead to the ground,
wherewith the Duke of Burgundy was right sore displeased.[141] Equally
singular, and more fantastic, was the conduct of certain young knights of
England during the French wars of Edward III., for each of them bound up
one of his eyes with a silk ribbon, and swore before the ladies and the
peacock, that he would not see with both eyes until he had accomplished
certain deeds of arms in France.[142]

[Sidenote: The sageness of knights].

Nothing appears incredible in romances after reading these tales of a very
faithful historian; but we should wrong chivalry were we to suppose that
this wild, this phrenetic, courage was its chief character. Perhaps it was
in general the quality of young soldiers only; for discretion was
certainly a part of cavaleresque valour. That a knight was sage is
frequently said to his honour. Not, indeed, that his skill ever
degenerated into the subtlety of stratagem, for bold and open[143] battle
was always preferred to the refinements of artifice, and he would have
debased his order if he had profited by any mischance happening to his
foe. But in the choice of ground, in the disposition of his squires and
men-at-arms, he exerted his best skill, for to be adventurous was only one
part of valour. The soldier in chivalry was also imaginative, a word
constantly used by our old authors to show a mind full of resources, and
to express military abilities.[144]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Their humanities of war.]

There was not so much ruthlessness in his heroism as distinguished those
ages of the ancient world which fancy and poetry have sometimes painted
as chivalrous. The prostrate and suppliant foe seldom sued for mercy in
vain from the true knight. It was a maxim, that a warrior without pity was
without worship.[145] Even the pride of knighthood often softened the
fierce and rugged face of war, for inferior people were spared, because
they were unworthy of the lance. A knight trained to warlike exercises
cared little for a battle unless he could prove his skilful bearing; and
what honour could he gain from slaying rude and unarmed peasantry? The
simple peasant was often spared from motives of prudence. Richard
Brembrow, an English knight, was ravaging Brittany, in the year 1350, but
was reproached for his conduct by Beaumanoir, a partisan of the house of
Blois, who was astonished that a valiant cavalier should make war, not
only on men bearing arms, but on labourers and others. "In all wars guided
by chivalric principles," continued the knight of Brittany, "true soldiers
never injure the tillers of the ground; for if they were to do so, the
world would be destroyed by famine."[146] More generous feelings,
however, sometimes had their influence. The stern Du Guesclin, when on his
death-bed, desired his old companions in arms to remember that "neither
the clergy, nor women, nor children, nor poor people, were their enemies;"
and the charge came with peculiar propriety from him, for his past life
could furnish no instance of needless severity.

To show the reverse of such mildness was the unhappy fate of the Black
Prince, who, by his massacre of three thousand people at Limoges[147],
tarnished the lustre of all his former glories. The narrative of this
affair which Froissart has left us, shews that such barbarities were not
so frequent in chivalric times as modern hatred of aristocratical power
has represented. We may learn from our historian that the massacre at
Limoges proceeded from the unhappy disposition to cruelty which at that
time clouded the mind of the Prince of Wales, and not from the general
principles of chivalry; for he tells us, that the knights prepared
themselves to do evil, to slay men, women, and children, because they were
so commanded; and he whose heart leaped for joy in describing a manly
conflict, where banners and standards waved in the wind, with horses
barded, and knights and squires richly armed, yet sighs over the massacre
of Limoges, and says it was "great pity" to see the slaughter.[148] It was
only when cities that belonged to the enemies of the church were taken,
that the sword of the victorious Christian was embrued in blood to the
very hilt; for pagans, Saracens, Jews, and heretics were not considered
within the pale of the humane courtesies of chivalry.

Frequent pauses were made in the single encounters of knighthood, for
generousness was thought an essential part of bravery, and the soldier
would rather vanquish by his skill than by any accidental advantage. A
giant of the first enormity requested of his antagonist, Sir Guy of
Warwick, a momentary respite for the purpose of slaking his thirst in a
neighbouring stream. The noble knight assented to this request, and the
giant, perfectly recovered from his fatigue, renewed the combat with fresh
vigour. Sir Guy, in his turn, was oppressed by heat and fatigue, and
requested a similar favour; but the uncourteous giant refused.[149] In a
battle between the celebrated Roland and a Saracen knight, named Sir
Otuel, a stroke of the former's sword cut into the brain of his
antagonist's horse. The paladin of Charlemagne, with true chivalric
courtesy, reined in his steed, and rested on his arms till Sir Otuel had
disengaged himself from the equipments of his horse. The Saracen rallied
him for want of skill in missing his gigantic frame; but on the renewal of
the battle Otuel was guilty of a similar awkwardness, and conscious that
his raillery might now be retorted with double force, he imitated the
knightly courtesy of Roland, and waited till his foe was completely free
from his fallen steed.[150] The preliminaries of a battle between the
famous Oliver and a Saracen cavalier, hight Sir Ferumbras, was still more
courteous, for the Christian knight assisted his foe to lace his helmet,
and before they encountered, the combatants politely bowed to each
other.[151]

Veracious chroniclers confirm the stories of romance writers. In a battle
of honour between the English and French, when it was thought contrary to
chivalry for either party to be more numerous than the other, the knights
contended for several hours with intervals of repose. When any two of them
had fought so long as to be fatigued, they fairly and easily departed, and
sat themselves down by the side of a stream, and took off their helmets.
On being refreshed they donned their armour, and returned to the
fight.[152]

[Sidenote: Ransoming]

[Sidenote: Reason of courtesies in battles.]

We commonly refer to the principles of honour in chivalry to account for
the interesting fact, that a victorious knight permitted his prisoner to
go to his own country or town, in order to fetch his ransom; and we know
that his word of honour was considered a sufficient pledge for his return
at the appointed season. The true reason of this general practice of
chivalry may be learnt from a passage in Froissart. After describing a
battle between the English and French in the year 1344, he says, that the
English dealt like good companions with their prisoners; and suffered many
to depart on their oaths and promises to return again at a certain day to
Bergerac or to Bourdeaux.[153] The Scots were equally courteous to the
English after the truly chivalric battle of Otterbourn. They set them to
their ransom, and every man said to his prisoner, "Sir, go and unarm
yourself, and take your ease;" and so made their prisoners as good cheer
as if they had been brethren, without doing them any injury.[154] A short
while after the battle Sir Matthew Redman yielded himself prisoner to Sir
James Lindsay, rescue or no rescue, so that he dealt with him like a good
companion.[155] It was, therefore, because all the knights of Europe were
united in one universal bond of brotherhood, that one knight showed
courtesy to another. It was the principle of fraternity which the
Christian religion inculcates, that created all the kindly consideration
in war which distinguished chivalry; and base and barbarous, as we may
chuse to call our ancestors, I know not whether the principles of
Christian friendship were not as well understood in their days as in our
own age of boasted light and improvement. There is truth as well as beauty
in Froissart's observation, that "nobleness and gentleness ought to be
aided by nobles and gentles." Not only were prisoners released on their
parole of honour, but their ransom was never set so high that they could
not pay it at their ease, and still maintain their degree.[156]

[Sidenote: Curious pride of knighthood.]

[Sidenote: Prisoners.]

One curious particular, illustrative of knightly dignity, remains to be
mentioned. It was beneath the bearing of chivalry for a cavalier to
surrender himself prisoner to one of the raskall rout, and if he ever was
reduced to such a sad necessity he would amuse his pride by raising his
conqueror to the rank of chivalry. The Earl of Suffolk, during our wars in
France, was taken prisoner by William Renaud; but he would not surrender
to him until he had given him the accolade, bound a sword round him, and
thus dignified him with knighthood. But there was no loss of chivalric
dignity in a knight being taken prisoner by a squire, for a squire, though
inferior in rank, was of the same quality as a knight. The renowned Du
Guesclin, whom I so often mention as a pattern of chivalry, yielded to the
prowess of a squire of England who fought under the standard of Sir John
Chandos.

[Sidenote: Instance of knightly honour.]

In the course of the fourteenth century the Duke of Gueldres was taken
prisoner by a squire named Arnold, and was removed to a castle, where he
promised to pay his ransom. The lords of Prussia, hearing that the duke
had been captured in his course to their country, summoned a mighty force,
and marched to the place of the duke's confinement. The squire dreaded
their power, and resolved to quit the castle: but before his departure he
went to the Duke of Gueldres, and said to him, "Sir duke, you are my
prisoner, and I am your master: you are a gentleman and a true knight; you
have sworn and given me your faith, and whithersoever I go you ought to
follow me. I cannot tell if you have sent for the great master of Prussia
or not, but he is coming hither with a mighty power. I shall not remain:
you may tarry if you list, and I will take with me your faith and
promise." Gueldres made no answer. The squire soon afterwards mounted
horse and departed, telling the Duke that he would always find him at such
a place, naming a strong castle, in a remote situation. The Prussians soon
arrived and liberated their friend: but he resolved to perform his promise
to the squire whom he called his master, and neither absolution, nor
dispensation, nor argument, nor raillery could induce him to break his
faith. His friends and relations then treated with the squire for his
freedom, and by paying the customary ransom the Duke of Gueldres recovered
that honourable liberty of mind which above all things was dear to the
true knight.[157]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Independence of knights and knight errantry.]

Certainly the virtues of a knight were not necessarily patriotic. They
were rather calculated to weaken than to strengthen his tendencies to
king and country. Although as an individual he was bound to his native
land, yet the character of his knighthood was perpetually pressing him to
a course of conduct distinct from all national objects. He was the judge
of right and wrong[158]; he referred to no external standard of equity; he
was an independent agent. These qualities of chivalry gave birth to knight
errantry, that singular feature in the character of the middle ages.

  "Long so they travell'd through wasteful ways,
  Where dangers dwelt and perils most did wonne,
  To hunt for glory and renowned praise:
  Full many countries they did overrun,
  From the uprising to the setting sun,
  And many hard adventures did atchieve;
  Of all the which they honour ever wonne,
  Seeking the weak oppressed to relieve,
  And to recover right for such as wrong did grieve."[159]

It was considered the first praise of knighthood to efface foul outrage,
and the advantages arising to society from this disposition are confessed
even by satirists.

        ------------"Knyghtes shoulde
  Ryden and rappe adoune in remes aboute,
  And to take trespassours and tye them faste.

      *       *       *       *       *

  Truly to take, and truly to fight,
  Is the profession and the pure order that apendeth to knights."[160]

The happy consequences to woman of this chivalric principle, and its
tendencies to ameliorate manners, will best be seen in our delineation of
the character of dames and damsels in the middle ages. With respect to the
general interests of society it may be observed, that knight errantry was
a very considerable means of correcting the state of violence and misrule
in feudal times. The monks of St. Albans held a body of knights in pay,
who defended the abbey and preserved the roads free from robbers, whether
of the baronial or the vulgar class.[161] Until the discipline of laws had
tamed the world into order, force was the only measure of power; and it
was by the sword alone that injuries committed by the sword could be
avenged. The protection of the wronged being a great principle of
chivalry, no oppressed person was at a loss for a mode of redress. Some
gentle knight was ever to be found who would lay his lance in its rest to
chastise the evil doer. While Edward the First was travelling in France,
he heard that a lord of Burgundy was continually committing outrages on
the persons and property of his neighbours. In the true spirit of chivalry
Edward attacked the castle of this uncourteous baron. His prowess asserted
the cause of justice; and he bestowed the domains which he had won upon a
nobler and more deserving lord.[162]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Knights fought the battles of other countries.]

[Sidenote: Englishmen's disgust at Spanish wines.]

When he was neither engaged in his country's wars, nor errant in quest of
adventures, the knight fought among the chivalry of foreign princes. This
was a matter of daily occurrence; the English knights obtaining licences
from the king on their pledging the honour of their chivalry not to
disclose the secrets of the court, nor to fight on the side of the
nation's enemies. It is curious to observe that the service of France was
always preferred by the English adventurers to that of Spain or Portugal.
France, they said, was a good, sweet country, and temperate, possessing
pleasant towns and fair rivers, but Castile was full of barren rocks and
mountains, the air was unwholesome, the waters were troubled, and the
people were poor and evil arrayed. The wines of Spain formed, however, the
principal grievance. The English complained that they were so strong and
fiery as to corrupt their heads, dry their bowels, and consume their very
livers; and what with hot suns and hot wines Englishmen, who in their own
country were sweetly nourished, were in Castile burnt without and within.
There is another passage of Froissart which I shall lay before the reader
in the right genuine and expressive old English of John Bourchier, knight,
Lord Berners. "The Englishmen ate grapes (in Spain) when they might get
them, and drank of the hot wines, and the more they drank the more they
were set on fire, and thereby burnt their livers and lungs; for that diet
was contrary to their nature. Englishmen are nourished with good meats and
with ale, which keep their bodies in temper." In Spain the nights were hot
because of the great heat of the day, and the mornings marvellously cold,
which deceives them; for in the night they could suffer nothing on them,
and so slept all naked, and in the morning cold took them ere they were
aware, and that cast them into fevers and fluxes without remedy, and as
well died great men as mean people.[163]

[Sidenote: Principles of this active conduct.]

All this adventurousness proceeded from the principle, that the life of a
knight was not to be regarded as a course of personal indulgence. His
virtues were of an active, stirring nature, and he was not permitted to
waste his days in dark obscurity, or to revel in ease. Like falcons that
disdained confinement, he could not remain long at rest without wishing to
roam abroad. "Why do we not array ourselves and go and see the bounds and
ports of Normandy?" were the words of war by which our English knights and
squires would rouse one another to arms. "There be knights and squires to
awake us and to fight with us."[164] And Honour was always the quest of
the true knight.

  "In woods, in waves, in wars she wont to dwell,
  And will be found with peril and with pain;
  Nor can the man that moulders in idle cell,
  Unto her happy mansion attain.
  Before her gate high God did sweat ordain,
  And wakeful watchers ever to abide:
  But easy is the way and passage plain
  To pleasure's palace: it may soon be spide,
  And day and night her doors to all stand open wide."[165]

[Sidenote: Knightly independence consistent with discipline.]

It has often been supposed[166] that the chivalric array must have been
inconvenient to the feudal and national disposition of armies, and that
knightly honours would be continually striving with other distinctions for
pre-eminence. But this supposition has arisen from a want of attention to
chivalric principles. Chivalry was not opposed to national institutions;
it was a feeling of honour that pervaded without disturbing society; and
knightly distinctions were altogether independent of ranks in the state.
As every lord was educated in chivalry, he was of course a knight; but he
led his troops into the field in consequence of his feudal possessions;
and any that were attached to his knighthood, it would be in vain to
enquire after. The array of an army was always formed agreeably to the
sageness and imagination of the constable, or marshal, or whatever other
officer of the nation was commander, without the slightest reference to
chivalry. A squire frequently led knights, certainly not on account of his
chivalric title, but by reason of favour or merit, or any other of the
infinity of causes that occasion advancement.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Religion of the knight.]

[Sidenote: His devotion.]

The religion of the knight was generally the religion of the time; and it
would be idle to expect to see religious reformers start from the bands of
an unlettered soldiery, whose swords had been consecrated by the church.
The warrior said many orisons every day; besides a nocturne of the
Psalter, matins of our Lady, of the Holy Ghost, and of the cross, and also
the dirige.[167] The service of the mass was usually performed by both
armies in the presence of each other before a battle; and no warrior would
fight without secretly breathing a prayer to God or a favourite saint.
Brevity was an important feature in a soldier's devotion, as the following
anecdote proves. When the French cavalier, Lahire, had just reached his
army, he met a chaplain, from whom he demanded absolution. The priest
required him to confess his sins. But the knight answered he had not time,
for he wanted immediately to attack the enemy. He added, that a minute
disclosure of his offences was not necessary, for he had only been guilty
of sins common to cavaliers, and the chaplain well knew what those sins
were. The priest thereupon absolved him, and Lahire raised his hands to
heaven, and exclaimed, "God, I pray thee that thou wouldest do to-day for
Lahire as much as thou wouldest Lahire should do for thee, if he were God
and thou wert Lahire." He then dashed spurs into his horse, and his
falchion was stained with foeman's blood before the good chaplain had
recovered from his astonishment at this singular form of prayer. The union
of religion and arms was displayed in a very remarkable manner at a joust
which was held at Berwick, in the year 1338. The lance of an English
knight pierced the helmet of his Scottish opponent, William de Ramsey, and
nailed it to his head. It being instantly perceived that the wound was
mortal, a priest was hastily sent for. The knight was shriven in his helm,
and soon afterwards died, and the good Earl of Derby, who was present, was
so much delighted at the religious and chivalric mode of the Scotsman's
death, that he hoped God of his grace would vouchsafe to send him a
similar end.[168]

The knight visited sacred places, and adopted all the superstitions,
whether mild or terrible, and the full spirit of intolerant fierceness, of
his time. The defence of the church formed part of his obligation.

  "Chevaliers en ce monde cy
  Ne peuvent vivre sans soucy:
  Ils doivent le peuple défendre,
  Et leur sang pour la foi espandre."

[Sidenote: His intolerance.]

The knight knew no other argument than the sword to gainsay the infidel,
and he was ready at all times to "thrust it into the belly of a heretic as
far as it would go." This was the feeling in all chivalric times; but St.
Louis was the knight who had the merit of arraying it in the form of a
maxim.

The wars of these soldiers of the church were not purely defensive. The
cavalier fought openly and offensively against heretics. This was part of
the spirit and essence of his character, encouraged by the crusades, and
the principles of the military orders; and thus no knight's military
reputation was perfect, unless it was adorned with laurels which had been
won in Heathennesse as well as in Christendom; for it was the general
opinion, that, as Heaven had chosen learned clerks to maintain the holy
Catholic faith with Scripture and reason against the miscreants and
unbelievers, so knights had also been chosen, in order that the miscreants
might be vanquished by force of arms.[169]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: General nature of his virtue.]

The highest possible degree of virtue was required of a knight: it was a
maxim in chivalry, that he who ordained another a knight must be virtuous
himself; for it was argued if the knight who made a knight were not
virtuous, how could he give that which he had not; and no man could be a
true son of chivalry unless he were of unsullied life.[170] He was not
only to be virtuous, but without reproach; for he considered his
honourable fame as a polished mirror, whose beauty may be lost by an
impure breath and an unwholesome air, as well as by being broken into
pieces. But there was nothing so abstract and refined in the nature of
knightly virtue as has been generally thought. It was the duty of the
cavalier to peril himself in the cause of the afflicted and of the church;
and his exertions and endeavours to perform the conditions of his oath of
chivalry were to be rewarded, not by the mere gratification of any
metaphysical fancies, but by the hope of joy in heaven. This was the
leading principle of his duty, however often it might be abused or
forgotten; and this was the feeling which his oath taught him to
encourage. But it did not exclude from his conduct the operation of
personal motives. Thus, in displaying his love of justice, he displayed
his chivalric skill; and by the same action he gratified his laudable
aspirations for fame, and soothed and satisfied his conscience.

Certes all knights were not religious, even in the sense in which religion
was understood in chivalric times. One cavalier made it his heart's boast
that he had burnt a church, with twenty-four monks, its contents.[171] The
joyousness of youth often broke out in witty sentences, and the sallies of
the buoyant spirits of the young cavalier were neither decent nor moral.
When his imagination was inflamed by chivalry and love, he forgot his
rosary, and said that paradise was only the habitation of dirty monks,
priests, and hermits; and that, for his own part, he preferred the
thoughts of going to the devil; and, in his fiery kingdom, he was sure of
the society of kings, knights, squires, minstrels, and jugglers, and,
above all the rest, the mistress of his heart.[172]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Fidelity to obligations.]

Of his moral virtues perfect fidelity to a promise was very conspicuous,
for his nobleness disdained any compromise with convenience or
circumstances. However absurd the vow, still he was compelled to perform
it in all the strictness of the letter. Notwithstanding the obvious
inconveniences of such a course, a man frequently promised to grant
whatever another should ask; and he would have lost the honour of his
knighthood, if he had declined from his word when the wish of him to whom
the promise had been made was stated. Sir Charles du Blois promised Sir
Loyes of Spain whatever gift he might require for the service he had
rendered him. "Then," said Sir Loyes, "I require you to cause the two
knights that are in prison in Favet to be brought hither, and give them to
me to do with them at my pleasure, for they have injured me, and slain my
nephew. I will strike their heads off before the town, in sight of their
companions." Sir Charles was obliged to comply and deliver up the knights;
only remonstrating with Sir Loyes on the cruelty of putting two such
valiant knights to death, and on the impolicy of such a measure, as giving
occasion to their enemies of dealing in a similar manner with them when
the fortune of war changed her face.[173]

[Sidenote: Generousness.]

[Sidenote: Singular instance of it.]

There was a generousness about chivalry unknown to other warfare. If in
these days of improved jurisprudence we revert our eyes with horror and
contempt to times when every question was decided by the sword, still an
air of graceful courtesy hung over them, which charms the imagination. A
cavalier always granted safe-conduct through his territories to all who
required it, even to those who asserted pretensions, which, if
established, would deprive him of his possessions. When Matilda landed
near Arundel, to contend for the throne of England, Stephen gave her
honourable conduct to the castle of his brother, the Earl of
Gloucester.[174] This instance of chivalric generousness seems scarcely
credible to those who view ancient times by the light of modern
prejudices. It was not the passive virtue that declined to profit by any
mischance happening to an adversary, but it was one knight drawing the
sword, and placing it in the hands of his foe.

[Sidenote: Romantic excess of it.]

More full in its circumstances, and equally romantic in its character, is
the following tale. About the year 1388, Sir Peter Courtenay, an English
knight of approved valiancy, went to France in order to joust with the
renowned Sir Guy of Tremouille. They ran one course with spears, and the
king then stopped the martial game, saying that each had done enough. He
made the stranger-knight fair presents, and set him on his way to Calais,
under the care of the Lord of Clary, who is characterised by our old
chivalric chronicler as a lusty and frisky knight. They rode together till
they reached Lucen, where resided the Countess of St. Poule, sister of the
King of England, and whose first husband had been a Lord of Courtenay.
During the noble entertainment with which she greeted her guests, the
Countess enquired of Sir Peter his opinion of France. He complimented the
country in most of its forms, and praised the demeanour of the French
chivalry, except in one thing, for he complained that none of their
knights would do any deed of arms with him, although he had with great
trouble and cost left England to encounter them. The Lord of Clary heard
with pain the knights of his country reviled, in the presence of the
sister of the King of England; but he restrained his feelings, because Sir
Peter was then under his protection.

The next day they took their leave of the Countess, who, like a noble
lady, threw a chain of gold round the neck of each. They proceeded to
Calais, and when they reached the frontier, and Sir Peter stepped on the
English territory, the Lord of Clary reminded him of the language he had
used at the board of the Countess St. Poule, regarding the French
chivalry, and added, that such an opinion was not courteous nor honorable,
and that simple knight as he was he would do his devoir to answer him,
saying, however, that he was influenced not by any hatred to his person,
but the desire of maintaining the honor of French knighthood.

Accordingly they jousted in the marshes of Calais, in the presence of
noble cavaliers and squires of the two nations. In the second course the
lance of Lord Clary pierced the shoulder of Sir Peter, and the wounded
knight was led to the neighbouring town. The Lord of Clary returned to
Paris, proud that he had vindicated the chivalric honor of his country,
and expecting praise. But when it was reported that a strange knight,
travelling under the royal safeguard, had been required to do a deed of
arms, the king and his council felt alarmed, lest the honor of their
nation had received a stain. It was also thought that the joust had been
intentionally a mortal one, a matter which aggravated the offence. The
Lord of Clary was summoned before them, and interrogated how he had
presumed to be so outrageous, as to hold a joust to the utterance with a
knight-stranger that had come to the king's court for good love and to
exalt his honor, to do feats of arms, and had departed thence with good
love and joy, and to the intent that he should not be troubled in his
return, he had been delivered to his charge.

The Lord of Clary, in reply, simply related his tale, and instead of
deprecating the anger of his liege lord, he claimed reward for his
vindication of the French chivalry. He said he would abide the judgment of
the constable and the high marshal of France, the knights and squires of
honor in every land; and so highly did he esteem the chivalry of that
noble knight himself, Sir Peter Courtenay, that he would appeal to his
voice and discretion.

Notwithstanding this defence, the Lord of Clary was committed to prison,
nor was he delivered thence till after a long time, when the entreaties of
the Countess of St. Poule, the Lord of Bourbon, the Lord of Coucy, and
other nobles, prevailed with the king. He was dismissed with this reproof
and exhortation: "Sir of Clary, you supposed that you had done right well,
howbeit you acted shamefully, when you offered to do arms with Sir Peter
Courtenay, who was under the king's safeguard, and delivered to you to
conduct to Calais. You did a great outrage when you renewed the words,
which were spoken only in sport before the Countess of St. Poule. Before
you had so renewed them, you ought to have returned to the king, and then
what counsel the king had given, you should have followed; because you did
not this, you have suffered pain. Beware better another time, and thank
the Lord of Bourbon and the Lord of Coucy for your deliverance, for they
earnestly solicited for you, and also thank the Lady of St. Poule."[175]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Liberality.]

The virtue of liberality seems to have been a striking feature of the
chivalric character. It proceeded from that loftiness of spirit which felt
that avarice would have debased a heroism that should contend for crowns
and kingdoms. The minstrels of the times, who kept alive the flame of
chivalry, encouraged this virtue above all others, for upon it depended
their own subsistence. But it often sprang from better motives than pride
or vanity. The good Lord de Foix gave every day five florins, in small
money, at his gate, to poor folks, for the love of God; and he was liberal
and courteous in his gifts to others; for he had certain coffers in his
chambers, out of which he would oft-times take money to give to lords,
knights, and squires, such as came to him, and none departed from him
without a gift.[176] A knight, indeed, was taught to consider nothing his
own, save his horse and arms, which he ought to keep as his means of
acquiring honour, by using them in the defence of his religion and
country, and of those who were unable to defend themselves.[177]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Humility.]

The valiancy of chivalry was beautifully chastened by humility;

  "And of his port as meek as is a maid."

Every hero, as well as Chaucer's knight, demeaned himself in all things as
if he had been in the hands of God, and in his name used his arms,
without vaunting or praising himself; for praise was regarded as blame in
the mouth of him who commended his own actions. It was thought that if the
squire had vain-glory of his arms, he was not worthy to be a knight, for
vain-glory was a vice which destroyed the merits and the claims of
chivalry.

The heroes of the Round Table were the mirror of all Christian knights;
and the generous modesty of Sir Lancelot was reflected in the conduct of
many a true soldier of chivalry. In the lofty fancies of romantic Europe
that valiant friend of Arthur was the prowest of all the heroes of
Britain; yet he always gave place to Sir Tristram, and often retired from
the field of tournament when that noble son of arms was performing his
devoir. Even when he was entitled to the prize, Sir Lancelot would not
receive it, maugre the offering of king, queen, and knights; but when the
cry was great through the field, "Sir Lancelot, Sir Lancelot hath won the
field, this day!" that noble subject of praise cried, on the contrary,
"Sir Tristram hath won the field; for he began first, and endured last,
and so hath he done the first day, the second, and the third day."[178]

[Sidenote: Courtesy.]

The catalogue of knightly virtues is not yet complete; and nothing can be
more beautiful to the moral eye than some of the characteristics of the
ancient chivalry. Kindness and gentleness of manner, which, when adopted
by kings from knightly customs, were called courtesy, were peculiar to the
soldier of the middle ages, and pleasingly distinguished him from the
savage sternness of other warriors, whether Roman or barbarian. Courtesy
was the appearance, in the ordinary circumstances of life, of that
principle of protection which, in weightier matters, made the sword leap
from its scabbard; and, like every other blessing of modern times, it had
its origin in the Christian religion. The world thought that courtesy and
chivalry accorded together, and that villainous and foul words were
contrary to an order which was founded on piety.[179] Whether historians
or fabulists speak of a true knight, he is always called gentle and
courteous. To be debonnaire was as necessary as to be bold;

  "Preux chevalier n'en doutez pas,
  Doit ferir hault et parler bas."[180]

The following anecdote curiously marks the manners of chivalric ages with
relation to the quality of courtesy:--The wife and sister of Du Guesclin
were once living in a castle which was attacked and taken by a force of
Normans and Englishmen. The success was great and important; but public
indignation was excited against the invaders, because they had
transgressed the licence of war, and been guilty of the uncourteous action
of surprizing and disturbing ladies while they were asleep.[181]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Every-day life of the knight.]

[Sidenote: Falconry.]

These military and moral qualities of knighthood were sustained and
nourished by all the circumstances of chivalric life, even those of a
peaceful nature. Hunting and falconry, the amusements of the cavalier,
were images of war, and he threw over them a grace beyond the power of
mere baronial rank. Dames and maidens accompanied him to the sport of
hawking, when the merry bugles sounded to field; and it was the pleasing
care of every gallant knight to attend on his damsel, and on her bird
which was so gallantly bedight; to let the falcon loose at the proper
moment, to animate it by his cries, to take from its talons the prey it
had seized, to return with it triumphantly to his lady, and, placing the
hood on its eyes, to set it again on her hand. Every true knight could
say, like the cavalier in Spenser,

  "Ne is there hawk which mantleth her on perch,
    Whether high towering or accosting low,
  But I the measure of her flight do search,
    And all her prey and all her diet know."

These amusements of every-day life were always mingling themselves with
the humanities of war. Edward III., when in France, in the year 1359, was
attended by sixty couple of dogs, and by thirty falconers, on horseback,
carrying birds. Various barons in the army had their dogs and birds with
them, like the king. During the reign of Richard II., when the Duke of
Lancaster was in France and Spain, many ladies accompanied the army, for
the objects of the expedition were not altogether military; pleasure was
as much the occupation as affairs of moment, and for the space of a month
or more the Duke lay at Cologne, and removed not, except it were hunting
or hawking; for the Duke and other lords of England had brought with them
hawks and hounds for their own sport, and sparrow-hawks for the
ladies.[182]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Chess-playing.]

To play the game of chess, to hear the minstrel's lays, and read romances,
were the principal amusements of the knight when the season and the
weather did not permit hawking and hunting. A true knight was a
chess-player, and the game was played in every country of chivalry; for
as the chivalric states of midland Europe obtained a knowledge of it from
the Scandinavians, so the southern states acquired it from the Arabs.

  "When they had dined, as I you say,
  Lords and ladies went to play;
  Some to tables, and some to chess,
  With other games more and less."[183]

[Sidenote: Story of knights' love of chess.]

The fondness of our ancestors for the game of chess appears by the
frequent mention of the amusement in the ancient romances. Sometimes a
lover procured admittance to the place where his mistress was confined, by
permitting the jailor to win from him a game at chess. Again, the
minstrels in the baronial hall, spread over their subject all the riches
of their imagination. They were wont to fancy the enchanted castle of a
beautiful fairy, who challenged a noble knight to play with her at chess.
Flags of white and black marble formed the chequer, and the pieces
consisted of massive statues of gold and silver, which moved at the touch
of a magic wand held by the player. Such fables show the state of manners:
but a curious story remains on historical record, which displays the
practical consequences of chess-playing. During part of the reign of our
Edward III. the town and castle of Evreux were French. A noble knight of
the neighbourhood, named Sir William Graville, who was secretly attached
to the English side, thought he could win the place, and he formed his
scheme on his knowledge of the governor's character. He first gained some
friends among the burgesses, who were not very strongly attached to the
French cause. As he had not declared himself the friend of either party,
he was permitted to walk in whatever quarters of the city he chose, and
one day he loitered before the gate of the castle till he attracted the
attention of the governor. They saluted each other, and conversed awhile
on the topics of the season. Sir William found his auditor credulous to
every tale, till, when he had told one of wondrous improbability, the
governor demanded his authority. "Sir," replied the knight of Graville, "a
cavalier of Flanders wrote this to me on the pledge of his honour, and
sent with the letter the goodliest chess-men I ever saw."

The governor dropped all care for the story at the mention of chess-men,
and he anxiously desired to see them.

"I will send for them," said Sir William, "on condition that you will play
a game with me for the wine."

The governor assented, and Sir William desired his squire to fetch the
chess-men and bring them to the gate.

The two knights then passed through two wickets into the castle yard; and
while the stranger was viewing the edifice, his faithful squire ran at
speed to the burgesses' houses, and summoned them to arms. They soon
donned their harness and repaired with him to the castle gate, where,
agreeably to a concerted scheme, he sounded a horn.

When Sir William heard it, he said to the governor, "Let us go out of the
second gate, for the chess-men are arrived." Sir William passed the
wicket, and remained without. In following him the governor stooped and
put out his head. Sir William drew a small battle-axe from under his
cloak, and therewith smote to death his defenceless foe. He then opened
the first gate, the burgesses entered in numerous and gallant array, and
incontinently the castle was taken.[184]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Minstrelsy.]

The minstrel's lay, the poetry of the troubadour, the romance of the
learned clerk, all spoke of war and love, of the duties and sports of
chivalry. Every baronial knight had his gay troop of minstrels that
accompanied him to the field, and afterwards chaunted in his hall, whether
in their own or another's verse, the martial deeds which had renowned his
house. A branch of the minstrelsy art consisted of reciting tales; and
such persons as practised it were called jesters.

  "I warn you first at the beginning,
  That I will make no vain carping
  Of deeds of arms nor of amours
  As do minstrelles and jestours,
  That make carping in many a place
  Of Octoviane and Isembrase,
  And of many other jestes,
  And namely when they come to festes;
  Nor of the life of Bevis of Hampton,
  That was a knight of great renown;
  Nor of Sir Guy of Warwick,
  All if it might some men like."[185]

Minstrels played on various musical instruments during dinner, and
chaunted or recited their verses and tales afterwards both in the hall,
and in the chamber to which the barons and knights retired for amusement.

  "Before the king he set him down,
  And took his harp of merry soun,
  And, as he full well can,
  Many merry notes he began.
  The king beheld, and sat full still,
  To hear his harping he had good will.
  When he left off his harping,
  To him said that rich king,
  Minstrel, me liketh well thy glee,
  What thing that thou ask of me
  Largely I will thee pay;
  Therefore ask now and asay."[186]

A minstrel's lay generally accompanied the wine and spices which concluded
the entertainment.[187] Kings and queens had their trains of songsters,
and partly from humour and partly from contempt, the head of the band was
called king of the minstrels.[188] But men of the first quality,
particularly the younger sons and brothers of great houses, followed the
profession of minstrelsy, and no wonder, if it be true that they gained
the guerdon without having encountered the dangers of war; for many a
doughty knight complained that the smiles for which he had perilled
himself in the battle field were bestowed upon some idle son of peace at
home. The person of a minstrel was sacred, and base and barbarian the man
would have been accounted, who did not venerate him that sang the heroic
and the tender lay, the magic strains of chivalry, and could shed a
romantic lustre over fierce wars and faithful loves.

  "In days of yore how fortunately fared
  The minstrel! wandering on from hall to hall,
  Baronial court or royal; cheered with gifts
  Munificent, and love, and ladies' praise:
  Now meeting on his road an armed knight,
  Now resting with a pilgrim by the side
  Of a clear brook: beneath an abbey's roof
  One evening sumptuously lodg'd; the next
  Humbly, in a religious hospital;
  Or with some merry outlaws of the wood;
  Or haply shrouded in a hermit's cell.
  Him, sleeping or awake, the robber spared;
  He walk'd--protected from the sword of war
  By virtue of that sacred instrument
  His harp, suspended at the traveller's side;
  His dear companion wheresoe'er he went,
  Opening from land to land an easy way
  By melody, and by the charm of verse."[189]

Every page of early European history attests the sacred consideration of
the minstrel, and the romances are full of stories, which at least our
imagination can credit, of many a knight telling his soft tale in the
dress of a love-singing poet. That dress had another claim to respect, for
it was fashioned like a sacerdotal robe, as we learn from the story of two
itinerant priests gaining admittance to a monastery, on the supposition of
their being minstrels; but as soon as the fraud was discovered the poor
ecclesiastics were beaten and driven from the monastery by their happier
brethren.[190] The minstrel also was often arrayed in a dress of
splendour, given to him by a baron in a moment of joyous generosity. The
Earl of Foix, after a great festival, gave to heralds and minstrels the
sum of five hundred franks; and he gave to the minstrels of his guest, the
Duke of Tourrain, gowns of cloth of gold, furred with ermine, valued at
two hundred franks.[191]

[Sidenote: Romances.]

There were other classes of poets in days of chivalry, who, under the
names of troubadours, trouveurs, and minnesingers, were spread over all
chivalric countries, and sang the qualities by which a knight could render
himself agreeable to his mistress. The board of a baron was sometimes
enlivened by a tenson, or dialogue in verse, on the comparative merits of
love and war; and the argument was often supported by warmer feelings than
those which could influence a hireling rhymer, for the harp of the
troubadour was borne by kings, and lords, and knights. The romances, or
poems longer than the minstrels' or troubadour lay, were also faithful
ministers of chivalry. All their heroes were advocates of the church, and
enemies of the Saracens and pagans. The perilous adventures of the Gothic
knights, their high honor, tender gallantry, and solemn superstition were
all recorded in romances[192], and there was not a bay window in a
baronial hall without its chivalric volume, with which knights and
squires drove away the lazy hours of peace.

The fictitious tales of Arthur and Charlemagne were the study and
amusement of the warrior in his moments of ease, and even the few relics
of classical literature, which, after the Gothic storm, were cast on the
shores of modern Europe, were fashioned anew by chivalry. The heroes of
Troy were converted into knights, and Troilus and Cressida moved like a
warrior and damsel of chivalric times. Indeed, as the tale of Troy Divine
was occasioned by a lady, it blended very readily with the established
fictions of the times. And the romancers, like the minstrels and
troubadours, were highly favoured by the great, who knew that their
actions, unless recorded by _clerc_, could have no duration, and therefore
they often made handsome presents to authors in order to have their names
recorded in never-dying histories.[193]

[Sidenote: Conversation.]

The conversation of knights, like their lives and literature, related only
to love and war.

  "Then were the tables taken all away,
  And every knight, and every gentle squire,
  Gan choose his dame with _basciomani_[194] gay,
  With whom he meant to make his sport and play,

      *       *       *       *       *

  Some fell to dance; some fell to hazardry;
  Some to make love; some to make merriment."

Every knight was welcome at another knight's castle, if it were only for
the intelligence he could communicate regarding the deeds of arms that
had been done in the countries which he had visited; and the great charm
of the castle of the Earl of Foix, to the imagination of Froissart, was
the goodly company of knights and squires of honor, pages and damsels,
that he met in the hall, chamber, and court, going up and down, and
talking of arms and amours.[195]

  "After meat they went to play,
  All the people, as I you say;
  Some to chamber, and some to bower,
  And some to the high tower,
  And some in the hall stode,
  And spake what them thought gode;
  Men that were of that cytè,
  Enquired of men of other contrè."[196]

[Sidenote: Nature and forms of chivalric entertainments.]

Knights were wont, at these entertainments, to repose on couches, or sit
on benches. The guests were placed two by two, and only one plate was
allotted to each pair; for to eat on the same trencher or plate with any
one was considered the strongest mark of friendship or love.[197] Peacocks
and pheasants were the peculiar food of knights on great and festival
occasions; they were said to be the nutriment of lovers, and the viand of
worthies. The peacock was as much esteemed in chivalric as in classic
times; and as Jupiter clothed himself with a robe made of that bird's
feathers, so Pope Paul, sending to King Pepin a sword, in sign of true
regard, accompanied it with a mantle ornamented with a peacock's plumes.
The highest honours were conferred on these birds; for knights associated
them with all their ideas of fame, and vowed by the peacock, as well as by
the ladies, to perform their highest enterprises. A graceful splendour
often characterised the circumstances in which the vow of the pheasant or
peacock was made.

On a day of public festival, and between the courses of the repast, a
troop of ladies brought into the assembly a peacock, or a pheasant,
roasted in its feathers, in a golden or silver dish.[198] The hall was
adorned with scenes, and wooden or other semblances of men, animals, or
nature, all being expressive of the object for which the vow of the
peacock was to be taken. If the promotion of religious wars was in view, a
matron, clad in habiliments of woe, entered the room, and, approaching the
dais, or lofty seat, which the chief lords and knights surrounded, she
recited a long complaint, in verse, on the evils she suffered under the
yoke of infidels, and complained of the tardiness of Europe in attempting
her deliverance. Some knights then advanced, to the sound of solemn
minstrelsy, to the lord of the castle, and presented two ladies, who bore
between them the noble bird, in its splendid dish. In a brief speech the
ladies recommended themselves to his protection. The lord promised to make
war upon the infidels, and sanctioned his resolution by appealing to God
and the Virgin Mary, the ladies and the peacock. All the knights who were
in the hall drew their swords and repeated the vow; and, while bright
falchions and ladies' eyes illumined the scene, each knight, inflamed by
thoughts of war and love, added some new difficulty to the enterprise, or
bound himself, by grievous penalties, to achieve it. Sometimes a knight
vowed that he would be the first to enter the enemy's territory. Others
vowed that they would not sleep in beds, nor eat off a cloth, nor drink
wine, till they had been delivered of their emprise. The dish was then
placed upon the table, and the lord of the festival deputed some renowned
knight to carve it in such a manner that every guest might taste the bird.
While he was exercising his talents of carving and subdivision, a lady,
dressed in white, came to thank the assembly, presenting twelve damsels,
each conducted by a cavalier. These twelve represented, by emblematical
dresses, Faith, Charity, Justice, Reason, Prudence, Temperance, Strength,
Generosity, Mercy, Diligence, Hope, and Courage. This bevy of bright
damsels trooped round the hall, amidst the applauses of the assembly, and
then the repast proceeded.[199]

       *       *       *       *       *

These were the military, the religious, and the social qualities of a
preux chevalier. The gentler feelings of his heart will be best delineated
in the next chapter; and, as we have seen him adventurous and imaginative,
so we shall find him amorous and true.[200]




CHAP. V.

DAMES AND DAMSELS, AND LADY-LOVE.

    _Courtesy ... Education ... Music ... Graver Sciences ... Dress ...
    Knowledge of Medicine ... Every-day Life of the Maiden ... Chivalric
    Love ... The Idolatry of the Knight's Passion ... Bravery inspired by
    Love ... Character of Woman in the Eyes of a Knight ... Peculiar
    Nature of his Love ... Qualities of Knights admired by Women ... A
    Tale of chivalric Love ... Constancy ... Absence of Jealousy ...
    Knights asserted by Arms their Mistress's Beauty ... Penitents of Love
    ... Other Peculiarities of chivalric Love ... The Passion universal
    ... Story of Aristotle ... Chivalric Love the Foe to feudal
    Distinctions ... But preserved Religion ... When Attachments were
    formed ... Societies of Knights for the Defence of Ladies ... Knights
    of the Lady in the Green Field ... Customs in England ... Unchivalric
    to take Women Prisoners ... Morals of chivalric Times ... Heroines of
    Chivalry ... Queen Philippa ... The Countess of March ... Tales of
    Jane of Mountfort and of Marzia degl' Ubaldini ... Nobleness of the
    chivalric Female Character._


[Sidenote: Courtesy.]

If we fancy the knight of chivalry as valiant, noble-minded, and gentle,
our imagination pictures to our minds the lady of his love in colours
equally fair and pleasing. But we must not lose her individuality in
general expressions of admiration, for she had a distinct and peculiar
character, which from the circumstances of her life can be accurately
traced. The maiden of gentle birth was, like her brother, educated in the
castle of some knight or baron, her father's friend, and many of her
duties were those of personal attendance. As the young candidate for
chivalric honours carved at table, handed the wines, and made the beds of
his lord, so his sister's care was to dress her lady, to contribute by
music and conversation to her amusement, and to form a part of her state
retinue[201]: and while there was no loss of dignity in this description
of service, the practice being universal and of immemorial antiquity,
feelings of humility insensibly entered the mind, and a kind consideration
for those of harder fortunes softened the severity of feudal pride. Thus a
condescending deportment to inferiors was a duty which their moral
instructors enforced. It was represented to them by the pleasing image of
the sparrow-hawk, which, when called in gentle accents, would come and
settle on her hand, but if, instead of being courteous, she were rude and
cruel, he would remain on the rock's pinnacle heedless of her calls.
Courtesy from persons of superior consideration was the fair right of
people of gentle birth though of small estate, for gentility was always to
be respected, and to the poor man or woman it ought to be shown, because
it gives pleasure to them, and reflects honour on those who bestowed it. A
lady once in company of knights and ladies took off her hood and humbled
herself courteously unto a mechanic. One of her friends exclaimed in
astonishment, "Why, noble dame, you have taken off your hood to a
tailor."--"Yes," she replied, "and I would rather have doffed it to him
than to a gentleman:" and her courteous friends reputed that she had done
right well.[202]

[Sidenote: Education.]

[Sidenote: Music.]

The mental education of women of those days was not of a very high polish.
To repeat the prayers of the church, to sing the brief piece of poetry
called the lai, or the longer romaunt were the only tasks on the
intellect.

  "The king had a daughter dear,
  That maiden Ysonde hight;
  That glee was lef to hear
  And romance to read aright."[203]

The ladies also played upon the harp.

  "They were wont to harp and syng,
  And be the merriest in chamber comyng."[204]

The same particular of ancient manners is recorded by another poet:

  "The lady that was so fair and bright,
  Upon the bed she sat down right,
  The harpers notes sweet and fine,
  Her maids filled a price of wine.
  And Sir Degore sat him down,
  For to hear the harper's sown."[205]

[Sidenote: Graver sciences.]

But sometimes the graver sciences were introduced into female education,
and Felice, the daughter of Rohand, Earl of Warwick, was not without
parallels.

  "Gentle she was, and as demure
  As ger-fauk, or falcon to lure,
  That out of mew were y-drawe.
  So fair was none, in sooth sawe.
  She was thereto courteous, and free and wise,
  And in the seven arts learned withouten miss.
  Her masters were thither come
  Out of Thoulouse all and some,
  White and hoar all they were;
  Busy they were that maiden to lere;
  And they her lered of astronomy,
  Of armsmetrick, and of geometry;
  Of sophistry she was also witty,
  Of rhetorick, and of other clergy:
  Learned she was in musick;
  Of clergy was her none like."[206]

Maidens were taught that a mild dignity of demeanour beseemed them, and
moralising their duty into a thousand similies, their teachers declared
that they ought not to resemble the tortoise or the crane, which turn the
visage and the head above their shoulders, and winde their head like a
vane; but their regard and manner ought to be steadfast, in imitation of
the beautiful hare, which always looks right on. If an occasion required a
damsel to look aside, she ought to turn the visage and body together, and
so her estate would be more firm and sure; for it was unmaidenly lightly
to cast about her sight and head, and turn her face here and there.[207]

[Sidenote: Dress.]

Simplicity of dress was another part of instruction: but there was to be
no lack of jewels of price and other splendid ornaments on festive
occasions, and, consistently with the general magnificence of religious
worship of the age, maidens were commanded to wear their gorgeous robes at
church, and not merely at courtly festivals. There was a gravity about
chivalry which accorded well with the recommendation for women not quickly
to adopt new dresses introduced from strange countries. Modesty of attire
was the theme of many a wise discourse, and every castle had its story of
the daughter of a knight who lost her marriage by displaying too
conspicuously the graces of her figure, and that the cavalier who was her
intended suitor preferred her sister who had modesty, though not beauty,
for her dower.[208]

[Sidenote: Knowledge of medicine.]

All the domestic oeconomy of the baronial mansion was arranged by these
young maidens: and the consideration which this power gave them was not a
little heightened by their sharing with the monks in the knowledge which
the age possessed of vulnerary medicaments. This attribute of skill over
the powers of nature was a clear deduction from that sublime, prophetic,
and mysterious character of women in the ages which preceded the times
both of feudalism and chivalry. The healing art was not reduced to an
elaborate system of principles and rules, for memory to store and talent
to apply, but it was thought that the professors of medicine enjoyed a
holy intercourse with worlds unknown to common minds. The possession of
more than mortal knowledge was readily ascribed to a pure, unearthly being
like woman, and the knight who felt to his heart of hearts the charm of
her beauty was not slow in believing that she could fascinate the very
elements of nature to aid him. There are innumerable passages in the
various works which reflect the manners of chivalric times on the
medicinal practice of dames and damsels. A pleasing passage of Spenser
illustrates their affectionate tendance of the sick.

  "Where many grooms and squires ready were
  To take him from his steed full tenderly;
  And eke the fairest Alma met him there
  With balm and wine and costly spicery,
  To comfort him in his infirmity.
  Eftesoones she caus'd him up to be conveyed,
  And of his arms despoiled easily:
  In sumptuous bed she made him to be laid,
  And, all the while his wounds were dressing, by him stay'd."[209]

Chirurgical knowledge was also a necessary feminine accomplishment, and we
will accept the reason of the cavalier with "high thoughts, seated in a
heart of courtesy," for such a remarkable feature in their character. "The
art of surgery," says Sir Philip Sidney, "was much esteemed, because it
served to virtuous courage, which even ladies would, even with the
contempt of cowards, seem to cherish."[210] A fair maiden could perform as
many wonderful cures as the most renowned and skilful leech. The gentle
Nicolette successfully treated an accident which her knight Aucassin met
with.

  "So prosper'd the sweet lass, her strength alone
  Thrust deftly back the dislocated bone;
  Then, culling curious herbs of virtue tried,
  While her white smock the needful bands supplied:
  With many a coil the limb she swath'd around,
  And nature's strength return'd, nor knew its former wound."

Spenser favours us with the ladies' method of treating a wound.

  "Mekely she bowed down, to weete if life
  Yet in his frozen members did remain;
  And, feeling by his pulses beating rife
  That the weak soul her seat did yet retain,
  She cast to comfort him with busy pain:
  His double-folded neck she reared upright,
  And rubb'd his temples and each trembling vein;
  His mailed haberieon she did undight,
  And from his head his heavy burganet did light.

  Into the woods thenceforth in haste she went,
  To seek for herbs that mote him remedy;
  For she of herbes had great intendiment,
  Taught of the nymph from whom her infancy
  Her nourced had in true nobility.

      *       *       *       *       *

  The soveraine weede betwixt two marbles plain,
  She powder'd small, and in pieces bruize;
  And then atweene her lily handes twain
  Into his wound ye juice thereof did scruze;
  And round about, as she could well it use,
  The flesh therewith she suppled and did steepe
  T'abate all spasm and soke the swelling bruise;
  And, after having search't the intuse deep,
  She with her scarf did bind the wound, from cold to keep."[211]

[Sidenote: Every-day life of the maiden.]

The every-day life of a young maiden in chivalric times is described with
a great deal of spirit in the fine old English tale, of the Squire of Low
Degree. I am not acquainted with any other passage of the metrical
romances which contains so vivid a picture of the usages of our ancestors.
To dissipate his daughter's melancholy for the loss of her lover, the King
of Hungary says,

  "To-morrow ye shall on hunting fare,
  And ride, my daughter, in a chair,[212]
  It shall be covered with velvet red,
  And cloths of fine gold all about your head;
  With damask white and azure blue
  Well diapered with lilies new.
  Your pomelles shall be ended with gold,
  Your chains enameled many a fold;
  Your mantle of rich degree,
  Purple pall and ermine fre.

  Jennets of Spain that be so white
  Trapped to the ground with velvet bright.
  Ye shall have harp, sawtry, and song,
  And other myrthes you among;
  Ye shall have Rumney and Malmesyne,
  Both ypocrass and vernage wine,
  Mount rose and wine of Greek,
  Both algrade and despice eke;
  Antioch and bastard,
  Piment also and gamarde;
  Wine of Greek and muscadell,
  Both clare piment and rochell,[213]
  The red your stomach to defy,
  And pots of osey set you by.

  You shall have venison ybake,[214]
  The best wild fowl that may be take.
  A lese of greyhounds with you to strike,
  And hart and hind and other lyke,
  Ye shall be set at such a tryst[215]
  That hart and hind shall come to your fist.
  Your disease to drive you fro,
  To hear the bugles there yblowe.
  Homeward thus shall ye ride,
  On hawking by the river's side,
  With goss hawk and with gentle falcon,
  With egle-horn, and merlyon.[216]
  When you come home your men among,
  Ye shall have revel dance and song,
  Little children great and small
  Shall sing as doth the nightingale.

  Then shall ye go to your even song,
  With tenors and trebles among,
  Threescore of ropes of damask bright
  Full of pearls they shall be pight,[217]
  Your censers shall be of gold
  Indent with azure many a fold:
  Your choir nor organ song shall want
  With counter note and discant.
  The other half on organs playing,
  With young children full fair singing.

  Then shall ye go to your supper,
  And sit in tents in green arbour,
  With cloth of arras pight to the ground,
  With saphires set and diamond.
  The nightingale sitting on a thorn
  Shall sing you notes both even and morn.
  An hundred knights truly told,
  Shall play with bowls in alleys cold,
  Your disease to drive away,
  To see the fishes in pools play.
  And then walk in arbour up and down,
  To see the flowers of great renown.
  To a draw-bridge then shall ye,
  The one half of stone, the other of tree;
  A barge shall meet you, full right,
  With twenty-four oars full bright,
  With trumpets and with clarion,
  The fresh water to row up and down.

      *       *       *       *       *

  Into your chamber they shall you bring
  With much mirth and more liking.
  Your blankets shall be of fustain,
  Your sheets shall be of cloths of Rayne;[218]
  Your head sheet shall be of pery pyght,[219]
  With diamonds set and ruby bright.
  When you are laid in bed so soft,
  A cage of gold shall hang aloft,
  With long pepper fair burning,
  And cloves that be sweet smelling,
  Frankinsence and olibanum,[220]
  That when you sleep the taste may come,
  And if ye no rest can make,
  All night minstrels for you shall wake."

[Sidenote: Chivalric love.]

In that singular system of manners which we call chivalric, religion was a
chief influential principle of action; but scarcely less consequence ought
in truth to be given to another feeling apparently incompatible with it;
and if Venus, in the Greek mythology, was called the universal cause, her
empire seems not to have been less extensive in days of knighthood. A
Latin poet, of no mean authority in such subjects, has described love as
the sole employment of woman's life, and of man's only a part[221]; and
Boccacio says, that he composed his tales for the solace of fair and noble
ladies in love, who, confined within their melancholy chambers, had no
other occupation, but perpetually to revolve in their minds the same
consuming thoughts, rendered intolerable by shame and concealment: while
man might hunt, hawk, fish, and had a thousand channels for his thoughts.

But the state of society at Rome was not similar to that in days of
knighthood, and though Boccacio lived in those days, he describes the
manners of commercial cities rather than of chivalric courts, of fair
Florence and not of a frowning baronial castle. The ideas of God and of
love were always blended in the heart of the true knight, and to be loving
was as necessary as to be devout. Cervantes expresses the feelings of
chivalry in the declaration of Don Quixote, that "a knight without a
mistress was like a tree without either fruit or leaves, or a body
without a soul." A ship without a rudder, a horse without a bridle, were
other illustrations of the prevailing sentiment, and more expressive of
the characteristic of chivalric love, which assigned superiority to woman,
which made her the directress of the thoughts, and inspirer of the courage
of her chosen cavalier. "A knight may never be of prowess, but if he be a
lover," was the sentiment of Sir Tristram, a valiant peer of Arthur, and
it was echoed by every gentle son of chivalry.[222] Not, indeed, that
every knight felt this strength and purity of passion. Spenser has
described four cavaliers, and each represents a large class.

  "Druon's delight was all for single life,
  And unto ladie's love would lend no leasure;
  The more was Claribell engaged rife
  With fervent flames, and loved out of measure:
  So eke lov'd Blandamour, but yet at pleasure
  Would change his liking, and new lemans prove:
  But Paridell of love did make no threasure,
  But lusted after all that did him move:
  So diversely these four disposed were to love."[223]

[Sidenote: The idolatry of the knight's passion.]

The true knight, he whose mind was formed in the best mould of chivalric
principles, was a more perfect personification of love than poets and
romancers have ever dreamed. The fair object of his passion was truly and
emphatically the mistress of his heart. She reigned there with absolute
dominion. His love was,

  "All adoration, duty, and observance."

Our old English poet, Gower, whose soul was filled with romantic
tenderness and gallantry, says,

  "In every place, in every stead,
  What so my lady hath me bid,
  With all my heart obedient,
  I have thereto been diligent."

And every gallant spirit of Gower's days, the reign of Edward III., said
of his mistress,

  "What thing she bid me do, I do,
  And where she bid me go, I go.
  And when she likes to call, I come,
  I serve, I bow, I look, I lowte,
  My eye followeth her about.
  What so she will, so will I,
  When she would set, I kneel by.
  And when she stands then will I stand,
  And when she taketh her work in hand,
  Of wevying or of embroidrie,
  Then can I not but muse and prie,
  Upon her fingers long and small."

Gower, in describing the knight's mode of tendance on his mistress, has
drawn a pleasing picture of the domestic life of chivalry.

  "And if she list to riden out,
  On pilgrimage, or other stead,
  I come, though I be not bid,
  And take her in my arms aloft,
  And set her in her saddle soft,
  And so forth lead her by the bridle,
  For that I would not be idle.
  And if she list to ride in chare,
  And that I may thereof beware,
  Anon, I shape me to ride,
  Right even by the chares side,
  And as I may, I speak among,
  And other while, I sing a song."[224]

These quotations show that the expression in ancient times of knights
being servants of the ladies was not a mere figure of the imagination. The
instances from Gower, however, which prove the propriety of the title, may
not be thought exclusively chivalric. A story in Froissart will fully
supply the want. A Bourbon knight, named Sir John Bonnelance, a valiant
soldier, gracious and amorous, was once at Montferrand, in Auvergne,
sporting among the ladies and damsels of the town. While commending his
chivalry, they urged him to undertake an enterprise against the English,
and she who, as his lady-love, was ruler of his actions, told him that she
would fain see an Englishman, for she had heard much of the valiancy of
the knights of England. Bonnelance replied, "that if it should ever be his
good fortune to take one, he would bring him into her presence." Soon
afterwards he was able to perform his word. He took to Montferrand some
English prisoners, and addressing her who fancied the wish of seeing an
Englishman, he said "that for her love he had brought them to the town."
The ladies and damsels laughed, and turned the matter to a great sport.
They thanked him for his courtesy, and entertained him right sweetly
during his three days abode at Montferrand.[225]

[Sidenote: Love inspired bravery.]

The knight, whose heart was warmed with the true light of chivalry, never
wished that the dominion of his mistress should be less than absolute, and
the confession of her perfect virtue, which this feeling implied, made him
preserve his own faith pure and without a stain. Love was as marked a
feature in the chivalric character as valour; and, in the phrase of the
time, he who understood how to break a lance, and did not understand how
to win a lady, was but half a man. He fought to gain her smiles, for love
in brave and gentle knights kindled aspirations for high desert and
honour. "Oh! that my lady saw me," was the exclamation of a knight in the
pride of successful valour as he mounted the city's wall, and with his
good sword was proving the worth of his chivalry.[226] He wore her
colours, and the favour of his lady bright was the chief ornament of his
harness. She judged the prize at the tournament, assisted him to arm, and
was the first and the most joyous to hail his return from the perils of
war.

  "A damisel came unto me,
  The seemliest that ever I se,
  Luffumer[227] lifed never in land,
  Hendly she take me by the hand;
  And soon that gentle creature
  Al unlaced mine armure
  Into a chamber she me led,
  And with a mantle she me cled;
  It was of purpur fair and fine,
  And the pane of rich ermine;
  Al the folk war went us fra,
  And there was none than both we twa;
  She served me hendely to hend,
  Her manners might no man amend;
  Of tong she was true and renable,
  And of her semblant soft and stabile.
  Fullfain I would, if that I might,
  Have woned[228] with that sweet wight:
  And when we sold go to sopere
  That lady with a lufforn chere,
  Led me down into the hall,
  That war we served wele at all."[229]

[Sidenote: Character of woman in the eyes of a knight.]

A soldier of chivalry would go to battle, proud of the title, a pursuivant
of love[230], and in the contests of chivalric skill, which, like the
battles of Homer's heroes, gave brilliancy and splendour to war, a knight
challenged another to joust with a lance for love of the ladies; and he
commended himself to the mistress of his heart for protection and
assistance. In his mind woman was a being of mystic power; in the forests
of Germany her voice had been listened to like that of the spirit of the
woods, melodious, solemn, and oracular; and when chivalry was formed into
a system, the same idea of something supernaturally powerful in her
character threw a shadowy and serious interest over softer feelings, and
she was revered as well as loved. While this devotedness of soul to
woman's charms appeared in his general intercourse with the sex, in a
demeanor of homage, in a grave and stately politeness, his lady-love he
regarded with religious constancy. Fickleness would have been a species of
impiety, for she was not a toy that he played with, but a divinity whom he
worshipped. This adoration of her sustained him through all the perils
that lay before his reaching his heart's desire; and loyalty (a word that
has lost its pristine and noble meaning) was the choicest quality in the
character of the preux chevalier.

[Sidenote: Peculiar nature of his love.]

It was supported, too, by the state of the world he lived in. He fought
the battles of his country and his church, and he travelled to foreign
lands as a pilgrim, or a crusader, for such were the calls of his
chivalry. To be the first in the charge and the last in the retreat was
the counsel which one knight gave to another, on being asked the surest
means of winning a lady fair. Love was the crowning grace, the guerdon of
his toils, and its gentle influence aided him in discharging the duties of
his gallant and solemn profession. The lady Isabella, daughter of the Earl
of Jullyers, loved the lord Eustace Damberticourt for the great nobleness
of arms that she had heard reported of him; and her messengers often
carried to him letters of love, whereby her noble paramour was the more
hardy in his deeds of arms.[231] "I should have loved him better dead than
alive," another damsel exclaimed, on hearing that her knight had survived
his honour.

[Sidenote: Qualities in knights admired by women.]

[Sidenote: A tale of chivalric love.]

No wonder that in those ages of violence bravery was the manly quality,
dear, above all others, in woman's eyes. Its possession atoned for want of
every personal grace; and the damsel who, on being reproached for loving
an ugly man, replied, "he is so valiant I have never looked in his face,"
apologised for her passion in a manner that every woman of her time could
sympathise with. As proficiency in chivalric exercises was the only
distinction of the age, it would have been contrary to its spirit and laws
for a gentle maiden to have loved any other than a knight who had achieved
high deeds of arms. The advancement of his fame was, therefore, among the
dearest wishes of her heart, and she fanned his love of noble enterprise
in order to speed the hour of their union. The poets and romance-writers
of the days of chivalry bear ample testimony to the existence of this
state of feeling, and to the perils which brave men underwent to gain fair
ladies' smiles; but all their tales must yield in pathos to the following
simple historical fact:--When the Scots were endeavouring to throw off the
yoke which Edward I. had imposed on them, the recovery of the castle of
Douglas was the unceasing effort of the good Lord James. It was often lost
and won; for if the vigilance of the English garrison relaxed for a
moment, the Scots, who lived in the neighbourhood, and were ever on the
watch, aided their feudal lord in regaining the fortress, which, however,
he could not maintain long against the numerous chivalry of England. The
possession of this castle seemed to be held by so perilous a tenure, that
it excited the noblest aspirations for fame in the breasts of the English;
and a fair maiden, perplexed by the number of knights who were in suit of
her, vowed she would bestow her hand upon him who preserved the
adventurous or hazardous castle of Douglas for a year and a day. Sir John
Walton boldly and gladly undertook the emprise, and right gallantly he
held possession of the fortress for some months. At length he was slain in
a sally which Douglas provoked him to make. On his person was found a
letter which he had lately received from his lady-love, commending his
noble chevisance, declaring that her heart was now his, and praying him to
return to her forthwith, without exposing himself to further peril. The
good Lord James of Douglas grieved when he read this letter, and it was
generous and gallant of him to lament that a brother knight should be
slain when his fairest hopes of happiness seemed on the point of being
realised.[232]

[Sidenote: Constancy.]

The loves of chivalric times must often have been shaded with gloom, and
so convulsed was the state of Europe, so distant were its parts often
thrown from each other, that the course of true love seldom ran smoothly,
and affianced knights and damsels more frequently breathed the wish of
annihilating time and space than is necessary in the happier monotony of
modern times. In almost every case of attachment absence was unavoidable,
and constancy, therefore, became a necessary virtue of love in chivalry.

  "Young knight whatever, that dost arms profess,
  And through long labours huntest after fame,
  Beware of fraud, beware of fickleness,
  In choice, and change, of thy dear loved dame;
  Least thou of her believe too lightly blame,
  And rash misweening do thy heart remove;
  For unto knight there is no greater shame
  Than lightness and inconstancy in love."[233]

      *       *       *       *       *

His mistress was ever present to his imagination, and he felt there would
be a witness to his disloyalty. Even if he could dismiss her picture from
his mind, his own sense of honour preserved his virtue, and the reply of a
knight to a beautiful temptress, that though his sovereign-lady might
never know of his conduct, yet his heart, which was constantly near her,
could not be ignorant, was conceived in the purest spirit of chivalry.

[Sidenote: Absence of jealousy.]

The troubadours, who were the teachers of the art of love, refined upon
this respectful passion of the knight in a very amusing manner. They were
wont to affirm, that though a knight saw cause for jealousy, yet if his
lady-love were to deny the circumstances, he was to reply that he was
convinced of the verity of her assertions; but he really did believe he
had witnessed such and such matters.[234]

[Sidenote: Knights asserted by arms their mistress' beauty.]

Chivalric love had, indeed, its absurdities as well as its impieties. It
was a pleasing caricature of chivalry, when the knight of La Mancha
stationed himself in the middle of a high road, and calling to the
merchants of Toledo, who were bound to the silk fairs at Murcia, forbad
them to pass, unless they acknowledged that there was not in the universe
a more beautiful damsel than the empress of La Mancha, the peerless
Dulcinea del Toboso. For the knights of chivalry were not satisfied to
fight in defence of the ladies, and to joust in their honour, but from the
extravagancy of their love, each knight maintained at the point of his
lance, that his mistress surpassed all other ladies in beauty.[235] The
knight Jehan de Saintré (whose education in chivalry has been already
described by me) vowed to wear a helmet of a particular shape, and to
visit, during three years, the courts of Europe, maintaining against all
their chivalry the beauty of his mistress. Four knights and five squires,
who had made a similar vow, were his companions. At a tournament held by
the Emperor of Germany, the noble undertaking was held to be accomplished,
and the emblems of the emprise were unchained from the left shoulder of
the gallant knights and squires.[236] Indeed, wherever a knight went, to
court or to camp, he asserted the superiority of his lady and his love,
but he hurled his defiances not against simple merchants, as our right
worshipful knight Don Quixote did, but against persons of his own rank,
who were in amours as well as himself. Instances of this chivalric
disposition occur frequently in chivalric history: but Cervantes
caricatured the romances, and not the sober chronicles of chivalry, when,
in reply to the natural enquiry of one of the merchants regarding the
beauty of the lady, he made his hero exclaim, "Had I once shown you that
beauty, what wonder would it be to acknowledge so notorious a truth? the
importance of the thing lies in obliging you to believe it, confess it,
affirm it, swear it, and maintain it, without seeing her." But the display
of chivalric bravery in avowal of woman's beauty proceeded from so noble a
feeling, that it must not be censured or satirised too severely, for

              "Who is the owner of a treasure
  Above all value, but, without offence,
  May glory in the glad possession of it?"

[Sidenote: Penitents of love.]

As history, however, should be a record, and not a panegyric, I proceed to
observe, that the most marked display of the extravagancies of our knights
took place in the courts of love; but as I have dilated on that topic in
another work, I am precluded of treating the subject here, and it is the
tritest of all the subjects of chivalry. Equally ridiculous among the
amatory phrenzies of the middle ages was the society of the penitents of
love, formed by some ladies and gentlemen in Poictou, at the beginning of
the fourteenth century. They opposed themselves to nature in every thing,
on the principle that love can effect the strangest metamorphoses. During
the hottest months of summer, they covered themselves with mantles lined
with fur, and in their houses they sat before large fires. When winter
came they affected to be burning with the fires of love, and a dress of
the slightest texture wrapt their limbs. This society did not endure long,
nor was its example pernicious. A few enthusiasts perished, and reason
then resumed her empire.[237]

[Sidenote: Other peculiarities of chivalric love.]

The knight was as zealous in the gentle as in the more solemn affections
of the soul. He believed that both God and love hated hard and
hypocritical hearts. In a bolder strain of irreverence he thought that
both God and love could be softened by prayer, and that he who served both
with fidelity would secure to himself happiness in this life and the joys
of Paradise hereafter. On other occasions the gallant spirit of chivalry
spoke more rationally. Love, according to one renowned knight, is the
chaste union of two hearts, which, attached by virtue, live for the
promotion of happiness, having only one soul and one will in common.

  "Liege lady mine! (Gruélan thus return'd,)
  With love's bright fires this bosom ne'er hath burn'd.
  Love's sovereign lore, mysterious and refined,
  Is the pure confluence of immortal mind;
  Chaste union of two hearts by virtue wrought,
  Where each seems either in word, deed, and thought,
  Each singly to itself no more remains,
  But one will guides, one common soul sustains."[238]

[Sidenote: The passion universal.]

[Sidenote: Story of Aristotle.]

So prevailing was amatory enthusiasm, that not only did poets fancy
themselves inspired by love, but learned clerks were its subjects, and in
spite of its supposed divinity some natural satire fell upon the scholar
who yielded to its fascination. In Gower's Confessio Amantis, the
omnipotence of love is strikingly displayed; for besides those whom we
might expect to see at the feet of the goddess, we are presented with
Plato and Socrates, and even him who was the object of veneration
bordering on idolatry in the ages which we in courtesy to ourselves call
dark. Gower, the moral Gower, says with some humour,

  "I saw there Aristotle also,
  Whom that the queen of Greece also
  Hath bridled, that in thilke time
  She made him such a syllogisme
  That he forgot all his logike."

The story whereon this sentence was founded was among the most popular of
the times. The delights of love had made Alexander pause in the career of
ambition. His host of knights and barons were discontented at the change,
and Aristotle, as the tutor and guardian of his youthful course,
endeavoured to rouse anew the spirit of the hero. The prince attempted no
lengthened reply to this appeal to his chivalry;

  "Sighing, alone he cried, as inly mov'd,
  Alas! these men, meseems, have never lov'd."

The grave saws of the sage took root, however, in Alexander's heart, and
he absented himself from his mistress. She wailed her fate for some time
in solitude, but at length assured that it was not the mere capriciousness
of passion which kept him from her, she forced herself into the presence
of her lord. Her beauty smiled away all dreams of glory from his mind, and
in the fondness of his love he accused Aristotle of breaking in upon his
joy. But the dominion of his passion was only momentary, and recovering
the martial tone of his soul, he declared the sad necessity of their
parting. She then requested a brief delay, promising to convince the king
that his tutor's counsel derived no additional recommendation from his
practice, for that he stood in need of as much instruction as Alexander
himself. Accordingly, with the first appearance of the next morning, the
damsel repaired to the lawn before the chamber where Aristotle lay. As she
approached the casement, she broke the stillness of the air by chanting a
love ditty, and the sweetness of her wild notes charmed the philosopher
from his studious page. He softly stole to the window, and beheld a form
far fairer than any image of truth which his fancy had just previously
been conceiving. Her face was not shrouded by vail or wimple, her long
flaxen tresses strayed negligently down her neck, and her dress, like
drapery on an antient statue, displayed the beauty of a well-turned limb.
She loitered about the place on pretence of gathering a branch of a
myrtle-tree, and winding it round her forehead. When her confidence in her
beauty assured her that Aristotle was mad for her love, she stole
underneath the casement, and, in a voice checked by sighs, she sang that
love detained her there. Aristotle drank the delicious sounds, and gazing
again, her charms appeared more resplendent than before. Reason faintly
whispered that he was not born to be loved, and that his hair was now
white with age, his forehead wrinkled with study; but passion and vanity
drove away these faint remonstrances, and Aristotle was a sage no more.
The damsel carelessly passed his window, and in the delirium of his love
he caught the floating folds of her robe. She affected anger, and he
avowed his passion. She listened to his confession with a surprize of
manner that fanned his flame, and she answered him by complaining of the
late coldness of Alexander. The greybeard, not caring for a return of
love, so that she accepted his suit, promised to bring his pupil to her
feet, if she would but confer some sign of favour upon himself. She
feigned an intention of compliance, but declared that, before she yielded,
she must be indulged in a foolish whim which long had distracted her
fancy. Aristotle then renewed his professions of devoted love, and she in
sentences, broken by exclamations of apparent shame at her folly, vowed
that she was dying to mount and ride upon the back of a wise man. He was
now so passionately in love, that the fancies of his mistress appeared
divinest wisdom to his mind, and he immediately threw himself along the
ground in a crawling attitude. She seated herself in a gorgeous saddle
which she placed on his back, and, throwing a rein round his neck, she
urged him to proceed. In a few moments they reached the terrace under the
royal apartments, and the king beheld the singular spectacle. A peal of
laughter from the windows awoke the philosopher to a sense of his state,
and when he saw his pupil he owned that youth might well yield to love, as
it had power to break even the frost of age.

Such was the lay of Aristotle which the wandering minstrel chanted in the
baronial hall, and the damsel in her lady's bower, and the pleasing moral
of the fable was not more sincerely echoed by the shouts of the gallant
knights and squires than by the broken sighs of beauty.

  "Mark ye, who hear me, that no blameful shade
  Be thrown henceforth on gallant or on maid.
  For here, by grave example taught, we find
  That mighty love is master of mankind.
  Love conquers all, and love shall conquer still,
  Last the round world how long soe'er it will."[239]

It is singular to observe that in the north and in the south, in Germany
and in Languedoc, the love of the cavalier bore the same character, the
same blending of tender and devotional feelings. The troubadour burned
tapers, and caused masses to be said for the success of his love, and
when the fervour of passion for his mistress was crossed by religious awe,
he declared that the part of his heart which God held was still under the
superior dominion of his lady-love. The German knight wrote poems to the
honour of the Virgin Mary and the damsel of his heart, and it is not
always easy to distinguish to which of these persons his vows are
addressed.[240] He adored the shadow, nay, the very neighbourhood of his
mistress, and declared that nothing could induce him to violate his vow of
fidelity. Here, however, the resemblance ceases, for the knights of
France, England, and Spain were not more highly distinguished for
chivalric courtesy, than the Germans were remarkable for ferocity and
savageness.[241] Once, and once only, were there courts of love in
Germany. They were established by Frederic Barbarossa, and they did not
long survive their founder.

[Sidenote: Chivalric love the foe to feudal distinctions.]

Chivalric love took delight in reconciling and joining the opposites of
the world.[242] It was no cold and calculating principle; it abrogated the
distinctions of wealth and rank, and many a knight, whose whole fortune
lay in his prowess, gained the hand of high-born beauty. "How can I
hope," observed a young candidate for chivalry to a lady of high estate,
"how can I hope to find a damsel of noble birth, who will return the
affection of a knight that, ungraced by rank, has only his good sword to
trust to?"--"And why should you not find her?" replied the lady; "are you
not gently born? are you not a handsome youth? have you not eyes to gaze
on her, ears to hear her, feet to move at her will, body and heart to
accomplish loyally her commands? and, possessed of these qualities, can
you doubt to adventure yourself in the service of a lady, however exalted
her rank?"[243]

A squire of low degree often aspired to the hand of a king's daughter:

  "And I have seen that many a page
  Have become men by marriage."

The intenseness of passion, and the generousness of soul implied in this
state of manners, were sternly opposed by feudal pride and tyranny; but
chivalry could not always beat down the absurd distinctions of society.
When the Countess of Vergy returned the passion of Sir Agolane, she was
obliged to love in secret, lest the dignity of the court of Burgundy
should be offended.[244] The maidens themselves sometimes sanctioned the
prejudices of feudalism, in opposition to the generous feelings of
chivalry and nature. Felice, daughter of Rahand, Earl of Warwick,
disdained to return the passion of Guy, her father's steward, till an
angel in a dream commanded her to love him.[245]

[Sidenote: But preserved religion.]

Agreement in religious opinions was as necessary as sympathy of souls in
the loves of chivalry; and many a story is related of a knight reposing in
a lady's chamber, where, instead of adoring the divinity of the place, he
assailed her with a fierce invective against her religious creed.[246] On
such occasions he forgot even his courtesy, and shamed his knighthood by
calling her a heathen hound:

  "I will not go one foot on ground
  For to speak with an heathen hound;
  Unchristen hounds I rede ye flee,
  Or I your heart's blood will see."

But

  "'Mercy,' she cried, 'my lemman sweet!'--
  (She fell down and 'gan to weep)--
  'Forgive me that I have mis-said,
  I will that ye be well assayed!
  My false gods I will forsake,
  And Christendom for thy love take.'
  'On that covenant,' said Sir Bevis than,
  'I will thee love, fair Josyan!'"[247]

[Sidenote: When attachments were formed.]

The occasions which kindled the flame of love in the heart of the knight
and the maiden of chivalry were various, and many of them well calculated
to give rise to romantic and enthusiastic attachments. Sometimes the
parties had been educated in the same castle, and passion insensibly
succeeded childish amusements. The masque and the ball were often the
theatre of love; but, above all other scenes, it spread its light over the
brilliant tournament. Performed in honour and in view of the ladies, it
was there that love exerted its mightiest power. She who gave the prize
bestowed almost universally her heart upon the brave and skilful
vanquisher, and many were the tears she shed, if she found that the
knight had been proving his puissance only to win the heart of some other
fair one. It often happened that the circumstances of life carried a young
cavalier to a baronial castle, where he found more peril in the daughter's
fair looks than in the frowning battlements of her father. At the feast
which welcomed the stranger, eyes mingled in love, and the suddenness of
passion was always considered as the strongest proof of its purity and
strength. The damsel might then avow her affection without any violation
of maidenly shame; for generous, confiding love, reading another's heart
in its own, dreaded no petty triumphs of vanity from confessing its
fondness. It often occurred that a knight, weary and wounded, was confided
to the ministrations of woman's tenderness; and Spenser, who had read the
history as well as the romance of chivalry, tells us,

  "O foolish physick, and unfruitful pain,
  That heals up one, and makes another wound."

[Sidenote: Societies of knights for defence of ladies.]

[Sidenote: Knights of the Lady in the Green Field.]

The rude state of society, which it was the noble object of chivalry to
soften, presented many occasions for the display of generous affections,
and love was the grateful return of protection. A cavalier called the
Knight of the Swan reinstated a lady in the possessions of which the Duke
of Saxony had deprived her. Indignant that the throne, and not chivalry,
should be regarded as the fountain of justice, knights sometimes formed
themselves into associations for the express object of defending the
rights of all ladies that required their aid. At one period (during the
reign of Charles VI.) of great violence in France, the ladies and
gentlewomen of the country laid before the king grievous complaints of
their sufferings from powerful lords, and lamented that gallantry was so
much degenerated, that no knights and squires had attempted to defend
them. They appealed, therefore, to the king, as the fountain of justice,
to afford them protection. This appeal roused the dormant chivalry of
France; and the valiant knight and marshal, Boucicaut[248], whose skill as
a jouster will be described anon, gathered round him twelve preux
chevaliers, and the fraternity avowed themselves champions of oppressed
dames and damsels. The gallantry of their object was proclaimed to the
world by the device on their shields of a fair lady in a green field, and
their letters of arms, circulated throughout France, promised that they
would assist all ladies and gentlewomen who were injured in their honours
or fortunes.[249]

[Sidenote: Custom in England.]

The same generous feeling warmed the hearts of the English chivalry. We
become acquainted with this feature of our ancient national character, not
in dry monkish chronicles, but in the living page of one of our earliest
and greatest poets. Chaucer makes all the persons of his dramatic tale
speak agreeably to their rank and station in the world; and he puts into
the mouth of his very perfect and gentle knight the following spirited
description of the gallant feelings of English nobles and gentles in the
time of Edward III.

  "For every knight that loved chivalry,
  And would his thanks have a passant name,
  Hath prayed that he might be of that game,
  And well was him that thereto chosen was!
  For if there to-morrow such a case,
  Ye knowen well that every lusty knight
  That loveth _par amour_, and hath his might,
  Were it in Engleland, or elsewhere,
  They would, hir thanks, willen to be there.
  _To fight for a lady, a! benedicite,
  It were a lusty sight for to see!_"[250]

And thus it continued in every age of chivalric history. Noble knights of
prowess were ever perilling themselves in the cause of woman. So late as
the year 1425, when the title to certain territories in Hainault was
contested between the English Duke of Gloucester and John of Brabant on
behalf of the lady Jacquiline, those gallant cavaliers, the bastard of St.
Pol, and André de Humieres appeared at Hesden with silver rings on their
right arms, proclaiming the superior title of Jacquiline.[251]

These are a few of the historical facts, which shew that the ancient
romancers did not paint from their imagination when they described gallant
cavaliers wandering over the gloomy waste of feudal Europe, in order to
redress wrongs and injuries, to relieve widows, and defend the honor of
damsels. Sometimes a knight rode alone, and like the valorous Don Quixote
left it to his horse's discretion to go which way he pleased. In other
cases they went in parties of three or four in quest of adventures. That
they might surprise the enemy they sought for, they changed or disguised
their armorial distinctions. A year and a day was the general term for
enterprises of this nature; and at the conclusion they rendered to their
sovereign mistresses an account of their adventures, and ingenuously
confessed their faults and misfortunes.--But I find myself stepping into
the regions of romance, which are not the province of this work. I return
therefore, to the realities of chivalry, which are no less pleasing than
its fictions.

[Sidenote: Unchivalric to take women prisoners.]

The protection of widows and orphans, and all ladies of virtuous repute,
was indeed the serious duty ever present to the imagination of a preux
chevalier. The praiseworthy soldier was he who chose to fight for dames
and damsels in preference to contending in vain-glorious frays, and with
equal spirit it was thought that death was too slight a punishment for the
man who could offer scathe or dishonour to, or deceive or wrong a gentle
lady. From this generous consideration for woman proceeded the honorable
maxim in chivalry, of its not being just or courteous to take ladies in
war.[252] When a town was captured, the heralds of the conqueror
proclaimed his will, that no violence nor displeasure should be done to
any lady or gentlewoman. In the reign of Edward III. Caen fell into the
hands of the English, and Sir Thomas Holland preserved many ladies,
damsels, and nuns, from outrage worse than death. About the same time the
castle of Poys was taken by the English, and two noble knights (one was
the renowned Sir John Chandos) saved from violation two fair damsels,
daughters of the Lord of Poys. The ladies were conducted into the presence
of Edward, who, for his honor, made them good cheer, and caused them to be
carried in safety to a town friendly to their family.[253] And the
generous feelings of cavaliers for ladies were nobly requited. In the wars
of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, the Emperor Conrad, as an offended
sovereign, had refused all terms of capitulation to the garrison of
Winnisberg; but as a courteous knight, he permitted the women to depart
with such of their precious effects as they themselves could transport.
The gates of the town were thrown open, and a long procession of matrons,
each bearing a husband, or a father, or brother, on her shoulders, passed
in safety through the applauding camp.[254]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Morals of chivalric times.]

Some writers have severely censured the morals of the chivalric æra, and
according to them every species of licentiousness was practised by its
dames and damsels. This opinion is as erroneous as the one which it
superseded, that in the times we speak of every knight was brave, and
every woman was chaste; an assertion bearing more liberality than truth on
its face, considering that it refers to a period of seven or eight
centuries, and that the objects of the panegyric were the largest part of
the European world. For my part, I shall not, like the knight of La
Mancha, challenge to a _joust à l'outrance_ any discourteous cavalier who
has the audacity to declare that Queen Madasima was scandalously familiar
with a barber-surgeon; but I think that our imaginations do not altogether
deceive us in painting the days of chivalry as days of feminine virtue.

If we regard the times in reference only to their baronial and feudal
features, the view is deeply dyed with turpitude, and the romances, whence
the denunciations against the ladies of forepast ages have been drawn, are
not sparing in their pictures of licentiousness. But chivalry was the
golden thread that ran through the middle ages, the corrective of vice,
the personification of virtue. That it did not altogether succeed in
colouring with its brightness the surrounding gloom is sufficiently true,
and the times warranted the assertion of a character in Amadis de Gaul,
that our country yields, as others do, both good and bad. The romances
present us with instances of the profligacy of women, and so they also do
of the baseness of knights: but as no one will contend that chivalry did
not in general inspire its professors with sentiments of honour, so its
virtuous influence cannot in fairness be denied to the maidens of its age.
Let us not, as Spenser says, blame the whole sex for the fault of one.

  "Fair ladies that to love captived are
  And chaste desires do nourish in your mind,
  Let not her fault your sweet affections mar;
  Ne blot the bounty of all womankind,
  'Mongst thousands good, one wanton dame to find:
  Amongst the roses grow some wicked weeds:
  For this was not to love, but lust, inclin'd;
  For love doth always bring forth bounteous deeds,
  And in each gentle heart desire of honour breeds."[255]

The romance writers were satirists, but they had more humour than
malignity. Every one of them introduces a magical test of feminine virtue,
a drinking cup, a mantle or a girdle. This is harmless; and their general
censure of women is without point; for they were for the most part men of
profligate habits, and judged the other sex by the standard of their own
vices.

  "Safe her, I never any woman found
  That chastity did for itself embrace
  But were for other causes firm and sound;
  Either for want of handsome time and place,
  Or else for fear of shame and foul disgrace."[256]

This is the burthen of all their declamations against women; and Spenser
has shewn how little credit he gave to it, for he does not let it proceed
from the mouth of any of his preux chevaliers, but from a wretched
profligate, misnamed the squire of dames.[257]

However highly some enthusiastic minds may have coloured the manners of
the chivalric ages, still it is unquestionable that the love of the knight
was not the mere impulse of passion, but that the feeling was raised and
refined by respect. Now, as nature is ever true to herself, as certain
causes have had certain operations in all ages and in all countries, so
this purity of love must have been followed by a corresponding correctness
of morals. Women had every reason to retain and support the virtues of
their nature; for it was only in behalf of those of fair reputation and
honour, that the knight was compelled by his principles to draw his sword;
all others were without the pale of chivalry; and although many instances
can be found in the romances of feminine indiscretion, yet the princess in
the celebrated romance of Tirante the White accurately describes the
general feeling when she submits to lose all her claims on the noble
chevisance of knights, if she failed in observing a promise of marriage
which she had given to a gallant cavalier that loved her.

The knights, though courteous to the highest polish of refinement, were
rigid and inflexible censors; and in those days as well as in these, each
sex formed the character of the other.[258] The cavalier in travelling
would write on the door of a castle where a dame of tarnished reputation
resided, some sentence of infamy; and on the contrary, he would pause at
the door of a lady of pure honour and salute her courteously. Even on
solemn and public occasions distinctions were made between women in
matters of ceremony. If any lady of sullied fame took precedence of a dame
of bright virtue, a cavalier would advance and reverse the order, saying
to her who was displaced, "Lady, be not offended that this lady precedes
you, for although she is not so rich or well allied as you are, yet her
fame has never been impeached."[259] Here, therefore, chivalry vindicated
its purity, and showed itself as the moral guide of the world. Its
tendencies were beneficent; for Christianity was deeply infused into all
its institutions and principles, and it not only spread abroad order and
grace, but strung the tone of morals to actions of virtue.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Chivalric heroines.]

All ladies were not of the opinion of Amadis de Gaul, that their best
weapons were sighs and tears. What they admired they imitated; and a
high-spirited damsel would, in private, divest herself of her robe, gird
round her a belt, and drawing its sword from the scabbard, fight with the
air till she was wearied. The gallant youths of chivalry called a lady of
this martial temperament--le bel cavalier. Were we to meet in romances
with dames engaged in mortal combat, we should say that the writers had
not faithfully represented the manners of the times; but such facts are
recorded by sober chroniclers. Two ladies decided some fierce disputes by
the sword. Each summoned to her aid a band of cavaliers, and the stoutest
lances of Normandy felt no loss of dignity in being commanded by a woman.
The lady Eloisa and the lady Isabella rode through their respective ranks
with the address of experienced leaders, and their contest, like that of
nations, was only terminated by burning and plundering each other's
states. In the crusades, parties of fair and noble women accompanied the
chivalry of Europe to the Holy Land, charming the seas 'to give them
gentle pass,' and binding up the wounds of husbands and brothers after a
well foughten field with the bold Mussulman. Sometimes they wielded the
flaming brand themselves, and the second crusade in particular was
distinguished by a troop of ladies harnessed in armour of price, and
mounted on goodly steeds. A lady often wore a sword even in times of
peace, and every great landed proprietress sat _gladio cincta_ among the
justices at sessions and assizes.[260] In England, particularly, was this
martial spirit recognised, for in the time of Edward the first a lady held
a manor by sarjeanty to conduct the vanguard of the king's army as often
as he should march into Wales with one; and on its return it was her duty
to array the rear-guard.[261]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Queen Philippa.]

The victory of the English over the Scots at Neville Cross is mainly
attributable to the spirited demeanour of Philippa, wife of Edward the
third. At her father's court in Hainault, she had witnessed war in its
splendid image, the tournament; and now, in a perilous moment, when the
king her husband was far away, and the fate of England was in her hands,
she showed that she was not unworthy of her race or her alliance. She rode
among the battles or divisions of her host, exhorting them to perform
their _devoir_, to defend the honour of her lord the king of England, and
in the name of God she implored every man to bear a good heart and
courage, promising them that she would reward them better than if her lord
the king were personally in the field. She then quitted the ranks,
recommending her soldiers to the protection of God, and of St. George,
that special defender of the realm of England. This exhortation of the
queen nerved the hearts of the English yeomen, and they shot their arrows
so fiercely and so wholly together, that the Scottish battle-axe failed
of its wonted might.[262]

[Sidenote: The countess of March.]

For the heroism of women, the page of Scottish history furnishes a
remarkable instance. In the beginning of the year 1338, William de
Montague, Earl of Salisbury, by command of the Earl of Arundel, the leader
of the army of Edward III., laid siege to the castle of Dunbar, the chief
post which the Scots possessed on the eastern coast of their country. The
castle stood upon a reef of rocks which were almost girdled by the sea,
and such parts of it as could be attacked were fortified with great skill.
The Earl of March, its lord, was absent when Salisbury commenced the
siege, but the defence lacked not his presence. His wife was there, and
while to the vulgar spirits of the time, she was known, from the unwonted
darkness of her eyes and hair, as Black Agnes, the chivalric sons of
Scotland joyfully beheld a leader in the person of the high-spirited
daughter of the illustrious Thomas Ranulph, Earl of Moray. The Countess
of March performed all the duties of a skilful and vigilant commander. She
animated her little band by her exhortations and munificence; she roused
the brave into heroism, and shamed the timid into courage by the firmness
of her bearing. When the warlike engines of the besiegers hurled stones
against the battlements, she, as in scorn, ordered one of her female
attendants to wipe off the dust with a handkerchief, and when the Earl of
Salisbury commanded the enormous machine called the sow, to be advanced to
the foot of the walls, she scoffingly cried out, 'Beware, Montague, thy
sow is about to farrow,' and instantly by her command a huge fragment of
rock was discharged from the battlements, and it dashed the engine to
pieces. Many of the men who were about it were killed, and those who
crawled from the ruin on their hands and knees were deridingly called by
the Scots, Montague's pigs. Foiled in his attempts, he endeavoured to gain
the castle by treachery: he bribed the person who had the care of the
gates to leave them open; but the man, faithful to his duty as well as to
his pecuniary interest, disclosed the whole transaction to the Countess.
Salisbury himself headed the party who were to enter; finding the gates
open, he was advancing, when John Copeland, one of his attendants, hastily
passing before him, the portcullis was let down, and Copeland, mistaken
for his lord, remained a prisoner. The Countess, who from a high tower was
observing the event, cried out to Salisbury with her wonted humour,
'Farewell, Montague; I intended that you should have supped with us, and
assisted in defending this fortress against the English.'

The English turned the siege into a blockade, but still without success.
The gallantry of the Countess was supported by some favourable
circumstances, and finally, in June, the Earl of Salisbury consented to a
cessation of hostilities, and he abandoned the place.[263]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Tale of Jane of Mountfort.]

But the most interesting of all the heroines of chivalry was Jane Countess
of Mountfort, who, as Froissart says, had the courage of a man and the
heart of a lion. She was a worthy descendant of those German women whom
Tacitus describes as mixing with the warriors, administering refreshment,
and exhorting them to valour. About the year 1341, the right to the duchy
of Bretagne was disputed between the Earl of Mountfort and Charles of
Blois. The question turned on certain points of inheritance which the
earl dreaded the court of Paris would decide in favor of his rival, who
was a relation of the French king. He, therefore, sought another alliance,
and repairing to England, he performed homage for the duchy to Edward
III.[264] His next steps were directed to Paris, but his journeys were not
so secretly taken as he expected; for on presenting himself before King
Philip he was charged with having acknowleged the sovereignty of the
English monarch. The earl pretended that his journey to England had only
related to his private affairs, but the king did not credit his story, and
in distrust of his purposes he ordered him to remain in Paris. Mountfort,
equally suspicious of his sovereign's honor, effected his escape from the
city in the guise of a merchant. He went to Brittany, and took his station
in the castle of Nantes. The decision of the court at Paris was adverse to
his claims; and the successful candidate, Charles of Blois, levied an
army, and pursued his former rival, who was taken in his retreat, conveyed
to Paris, and lodged in the Louvre.

To those who did not know the noble spirit of his countess the cause of
the Mountfort family seemed hopeless. She was at Rennes when he was taken
prisoner, and although she had great sorrow in her heart, yet she
valiantly recomforted her friends and soldiers, and showing them her
little son John, she said, 'Sirs, be not too sore abashed of the earl my
lord, whom you have lost, (he was but a man): behold my little child, who
shall be by the grace of God his restorer, and he shall advance you all,
and I have riches enough: you shall not lack; and I trust that I shall
prosper in such wise that you shall be all recomforted.'[265] All her
friends and soldiers vowed to die in her service; and she then went to her
other fortresses and towns, replenishing them with warlike stores and
provisions, and exhibiting her little son to the people, in order to rouse
the allegiance of the friends of her family. She stationed herself in
Hennebon, a town seated near the shores of Brittany.[266]

In the following summer Charles of Blois was aided by the whole puissance
of France in his attempt to make himself complete master of Brittany; but
so able were the dispositions of the countess, that, instead of sweeping
over the whole country as they expected, they were detained before Rennes,
and it was not till after much labour that they won it. The countess, in
the mean while, had sent one of her knights, Sir Amery of Clysson, into
England, desiring royal succour, on condition that the Earl of Mountfort's
son and heir should marry a daughter of the king, who was to be adorned
with the highly splendid title, the Duchess of Brittany. Edward III.,
always anxious to strengthen his power in France, accepted the alliance,
and ordered one of his noblest knights of prowess, Sir Walter Manny, to
join the valiant countess with three thousand archers. Charles of Blois,
after the capture of Rennes, was counselled to lay siege to Hennebon; but
before he reached that town Jane de Mountfort was apprised of his purpose,
and she commanded the watch-bell to be sounded, and every man to be
armed, and standing at his post. When Sir Charles and the Frenchmen came
near the town, they pitched their tents; but many of their gay and
valorous spirits went skirmishing to the barriers. Some of the cavaliers
of Hennebon did not suffer them to brandish their swords in the air; and
it was only the shades of night that separated those preluders of battle.
The next day the Frenchmen spent in council, and it was resolved that a
general assault should be made on the barriers. Accordingly, on the third
morning they fiercely pressed to the outward works of the town, and
continued the assault till noon, when they retired with diminished forces.
The lords of France rallied their soldiers, and urged the assault anew;
but they that were within defended themselves right valiantly. The
countess herself, clad in mail, and mounted on a goodly courser, rode from
street to street, exhorting her people to defend their posts; and if in
the din of battle her woman's voice was sometimes drowned, nothing could
mar her cheering smiles, which lighted the flame of noble chevisance in
every gallant breast. She caused damsels and other women to cut short
their kirtels, and carry stones and pots full of lime to the walls, to be
cast upon the enemy. She then mounted a tower, and espied that the
Frenchman's camp was deserted. Her resolution was immediately taken: she
drew around her three hundred of her best knights, and, grasping a targe
and spear, and mounting again her good steed, she quitted the town by a
gate which the enemy had overlooked. At the head of her gallant troop she
made a short circuit, and then dashed into the Frenchmen's lodgings. When
the assailants, reverting their eyes, saw their tents on fire, and heard
cries of terror from a few boys and varlets in the camp, they quickly
returned to their lodgings to stop the conflagration. The countess and her
noble band could not cope with so vast a force, and her retreat to the
city being cut off, she took the road to the castle of Brest, where she
was received with great joy. For five days the good soldiers of Hennebon
wist not of the fate of their right valiant lady; but on the sixth morning
they saw her golden banners glittering in the rising sun, and a hill in
the distance crowned by a noble troop of five hundred lances, which her
beauty and her just cause had drawn to her side at Brest. With the gay
curvetting pace of gallant cavaliers progressing to a tournament, they
gallantly held on their way to the town, smiling defiance to the martial
front of the French, and entered Hennebon amidst the flourishes of their
own trumpets, and the exulting cries of the people.

But the siege was advanced by the French with such courage, and their
engines so dreadfully injured the walls, that the soldiers of Hennebon
were in time discomfited. All except the countess were anxious to yield
the town upon honourable terms; but she hoped for succour from Edward; and
while her knights and men-at-arms sullenly guarded the walls which fronted
the enemy, a solitary warder paced the ramparts that looked towards
England. One day the members of her council were on the point of
compelling her to submit, when, casting her eyes on the sea, whereon she
had so often gazed in vain, she saw a dark mass rising out of the horizon.
Her smile of fearful joy, before she discovered that it was the English
fleet, excited the attention of her friends. They all rushed to the
window, but her sight was the most piercing, for her heart was the most
deeply anxious, and she was the first to exclaim, "I see the succours of
England coming!" The joyful news quickly spread, the walls of Hennebon
were crowded with the townsfolk, and the English fleet entered the
harbour. When the soldiers landed, she went to them with great reverence,
and feasted them right hospitably. She lodged the knights and others in
the castle and in the town, where she dressed up halls and chambers for
them; and the next day she made them a great feast at dinner. The
exploits of Sir Walter Manny and his archers will be more appropriately
related in another place. The siege of Hennebon was raised, and it is not
unworthy of notice as a trait of manners, that on one occasion of valiancy
on the part of the English, the countess descended from the castle with a
glad cheer, and went and kissed Sir Walter Manny and his companions, one
after another, two or three times, like a valiant lady.[267]

After some time a truce was concluded between Sir Charles of Blois and the
Countess of Mountfort, their aiders and assisters; and the countess, on
the invitation of Edward III., took ship for England, accompanied by the
Earls of Richmond, Pembroke, Salisbury, Suffolk, Oxford, the barons
Stamford, Spenser, Bourchier, and divers other knights of England, and
their companies. When they were off Guernsey they were approached by Sir
Loyes of Spain and his fleet. At first the countess supposed it was with a
friendly purpose, for Sir Loyes, as the ally of Sir Charles of Blois, was
virtually bound by the treaty: but she was soon assured of his
unchivalric purpose. The mariners cried to the knights, "Sirs, arm
yourselves quickly, for these Genoese and Spaniards will soon attack you."
All in a moment the Englishmen sounded their trumpets, and reared their
standards with the great banner of St. George, and marshalled themselves
on the decks of the ships, the archers, as on land, being in front.

  "Looking far forth into the ocean wide,
    A goodly ship with banners bravely dight,
  And flag in her top-gallant I espied,
    Through the main sea making her merry flight;
  Fair blew the wind into her bosom right,
    And the heavens look'd lovely all the while,
  That she did seem to dance as in delight,
    And at her own felicity did smile."[268]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1345.]

And in this gallant trim the English fleet bore down upon the superior
force of their ungenerous foe. The arrows of the one side, and the
cross-bows of the other, did murderous execution; and when the lords,
knights, and squires came together, the battle was so dreadful that it
furnished matter of song to the minstrels of England and France for years
afterwards. The countess that day was worth the bravest knight; she had
the heart of a lion, and, with a sharp glaive in her hand, she fought
fiercely. They contended till it became so dark that one could scarcely
know another. The fleets then separated, the men remaining in their
harness, intending to renew the battle next morning. But at midnight a
tempest arose so horrible that every one thought the end of the world was
approaching; and those very cavaliers who, a few hours before, had
gallantly courted death, would now have abandoned their chivalry and their
cause, if a safe landing could have been effected.[269] The battle was not
renewed the next day; the English fleet sailed to Brittany; the troops
landed near Vannes, which they immediately besieged, the countess being
always foremost in the press. Soon afterwards Edward III. went to France,
in the contest for whose throne the affairs of Brittany were lost, and the
noble Countess of Mountfort disappeared from the scene[270], while her
husband escaped from prison only to die of a fever at Hennebon.[271]

[Sidenote: And of Marzia.]

A few years after this beautiful display of the chivalric character of
woman in France, the gloom of war in Italy was illuminated by a noble
trait of female heroism. Marzia, a lady of the family of the Ubaldini, so
celebrated for its virtue and noble gestes, was the wife of Francesco
d'Ordelaffi, lord of Forli, the only prince in Romagna who maintained his
independence against the tyranny of the papal power. Knowing her firmness
and spirit, he entrusted the defence of the town of Cesena to his wife,
while he himself maintained the more important position of Forli. In the
beginning of the year 1357, Marzia tore herself from her husband, and,
throwing aside the gorgeous robe of peaceful power, donned the casque and
the cuirass. She stationed herself in Cesena with two hundred soldiers,
equipped like knights, and the same number of ordinary troops. She was
accompanied also by her son and daughter, and that sage counsellor of the
Ordelaffi family, Sgariglino de Pétragudula. An army ten times more
numerous than all the defenders of Cesena soon beleaguered the place. At
the end of April some of the terrified burgesses opened the gates of the
lower part of the town to the enemy; but in that moment of peril Marzia
remembered that her husband had declared that, unless the pope would treat
with him on honourable terms, he would sustain a siege in every one of his
castles, and when he had lost them he would defend the walls of Forli, and
then its streets, its squares, his palace, and the last tower of his
palace, rather than give his consent to surrender that which was his own.
Marzia retreated into the upper part of the town with such of the soldiers
and citizens who continued faithful to her. She now discovered that
Sgariglino had been a traitor. Justice then had her due, and the head of
him whom no feelings of honour or gallantry could preserve in the path of
virtue was rolled from the battlements among the besieging army. Marzia
relied entirely on her own wisdom and courage; she took on herself all the
duties of governor and captain, and, wearing her cuirass both by night and
day, she braved all those hardships which, in former moments of happiness
and ease, she would have thought herself incapable of supporting. But the
besiegers smiled with indifference at her courage, for their miners were
slowly and surely effecting her ruin. She was compelled to retreat to the
citadel with four hundred soldiers and citizens, who vowed to be faithful
to death. The miners persevered, and at length the citadel almost hung in
air. The father of Marzia at that moment reached Cesena, and his passage
had been facilitated by the legate. He entreated his heroic daughter to
surrender, as bravery had accomplished its utmost, and still the besiegers
were gradually prevailing. Her reply was simple and firm,--that her
husband had given her a duty to perform, and that she must obey, without
forming any opinion on the nature of his command. Her heroism was not
supported by the people, for they unanimously declared the folly of
further resistance. Compelled, then, to surrender, she herself opened the
negociations; and so skilfully did she act, so much dreaded was the
despair to which she might be tempted, that she obtained from the legate a
treaty, whereby it was agreed that all the soldiers who had bravely
supported her might return home with their arms and equipments. On the
21st of June she opened the gate of the citadel: she disdained to ask any
favour for herself; and the legate, untouched by any chivalric sympathy
for female heroism, cast her and her children into prison.[272]

[Sidenote: Chivalric titles of ladies.]

The honorary titles of ladies in days of chivalry favoured this martial
spirit in women. The wife of a knight was often called equitissa or
militissa, or chevaliére. In France, too, ladies, as ruling over fiefs,
having the right of war, judicature, and coining money, could confer the
honour of knighthood. But in general the feudal law opposed the chivalry
of women, for a woman alone could not hold a fief, it not being supposed
that she could head her vassals or accompany her liege lord into the
field. The instances, therefore, that are scattered over the middle ages
of the brave gestes of women sprang from the spirit of chivalry and not
from any other principle of society. They were always praised, and
joyfully remembered; and when the direction of war was entirely usurped by
men, the world reverted with a melancholy pleasure to the chivalry of
womankind.

  "Where is the antique glory now become,
  That whilome wont in women to appeare?
  Where be the brave atchievements done by some?
  Where be the battles, where the shield and spear,
  And all the conquests which them high did rear,
  That matter made for famous poets verse,
  And boastful men so oft abasht to hear?
  Be they all dead, and laid in doleful hearse?
  Or do they all sleep, and shall again reverse?"[273]

Though 'meek-eyed women' were 'without fear,' yet this martial disposition
was never displayed at the sacrifice of the sex's milder qualities. The
same lady who placed a lance in rest was in her castle gentle and
courteous, dispensing hospitality, tending the sick, or reading romance in
hall and bower. Her heart was as tender as her's who was rocked in
pleasure's wanton lap. Spenser's picture of his martial maid, Britomart,
in love, represents the whole class of chivalric heroines:

  "Thenceforth the feather in her lofty crest,
  Ruffed of love, gan lowly to availe;
  And her proud portance and her princely gest,
  With which she erst triumphed, now did quail,
  Sad, solemn, sour, and full of fancies frail,
  She woxe yet wist she neither how, nor why;
  She wist not, silly maid, what she did ail,
  Yet wist she was not well at ease perdy,
  Yet thought it was not love, but some melancholy."[274]

There were other points in the character of women in days of chivalry
hardly necessary to be noticed as not being peculiar to the times. The
artifices and sleights of some of them would beseem more refined ages. To
repress the presumption of lovers when circumstances did not favour an
avowal of passion, they would reprove the sighs and glances which they
pretended to see interchanged between the young squires and maidens of the
table; but the admirer of the dame sometimes mistook this demeanour for
the sign of a coquettish spirit, and left the lady to lament his
dulness.[275] The spirit of chivalry, which disposed the heart to all
noble feelings, was not universal in its influence, and we accordingly
read of ladies who were deformed by the mood of envy and detraction.

  "Then was the lady of the house
  A proud dame and malicious,
  _Hokerfull, iche mis-segging_[276]
  Squeamous and eke scorning."[277]

[Sidenote: Nobleness of the chivalric character.]

But the subject need not be pursued further; for it is woman, as formed by
chivalric principles, and not as uninfluenced by that noble spirit whose
lineaments it is my purpose to pourtray. That lofty consideration in which
she was held had, as we have seen, a remoter origin than the days of
chivalry, and to that elevation much of her moral dignity may be ascribed.
But chivalry saved her from being altogether oppressed into slavery and
degradation under the tyranny of feudalism. That odious system endeavoured
to bring under its sway even the very affections of the heart; for not
only no woman of rank and estate could marry without the consent of her
sovereign, but in some countries she was obliged to accept a husband at
his nomination, unless for a large pecuniary payment he restored her to
the privileges of her sex. By preserving woman in her noble state of moral
dignity, chivalry prevented the harsh exercise of feudal rights. A
sovereign who prided himself on his knighthood could never offend the
inclinations of one of that sex which by his principles he was bound to
protect and cherish. Chivalry hung out the heart-stirring hope that beauty
was the reward of bravery. A valiant, but landless knight was often hailed
by the whole martial fraternity of his country as worthy the hand of a
noble heiress, and the king could not in every case bestow her on some
minion of his court. Woman was sustained in her proud elevation by the
virtues which chivalry required of her; and man paid homage to her mind as
well as to her beauty. She was not the mere subject of pleasure, taken up
or thrown aside as passion or caprice suggested, but being the fountain of
honour, her image was always blended with the fairest visions of his
fancy, and the respectful consideration which she, therefore, met with,
showed she was not an unworthy awarder of fame. Fixed by the gallant
warriors of chivalry in a nobler station than that which had been assigned
to her by the polite nations of antiquity, all the graceful qualities of
her nature blossomed into beauty, and the chastening influence of feminine
gentleness and tenderness was, for the first time in his history,
experienced by man.




CHAP. VI.

TOURNAMENTS AND JOUSTS.

    _Beauty of Chivalric Sports ... Their Superiority to those of Greece
    and Rome ... Origin of Tournaments ... Reasons for holding them ...
    Practice in Arms ... Courtesy ... By whom they were held ...
    Qualifications for Tourneying ... Ceremonies of the Tournament ...
    Arrival of the Knights ... Publication of their Names ... Reasons for
    it ... Disguised Knights ... The Lists ... Ladies the Judges of the
    Tournament ... Delicate Courtesy at Tournaments ... Morning of the
    Sports ... Knights led by Ladies, who imitated the Dress of Knights
    ... Nature of tourneying Weapons ... Knights wore Ladies' Favours ...
    The Preparation ... The Encounter ... What Lance Strokes won the Prize
    ... Conclusion of the Sports ... The Festival ... Delivery of the
    Prize ... Knights thanked by Ladies ... The Ball ... Liberality ...
    Tournaments opposed by the Popes ... The Opposition unjust ... The
    Joust ... Description of the Joust to the Utterance ... Joust between
    a Scotch and an English Knight ... Jousting for Love of the Ladies ...
    A singular Instance of it ... Joust between a French and an English
    Squire ... Admirable Skill of Jousters ... Singular Questions
    regarding Jousts ... An Earl of Warwick ... Celebrated Joust at St.
    Inglebertes' ... Joust between Lord Scales and the Bastard of
    Burgundy ... The Romance of Jousts ... The Passage of Arms ... Use of
    Tournaments and Jousts._


[Sidenote: Beauty of chivalric sports.]

[Sidenote: Superiority to those of Greece and Rome.]

All our most delightful imaginings of chivalry are associated with the
tournament. We see in fancy's mirror the gay and graceful knight
displaying on his plumed steed the nobleness of his bearing, and the lady
of his affections smiling upon his gallant skill, while the admiring
people in rude and hearty joy shout their loud acclaims. Those who were
illustrious for ancestral or newly acquired renown met in the listed
plain. The fierceness of war was mellowed into elegance, and even
feudalism abated something of its sternness, when called on to perform
tendance on the ladies and damsels who graced the scene. Baronial pomp,
knightly gallantry, woman's beauty, gay caparisons, rich attire, and
feudal pageantry, throng the mind in wild and splendid confusion, when we
hear the herald's trumpet-clang summoning the knights to achievement. It
was in the tournament especially that the chivalric nations of Europe
asserted their superior claims to gracefulness and humanity; for though
the Greeks might vaunt their Olympic games, yet in them woman's favour did
not bestow the garland, and though matrons mingled with senators in the
Coliseum, and a virgin gave the signal for the commencement of the sports,
yet the tortures and death of their fellow-creatures constituted the
amusement.

[Sidenote: Origin of tournaments.]

Our ancestors were so proud of the Trojan descent which their historians
deduced for them, that they even regarded the games which Æneas celebrated
to the honour of his dead father, Anchises, as the origin of their own
knightly joust and tournament. But in those games there was no encounter
of two lances as in the joust, and no courteous battle between two parties
of warriors, as was the case in the tournament. This learned enthusiasm
was needless and absurd; for the knights might have discovered in the
nature and tendency of circumstances, and in the practice of their known
and immediate forefathers, sufficient matter of originality. The Romans
were wont to exercise themselves in mock combats, and so were the
Goths[278]; but it would be difficult to prove any chain of connection
between these people. War was an art in the middle ages, and a long and
painful education preceded the practice of it. It was the delight as well
as the occupation of the world; for fame[279], fortune, and woman's
love[280], could only be obtained by gallant bearing. Hence we find that
thoughts of war were not abandoned in times of peace, and that some
softened images of battle formed the grace of festive solemnities.

[Sidenote: Reasons for holding them.]

[Sidenote: Practice in arms.]

[Sidenote: Courtesy.]

The martial spirit of the world was nourished by such customs, for kings
were always eager to hold tourneys for the better training up of soldiers
in feats of arms.[281] It was the beneficial nature of tournaments to shed
the amenities and courtesies of peace over the horrid front of war. Thus
there were rules for conducting these images of battle which no knight
could violate without forfeiting his title to chivalry. The display of
address, with as little danger as possible to life and limb, was the chief
character of these encounters, and skill, therefore, in real war, became
more esteemed than brute violence. To profit by the mischance of an
adversary would, in the tournament, have been considered unknightly; and
it followed that even in the most deadly encounters of nations no cavalier
would avail himself of any accident happening to his foe.

[Sidenote: By whom they were held.]

Military exercises, when performed by two parties of cavaliers with
hurtless weapons, were called tournaments. If the occasion were high and
solemn, heralds repaired to different courts, announcing their sovereign's
purpose of holding martial exercises at a particular time, and inviting
all those who valued their knighthood, and respected dames and maidens, to
repair to the appointed city, and prove their chivalry.[282]

In Germany matters were somewhat different, and should be stated. Except
in Saxony (which had its own tournaments), the Germans who were entitled
to appear in the tourneying lists were divided into four companies;
namely, that of the Rhine--of Bavaria--of Swabia--and of Franconia. The
assembled cavaliers were called the chivalry of the four countries. Each
country by rotation held the tournament, and chose its leader or judge of
the sports, who appointed three ladies to give the arms to the knights,
and three others to distribute the prizes. It was usual for one of the
ladies to be a wife, another a widow, and the third a maiden.[283]

[Sidenote: Qualifications for tourneying.]

Originally, in most countries, no person could tourney unless he proved
himself to be maternally a knight of gentle birth, by four descents, and
displayed a legitimate coat-armour. But this regulation was every where
relaxed in favour of hardy knights who could not boast of ancestral
honours.[284] In early times, knights, whether bannerets or bachelors,
contended in the listed plain; but, subsequently, the squire (both the
follower of the knight and the soldier of the third class of chivalry) was
permitted to joust or tourney with knights.

Safe-conduct through hostile lands was always allowed to those who wished
to tourney; and the silence and solitude of the country in those dark
times were pleasingly relieved by bands of jolly and amorous cavaliers,
with trains of squires and pages, riding apace to court to the tune of a
merry roundelay. It was particularly the custom of newly-made knights to
attend a tournament in order to show that they deserved their spurs, and
to establish their prowess.[285]

Nor did simple knights alone thus progress to the tournament. Kings and
princes pricked over the plain in gallant and graceful array; for though
their rank excused them from performing many knightly observances, yet
their chivalric spirit disdained the pride of their station, and their
souls were inflamed with the noble desire of illustrating their royalty by
deeds of high knighthood.

[Sidenote: Ceremonies of the tournament.]

[Sidenote: Arrival of the knights.]

[Sidenote: Publication of their names.]

[Sidenote: Reasons for it.]

The knights were wont to arrive, at the respective hostels or tents
assigned them by the kings-at-arms and the heralds somewhile before the
day of tournament; and they affixed their armorial ensigns over the
entrances, and raised their banners and pennons in front of their parades.
The tourneying knights were known by their heraldry, and this publication
of their names was made for a very noble purpose. If any one of them had
been guilty of unchivalric deportment, the matter might be proved before
the ladies or other judges of the tournament, and they would strike down
his banner. None could tourney who had blasphemed God, or offended the
ladies: he who had been false to gratitude and honour; he who had violated
his word, or deserted his brother in arms in battle, was unworthy of
appearing at the splendid show; and the high courtesy of chivalry was
maintained by the law, that no one could tourney who had without warning
assailed his enemy, or by indirect means had despoiled his territory.[286]

[Sidenote: Disguised knights.]

These rules, however, were not always observed; for cavaliers were often
permitted to partake of chivalric sports, though they declined to name
themselves to the heralds. If they were novices in arms, and not very
confident in their prowess, they would conceal their names till they had
won renown; and if the chance of the game were against them, the
spectators knew not who had failed to acquire honour. The baron who held
the tournament might be the enemy of a gallant knight, who, from prudence,
would not wish to make himself known, unless he could appear with the bold
front of a conqueror. Sometimes the persons of the knights were not
concealed by common armour, but by the guise which fancy had thrown over
the fabled knights of yore. A troop of cavaliers calling themselves King
Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table often dashed into the lists; and
their trumpet's defiance was answered by that of another band meeting them
at speed from the other end, and calling themselves Charlemagne and his
Paladins. This was a beautiful mode of realising the romances of chivalry.
Other disguises were not equally praiseworthy; and I can only state as an
historical fact, without attempting to apologise for its madness and
impiety, that at a tournament held at Valladolid in the year 1428, the
King of Castille was accompanied by twelve knights, who personated the
twelve Apostles.[287]

[Sidenote: The lists.]

The place of combat was the lists, a large space surrounded by ropes or
railing in single or double rows. Sometimes there was a wooden division in
the lists or area to prevent the horses of the adverse knights from
careening against each other.[288] The lists were decorated with the
splendid richness of feudal power. Besides the gorgeous array of heraldic
insignia near the champions' tents, the galleries, which were made to
contain the proud and joyous spectators, were covered with tapestry,
representing chivalry both in its warlike and amorous guise: on one side
the knight with his bright faulchion smiting away hosts of foes, and on
the other kneeling at the feet of beauty.

[Sidenote: Ladies were the judges of tournaments.]

The ladies were the supreme judges of tournaments; and if any complaint
was raised against a knight, they adjudged the cause without appeal.[289]
Generally, however, they deputed their power to a knight, who, on account
of this distinction, was called the _Knight of Honour_. He bore at the end
of his lance a ribbon or some other sign of woman's favour; and with this
badge of power he waved the fiercest knights into order and obedience.

The heralds read to the knights the regulations of the sport, and
announced the nature of the prize they were to contend for. The dames and
maidens sometimes proposed jewels of price, a diamond, a ruby, and a
sapphire, as rewards of valour. But the meed of renown was often more
military; and the reader of Italian history remembers that at a tournament
celebrated at Florence in the year 1468, Lorenzo de' Medici bore away the
prize of a helmet of silver with a figure of Mars as the crest. It was
the general wont of tournaments for a vanquished knight to forfeit his
armour and horse to his victor.

[Sidenote: Delicate courtesy at tournaments.]

Nothing was more beautiful than the courtesy of chivalric times. At a
martial game held in Smithfield, during the reign of Richard II., the
Queen proposed a crown of gold as the reward of the best jouster, were he
a stranger; but if an English knight had the praise, then a rich bracelet
was to be his reward. The same polite preference of strangers influenced
the chivalry of England, and they promised to give to the lord of best
desert, if he were a foreign knight, a fair horse, with his trappings; but
if he were one of their own land, then only a falcon should reward him.

[Sidenote: Morning of the sports.]

On the morning of the tournament,

            "When the day 'gan spring,
  Of horse and harneis, noise and clattering,
  Ther was in the hostelries all about."[290]

[Sidenote: Knights led by ladies,]

The knights then trooped to the listed plain, with lords, ladies, and
damsels, the chivalry and beauty of the country, mounted on
gaily-caparisoned steeds and palfreys, whose housings swept the ground.
Sometimes a lady fair led the horse of her chosen knight, and in the song
of the minstrel the bridle became a golden chain of love. At the day
appointed for a merry tournament, in the reign of Richard II., there
issued out of the Tower of London, first, three-score coursers, apparelled
for the lists, and on every one a squire of honour riding a soft pace.
Then appeared three-score ladies of honour, mounted on fair palfreys, each
lady leading by a chain of silver a knight sheathed in jousting harness.
The fair and gallant troop, with the sound of clarions, trumpets, and
other minstrelsy, rode along the streets of London[291], the fronts of the
houses shining with martial glory in the rich banners and tapestries which
hung from the windows. They reached Smithfield[292], where the Queen of
England and many matrons and damsels were already seated in richly
adorned galleries. The ladies that led the knights joined them; the
squires of honour alighted from their coursers, and the knights in good
order vaulted upon them.

[Sidenote: who imitated the dress of knights.]

This mode of conducting knights to the tournament was not the only
pleasing prelude of the sports. As it was in perfect harmony with the
general tone of chivalric feeling for knights to array themselves in
weeds, which woman's taste had chosen or approved of, so dames and
maidens, with equal courtesy, imitated in their attire the semblance of
knights. They often rode to the tournament with their girdles ornamented
with gold and silver, to resemble military belts, and, sportively,
wielding short and light swords, embossed with emblems of love and war.

[Sidenote: Nature of tourneying weapons.]

When the knights reached the lists, their arms were examined by the
constable; and such as were of a frame and fabric contrary to good
chivalry were rejected. The lances were hurtless, the points being either
removed altogether, or covered with broad pieces of wood, called
_rockets_. The gallant manners of the age gave such lances the title of
_Glaives Courtois_. The swords were blunted and rebated. Instances are on
record of knights encountering with swords made of whalebone, covered with
parchment, the helmet and hauberk being made of leather.

There existed very often, however, a disposition to convert tournaments
into real battles. National rivalry broke through the restraints of
knightly gentleness; envy of martial prowess, or of woman's love, had
found an occasion of venting its passion; and, in spite of the authority
of the king-at-arms and heralds to reject weapons of violence, bribery and
power appear often to have introduced them. As the nature of offensive
armour may be judged from the defensive harness, so in the laws of a
country we may read the state of manners. The practice of converting the
elegant tournament into a deadly fray occasioned an oath to be imposed on
all knights that they would frequent tournaments solely to learn military
exercises[293]; and, by a law of England made towards the close of the
thirteenth century, a broad-sword for tourneying was the only weapon that
was allowed to the knight and squire; and there was a stern prohibition of
a sword pointed, a dagger pointed, or a staff or mace. Knights banneret
and barons might be armed with mufflers, and cuishes, and shoulder-plates,
and a scull-cap, without more. Spectators were forbidden from wearing any
armour at all, and the king-at-arms and heralds, and the minstrels, were
allowed to carry only their accustomed swords without points.

[Sidenote: Knights wore ladies' favors.]

The tilting armour in which knights were sheathed was generally of a light
fabric, and splendid. Its ornaments came under a gentler authority than
that of royal constables and marshals. If the iron front of a line of
cavaliers in the battle-field was frequently gemmed with the variously
coloured signs of ladies' favors, those graceful additions to armour yet
more beseemed the tournament. Damsels were wont to surmount the helmets of
their knights with chaplets, or to affix streamers to their spears[294],
and a cavalier who was thus honoured smiled with self-complacency on the
highly emblazoned surcoat of his rival in chivalry.

The desire to please ladies fair formed the very soul of the
tournament.[295] Every young and gallant knight wore the device of his
mistress, while, indeed, the hardier sons of chivalry carried fiercer
signs of their own achievements: but they were unmarked by the bright
judges of the tourney, for their eyes could only follow through the press
their own emblems of love.

Nothing was now to be heard but the noise and clattering of horse and
armour.

  "Ther mayst thou see devising of harneis
  So uncouth[296], and so rich, and wrought so wele
  Of goldsmithey, of brouding[297], and of stele,
  The sheldes bright, testeres[298], and trappures;
  Gold hewn helms, hauberks, cote-armures;
  Lords in paramentes[299], on hir courseres,
  Knights of retinue, and eke squires,
  Nailing the speres, and helmes buckling,
  Gniding[300] of sheldes, with lainers[301] lacing;
  Ther as need is they were nothing idle:
  The fomy steeds on the golden bridle
  Gnawing, and fast the armourers also
  With file and hammer pricking to and fro;
  Yeomen on foot, and communes many on,
  With short staves, thick as they may gone;
  Pipes, trompes, nakeres[302], and clariounes,
  That in the bataile blowen blody sounes."[303]

[Sidenote: The preparation.]

After the arms had been examined, "_à l'ostelle, à l'ostelle_, to
achievement knights and squires to achievement," was cried by the
well-voiced heralds from side to side, and the cavaliers, making their
obeisances to the ladies, retired within their tents to don their harness.
At the cry, "Come forth, knights, come forth," they left their pavilions,
and mounting their good steeds, stationed themselves by the side of their
banners. The officers-at-arms then examined their saddles; for though they
might grow unto their seats, yet it could only lawfully be done by noble
horsemanship, and not by thongs attaching the man and horse together.[304]

[Sidenote: The encounter.]

The ladies and gallant spectators being fairly ranged round the lists, and
the crowds of plebeian gazers being disciplined into silence and order,
the heralds watched the gestures of the knight of honour, and, catching
his sign that the sports might begin, they cried, "_Laissez aller_." The
cords which divided the two parties were immediately slackened, and the
cavaliers dressing their spears to their rests, and commending themselves
to their mistresses, dashed to the encounter, while the trumpets sounded
the beautiful point of chivalry, for every man to do his devoir.[305]

Each knight was followed by his squires, whose number was, in England, by
the ancient statute of tournaments already alluded to, limited to three.
They furnished their lord with arms, arranged his harness, and raised him
from the ground, if his foe had dismounted him. These squires performed
also the more pleasing task of being pages of dames and damsels. They
carried words of love to re-animate the courage and strength of the
exhausted cavalier, and a ribbon drawn from a maiden's bosom was often
sent to her chosen knight, when in the shock of spears her first favour
had been torn from the place where her fair hand had fixed it.[306]

The chivalric bands were so well poised, that one encounter seldom
terminated the sport. Lances were broken, horses and knights overthrown,
and the tide of victory flowed to either end of the lists. The air was
rent with names of ladies. War-cries were changed for gentler invocations.
Each noble knight called upon his mistress to assist him, thinking that
there was a magic in beauty to sustain his strength and courage. "On,
valiant knights, fair eyes behold you!" was the spirit-stirring cry of
those older warriors who could now only gaze at and direct the amusements
of chivalry. The poursuivants-at-arms cried at every noble achievement,
"Honor to the sons of the brave!"[307] The minstrels echoed it in the
loudest notes of their martial music, and the chivalric spectators replied
by the cry, "Loyauté aux dames!"

[Sidenote: What lance-strokes won the prize.]

The keen and well-practised eyes of the heralds noted the circumstances of
the contest. To break a spear between the saddle and the helmet was
accounted one point or degree of honour. The higher on the body the lance
was attainted or broken, the greater was the consideration; and the
difficulty of breaking it on the helmet was regarded as so considerable,
that the knight who performed this feat was thought to be worthy of ten
points. Either to strike one of the opposite party out of his saddle, or
to disable him so that he could not join the next course, was an
achievement that merited three points. A curious question once arose at a
tournament held in Naples. A knight struck his antagonist with such
violence as to disarm him of his shield, cuirass, and helmet, and in turn,
he was unhorsed. The judges had some difficulty in determining who merited
least reproach; and it was at length decided, quite in consonance with
chivalric principles, that he who fell from his horse was most
dishonoured, for good horsemanship was the first quality of a knight.
Hence it was thought less dishonourable for a tourneying cavalier to fall
with his horse than to fall alone. He who carried his lance comelily and
firmly was more worthy of praise, although he broke not, than he who
misgoverned his horse, and broke. He who ran high and sat steadily,
accompanying his horse evenly and gently, was worthy of all commendation.
To take away the rest of his adversary's lance merited more honour than to
carry away any other part of his harness. To break his lance against the
bow or pommel of the saddle was accounted greater shame than to bear a
lance without breaking. It was equally dishonourable to break a lance
traverse, or across the breast of an opponent, without striking him with
the point; for as it could only occur from the horse swerving on one
side, it showed unskilful riding.[308] The courtesies of chivalry were
maintained by the laws that he who struck a horse, or a man, when his back
was turned, or when he was unarmed, deserved no honor. Any combatant might
unhelm himself, and until his helmet was replaced, none could assail
him.[309]

[Sidenote: Conclusion of the sports.]

[Sidenote: The festival.]

[Sidenote: Delivery of the prize.]

[Sidenote: Knights thanked by ladies.]

When all the knights had proved their valiancy, the lord of the tournament
dropped his warder[310], or otherwise signed to the heralds, who cried
"_Ployer vos bannieres_." The banners were accordingly folded, and the
amusements ended. The fair and noble spectators then descended from their
galleries, and repaired to the place of festival. The knights who had
tourneyed clad themselves in gay weeds of peace, and entering the hall
amidst long and high flourishes of trumpets, sat under the silken banners
whose emblazonings recorded the antique glory of their families. Favourite
falcons were seated on perches above their heads, and the old and
faithful dogs of the chace were allowed to be present at this joyous
celebration of their master's honor. Sometimes the knights encircled, in
generous equality, a round table. On other occasions the feudal long table
with its dais, or raised upper end, was used; and to the bravest knights
were allotted the seats which were wont to belong to proud and powerful
barons.[311] Every preux cavalier had by his side a lady bright. The
minstrels tuned their harps to the praise of courtesy and prowess; and
when the merriment was most joyous, the heralds[312] presented to the
ladies the knights who had worthily demeaned themselves.[313] She, who by
the consent of her fair companions was called _La Royne de la Beaulté et
des Amours_, delivered the prizes to the kneeling knights.[314] This queen
of beauty and love addressed each of them with a speech of courtesy,
thanking him for the disport and labour which he had taken that day,
presenting to him the prize as the ladies' award for his skill, and
concluding with the wish that such a valorous cavalier would have much joy
and worship with his lady.[315] "The victory was entirely owing to the
favor of my mistress, which I wore in my helmet," was the gallant reply of
the knight; for he was always solicitous to exalt the honor of his
lady-love. As tournaments were scenes of pleasure, the knight who appeared
in the most handsome guise was praised; and, to complete the courtesies of
chivalry, thanks were rendered to those who had travelled to the lists
from far countries.[316]

[Sidenote: The ball.]

[Sidenote: Liberality.]

Dancing then succeeded, the knights taking precedence agreeably to their
feats of arms in the morning. And now, when every one's heart was exalted
by the rich glow of chivalry, the heralds called for their rewards.
Liberality was a virtue of every true knight, and the officers-at-arms
were more particular in tracing the lines of his pedigree, than in
checking him from overleaping the bounds of a prudent and rational
generosity.

One day's amusement did not always close the tournament: but on the second
morning the knights resigned the lists to their esquires, who mounted upon
the horses, and wore the armour and cognisances of their lords. They also
were conducted by young maidens, who possessed authority to adjudge and
give the prize to the worthiest esquire. At the close of the day the
festival was renewed, and the honours were awarded. On the third morning
there was a mêlée of knights and esquires in the lists, and the judgment
of the ladies was again referred to, and considered decisive.[317]

[Sidenote: Tournaments opposed by the popes.]

[Sidenote: The opposition was unjust.]

Such were the general circumstances and laws of tournaments during the
days of chivalry. These warlike exercises even survived their chief
purpose, for they formed the delight of nations[318] after the use of
artillery had driven the graceful and personal prowess of chivalry from
the battle-field.[319] In all the time of their existence they were
powerfully opposed by the papal see, avowedly on the ground of humanity.
There was some little excuse for this interference; for though the lances
were headless, and the swords rebated, yet the shock of the career
sometimes overthrew men and horses, and bruises were as deadly as the
lances' wounds. The historians of the middle ages, who generally echoed
the wishes of the Vatican, carefully record every instance where a life
was lost in a tournament; and, perhaps, a dozen such unfortunate events
are mentioned by the chroniclers of all European nations during the
fourteenth century: a number exceedingly small when we reflect upon the
nature of the conflict; that the time now spoken of was the very noonday
of chivalry; and that not a circumstance of public joy, not a marriage
among the nobles and high gentry of the land, but was celebrated by a
tournament. The Vatican might thunder its denial of Christian sepulture to
those who fell in a tilting ground; but still the knights would don their
gorgeous harness to win the meed of noble chevisance. While learned
casuists were declaring from the pulpits that they who were killed at
tournaments were most assuredly damned[320], heralds' trumpets in every
baronial court were summoning knights and squires to gentle exercise and
proof of arms; and though fanatical monks might imagine visions where
knights were perishing in hell flames[321], yet gallant cavaliers, warm
and joyous with aspirations for fame and woman's love, could not be scared
by such idle phantasms.

It was not, however, from any sincere considerations for humanity that the
popes opposed themselves to the graceful exercises of the age; for, at the
celebrated council held at Lyons in 1245, it was openly and for the first
time declared, that tournaments were iniquitous, because they prevented
the chivalry of Europe from joining the holy wars in Palestine. The shores
of Syria might drink torrents of Christian blood, and the popes would
bless the soil; but if in the course of several centuries a few
unfortunate accidents happened in the lists of peace and courtesy, all the
graceful amusements of Europe were to be interdicted, and the world was to
be plunged into the state of barbarism from which chivalry had redeemed
it. Tournaments were also interdicted on account of their expensiveness.
Wealth poured forth its treasures, and art exercised its ingenuity in
apparelling the barons, knights, and ladies; and even the housings of the
horses were so rich as to rival the caparisons of Asiatic steeds: but the
popes could see no advantage to the social state in all this gay and
prodigal magnificence, and they wished that all the treasures of the West
should be poured into the Holy Land.[322]

[Sidenote: The joust.]

The joust was the other chief description of military exercises. It was so
far inferior to the tournament, that he who had tourneyed, and had given
largess to the heralds, might joust without further cost; but the joust
did not give freedom to the tournament, nor was it the most favourite
amusement, for baronial pomp was not necessary to its display, and many a
joust was held without a store of ladies bright distributing the prize.
There were two sorts of jousts, the _joute à l'outrance_, or the joust to
the utterance, and the _joute à plaisance_, or joust of peace.

[Sidenote: Description of the joust to the utterance.]

And, first, of the serious joust. The joust to the utterance expressed a
single combat between two knights, who were generally of different
nations. In strictness of speech, the judicial combat was a joust _à
l'outrance_, and so was every duel, whether lawful or unlawful; but with
such jousts chivalry has no concern.[323]

[Sidenote: Joust between a Scotch and English knight.]

In a time of peace, during the year 1398, there were sundry jousts and
combats between Scots and Englishmen, for proof of their valiant activity
in feats of arms, and to win fame and honour. The most remarkable
encounter was that which took place between Sir David de Lindsay, first
Earl of Crawford, and the Lord Wells, in the presence of Richard II. and
his court. They agreed[324] to run certain courses on horseback, with
spears sharply ground, for life or death. The place appointed for these
jousts was London bridge; the day was the feast of St. George. The doughty
knights appeared sheathed in armour of proof, and mounted on mighty
war-horses. They ran together with all the fierceness of mortal hate; and
though they attainted, yet both kept their saddles. Lord Crawford retained
his seat with such remarkable firmness that the people cried out that
assuredly he was locked in his saddle. Incontinently that right noble
knight leaped from his steed, and again, armed as he was, vaulted on his
back, and amazed the beholders by his perfect horsemanship. The battle was
renewed on foot; the skill of the Scotsman prevailed, and the life of the
Lord Wells was in his power. De Lindsay now displayed the grace and
courtesy of his chivalry, for he raised his foe from the ground, and
presented him as a gift to the queen, wishing, like a true knight, that
mercy should proceed from woman. The queen thanked the valiant and
courteous Scot, and then gave liberty to the Lord Wells.[325]

[Sidenote: Jousting for love of the ladies.]

Woman's love was as frequent a cause for a joust to the utterance as
national rivalry. Many a knight would sally from a besieged town during a
suspension of general hostilities, and demand whether there was any
cavalier of the opposite host who, for love of his lady bright, would do
any deed of arms. "Now let us see if there be any amorous among you[326],"
was the usual conclusion of such a challenger, as he reined in his fiery
steed, and laid his spear in its rest. Such an invitation was generally
accepted; but if it passed unheeded, he was permitted to return to the
gates of his town; for it would not have been thought chivalric to
surround and capture a cavalier who offered to peril himself in so noble a
manner.

[Sidenote: A singular instance of it.]

Two parties of French and English met by adventure near Cherbourg, and,
like valiant knights, each desired to fight with the other. They all
alighted, except Sir Launcelot of Lorrys, who sat firm and erect upon his
horse, his spear in his hand, and his shield hanging from his neck. He
demanded a course of jousting for his lady's sake. There were many present
who right well understood him; for there were knights and squires of the
English part in love as well as he was. All was bustle, and every man ran
to his horse, anxious to prove his gallantry against the noble Frenchman.
Sir John Copeland was the first who advanced from the press, and in a
moment his well-pointed ashen lance pierced through the side of Lorrys,
and wounded him to death. Every one lamented his fate, for he was a hardy
knight, young, jolly, and right amorous[327]; and the death of a gallant
cavalier was always lamented by his brethren in arms; for the good
companionship of chivalry was superior to national distinctions.

[Sidenote: Joust between a French and an English squire.]

This noble feeling of knighthood was very pleasingly displayed in a
circumstance that happened in France, during the year 1380. The Duke of
Brittany profited by the weakness and confusion consequent on the death of
King John, and easily made his peace with the court of the new monarch.
The Duke of Buckingham, uncle of Richard II. of England, had been acting
as the ally of the Duke of Brittany; but now, as the war was over, he
prepared to conduct most of his army home. He had been joined by some
knights from Cherbourg, then an English town, and in the new martial
arrangements it was agreed that they should return to their garrison; but
they were not allowed to wear their harness during their march. The
Constable of France, who was then at the castle of Josselyn, gave them
safe-conduct. After embracing their good companions at Vannes, they
mounted their palfreys, and commenced their course. An hour's riding
brought them to Josselyn, and they rested awhile in the town, without the
castle, intending merely to dine there, and then depart. While they were
at their lodging, certain companions of the castle, knights and squires,
came to see them, as was the wont of men of war, and particularly
Englishmen and Frenchmen.

A French squire, named John Boucmell, discovered among the stranger band a
squire called Nicholas Clifford, with whom, on former occasions, he had
often exchanged looks and words of defiance. Thinking that a very fair
opportunity for chevisance had presented itself, he exclaimed, "Nicholas,
divers times we have wished and devised to do deeds of arms together, and
now we have found each other in place and time where we may accomplish it.
Let us now, in presence of the Constable of France, and other lords, have
three courses on foot with sharp spears, each of us against the other."

Nicholas replied, "John, you know right well that we are now going on our
way by the safe-conduct of my lord your constable. What you require of me,
therefore, cannot now be done, for I am not the chief of this
safe-conduct, for I am but under those other knights who are here. I would
willingly abide, but they will not."

The French squire replied, "You shall not excuse yourself by this means:
let your company depart, if they list, for I promise you, by covenant,
that when the arms are performed between you and me, I will bring you to
Cherbourg without peril. Make you no doubt of that."

Nicholas answered, that he did not mean to gainsay his courtesy, but that
he could not fight, as he and the rest of the English were journeying
without their armour.

This objection was readily answered by the Frenchman, who proffered his
own stores of harness; and Nicholas, though exceedingly indisposed to a
joust, was obliged to say, that if the lords whom he accompanied would not
permit the encounter there, he promised him, as soon as he arrived at
Cherbourg, and was apprised of John's arrival at Boulogne, he would come
to him, and deliver him of his challenge.

"Nay, nay," quoth John, "seek no respite: I have offered, and continue to
offer, so many things so honourable, that you cannot depart and preserve
your good name, without doing deeds of arms with me."

The Frenchmen then retired to the castle, leaving the Englishmen to dine
in their lodging.

After dinner the travelling knights repaired to the castle, to require
from the Constable a troop of cavaliers to conduct them through Brittany
and Normandy to Cherbourg. The subject of the challenge had been much
discussed by the Frenchmen, and as the execution of it appeared to be
within their own power, they earnestly requested their leader to forbid
the further journey of the Englishmen, while the deed of arms remained
unaccomplished. The Constable received the strangers sweetly, and then,
softening the harshness of his words by the chivalric courtesy of his
manner, he said to them, "Sirs, I arrest you all, so that ye shall not
depart this day; and to-morrow, after mass, you shall see deeds of arms
done between our squire and yours; and you shall dine with me, and after
dinner you shall depart with your guides to Cherbourg."

The English were right glad to be summoned to a chivalric sport, and,
after drinking of the Constable's wine, they took their leave, and
returned to their lodging.

On the next morning each squire heard mass, and was confessed. They then
leapt on their horses, and, with the lords of France on one part, and the
Englishmen on the other, they rode all together to a fair plain, near the
castle of Josselyn.

John Boucmell had prepared, according to his promise, two suits of
harness, fair and good, and offered the choice to Nicholas; but the
Englishman not only waved his choice, but, with still further courtesy,
assisted John to arm. The Frenchman, in return, helped him to don the
other suit of harness.

When they were armed they took their spears, and advanced against each
other on foot, from the opposite ends of the lists. On approaching they
couched their spears, and the weapon of Nicholas struck John on the
breast, and, sliding under the gorget of mail, it entered his throat. The
spear broke, and the iron truncheon remained in the neck. The English
squire passed onwards, and sat down in his chair. The Frenchman appeared
transfixed to the spot, and his companions advanced to him in alarm. They
took off his helmet, and, drawing out the truncheon, the poor squire fell
down dead. Grief at this event was general, but the saddest and sincerest
mourners were Nicholas and the Earl of March, the former for having slain
a valiant man of arms, and the other because John Boucmell had been his
squire. The Constable spoke all the words of comfort to his noble friend
which his kindness could prompt, and then made the knightly spectators
repair to the castle, in whose hospitable hall every disposition to
jealousy and revenge was discarded. After dinner the English troop bade
farewell to the noble Constable, and, under the conduct of the gentle
knight, the Barrois of Barres, they resumed their course to
Cherbourg.[328]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Jousts of peace.]

I come now to describe the joust _à plaisance_. Jousts of this friendly
description often took place at the conclusion of a tournament; for a
knight who had shown himself worthy of the tourneying prize caracoled his
prancing steed about the lists; and, animated by the applauding smiles of
dames and damsels, he called on the surrounding cavaliers by their
valiancy, and for love of the ladies, to encounter him in three strokes
with the lance.

[Sidenote: Skill of jousters.]

More frequently jousts were held at places appointed expressly for the
occasion. When they were jousts of peace, the mode of combat was always
specifically described. A knight would often challenge another for love of
his lady to joust three courses with a spear, three strokes with a sword,
three with a dagger, and three with an axe.[329] It was the rule for
knights to strike at each other only on the body, or within the four
quarters, as the times phrased their meaning. The loss of his good name
and the forfeiture of his horse and arms were the penalties of violating
this usage. Sometimes the weapons were similar to those used in
tournaments; but more frequently they were weapons of war[330]; and though
the lances were sharp, and the bright swords were not rebated, seldom was
blood shed in these jousts, so truly admirable was the military skill of
the soldiers in chivalry. The tournaments are interesting in the general
circumstances of their splendour and knightly gallantry; but the jousts
give us a far more curious knowledge of ancient manners.

[Sidenote: Singular questions regarding jousts.]

But before I describe these martial amusements, let me call my reader's
attention for a few moments to the subtlety of intellect with which
questions respecting the circumstances that happened at jousts were
discussed.

Two gentlemen agreed to fight on horseback, and he who first fell was to
be deemed the vanquished man. By the chance of battle it happened that
they both fell together, and the sage spirits of chivalry were agitated by
the question, who should be accounted victorious. Some thought that the
defender ought to have the honour, for in all doubtful cases the
challenged person should be favoured; others contended, that as the fall
of the challenger might proceed from his own force, and not the virtue of
the enemy, the judgment ought to lie dead: but the best and general
decision was this:--if the combat were for trial of skill or love of the
ladies, the challenger ought to lose the honour; but if it were for the
decision of any mortal quarrel, the battle ought to be resumed some other
day, because in combats of that kind no victory was gained until one of
the parties were either slain or yielded himself prisoner, or had with his
own mouth denied the words whereon the combat was occasioned.

On another occasion, seven knights agreed with seven of their companions
to run certain courses for honour and love of the ladies. When the joust
took place, five of one side acquitted themselves right chivalrously, but
their two brother-tilters were overthrown. On the other side, two only
performed their courses well, the rest of that company lost many lances
and ran very foul. It was then debated whether unto five well-doers and
two evil, or unto two well-doers and five evil, the honour ought to be
allotted. As the question did not regard the merit of any particular man,
but which party in general best performed the enterprise, it was alleged
that the party wherein were most well-doers ought to have the honour,
notwithstanding the fall of two of their companions. This opinion was met
by the acknowledged rule of arms, that the fall from horseback by the
enemies' force or skill was the most reproachful chance that could happen
to a knight. Therefore it was contended that the misadventure of two men
only might reasonably be the loss of honour to the rest.[331] But further
details of chivalric subtleties would afford little pleasure, and
contenting myself with having shown that our ancestors' intellects were as
sharp as their swords, we will progress to the tilting ground.

[Sidenote: An earl of Warwick.]

One of the earls of Warwick went to France dressed in weeds of peace, but
carrying secretly his jousting harness. In honour of his lady he set up
three shields on three pavilions, and his heralds proclaimed his
challenges, apparently from three different knights, among the lords,
knights, and squires of honour in France. The devices on his shields and
the names he assumed were emblematical of love and war. Three skilful
jousters of France on three successive days touched the shields, and the
earl, dressed in different guises, overthrew them all. They now became his
friends: he entertained them with chivalrique magnificence, and gave
jewels of price to them all. For himself he had acquired renown, and that
was all he wished; for he now could return to his lady, and showing how
he had sped in his chivalric courses, could proudly claim the reward of
valour.[332]

[Sidenote: Celebrated joust at St. Ingelbertes.]

"Ye have heard oftentimes, it said, how the sport of ladies and damsels
encourageth the hearts of young lusty gentlemen, and causeth them to
desire and seek to get honour."[333]

Such is Froissart's beautiful and romantic prelude to his account of a
very interesting joust.

In the year 1389, the King Charles V. tarried several days at Montpellier,
delighting himself with the pastime of the ladies; and the gentlemen of
his court were no bad imitators of his fancy. Three cavaliers, in
particular, were chiefly marked. They were the young Sir Boucicaut, Sir
Raynold of Roy, and the Lord of St. Pye. Their valour was inspired by
gallantry, and they resolved to achieve high feats of arms in the ensuing
summer; and if it had been possible for a knight to entertain any other
object in his imagination, than the favour of his sovereign lady, the
gallant knights of France had a very noble motive to enterprise, for some
reflections had lately been cast upon their honour by an English cavalier.
The noble knighthood that was in them felt a stain like a wound; and this
imputation on their honor gave the form and color to the joust they
meditated; for they resolved to perform their deeds of arms in the
frontier near Calais, hoping that Englishmen might be incited to meet
them.

The holding of the joust at such a place was not deemed courteous by some
members of the king's council, for it was thought that the English would
consider it presumptuous; and the more sage and prudent knights murmured
their opinion, that it was not always right to consent to the purposes of
young men, for incidents rather evil than good often sprang from them. The
king, however, who was young and courageous, overruled all scruples, and
ordered that the joust should proceed, because the knights had promised
and sworn it before the ladies of Montpellier.

Then the king sent for the three knights into his chamber, and said to
them, "Sirs, in all your doing regard wisely the honor of us and of our
realm; and to maintain your estate, spare nothing, for we will not fail
you for the expence of ten thousand franks."

The three knights knelt before the king, and thanked his grace. So
important to the national honor was this joust considered, that the
challenge was not published till it had been revised by Charles and his
council.

This was its form:--"For the great desire that we have to come to the
knowledge of noble gentlemen, knights, esquires, strangers, as well of the
nation of France, as elsewhere of far countries, we shall be at St.
Ingelbertes, in the marshes of Calais, the 20th day of the month of May
next coming, and there continue thirty days complete, the Fridays only
excepted, and to deliver all manner of knights and squires, gentlemen,
strangers of any nation, whosoever they be, that will come thither for the
breaking of five spears, either sharp or rockets, at their pleasure; and
without our lodgings shall be the shields of our arms, both shields of
peace and of war, and whosoever will joust, let him come or send the day
before, and with a rod touch which shield he pleases. If he touch the
shield of war, the next day he shall joust with which of the three he
will; and if he touch the shield of peace, he shall have the jousts of
peace and of war; so that whosoever shall touch any of the shields shall
shew their names to such as shall be then limited by us to receive them.
And all such stranger-knights as will joust shall bring each some nobleman
on his part who shall be instructed by us what ought to be done in this
case. And we require all knights and squires, strangers that will come and
joust, that they think not we do this for any pride, hatred, or evil will,
but that we only do it to have their honorable company and acquaintance,
which with our entire hearts we desire. None of our shields shall be
covered with iron or steel, nor any of theirs that will come to joust with
us, without any manner of fraud or unfair advantage, but every thing shall
be ordered by them to whom shall be committed the charge of governing the
jousts. And because that all gentlemen, noble knights, and squires, to
whom this shall come to knowledge, should be assured of its being firm and
stable, we have sealed the present writing with the seals of our arms.
Written at Montpellier the twentieth day of November, in the year of our
Lord God one thousand, three hundred, four-score and nine, and signed
thus. Raynolde du Roy--Boucicaut--St. Pye."

When this challenge was published, the knights and squires of England
entertained great imaginations to know what to do; and most of them
thought it would be deeply to their blame and reproach that such an
enterprise should take place near Calais, without their passing the sea.
They therefore thanked the French chivalry for deporting themselves so
courteously, and holding the joust so near the English marshes.

Accordingly, in the fresh and jolly month of May, when the spring was at
its finest point, the three young knights of France mounted their gay
steeds, and sportively held their course from Paris to Boulogne. They then
progressed to the abbey of St. Ingilbertes, and were right joyful to learn
that a number of knights and squires of merry England had, like good
companions, crossed the sea, and were arraying themselves for the joust.
The Frenchmen raised three green pavilions, in a fair and champaign spot,
between St. Ingilbertes and Calais. To the entrance of each pavilion they
affixed two shields, with the arms of the knights, one shield of peace,
and the other of war; and again proclaimed that such knights as would do
deeds of arms should touch one of the shields, or cause it to be touched,
whichever mode pleased him, and he should be delivered according to his
desire.

On the day appointed for the jousts, all the respective chivalries of
France and England poured from the gates of St. Ingilberte and Calais,
eager for the gallant fray. Such as proposed to be mere spectators met in
friendly union, without regard to national differences. The King of France
was present in a disguise.[334] The three French knights retired within
their pavilions, and squires donned their harness. The English jousters
apparelled themselves, and took their station at the end of the plain,
opposite the pavilions. A flourish of clarions proclaimed the commencement
of the joust, and the herald's trumpet sounded to horse.

When all was hushed in breathless expectation, Sir John Holland, Earl of
Huntingdon, pricked forth with the slow and stately pace of high-born
chivalry, from the end of the lists which had been assigned to the English
strangers. He was a right gallant cavalier, and he commanded his squire to
touch the war-shield of Sir Boucicaut. Incontinently, that noble son of
chivalry, ready mounted, left his pavilion with shield and spear. The
knights marked each other well, and then spurred their horses to the
encounter. The spear of Sir Boucicaut pierced through the shield of the
English knight; but it passed hurtless over his arm, and their good steeds
bounded to either end of the plain. This course was greatly commended. The
second course was altogether harmless; and in the third course the horses
started aside, and would not cope. The Earl of Huntingdon, who was
somewhat chafed, came to his place, waiting for Sir Boucicaut taking his
spear; but he did not, for he showed that he would run no more that day
against the Earl, who then sent his squire to touch the war-shield of the
Lord of St. Pye. He issued out of his pavilion, and took his horse,
shield, and spear. When the Earl saw that he was ready, he spurred his
horse, and St. Pye did not with less force urge his own good steed. They
couched their spears: at the meeting their horses crossed, but with the
crossing of their spears the Earl was unhelmed. He returned to his
squires, and incontinently was rehelmed. He took his spear, and St. Pye
his, and they ran again, and met each other with their spears in the
middle of their shields. The shock nearly hurled both to the ground, but
they saved themselves by griping their horses with their legs, and
returned to their places, and took breath. Sir John Holland, who had great
desire to do honourably, took again his spear, and urged his horse to
speed. When the Lord of St. Pye saw him coming, he dashed forth his horse
to encounter him. Each of them struck the other on the helms with such
force that the fire flew out. With that attaint the Lord of St. Pye was
unhelmed; and so they passed forth, and came again to their own places.
This course was greatly praised, and both French and English said that
those three knights, the Earl of Huntingdon, Sir Boucicaut, and the Lord
St. Pye, had right well done their devoirs. Again the earl desired, for
love of his lady, to have another course; but he was refused, and he then
mixed with the knights, and spectators, and gave place to others, for he
had ran all his six courses well and valiantly, so that he had laud and
honour of all parties.

These noble jousts continued for four days.[335] The gallant champions
assembled after matins, and did not quit the course till the vesper-bell
of the abbey summoned them to prayer. Of the noble company of knights and
squires there were few who did not add something to their fame; for if a
knight happened to be unhelmed, yet perhaps he did not lose his stirrups,
and he was admired for sustaining a severe shock.

Such was the noble chevisance of the jousters that no mortal wound was
inflicted.[336] The lance was the only weapon used. To unhelm the adverse
knight by striking his frontlet was the chiefest feat of arms, and in the
fierce career of opposing steeds, the firmest strength and the nicest
skill could alone achieve it. Helms struck fire, lances were splintered,
and the lance-head was lodged in the shield: but sometimes the shield
resisted the lance, and men and steeds reeled back to their several
pavilions.

Each gallant knight, however,

                  "grew unto his seat,
  And to such wond'rous doing brought his horse
  As he had been incorps'd and demi-natur'd
  With the brave beast."

The knighthood and squirery of England sent forth nearly forty of their
host to vindicate their chivalry, and right nobly did they deport
themselves against the doughtiest lances of France. There was only one
knight who disgraced the order of chivalry. By birth he was a Bohemian, in
station an attendant of the King of England. It was demanded of him with
whom he would joust. He answered, with Boucicaut. They then prepared
themselves and ran together, but the Bohemian struck a prohibited part of
the armour, and he was greatly blamed that he demeaned his course so
badly. By the laws of the joust he should have forfeited his arms and
horse, but the Frenchman, out of courtesy to the Englishmen, forgave him.
The Bohemian to redeem his shame required again to joust one course. He
was demanded against whom he would run; and he sent to touch the shield of
Sir Raynolde du Roy. That gallant knight was not long before he answered
him. They met in the middle of their shields, and the French cavalier
struck his antagonist from his horse; and the Englishmen were not
displeased that he was overthrown, because he had ran the first course so
ungoodly.

This Sir Raynolde du Roy was one of the best jousters in all the realm of
France, and no wonder; for our faithful and gallant chronicler reports
that he lived in love with a young maiden, which availed him much in all
his affairs.[337] One of his most valiant antagonists was a gentle knight
of England, young and fresh, a jolly dancer and singer, called Sir John
Arundell. At the first course they met rudely, and struck each other on
the shields, but they held themselves without falling, and passed forth
their course. The second course they struck each other on the helms; the
third course they crossed and lost their staves; the fourth course
resembled the second; the fifth course they splintered their spears
against their shields, and then Sir John Arundell ran no more that day.

At the conclusion of the jousts the Earl of Huntingdon, and the Earl
Marshal, and the Lord Clifford, the Lord Beaumont, Sir John Clinton, Sir
John Dambreticourt, Sir Peter Sherborne, and all other knights that had
jousted those four days with the French knights, thanked them greatly for
their pastime, and said, "Sirs, all such as would joust of our party have
accomplished their desires; therefore now we will take leave of you: we
will return to Calais, and so cross to England; and we know that whoever
will joust with you will find you here these thirty days, according to the
tenor of your challenge."

The French knights were grateful for this courtesy, saying, that all new
comers should be right heartily welcome; "and we will deliver them
according to the rights of arms, as we have done you; and, moreover, we
thank you for the grace and gallantry that you have shewn to us."

Thus in knightly manner the Englishmen departed from Saint Ingilbertes,
and rode to Calais, where they tarried not long, for the Saturday
afterwards they took shipping and sailed to Dover, and reached that place
by noon. On the Sunday they progressed to Rochester, and the next day to
London, whence every man returned to his home.

The three French knights remained the thirty days at Saint Ingilbertes,
but no more Englishmen crossed the sea to do any deed of arms with
them.[338]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Joust between Lord Scales and the Bastard of Burgundy.]

Perhaps the most interesting joust in the middle ages was that which was
held between Lord Scales, brother of the Queen of Edward the Fourth, and
the Bastard of Burgundy. Many of the circumstances which attended it are
truly chivalric.[339]

On the 17th of April, 1465, the Queen and some ladies of her court, in a
mood of harmless merriment, attached a collar of gold, enamelled with the
rich floure of souvenance[340], to the thigh of that right worshipful and
amorous knight, Anthony Woodville, Lord Scales, for an emprise of arms on
horseback and on foot.[341] The most renowned cavalier at that time was
the Bastard of Burgundy, and accordingly Lord Scales addressed him in
courteous wise, praising his prowess, and vowing before God and the ladies
that his own great desire was to rival his fame. In order, then, that
there might exist that love and fraternity between them which became
knights of worship, he related the goodly adventure at the court of
England, and requiring the Bastard, in all affection for the honour of
chivalry, to do him so much favour as to discharge him of his bond. The
Earl of Worcester, Lord High Constable of England, certified the fact of
the delivery of the floure of souvenance to the Lord Scales, and the
King's permission for his herald to cross the seas to Burgundy.

The Bastard received the letter on the last day of April, and with
permission of his father, the Duke of Burgundy, he consented to assist the
Lord Scales in accomplishing his emprise. Lord Scales and the court of
England were right joyous and grateful at the news, and Edward granted a
safe-conduct to the adventurous Burgundian, the Earl of Roche, and a
thousand persons in his company, to come into England, to perform certain
feats of arms with his dearly beloved brother Anthony Woodville, Lord
Scales, and Nucelles.[342]

The Bastard accordingly set sail for England, nobly accompanied by four
hundred of his father's prowest chivalry. By Edward's command, Garter
king-at-arms met him at Gravesend. The gallant squadron sailed towards
London, and at Blackwall it was joined by the Earl of Worcester, attended
by a noble troop of lords, knights, and squires, and also by many of the
aldermen and rich citizens of London. The Lord of Burgundy landed at
Billingsgate, and was welcomed by another party of the nobility and trades
of England, (so general was the interest of the expected joust,) who
conducted him on horseback through Cornhill and Cheap to the palace of the
Bishop of Salisbury in Fleet Street, which royal courtesy had appointed
for his abode. Lord Scales soon afterwards came to London, attended by the
nobility and chivalry of his house, and the King assigned him the palace
of the Bishop of Ely in Holborn for his residence. The noble stranger was
introduced to Edward on his coming to London from Kingston, in order to
open the parliament.

The ceremonies of the joust were then arranged by well experienced
knights, and strong lists were erected in Smithfield, one hundred and
twenty yards and ten feet long, eighty yards and ten feet broad, with fair
and costly galleries around. On the morning appointed for the gallant
show, the King and Queen with all the chivalry and beauty of the land,
repaired to Smithfield. The King sat under a richly canopied throne, at
one end of the lists; on each side were lords and ladies, and underneath
him were ranged the knights, the squires, and the archers of his train.
The city magistrates then appeared; the lord mayor bowing, and the
mace-bearer lowering his sign of authority, as they passed the King in
their procession to the other end of the lists, where scaffolds of similar
form, but inferior magnificence to the royal chambers, were erected for
them. The eight guards of the lists entered on horseback, and received
their charge from the Earl Marshal and Lord High Constable of England, who
gently paced their horses to and fro beneath the throne.

When every thing was fairly arranged, Lord Scales appeared at the gate of
the lists. At the sound of his trumpet the Constable advanced and
demanded his purpose. The young lord, with the grace and modesty of
chivalry, replied, that he solicited the honor of presenting himself
before his sovereign liege the King, in order to accomplish his arms
against the Bastard of Burgundy. The gate was then thrown open by command
of the Constable, and the Lord Scales entered the lists, followed by nine
noblemen on horseback, bearing parts of his harness and arms, and nine
pages riding on gaily caparisoned steeds. They advanced to the King, and
after having made their obeisances, they retired to a pavilion at one end
of the lists.

With similar forms the Lord of Burgundy, attended by the chosen chivalry
of his country, approached the King, and then repaired to his tent.

The heralds commanded silence, and forbad any one, by the severest
penalties, from intermeddling with the jousters. Two lances and two swords
were taken to the King, who, being satisfied of their fitness, commanded
the lords who bore them to take them to the combatants. The
stranger-knight made his election, and dressed his lance to its rest. Lord
Scales prepared himself with equal gallantry, and they dashed to the
encounter. Their spears were sharp; but so perfect was their knowledge of
chivalry, that no wounds were inflicted. The nicest judges could mark no
difference of skill, and the noble knights jousted their courses, when the
King dropped his warder, and the amusements ended.

The next day the court and city repaired to Smithfield, with their
accustomed pomp, and the spectacle was varied by the jousters contending
with swords. The sports were, however, untimely closed by the steed of
Lord Scales with the spike of his chaffron overthrowing the Bastard of
Burgundy and his horse; and the King would not allow the tourney to
proceed, though the bruised knight gallantly asserted his wish not to fail
his encounter companion.

Not wearied by two days' amusement, the chivalry and beauty of England
assembled in the lists of Smithfield on the third morning. The noblemen
now fought on foot with pole-axes. At last the point of Lord Scales's
weapon entered the sight of the Burgundian's helmet, and there was a
feeling of fear through the galleries that a joust of peace would have a
fatal termination. But before it could be seen whether Lord Scales meant
to press his advantage, the King dropped his warder, and the Marshals
separated them. The Bastard of Burgundy prayed for leave to continue his
enterprise; and the Lord Scales consented. But the matter was debated by
the assembled chivalry; and it was declared by the Earl of Worcester,
then Constable of England, and the Duke of Norfolk the Marshal, that if
the affair were to proceed, the knight of Burgundy must, by the law of
arms, be delivered to his adversary in the same state and condition as he
was in when they were separated. This sentence was a virtual prohibition
of the continuance of the joust, and the Bastard therefore relinquished
his challenge. The herald's trumpet then sounded the well known point of
chivalry that the sports were over; but as the times were joyous as well
as martial, the knights and ladies before they parted held a noble
festival at Mercer's Hall.[343]

The feats of arms at St. Ingilbertes displayed the martial character of
the joust; and the emprise of Lord Scales shows how beautifully love could
blend itself with images of war, and the interest which a whole nation
could take in the circumstance of certain fair ladies of a court binding
round the thigh of a gallant knight a collar of gold, enamelled with a
floure of souvenance.

[Sidenote: The romance of jousts.]

But the high romantic feeling of chivalric times is, perhaps, still more
strikingly displayed in the following tale. In the beginning of the year
1400, an esquire of Spain, named Michel d'Orris, being full of valour and
love, attached a piece of iron to his leg, and vowed that he would endure
the pain till he had won renown by deeds of chivalry. The prowess of the
English knights most keenly excited his emulation; and, as his first
measure to cope with it, he journeyed from Arragon to Paris. He then
issued his defiance to the English chivalry at Calais, to perform
exercises on foot with the battle-axe, the sword, and the dagger, and to
run certain courses on horseback with the lance.

A noble soldier, hight Sir John Prendergast, a companion of Lord Somerset,
governor of Calais, being equally desirous to gain honour and amusement,
like a gentleman, to the utmost of his power, accepted the challenge in
the name of God, of the blessed Virgin Mary, and of his lords Saint George
and Saint Anthony. Like a true brother in chivalry, he expressed his wish
to relieve the Arragonian esquire from the pain he was suffering; and,
agreeably to the nobleness and modesty of his profession, he avowed his
joy at the occasion of making acquaintance with some of the French
nobility[344], and learning from them the honourable exercise of arms; and
then, in a fine strain of gallantry, he concludes his acceptance of the
challenge by praying that the Author of all good would grant the gentle
esquire joy, honour, and pleasure, and every description of happiness to
the lady of his affection, to whom Sir John Prendergast entreated that
those letters might recommend him.

Political affairs recalled Orris to Arragon, and the English knight, not
knowing that circumstance, wrote to him at Paris, pressing the performance
of the emprise, reminding him how much his honour was concerned in the
matter, and entreating Cupid, the god of love, as Orris might desire the
affections of his lady, to urge him to hasten his journey.[345] No answer
was returned to this heart-stirring epistle; and, after waiting several
months, Prendergast again addressed Orris, expressing his astonishment
that the challenge had not been prosecuted, and no reason rendered for the
neglect by the valiant esquire. He was ignorant if the god of love, who
had inspired him with courage to undertake the emprise, had since been
displeased, and changed his ancient pleasures, which formerly consisted in
urging on deeds of arms, and in promoting the delights of chivalry. He was
wont to keep the nobles of his court under such good government, that, to
add to their honor, after having undertaken any deeds of arms, they could
not absent themselves from the country where such enterprise was to be
performed, until it was perfectly accomplished. Anxious to preserve the
favour of the god of love, and from respect to the ladies, Sir John
Prendergast was still ready, with the aid of God, of Saint George, and
Saint Anthony, to deliver him whom he still hoped was the servant of
Cupid; and unless within a short time the emprise was accomplished, he
intended to return to England, where he hoped that knights and esquires
would bear witness that he had not misbehaved towards the god of love, to
whom he recommended his own lady and the lady of Orris.[346]

The esquire returned to Paris, after he had finished his military duties
in Arragon, still wearing the painful badge of iron. He found at Paris all
the letters of Prendergast. His chivalric pride was wounded at the thought
that the god of love had banished him from his court, and made him change
his mind; and he informed his noble foe that assuredly, without any
dissembling, he should never, in regard to the present emprise, change his
mind, so long as God might preserve his life; nor had there ever been any
of his family who had not always acted in such wise as became honest men
and gentlemen.

Notwithstanding the appeal of Orris to the chivalry of Prendergast no
deeds of arms were achieved. The delay of answers to his letters had
offended the English knight, and some misunderstanding regarding the petty
arrangements of the joust abruptly terminated the affair.[347]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: The passage of arms.]

A very favourite description of joust was that which was called a passage
of arms. A knight and his companions proclaimed that they would on a
certain day guard a particular road or bridge from all persons of
cavaleresque rank, who attempted to pass.[348] Those who undertook such an
emprise had their arms attached to pillars at the end of the lists with
some plain shields of different colours, in which were marked the nature
of the adventure, and the description of arms that were to be employed, so
that he, who repaired to the passage, with the design of trying his
skill, chose his mode of combat by touching one of the shields whereon it
was specified. Officers at arms were in waiting to collect and register
the names of such as touched the different shields, that they might be
called out in the rotation of their first appearance.

In the spring of the year 1443, the Lord of Chargny, a noble knight of the
court of Burgundy, made known to all princes, barons, cavaliers, and
esquires without reproach, that, for the augmentation and extension of the
most noble profession and exercise of arms, it was his will and intention,
in conjunction with twelve knights, squires, and gentlemen, of four
quarterings, whose names he mentioned, to guard and defend a pass d'armes,
situated on the great road leading from Dijon toward Exonne, at the end of
the causeway from the said town of Dijon, at a great tree called the
Hermit's Tree, or the Tree of Charlemagne. He proposed to suspend on the
tree two shields, (one black, besprinkled with tears of gold, the other
violet, having tears of sable,) and all those who by a king at arms or
pursuivant should touch the first shield should be bounden to perform
twelve courses on horseback, with him the Lord of Chargny, or one of his
knights and squires, with blunted lances; and if either of the champions,
during their twelve courses, should be unhorsed by a direct blow with the
lance on his armour, such person so unhorsed should present to his
adversary a diamond of whatever value he pleased. Those princes, barons,
knights, and esquires, who should rather take their pleasure in performing
feats of arms on foot, were to touch the violet shield, and should perform
fifteen courses with battle-axes or swords, as might be most agreeable to
them, and if during those courses any champion should touch the ground
with his hand or knees he should be obliged to present to his adversary a
ruby of whatever value he pleased.

The Lord of Chargny was a right modest as well as a valiant knight, for he
besought all princes, barons, knights, and esquires, not to construe his
intention as the result of pride and presumption, for he assured them that
his sole motive was to exalt the noble profession of arms, and also to
make acquaintance by chivalric deeds with such renowned and valiant
princes and nobles as might be pleased to honor him with their presence.

For the forty days that followed the first of July, the passage of arms
lasted, and right nobly did the Burgundian chivalry comport themselves.
Their most skilful opponent was a valiant knight of Spain, hight Messire
Pierre Vasque de Suavedra, with whom the Lord of Chargny jousted on
horseback and on foot, and the nicest eye of criticism could not determine
which was the doughtiest knight. At the conclusion of the jousts the
cavaliers repaired to the church of our Lady at Dijon, and on their knees
offered the shields to the Virgin.[349]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Use of tournaments and jousts.]

Such were the martial amusements and exercises of preux chevaliers. All
the noble and graceful virtues of chivalry were reflected in the
tournament and joust, and the warrior who had displayed them in the lists
could not but feel their mild and beneficent influence even in the
battle-field. He pricked on the plain with knightly grace as if his
lady-mistress had been beholding him: skill and address insensibly
softened the ferocity of the mere soldier, and he soon came to consider
war itself only as a great tournament. Thus the tourneying lists were
schools of chivalric virtue as well as of chivalric prowess, while the
splendour and joyousness of the show brought all classes of society into
kind and merry intercourse.

Through the long period of the middle ages tournaments were the elegant
pastimes of Europe, and not of Europe only, but of Greece; and knighthood
had its triumph over classical institutions when the games of chivalry
were played in the circus of Constantinople. The Byzantines learnt them
from the early Crusaders; and when the French and Venetians in the twelfth
century became masters of the East, chivalric amusements were the common
pastimes of the people, and continued so even when the Greeks recovered
the throne of their ancestors; nor were they abolished until the
Mussulmans captured Constantinople, and swept away every Christian and
chivalric feature.[350]

In the West the tournament and joust survived chivalry itself, whose image
they had reflected and brightened, for changes in the military art did not
immediately affect manners; and the world long clung with fondness to
those splendid and graceful shows which had thrown light and elegance over
the warriors and dames of yore.




CHAP. VII.

THE RELIGIOUS AND MILITARY ORDERS OF KNIGHTHOOD.

    _General Principles of the Religious Orders ... Qualifications for
    them ... Use of these Orders to Palestine ... Modern History of the
    Knights Templars ... Their present Existence and State ... Religious
    Orders in Spain ... That of St. James ... Its Objects ... Change of
    its Objects ... Order of Calatrava ... Fine Chivalry of a Monk ...
    Fame of this Order ... Order of Alcantara ... Knights of the Lady of
    Mercy ... Knights of St. Michael ... Military Orders ... Imitations of
    the Religious Orders ... Instanced in the Order of the Garter ... Few
    of the present Orders are of Chivalric Origin ... Order of the Bath
    ... Dormant Orders ... Order of the Band ... Its singular Rules ...
    Its noble Enforcement of Chivalric Duties towards Woman ... Order of
    Bourbon ... Strange Titles of Orders ... Fabulous Orders ... The Round
    Table ... Sir Launcelot ... Sir Gawain ... Order of the Stocking ...
    Origin of the Phrase Blue Stocking._


Such were the institutions by which the character of the true knight was
formed; and we might now resume our historical course did not a matter of
considerable interest detain us, which, as it belongs to chivalry in
general, and not entirely to any state in particular, can no where be
treated with so much propriety as in this place.

It has been shown that from the union of religion and arms chivalry arose,
and that the defence of the church and the promoting of its interests were
among the chief objects of the new system of principles and manners. But
knighthood had various duties to discharge, and the cavalier, who was
sometimes distracted by their number, consecrated his life to the single
purpose of upholding the cross of Christ. Thus orders called the Religious
Orders of Knighthood were founded, and in imitation of them, fraternities,
called Military Orders, appeared, all being ranged within the general pale
of chivalry.

[Sidenote: General principles of the religious orders.]

The religious orders, as might be expected, were sanctioned by papal
authority. They were both martial and monastic in their general
principles, but their internal conduct was entirely regulated by the
discipline of the cloister; and, like the establishments of monks, they
took some existing rule of a favourite saint as their guide. Theirs was a
singular compound of the chivalric and the cloisteral characters,

  "The fine vocation of the sword and lance
  With the gross aims and body-bending toil
  Of a poor brotherhood who walk the earth
  Pitied."[351]

Like the monks they were bound by the three great monastic vows of
chastity, poverty, and obedience. The first of these matters needs no
explanation[352]; the second meant a total oblivion of individuality, the
community and not a peculiar possession of property; and by the third, the
members were confined to obey the head of their order, to the exclusion of
all other authority. These general principles of the religious societies
of knighthood gave way, however, and fitted themselves to the occasions
and demands of society, for like the chain-mail, which was flexible to all
the motions of the body, the orders of chivalry have varied with every
change of European life. Ascetic privations gave place to chivalric
gallantry, the vow of chastity was mitigated into a vow of connubial
fidelity; and when men of noble birth and high fortune became knights of
the holy and valiant societies of Saint John, the Temple, or Saint James,
the vow of poverty was dispensed with, or explained away to the
satisfaction of conscientious scruples. In the fraternity of the Temple a
knight was permitted to hold estates, so that at his death he bequeathed
some portion of them to his order.[353]

In another very important respect the religious brotherhoods were moulded
to the general frame of political society. Their independence of civil
authority was given up, as the papal power declined, and kings refused
admittance of the bulls of Rome into their states without their previous
license. The knights of the religious fraternities became connected with
the state by professing that their duties to God and their country were
prior and paramount to the rules and statutes of the brotherhood; and
they adopted this form of phrase rather to prevent the suggestions of
malice than from any existing necessity, for they contended that the
obligations of chivalry, instead of contravening the duty of a citizen,
gave it strength, and dignity, and grace.[354]

[Sidenote: Qualifications for them.]

In their origin all the military orders and most of the religious ones
were entirely aristocratic; proofs of gentility of birth were scrupulously
examined; and no soldier by the mere force of his valiancy could attain
the honours of an order, though such a claim was allowed for his admission
into the general fraternity of knighthood. These requisites for nobleness
of birth kept pace with the political state of different countries, for
the sovereigns of Europe and chivalry did not accord upon any particular
form. Thus a French candidate for the knighthood of Saint John of
Jerusalem must have shown four quarters of gentility on his coat-armour,
but in the severer aristocracies of Spain and Germany no less than eight
heraldic emblasonings were requisite. In Italy, however, where commerce
checked the haughtiness of nobility, it was not expected that the pedigree
should be so proud and full, and at length the old families conceded, and
the new families were satisfied with the concession, that the sons of
merchants should be at liberty to enter into the religious orders.

It would be tedious and unprofitable to detail the history of all these
chivalric societies; and were I to repeat or abridge the usual books on
the topic I should in many cases be only assisting to give currency to
fraud, for the title, a religious order of knighthood, was often
improperly bestowed on an establishment, while in truth it was only a
fraternity of monks who maintained some soldiers in their pay: other
associations obtained a papal sanction, but they were small and
insignificant, and their history did not affect the general state of any
country.

[Sidenote: Use of these orders to Palestine.]

Not so, however, the noble fraternities of Saint John and the Temple[355],
and next, though the intervening space of dignity was considerable, the
Teutonic knights. These religious orders of chivalry by their principles
and conduct are strongly marked in the political history of the world, for
they formed the firm and unceasing bulwark of the Christian kingdom in
Palestine during the middle ages. They were its regular militia, and
maintained the Holy Land in the interval between the departure of one
fleet of crusaders and the arrival of another. Generous emulation
sometimes degenerated into envy, and the heats and feuds of the knights of
Saint John and the Temple violated the peace of the country; but these
dissensions were usually hushed when danger approached their charge, and
the atabal of the Muselmans was seldom sounded in defiance on the frontier
of the kingdom without the trumpets of the military orders in every
preceptory and commandery receiving and echoing the challenge.

[Sidenote: Particularly of the Templars.]

The valiancy of the Templars was particularly conspicuous in the moments
of the kingdom's final fate; for when the Christians of the Holy Land were
reduced to the possession of Acre, and two hundred thousand Mameluke
Tartars from Egypt were encamped round its walls, the defence of the city
was entrusted to Peter de Beaujeau, Grand Master of the Templars. And well
and chivalrously did he sustain his high and sacred charge. Acre fell,
indeed, but not until this heroic representative of Christian chivalry and
most of the noble followers of his standard had been slain. The memory of
the Templars is embalmed in all our recollections of the beautiful romance
of the middle ages, for the red cross knights were the last band of
Europe's host that contended for the possession of Palestine. A few
survived the fall of Acre and retired to Sis in Armenia. They were driven
to the island of Tortosa, whence they escaped to Cyprus, and the southern
shore of the Mediterranean no longer rang with the cry of religious war.

The origin and peculiar nature of these three great religious orders have
been detailed by me in another work, and also their history as far as it
was connected with the crusades; but on one subject our present deductions
may be carried further: for though the annals of the cavaliers of Saint
John and also of the Teutonic knights are mixed with general European
history, yet those of the Templars stand isolated. In the History of the
Crusades, I described the circumstances of the iniquitous and sanguinary
persecution of the brotherhood of the Temple, the consequent suspension
of their functions[356], and the spoliation of all those possessions with
which the respect of the world had enriched them.

[Sidenote: Modern history of the Templars.]

But the persecution of the Templars in the fourteenth century does not
close the history of the order, for though the knights were spoliated the
order was not annihilated. In truth, the cavaliers were not guilty, the
brotherhood was not suppressed, and, startling as is the assertion, there
has been a succession of Knights Templars from the twelfth century down
even to these days; the chain of transmission is perfect in all its links.
Jacques de Molai, the Grand Master at the time of the persecution,
anticipating his own martyrdom, appointed as his successor, in power and
dignity, Johannes Marcus Larmenius of Jerusalem, and from that time to the
present there has been a regular and uninterrupted line of grand masters.
The charter by which the supreme authority has been transmitted is
judicial and conclusive evidence of the order's continued existence. This
charter of transmission, with the signatures of the various chiefs of the
Temple, is preserved at Paris, with the ancient statutes of the order, the
rituals, the records, the seals, the standards, and other memorials of the
early Templars. The brotherhood has been headed by the bravest cavaliers
of France, by men who, jealous of the dignity of knighthood, would admit
no corruption, no base copies of the orders of chivalry, and who thought
that the shield of their nobility was enriched by the impress of the
Templars' red cross. Bertrand du Guesclin was the grand master from 1357
till his death in 1380, and he was the only French commander who prevailed
over the chivalry of our Edward III. From 1478 to 1497, we may mark Robert
Lenoncourt, a cavalier of one of the most ancient and valiant families of
Lorraine. Philippe Chabot, a renowned captain in the reign of Francis I.,
wielded the staff of power from 1516 to To 1543. The illustrious family of
Montmorency appear as Knights Templars, and Henry, the first duke, was the
chief of the order from 1574 to 1614. At the close of the seventeenth
century the grand master was James Henry de Duras, a marshal of France,
the nephew of Turenne, and one of the most skilful soldiers of Louis XIV.
The grand masters from 1734 to 1776 were three princes of the royal
Bourbon family. The names and years of power of these royal personages who
acknowledged the dignity of the order of the Temple were Louis Augustus
Bourbon, Duke of Maine, 1724-1737; Louis Henry Bourbon Condé 1737-1741;
and Louis Francis Bourbon Conty 1741-1746. The successor of these princes
in the grand-mastership of the Temple was Louis Hercules Timoleon, Duke de
Cossé Brissac, the descendant of an ancient family long celebrated in
French history for its loyalty and gallant bearing. He accepted the office
in 1776, and sustained it till he died in the cause of royalty at the
beginning of the French Revolution. The order has now its grand master,
Bernardus Raymundus Fabré Palaprat, and there are colleges in England and
in many of the chief cities in Europe.

[Sidenote: Present existence and state of the Templars.]

Thus the very ancient and sovereign order of the Temple is now in full and
chivalric existence, like those orders of knighthood which were either
formed in imitation of it, or had their origin in the same noble
principles of chivalry. It has mourned as well as flourished; but there is
in its nature and constitution a principle of vitality which has carried
it through all the storms of fate. Its continuance, by representatives as
well as by title, is as indisputable a fact as the existence of any other
chivalric fraternity. The Templars of these days claim no titular rank,
yet their station is so far identified with that of the other orders of
knighthood, that they assert equal purity of descent from the same bright
source of chivalry. Nor is it possible to impugn the legitimate claims to
honorable estimation, which the modern brethren of the Temple derive from
the antiquity and pristine lustre of their order, without at the same time
shaking to its centre the whole venerable fabric of knightly honor.[357]

[Sidenote: Religious orders in Spain.]

The Holy Land was not the only country which gave birth to the religious
orders of knighthood. Several arose in Spain, and their arms were mainly
instrumental in effecting the triumph of the Christian cause over that of
the Moors. War with the usurpers was the pristine object of some of these
societies, and in other cases it was based and pillared upon a foundation
of charity. Perpetual enmity to the Arabian infidels was the motto of all.
Unlike the Christian kings of Spain, the orders never relaxed in their
hostility; they never mingled with the Moors in the delights of peace, and
their character was formed by their own rules and principles, unaffected
by the graceful softenings of oriental luxury and taste.

[Sidenote: That of St. James.]

The most considerable of these Spanish religious orders of knighthood was
that of Saint James, of Compostella, which sprang from the association of
some knights and monks in the middle of the twelfth century, for the
protection of the pilgrims who flocked from all countries to bow before
the relics of the tutelar saint of Spain.[358] The monks were of the
society of St. Eloy, a holy person of great fame among our English
ancestors; for Chaucer's demure prioress was wont to verify her assertions
by appealing to his authority.

  "Her greatest oath n'as but by St. Eloy."

The monks and knights lived in friendly communion, the prior of the
convent regulating the spiritual concerns, and a grand master, chosen by
the cavaliers, leading the soldiers. They were taken under the protection
of the papal see, on their professing the vows of chastity, poverty, and
obedience; but afterwards Pope Alexander the Third sank the ascendancy of
the monastic portion of their character, for he permitted an oath of
connubial fidelity to be substituted for that of chastity. A descent of
two degrees of gentle birth was required for admission into the order of
Saint James, and the Christian blood must have been uncontaminated with
any Jewish or Moorish mixture.

[Sidenote: Its objects.]

The guarding of the passages to the shrine of Saint James from the
incursions of the Moors became extended into a general defence of the
kingdom against the hostilities of those enemies of the Christian name;
and in time their active military operations far exceeded their defensive
wars in consequence and splendour. The simple object of their association
being forgotten, their glories became associated with the earliest
struggles of the Christians for the repossession of their inheritance; and
they pretended to trace their line up to the ninth century, when Saint
James himself, riding on a white horse, and bearing a banner marked with a
red cross in his hand, assisted them to discomfit the Moors. A cross,
finished like the blade of a sword, and the hilt crossleted, became the
ensign of the order, and the order was then appropriately called _La
Orden de Santiago de la Espada_. The centre of the crosslet was ornamented
with an escalop-shell, the badge of Saint James; and nothing can more
strongly mark the popularity of his shrine in the middle ages than the
fact of the escalop-shell being the usual designation of an European
palmer. The cross was worn on a white cross mantle, and was painted red,
agreeably, as it might seem, to that on the banner already alluded to. But
Don Rodrigo Ximines, an archbishop of Toledo, who dealt in allegories,
observed the reason to be that the sword was red with the blood of the
Arabs, and that the faith of the knights was burning with charity.

The grand master of the order of Saint James had precedence over the grand
masters of other Spanish orders; but the internal government of the
fraternity was in the hands of a council, whose decrees were obligatory,
even on the grand master himself. The order of Saint James had two great
commanderies, one in Leon and the other in Castile; and to them all other
establishments were subordinate. There were perpetual disputes for
precedency between these commanderies, and the kings of Castile and Leon
fomented them, thus preventing an union which might be dangerous to the
state itself, and obtaining military aid in return for occasional
interference. The gratitude of sovereigns enriched the order with various
possessions; but it was its own good swords that won for it the best part
of its territories.

Notwithstanding that, like all other religious orders of knighthood, the
order of Saint James had originally enjoyed independence of royal
authority, yet in the course of time the kings of Castile acquired the
right of delivering to every newly-elected grand master the standard of
the order. The obedience was only titular till the beginning of the
sixteenth century, when the Emperor Charles V. obtained from Popes Leo X.
and Adrian VI. the supreme direction of all the affairs of the order, and,
consequently, the dignity of grand master became attached to the crown.
But the power of the king was not suffered to be absolute; for the popes
compelled him to consent that the affairs of the order should be managed
by a council, with a right of appeal to the pope himself. The power of the
Spanish kings then became a species of influence, rather than of direct
prerogative.

[Sidenote: Change of its objects.]

The object of the association, the expulsion of the Moors from Spain,
being accomplished, this religious order became an order of merit,--a
feather in the plume of Spanish dignity. It could be gained only by the
nobility; for it then behoved every knight to prove the gentility of his
descent, maternal and paternal, for four degrees. The old vows of poverty,
obedience, and conjugal chastity were preserved, with a mental reservation
regarding the two former.

In the year 1652, the knights of St. James as well as the knights of
Calatrava and Alcantara, in the fervour of their zeal for what they called
religion, added a vow to defend and maintain the doctrine of the
immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary. The people of Madrid were
invited to three churches to witness the taking of the vows by the
knights. After the celebration of the mass a cavalier in the name of all
his brothers pronounced the vow[359], and every one repeated it, placing
his hand on the cross and the Gospels. And thus an order, which in its
origin was charitable, in its progress patriotic, had the bright glories
of its days of honor sullied by superstition.[360]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Order of Calatrava.]

The next station in the dignity of rank was occupied by the knights of
Calatrava, who, considering the circumstances of their origin, may be
regarded as a more honourable fraternity than the brotherhood of St.
James. About the year 1147, Alfonso King of Spain recovered from the Moors
the fortress of Calatrava, which was the key of Toledo. The king committed
it to the charge of the Knights Templars. That noble order of Christian
soldiers was then in the very infancy of its career of honour, and so few
were the red crosses in Spain, that they could not drive back the swelling
tide of Muselman power. After retaining it for only eight years, the
Templars resigned it into the hands of Don Sancho, successor of Alfonso,
who endeavoured to secure for it defenders, by proposing to accord
Calatrava and its lands in perpetual possession to such knights as would
undertake the guarding of the fortress. The chivalry of Spain, remembering
that the brave militia of the Temple had quailed before the Moors, hung
back in caution and dismay; and Sancho already saw the fate of Calatrava
sealed in Arabian subjection, when the cloisters of a convent rang with a
cry of war which was unheard in the baronial hall.

[Sidenote: Fine chivalry of a monk.]

The monastery of Santa Maria de Fetero in Navarre contained a monk named
Diego Velasquez, who had spent the morning of his life in arms, but
afterwards had changed the mailed frock for a monastic mantle, for in days
of chivalry, when religion was the master spring of action, such
conversions were easy and natural. The gloom of a convent was calculated
only to repress the martial spirit; but yet the surrounding memorials of
military greatness, the armed warrior in stone, the overhanging banner and
gauntlet, while they proved the frail nature of earthly happiness, showed
what were the subjects wherein men wished for fame beyond the grave. The
pomp of the choir-service, the swelling note of exultation in which the
victories of the Jews over the enemies of Heaven were sung, could not but
excite the heart to admiration of chivalric renown, and in moments of
enthusiasm many a monk cast his cowl aside, and changed his rosary for the
belt of a knight.

And thus it was with Velasquez. His chivalric spirit was roused by the
call of his king, and he lighted a flame of military ardor among his
brethren. They implored the superior of the convent to accept the royal
proffer; and the king, who was at first astonished at the apparent
audacity of the wish, soon recollected that the defence of the fortress of
Calatrava could not be achieved by the ordinary exertions of courage, and
he then granted it to the Cistertian order, and principally to its station
at Santa Maria de Fetero, in Navarre. And the fortress was wisely betowed;
for not only did the bold spirits of the convents keep the Moors at bay
in that quarter, but the valour of the friars caused many heroic knights
of Spain to join them. To these banded monks and cavaliers the king gave
the title of the Religious Fraternity of Calatrava, and Pope Alexander
III. accepted their vows of poverty, obedience, and chastity. The new
religious order of knighthood, like that of Saint James of Compostella,
was a noble bulwark of the Christian kingdom.

[Sidenote: Discipline of the order.]

[Sidenote: Fame of this order.]

Nothing could be more perfect than the simplicity of the knights of
Calatrava. Their dress was formed from the coarsest woollen, and the edges
were not like those of many a monk of the time, purfiled or ornamented
with vair or gris, or other sorts of rich fur. Their diet, too, reproached
the usual luxury of the monastery, for the fruits of the earth sustained
them. They were silent in the oratory, and the refectory, one voice only
reciting the prayers, or reading a legend of battle; but when the first
note of the Moorish atabal was heard by the warder on the tower, the
convent became a scene of universal uproar. The caparisoning of steeds,
and the clashing of armour, broke the repose of the cloister, while the
humble figure of the monk was raised into a bold and expanded form of
dignity and power. Through all the mighty efforts of the Christians for
the recovery of their throne, the firm and dense array of the knights of
Calatrava never was tardy in appearing on the field; but the kingdom, as
its power and splendour increased, overshadowed the soldiers of every
religious order of chivalry. The grand mastership of the Calatrava
fraternity became annexed to the thrones of Castile and Leon by the decree
of Pope Innocent VIII., and the Kings of Spain kept alive the chivalry of
their nation by using the crosses and other emblems of the ancient
knighthood as signs of military merit.[361]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Order of Alcantara.]

Inferior in dignity and power to both these orders was the order of
Alcantara. It was formed soon after the establishing of the fraternity of
Saint James of Compostella, at a town called Saint Julian of the
Pear-tree, near Ciudad Rodrigo. The ancient badge was a pear-tree, in
allusion to the origin of the order. The knights of the Pear-tree were so
poor in worldly estate and consideration, that the knights of Calatrava
took them under their protection, and gave them the town of Alcantara. The
knights of the Pear-tree then quitted their humble title for a name of
loftier sound, though ideas of dependence were associated with it. For
nearly two centuries the cavaliers of Alcantara remained the vassals and
retainers of the knights of Calatrava; but the spirit of independence
gradually rose with their prowess in the field; and about the year 1412
their martial array was led to battle by their own grand master. Until the
union of the Spanish crowns in the persons of Ferdinand and Isabella, they
rivalled their former lords and the knights of Saint James in power and
rank: the crown then placed them within its own control, and like the
other fraternities, the main object of whose institution had been the
expulsion of the Moors from Spain, the cross of the order of Alcantara
became a mere decoration of nobility.[362]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Knights of our Lady of Mercy.]

Co-existent with these religious brotherhoods was a charitable
establishment, which completed the blessings of chivalry in Spain.
Experience of the wretchedness of imprisonment taught James I. of Arragon
to sympathise with the hapless fate of others; and about the year 1218 he
associated several valiant knights and pious ecclesiastics in Barcelona,
whose whole thoughts and cares were to have for their chief end and aim
the applying of the alms of the charitable towards the liberation of
Christian captives. Knights of our Lady of Mercy was their title; and
every cavalier at his inauguration professed his heart's resolve to
observe the vows of chastity, obedience, and poverty, to apply the whole
energies of his mind and feelings to succour such of his unhappy
countrymen as, by the chance of battle, were in Moorish prisons, and if
necessary to remain a slave in the hands of the Saracens rather than
abandon his duty of procuring the redemption of captives. The general
course of their lives was directed by the rule of Saint Benedict, for a
knight as a monk,--

              "When he is reckless,[363]
  Is like to a fish that is waterless."[364]

So zealous were the Spaniards in promoting the noble objects of this
order, that within the first six years of its institution no less than
four hundred captives were ransomed. Originally the government of the
order was in the hands of the knights, afterwards the priests obtained a
share of the command, and finally they usurped it altogether, a matter of
little reprehension, considering that the purpose of the institution had
no military features. After the complete triumph of the Christian cause
the scene of charity was changed from Spain to Africa; and it is curious
to observe, that the order sullied the impartiality of its principle by
releasing first the monks who had fallen into the hands of the African
Moors, and then, but not before, the laity.[365]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Knights of St. Michael.]

Superstition as well as charity gave birth to some religious orders of
knighthood. The Knights of the Wing of Saint Michael, in Portugal, a very
honourable order in chivalric times, had their origin in the opinion of
Alfonso, King of Portugal, that Saint Michael the Archangel assisted him
in 1171 to gain a great victory over the Moors. Only persons of noble
birth could be admitted members of this order. The knights lived in their
monastery agreeably to the rule of Saint Benedict. Their most anxious care
in private life was to discharge the chivalric duty of protecting widows
and orphans, and when they marched into the field of battle, the support
of the Catholic faith was the motto on their standard.[366]

[Sidenote: Military orders.]

But it would be profitless to pursue the subject; for the religious orders
of knighthood are only worthy of enquiry as far as they are connected with
the defence of the Holy Land, and the expulsion of the Moors from Spain.

  "Turn we now all the matere,
  And speke we of"

the military orders founded in imitation of those whose history has just
been related; not that I shall transcribe their statutes or paint their
costume,--such matters belong to the herald. It is the part of the
historian to notice their existence, to trace the principles which gave
rise to them, and to mark such parts of their rules or their annals as
reflect the state of manners.

Though knights were often created before battle, for the purpose of
stimulating them to achieve high exploits, yet many were invested after
they had fought, and proved themselves worthy of their spurs. But
knighthood was so much diffused through society, that it almost ceased to
be a distinction; and kings and other rulers who wished to shew their
power or their gratitude were obliged to give a new form to chivalric
dignity. The religious orders of knighthood presented a fair example of
the benefits of close fraternity; and as those societies often gave a
patriotic direction to chivalric feelings, so kings found the orders of
military merit which they established admirable means of uniting in a bond
of brotherhood their high-spirited nobles. When Louis, King of Hungary,
avenged the murder of his brother Andrew, he endeavoured to unite the
Hungarian and Neapolitan nobles by associating them in a fraternity called
the Order of the Knot. The order did not live long. There were some
singular provisions in this order of the Knot: there was to be an annual
meeting of the knights on the day of Pentecost; and each knight was
obliged to deliver to the chaplain of the order a written account of his
adventures in the preceding year. The chaplain delivered it to the king
and council, who ordered such parts as they approved of to be registered
in the great book of the order. The order of the Argonautes of Saint
Nicholas, at Naples, was instituted by Charles the Third, for the avowed
purpose of fraternising his lords; and in the year 1579, when indeed the
days of chivalry may be considered as past, the order of the Holy Ghost
was established in France: the friendly union of the nobility and prelates
of the land was declared to be a great purpose of the order. The throne of
France had already been strengthened by the order of Saint Michael,
founded about a century before by Louis XI., to draw the affections of the
nobility to himself.

Knights who were associated under one title, and lived under one code of
regulations, were in truth companions in arms; and, like any two cavaliers
who had vowed to live in brotherhood, the banded knights were united for
weal or woe, and were bound to assist each other with council and arms, as
if a perfect community of interest existed. This was the general
principle, but it was relaxed in favour of knights of foreign countries.
Kings frequently interchanged orders, stipulating at the same time that in
case of war they should be at liberty to return them. Instances of this
nature occur repeatedly in the history of the middle ages; and in the last
days of chivalry the principle of the companionship of knights was very
artfully applied by Henry VII. to the support of his own avarice. The
French king wished to borrow from him a sum of money in order to prosecute
a war with the King of Naples; but Henry replied that he could not with
honour aid any prince against the sovereign of Naples, who had received
the Garter, and was therefore his companion and ally. To give such
assistance would be to act contrary to the oath which he had taken to
observe the statutes of the order.[367]

[Sidenote: Imitations of the religious orders.]

[Sidenote: Instanced in the Garter order.]

The rewarding of noble achievements in the higher classes of society was a
principle that ran through all the martial orders, but they were not
exclusively aristocratic when simple knighthood fell into disuse, and the
military brotherhood represented the ancient chivalry. These associations
of merit adopted many of the principles and usages of the religious orders
of knighthood. Notwithstanding the real causes of their foundation,
religious objects were always set forth. Fraternisation and the reward of
military merit were undoubtedly the reasons for instituting the most noble
order of the Garter; and yet in the statutes the exaltation of the holy
faith, Catholic, is declared to be the great purpose of the brotherhood.
This is expressed in the statutes of the order promulgated in the reign of
Henry the Eighth, and the words are evidently copied from earlier
authorities.[368] As the exaltation of the Roman Catholic religion is
certainly not in the minds of the modern members of the Garter, I may
adduce these facts in proof of my position in an early part of this
chapter, that the orders of knighthood have always been flexible to the
change of society.

The military, like the religious orders, had their establishments of
priests. Thus, to the knights companions of the Garter were added a
prelate, a chancellor, and the chapel of Saint George at Windsor, with its
dean and chapter. Prayers and thanksgivings were perpetually to be offered
to heaven, and masses were ordered to be celebrated for the souls of
deceased companions. Some military orders, like their religious exemplars,
forgot not the promotion of charitable objects, and Edward the Third, with
particular propriety, connected with that most noble order which he
founded, a number of poor or alms-knights, men who through adverse
fortune were brought to that extremity, that they had not of their own
wherewith to sustain them, or live so richly and nobly as became a
military condition.[369]

Every military fraternity had a cross of some shape or other among its
emblems. To the highest order of merit in England a cross, as well as a
garter, was assigned; but the silver star of eight points, which Charles
I. with so little propriety, and with such wretched taste, commanded the
knights to wear, renders insignificant the original chivalric designation
of the order. The associations of nobles were always expressed to have
been formed to the honor of God, or of some of his saints. Thus, even in
the present days, a knight of the Garter is admonished at his installation
to wear the symbols of his order, that, by the imitation of the blessed
martyr and soldier of Christ, Saint George, he may be able to overpass
both adverse and prosperous adventures; and that, having stoutly
vanquished his enemies, both of body and soul, he may not only receive the
praise of this transitory combat, but be crowned with the palm of eternal
victory.

[Sidenote: Few of the present orders are of chivalric origin.]

Considering the fact that many of the honours of the present day have a
chivalric form, we might expect that most of our military orders could be
traced to the splendid times of knighthood. Attempts to prove so high an
origin have been often made. Knights of the order called the Most Ancient
Order of the Thistle justly think that a foundation in the sixteenth
century scarcely merits so august a title. They have ascended, therefore,
to the days of Charlemagne himself; and, boasting an union between their
king Fergus and that emperor, have contended that the order of the Thistle
was founded to commemorate the glorious event. The supporters of this
hypothesis tread with timid steps the sombre walks of antiquity; others,
with bolder march, have ascended several centuries higher, and fancied
that they saw a great battle between the Scots and the English, when the
former won the victory by the aid of Saint Andrew, and that an equestrian
order, properly called the Order of St. Andrew, and vulgarly, the Order of
the Thistle, was founded. With equal extravagance, the order of St.
Michael, in France, pretends to the possession of a regular descent from
Michael the Archangel, who, according to the enlightened judgment of
French antiquarians, was the premier chevalier in the world, and it was
he, they say, who established the earliest chivalric order in Paradise
itself. But, in simple truth, the order of Saint Michael was founded by
Louis XI., King of France in the year 1469, and the name of Michael was
used, for he stood as high in favour in France as Saint George did in
England. Except the orders of the Garter and the Golden Fleece, the one
established in 1344, the other in 1429, and the order of St. Michael
already mentioned, a chivalric origin cannot be successfully claimed for
any of the institutions of knighthood. Thus, the order of Saint Stephen
was founded in 1561, that of Saint Michael, in Germany, in 1618, and those
of the Holy Ghost in 1579, and of Saint Louis in 1693; and none of these
years dates with the age of chivalry. A view, therefore, of most of the
military orders that now flourish comes not within the scope of the
present work. On one of them, however, a few words may be said.

[Sidenote: Order of the Bath.]

England, above all other countries, can pride herself on the chivalric
nature of her military rewards; for her Most Honourable Order of the Bath
is a revival of an institution of chivalry, while her Most Noble Order of
the Garter has suffered no suspension of its dignity. In tracing the
progress of chivalry in England, I shall show that the knighthood of the
Bath was an honour distinct from that which constituted the ordinary
knighthood of the sword; and that from very early times to the days of
Charles II. it was conferred on occasions of certain august solemnities,
with great state, upon the royal issue male, the princes of the
blood-royal, several of the nobility, principal officers, and other
persons distinguished by their birth, quality, and personal merit. George
I., in the year 1727, not only revived that order of knighthood, but
converted it into a regular military order.

The curious ceremonies regarding the Bath itself were dispensed with; but
in many other respects the imitation was sufficiently exact. It was
ordained that a banner of each knight was to be placed over, and a plate
of his crest, helmet, and sword, was to be affixed to his stall in the
chapel of Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey. All the romantic associations
of early times were pleasingly attended to; for on the seal of the order
were to be represented three imperial crowns _Or_, being the arms usually
ascribed to the renowned King Arthur. The lady-love of chivalric times was
to be commemorated in the collar; for its seventeen knobs, enamelled
white, which linked imperial crowns of gold and thistles, were intended to
represent the white laces mentioned in the ancient ceremonial of
conferring knighthood of the Bath, and which were worn till the knight had
achieved some high emprise, or till they had been removed by the hand of
some fair and noble lady. The collar, however, is an honorary distinction
of the order, whereas the white laces were regarded as a stigma. The form
of the old oath was also strictly preserved, even with the singular clause
that a knight would defend maidens, widows, and orphans, in their rights;
and, as it had been said in old times, a newly-made companion was
admonished to use his sword to the glory of God, the defence of the
Gospel, the maintenance of his sovereign's right and honour, and of all
equity and justice, to the utmost of his power. At the close of the
ceremony, and without the door of the abbey, the king's master-cook made
the usual admonition to him, viz. "Sir, you know what great oath you have
taken; which, if you keep it, will be great honour to you; but if you
break it, I shall be compelled, by my office, to hack off your spurs from
your heels."

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Dormant orders.]

Of those orders, which are either dormant or extinct, the account needs
only be brief; for their history contains little matter that is either
fanciful or instructive. An enlightened curiosity could find no
satisfaction in investigating the annals of the extinct order of Saint
Anthony of Hainault, or of the order of the Sword of Cyprus, and a
thousand others, whose history, presenting only a list of grand masters,
and the ceremonies of knightly inauguration, adds nothing to our pleasure
or our knowledge.

[Sidenote: Order of the Band.]

[Sidenote: Its singular rules.]

A few exceptions may be made to this opinion. In the year 1330 Alphonso
XI., King of Spain, attached many of the nobility to his interests by
founding an order of merit, which from the circumstance of every knight
wearing a red ribbon three inches broad across the breast and shoulder was
called the order of the Band or Scarf. Some of the rules of the
institution are exceedingly interesting, as reflecting the state of
manners and opinions in Spain during the fourteenth century. Not only were
the duties of patriotism and loyalty inculcated by the statutes of the
order, but, singular as it may seem in the history of Spain, virtue was to
be cultivated at court, for every knight was charged to speak nothing but
truth to his sovereign, and to abhor dissimulation and flattery. He was
not to be silent whenever any person spoke against the king's honour, upon
pain of being banished from the court, and deprived of his band: but he
was to be always ready to address the king for the general good of the
country, or on the particular affairs of any individual; and supposing
that his patriotic virtue might be checked by his attachment to his
sovereign, the punishment for neglecting this duty was a forfeiture of all
his patrimony, and perpetual banishment. Of the two extremes, taciturnity
was to be preferred to loquaciousness: he was to be rather "checked for
silence" than "taxed for speech;" and if in his conversation he uttered an
untruth, he was to walk in the streets without a sword for a month. He was
bound to keep his faith to whomever he had pledged it; but he was to
associate only with men of martial rank, despising the conversation of
mechanics and artisans.

Every knight was enjoined always to have good armour in his chamber, good
horses in his stable, good lances in his hall, and a good sword by his
side; nor was he to be mounted upon any mule nor other unseemly hackney,
nor to walk abroad without his band, nor to enter the king's palace
without his sword; and he was to avoid all ascetic practices, for he was
particularly enjoined not to eat alone. The vices of flattery and of
scoffing were to be shunned; and the penalty for committing them was for
the knight to walk on foot for a month, and to be confined to his house
for another month. Boasting and repining were both prohibited: the reproof
of the grand master and the neglect of him by his companions were to
punish the offender. A knight was not permitted to complain of any
hurt[370]; and even while he was being mangled by the surgeons of the
times, he was to deport himself with stoical firmness. In walking, either
in the court or the city, the gait of the knight was to be slow and
solemn; and he was exhorted to preserve a discreet and grave demeanour,
when any vain and foolish person mocked at and scorned him.

[Sidenote: Duties to women.]

Chivalric duties to women were more insisted upon in this order than in
any other. If a knight instituted an action against the daughter of a
brother-knight, no lady or gentlewoman of the court would ever afterwards
be his lady-love, or wife. If he happened, when he was riding, to meet any
lady or gentlewoman of the court it was his duty to alight from his horse,
and tender her his service, upon pain of losing a month's wages and the
favour of all dames and damsels. The circumstance was scarcely conceived
to be possible, but the statutes of the order, to provide for every
imaginable as well every probable offence, decreed that he who refused to
perform any service which a fair lady commanded should be branded with the
title, The Discourteous Knight.

The statutes echoed the voice of nature in all her appeals to the heart;
and thus every cavalier was enjoined to select from the ladies of the
court some one upon whom his affections might rest, some one who was to be
to him like a light leading him forward in the noble path of chivalry.
There was no penalty for disobedience to this command, for disobedience
seems to have been thought impossible. All the higher acts of chivalric
devotion to his lady-love were presumed to be performed by the knight; and
to show that his daily duties to his Order were to give way to his
attention to his mistress, it was commanded that whenever she pleased to
walk, he was to attend upon her on foot or on horseback, to do her all
possible honour and service. When by his valiant feats against the Moors
he had proved himself worthy of her love, the day of his marriage was a
festival with his brother-knights, who made rich presents to the lady, and
honoured the nuptials with cavaleresque games and shows. Nor did this
generous consideration for woman stop here; for when a knight died, his
surviving brothers were bound to solicit the King to make such grants of
land and money to the family as would enable the widow to maintain her
wonted state, and would furnish the marriage-portions of his daughters.

The band of the deceased knight was, agreeably to the general usage of the
military orders, to be re-delivered to the king, who was to be solicited
to bestow it upon one of the sons of its last wearer. The king was to
select the knights from among the younger sons of men of station in the
country, but no elder brother or other heir-apparent could be received;
for it was the purpose of the founder to advance the fortunes of the nobly
born, but indifferently provided, gentlemen of his court. Only one species
of exception was made to this form of introduction. The honor of the order
was conferred upon any stranger-knight who overcame one of the companions
in the joust or tournament. This regulation was made for the general honor
of chivalry, and the promotion of noble chevisance among the knights of
the band. It was a bold defiance, and was seldom answered.[371]

The order of Bourbon, called of the Thistle, and of Our Lady, must not
pass unnoticed. It was instituted at Moulins, in the Bourbonnois, in the
year 1370, by Louis II., Duke of Bourbon, who was named, on account of his
virtues, the Good Duke. It had for its object the winning of honor by
acts of chivalry. The device of the order was a golden shield; and when it
was given to knights they were exhorted to live as brethren, and die for
each other if occasion should require it. They were told that every good
action which beseemed chivalry ought to be performed by the knights of
Bourbon. Above all things, they were exhorted to honor ladies, not
permitting any man to speak slanderous matters of them, because, after
God, comes from them all honor which men can acquire. Nothing could be
more base than to vilify that sex which had not the strength to redress
its wrongs. The knights were charged not to speak evil of each other, for
that was the foulest vice which a nobleman or gentleman could be taxed
with; and in conclusion, as the summary of their duty, they were exhorted
to practise faith and loyalty, and to respect each other as became knights
of praise and virtue.[372]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Strange titles of orders.]

The occasions of the titles of many of the military orders are more
interesting than a view of the external marks of their chivalry.
Notwithstanding the haughtiness of knighthood, one of the most celebrated
orders took its name from no chivalric source. The order was instituted
by Philip Duke of Burgundy, who named the fraternity the Knights of the
Golden Fleece, in gratitude to the trade in woollens by which he and his
family had been so much enriched. In the fifteenth century, the order of
the Porcupine was highly celebrated in France; and it was furnished with
its singular title from the fancy of the founder (Louis Duke of Orleans,
second son of Charles V. King of France), that by such a sign he should
commemorate the fact, that he had been abandoned by his friends in
adversity, and that he was able to defend himself by his own weapons.
While the Porcupine was a favourite order in France, that of the
Dragon-overthrown was famous in Germany; and by this ferocious title, the
Emperor Sigismond intended to express his conquest over heresy and schism.
The Dukes of Mantua fancied that they possessed three drops of our
Saviour's blood; and an order of knighthood was instituted in the year
1608, which took for its title the order of the Precious Blood of our
Saviour Jesus Christ, at Mantua.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Fabulous orders.]

The chivalric nations of Europe attached as much consequence to orders
which existed only in their own fervid imagination as to those whose
lineage was certain. To Constantine the Great was ascribed the honor of
inventing the first military order of knighthood. The great captains of
his court were said to have been associated under the title of the order
of the Constantinian Angelic Knights of Saint George, that Saint being in
Greece, as well as in England, the patron of military men. The
grand-mastership resided in the Imperial family. After the fall of the
Eastern empire, the order passed into Italy; and the knights of that
country imagined the existence of papal bulls, which permitted the grand
masters to sit at the same table with the Popes, to coin money, and to
confer titles of honor, whether in nobility or learning, and exercise
every prerogative of independent princes. But it would be in vain to
enquire after the names of any of these mensal companions of the Pope; and
no cabinet of curiosities contains any coins which they struck in
attestation of their power.

The memory of Charles Martel's great victory over the Moors was preserved
in the middle ages of France, by the belief that the conqueror had
established an order of knighthood called the Order of the Gennet; and
lists of cavaliers were drawn out, and statutes imagined, attesting only
the love of the French for chivalric distinctions. The Spaniards delighted
to imagine that their early victories over the Moors were commemorated by
an order called the Order of the Oak in Navarre, and founded on occasion
of the Holy Cross, adored by an infinite number of angels, appearing to a
Gothic chief who led the Christians.

[Sidenote: The Round Table.]

But of all these imaginary orders none is so interesting as that of the
Round Table, instituted by Uther Pendragon, King of Great Britain, and
which reached its perfection of martial glory in the reign of his son
Arthur. While our ancient historians exaggerated into heroism the
patriotic efforts of the last of the British kings, the minstrels who sang
in the baronial halls superadded the charms of chivalric circumstance.
Since the time of Adam, God hath not made a man more perfect than Arthur,
was the favourite opinion; and when his remains were discovered in the
Abbey of Glastonbury, in the year 1189, the people from their idea that
prowess always corresponded with size of limb fancied that his bones were
of gigantic frame.[373]

The court of Arthur was supposed to be the seminary of military discipline
of knights of all countries; and it was thought that his hundred and
fifty[374] good companions felt it their chief devoir to protect widows,
maidens, and orphans[375], not only in England, but in every country
whither they might be invited. They were champions of the public weal, and
like lions repulsed the enemies of their country. It was their duty to
advance the reputation of honor, and suppress all vice, to relieve people
afflicted by adverse fortune, to fight for holy church, and protect
pilgrims. They were likewise supposed to be enjoined to bury soldiers that
wanted sepulture, to deliver prisoners, ransom captives, and heal men who
had been wounded in the service of chivalry and their country.
Independently of these patriotic and humane charges, they were thought to
have formed a standing court for the redress of injuries; for Arthur, in
case of any complaint being laid before him, was bound to send one of his
knights to redress it.

[Sidenote: Sir Launcelot.]

The virtues of the knights of the Round Table were the mirror in which the
chivalry of England arrayed themselves. These virtues are admirably
described in the lamentation of Sir Ector over the dead body of Sir
Launcelot of the Lake, the prowest of all the companions of Arthur:--"Thou
wert never matched of none earthly knight's hands; and thou wert the
curtiest knight that ever bare shield; and thou wert the truest friend to
thy lover that ever bestrode horse; and thou wert the truest lover of a
sinful man that ever loved woman; and thou wert the kindest man that ever
struck with sword; and thou wert the goodliest person that ever came among
press of knights; and thou wert the meekest man and the gentlest that ever
ate in hall among ladies; and thou wert the sternest knight to thy mortal
foe that ever put spere in the rest."[376] Next in rank to Sir Launcelot
was his friend Sir Tristram, the history of whose emprises and love
entered so largely into the fancies and conversation of our ancestors.
Then came Sir Gawaine, a nephew of Arthur, the bright exemplar of
courtesy, the virtue which was so highly prized in chivalric times.
Chaucer makes a very pleasing allusion to him in his Squire's Tale.
Describing the entrance of the strange knight, our old bard says that he

  "Salueth king and lordes alle
  By order as they sat in the hall,
  With so high reverence and observance,
  As well in speech as in his countenance,
  That Gawain with his old courtesy,
  Though he were come agen out of faerie,
  Ne coude him not amenden with a word."[376]

The most prominent of all the chivalric virtues which the institutions of
Arthur shadowed forth was that of fraternity: for it was believed that
round one vast and mysterious table, the gift of the enchanter Merlin,
Arthur and all his peerage sat in perfect equality; and to this idea may
be traced the circumstance that the friendly familiarity of a chivalric
round table broke down the iron distinctions of feudal haughtiness, and
not only "mitigated kings into companions, but raised private men to be
fellows with kings." Localities unlock the gates of memory, whether the
stores within be treasured there by imagination or the sterner powers of
the mind; and with a more serious interest than that with which the modern
traveller follows Don Quixote in the Sierra Morena our ancestors were wont
to mark Winchester and Windsor, Camelot in Somersetshire, Carlion in
Monmouthshire, where

                          "Uther's son,
  Begirt with British and Armoric knights,"

held his solemn feasts about the Round Table.

[Sidenote: Order of the Stocking.]

[Sidenote: Origin of the phrase Blue Stocking.]

Many of the orders whose histories fill the pages of works on knighthood
have no claims to their places; for they were only associations of
cavaliers without royal or pontifical authority, and wearing no badge or
cross, except in the imagination of the writer. Only one of these
fraternities merits mention here. The Society de la Calza (of the
Stocking) was formed at Venice in the year 1400, to the honor of the
inauguration of the Doge, Michele Steno. The employments of the members
were conversation and festivity; and so splendid were the entertainments
of music and dancing, that the gay spirits of other parts of Italy
anxiously solicited the honor of seats in the society. All their statutes
regarded only the ceremonies of the ball or the theatre; and the members
being resolved on their rigorous performance, took an oath in a church to
that tendency. They had banners and a seal like an authorised order of
knighthood. Their dress was as splendid and elegant as Venetian luxury and
taste could fashion it; and, consistently with the singular custom of the
Italians of marking academies and other intellectual associations by some
external signs of folly, the members when they met in literary discussion
were distinguished by the colours of their stockings. The colours were
sometimes fantastically blended, and at other times one colour,
particularly the _blue_, prevailed. The Society de la Calza lasted till
the year 1590[377] when the foppery of Italian literature took some other
symbol. The rejected title then crossed the Alps, and found a congenial
soil in the flippancy and literary triflings of Parisian society, and
particularly branded female pedantry as the strongest feature in the
character of French pretension. It diverged from France to England, and
for a while marked the vanity of the small advances in literature of our
female coteries. But the propriety of its application is now gradually
ceasing; for we see in every circle that attainments in literature can be
accomplished with no loss of womanly modesty. It is in this country, above
all others, that knowledge asserts her right of general dominion, or
contends that if she be the sustaining energy of one sex, she forms the
lighter charm, the graceful drapery of the other.




CHAP. VIII.

PROGRESS OF CHIVALRY IN ENGLAND, FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO THE CLOSE OF
THE REIGN OF EDWARD II.

    _Chivalry connected with Feudalism ... Stipendiary Knights ...
    Knighthood a compulsory Honour ... Fine Instance of Chivalry in the
    Reign of Edward I ... Effect of Chivalry in Stephen's Reign ...
    Troubadours and Romance Writers in the Reign of Henry II ... Chivalric
    Manners of the Time ... Coeur de Lion the first Chivalric King ... His
    Knightly Bearing ... John and Henry III ... Edward I ... His Gallantry
    at a Tournament ... His unchivalric Cruelties ... He possessed no
    knightly Courtesy ... Picture of ancient Manners ... Edward II ...
    Chivalric Circumstance in the Battle of Bannockburn ... Singular
    Effect of Chivalry in the Reign of Edward II._


In the first chapter we traced, by the help of the few lights which yet
remain, the rise of chivalry in Europe. We may now mark its progress, and,
in order to avoid the inconvenience of frequent transitions, it will be
better to follow the historical train in each chivalric country, than to
attempt to form one general collection of knightly events. And first, of
its influence in England.

       *       *       *       *       *

Many chivalric principles and customs were known to the Anglo-Saxons[378],
and affected, in some degree, the character of the nation.[379] Many of
the elements of chivalry were brought into England by the Normans, and, in
the course of time, they were framed, by the energy which was involved in
them, into a fair and noble system. The adventurousness of knighthood
comported well with a people who, quitting the inhospitable shores of
Scandinavia, had impressed their conquests on France, Italy, and even
Greece. The Norman nation was one vast brotherhood, and therefore it was
natural for them to nourish the principles of chivalric fraternity.[380]
It is recorded of them that they brought from the north a love of
splendor, and having learnt courtesy of manner from the French, they were
fitted to admire the shows and the gallantry of knighthood.[381] They
affected, indeed, to despise the religious parts of the Saxon ceremonies
of initiation into knighthood, but they soon adopted them; for we find
that William Rufus himself was knighted by Archbishop Lanfrank.[382]

[Sidenote: Chivalry connected with feudalism.]

[Sidenote: Stipendiary knights.]

Chivalry became established as part of the national constitution when
William the Conqueror divided the country into about sixty thousand
knights' fees, with the tenure of military service. The clergy, as well as
the laity, were compelled to furnish armed knights, on horseback, as the
price of their possessions, when the king went abroad against his enemies;
and, consequently, knights became attached to every ecclesiastical
foundation. These servants of the church were generally younger members of
baronial families; and as there was constant occasion for them, chivalry
became a military profession. In England, as in every country, the feudal
array was found insufficient for foreign wars, and wide-spread domestic
rebellions; for few contests could be finished in forty days,--and that
was the brief space which, in the earliest simplicity of feudal times, had
been fixed for the duration of military service. As petty states swelled
into kingdoms, and their public operations became extensive, many a
martial enterprise was broken up before achievement, because the time of
service had expired. So frequent were the calls on the holders of knights'
fees, that they were glad to compromise for attendance by pecuniary
penalties. The sovereigns were exorbitant in their exactions, in order to
be able to pay the stipendiary substitutes; but one of the most important
provisions of Magna Charta gave to parliament alone the power of imposing
this escuage or military tax.[383] When the custom of escuage arose is a
matter which no antiquarian researches have settled. The clause in Magna
Charta shows not only its existence, but its being used as an instrument
of tyranny; and under this aspect of chivalric history, the reign of John
is important. Most of these stipendiary subsidiaries were knights, with
their equipments of men-at-arms and archers; and the sovereign was
accustomed to contract with his barons for their attendance upon him in
his foreign expeditions. Chivalry and feudal tenure were, therefore, no
longer convertible terms; yet the spirit of knighthood long survived the
decay of the forms of feudal obligation; for the practice of escuage was
fully established in the days of Edward III.; and that was the brightest
era of English chivalry.

[Sidenote: Knighthood a compulsory honor.]

In England, knighthood was always regarded as the necessary distinction of
people of some substance and estate.[384] In the reigns of our three first
Edwards the qualification for knighthood varied from land of the yearly
value of forty to that of fifty pounds. The King was the sovereign and
supreme judge of chivalry, and he might confer knighthood on whomsoever he
chose. He could compel men of worth to be knights, for knighthood was
honourable to the kingdom. Like the performance of every other duty in all
states of society, that of knighthood could be commuted for by money; and
the royal invitation to honour was so extensive as to be inconvenient; for
a statute was passed in the reign of Edward II. whereby the King respited
for some time the payment of the fines of such persons whose station in
the world made knighthood a necessary part of their consequence. Besides
all these ways of forming the knighthood of England, must be added the
custom of elevating to chivalric dignities men who had gained renown by
martial exploits. This was indeed a mode more pure in principle, and,
therefore, more honourable than any we have mentioned.

The military necessities of many of our sovereigns favoured the growth of
chivalry. William Rufus invited to his court the prowest cavaliers from
every country[385]; for as his father had effected the subjugation of
Harold not merely by the feudal force of Normandy, but by hired soldiers,
it was the natural policy of the kings of the Norman line to attach to
their person valiant men who were not connected by ties of nature with the
people.

[Sidenote: Fine instance of chivalry in reign of Henry I.]

The principles and feelings of chivalry were firmly established in England
in the reign of Henry I., and gave the tone and character to our foreign
military warfare. This state of things is proved in an interesting manner
by a circumstance that occurred during the war of Henry with Louis the
French king. The reader remembers that the latter had espoused the cause
of William the son of Robert, Henry's elder brother, who was kept by his
uncle from his rightful inheritance of Normandy. The chivalric anecdote is
this: The two armies were approaching each other near Audelay, when,
instead of rushing to the conflict with their whole masses, five hundred
knights on the English side and four hundred on the French prepared for an
encounter, a joust to the utterance. About eighty Normans, friends of the
French king, charged the centre of Henry's line with true chivalric fire.
The English monarch was severely wounded in the head, but the Normans
could not pierce the firm line of the English, and they were all taken
prisoners. The three hundred remaining knights of Louis made a fine
attempt to redeem their companions in arms. Again the English line was
impenetrable, and the recoil of the shock scattered the French. Henry's
soldiers now were assailants; and so fiercely did they press their
advantage, that even the French king scarcely escaped with life.[386]

[Sidenote: Effect of chivalry in Stephen's reign.]

The knightly character had an important effect on England during the
troublous reign of Stephen. As he was deserted by his barons, he called
in foreign cavaliers to assist him in his resistance to the Empress Maud.
Their valour was rewarded by the grant of estates; and thus a new order of
nobility arose to shake the arrogance of the old; and new opinions,
feelings, and manners, became blended with English habits.

[Sidenote: Troubadours and romance writers,--reign of Henry II.]

[Sidenote: Chivalric manners of the time.]

The arms of chivalry grew rusty in the long and unwarlike reign of Henry
II.; but many of the milder graces of knighthood were cultivated in
consequence of the love of letters entertained by the sovereign and his
queen. The Troubadours found royal and, from the force of example, noble,
patronage in England; and, however offensive to a classic ear their
conceits and bombast may sound, yet, since they treated love as an affair
of the fancy rather than as an appetite, they contributed to purify the
manners of the age. By another channel literature promoted the cause of
arms. Romance with her bold fictions and splendid colouring inspired the
tamest hearts with the love of adventure. Such of the traditions and
fables regarding Arthur and the knights of the Round Table as dwelt in the
memory of the people of Britanny (that ancient colony of England) were
collected by an Archdeacon Walter, of Oxford, and formed part of a Latin
history of Great Britain that was written in the time of Henry I. by
Jeffry of Monmouth. Wace, the translator-general of the age, turned it
into Anglo-Norman verse, mingling with it all the stories of his hero that
were floating in the English mind. The subject was fitted to the martial
taste of the time; and as the book was now rendered into the language of
the upper classes of life, it found its way into the baronial hall and the
lady's bower. This was the earliest of the French metrical romances; and
before the close of the twelfth century nothing was read by the nobility
but romances of Arthur and his knights. And the sports and exercises of
the time nourished the chivalric spirit. A writer of those days has given
us a graphic description of them. "Every Sunday in Lent, immediately after
dinner, crowds of noble and sprightly youths, mounted on war-horses,
admirably trained to perform all their turnings and evolutions, ride into
the fields in distinct bands, armed with lances and shields, and exhibit
representations of battles, and go through all their martial exercises.
Many of the young nobility, who have not yet received the honour of
knighthood, issue from the king's court, and from the houses of bishops,
earls, and barons, to make trial of their courage, strength, and skill in
arms. The hope of victory rouses the spirits of these noble youths; their
fiery horses neigh and prance, and champ their foaming bits. At length
the signal is given, and the sports begin. The youths, divided into
opposite bands, encounter one another. In one place some fly, and others
pursue, without being able to overtake them. In another place, one of the
bands overtakes and overturns the other."[387]

[Sidenote: Coeur de Lion, the first chivalric king.]

Martial daring, thus fostered and promoted, broke out with fresh vigour in
the reign of Richard Coeur de Lion; and England, which hitherto had but
partially and occasionally engaged in the crusades, now took up those
sacred and perilous enterprises with the ardour of the French. Richard was
the first king of England of knightly character; for I cannot, with some
writers, place William Rufus among our chivalric sovereigns. I cannot with
them see any thing magnanimous in his receiving under his banners an
enemy's soldier who had unhorsed him, and who had foreborne to slay him
because he declared himself king of England. The conduct of the soldier
merited reward; and William acted only with common selfishness in taking
so good a soldier into his service. Rufus had mere brutal courage, but
that quality was not the character of chivalry. His bravery was not
directed either by religion or the love of fame, nor was it tempered into
virtue by the charities of life. When with Robert he besieged his brother
Henry in his castle, Rufus was guilty of one of the most unchivalric acts
on record. Henry's supply of water was exhausted, and he solicited some
from his brothers on the true knightly principle that valour should decide
a triumph, and that it was unworthy of a soldier's pride to gain a victory
merely by the circumstance of his antagonists being in want of the common
necessaries of life. Robert, with fine chivalric generosity, supplied his
brother, much to the regret of William, who ridiculed and was angry at his
simplicity.[388]

[Sidenote: His knightly bearing.]

But in Richard the whole knightly character appeared in all its martial
dignity and splendor. His courage was not the mere savage confidence in
superior strength, but the fine display of chivalric exercises. Such was
the might of his arm, and such the fierceness of his spirit, that he could
sweep from the field whole squadrons of knights. When we see his javelin
transfixing a Turk on the walls of Acre[389], the exploits of Grecian
heroes appear to be no longer poetical fictions; and when he appears on
the plains of Palestine, grasping his lance and riding from wing to wing
of the Saracenian host without meeting an enemy who dared to encounter his
career, the stories of Arthur and the Round Table seem the calm relations
of truth.

No one was more attentive than Richard to the regulations of chivalry. In
the course of his crusade he was assailed by some rustics, against whom it
was unlawful for a knight to use his sword. He beat them with the flat
part of it till it broke, and he then took up stones, and drove them
away.[390] Richard's mind was framed in the finest spirit of chivalric
liberality. His largesses, both to his own soldiers and those of his ally,
Philip Augustus, while in Sicily during their voyage to Palestine, were
so magnificent, that it was acknowledged he had given more treasure in a
month than his predecessors in a year.[391]

Like the knights of romance, he revelled in gorgeousness and splendour,
and his court resounded with the minstrel's lay. One of the Provençal
poets followed him into Palestine: nor did he entirely want the minds of
others to soften into grace his martial spirit; for often his own fancy
played with poetical images. In the history of chivalric amusements,
Richard is an important character. All his predecessors in sovereignty had
forbidden jousts and tournaments; and their absurd regulations had only
been violated in the time of Stephen. When Richard was in the Holy Land,
he observed the inferiority of the English chivalry to that of the French:
his own knights were rude soldiers, with none of the dexterity and skill
of their crusading brethren, which could only be acquired in tournaments,
the schools of war. Richard broke through the jealousy of adopting foreign
customs, and, like a politic monarch, he allowed and encouraged his
soldiers to practise martial exercises.[392]

These circumstances and the various other events of his chivalric life,
which I have described at length in another work complete the authentic
character of our lion-hearted King, for I dare not invest the severe
simplicity of history with those golden fictions, which romance has
delighted to throw over the story of his Eastern atchievements.

[Sidenote: John and Henry III.]

There was nothing chivalric in the character and conduct of his brother
and successor King John, or he would not have suffered the foreign
possessions of England's crown to be wrested from it. In the reign of
Henry III. the flame of chivalry was kept alive by some English knights,
who assisted the Emperor in his Milanese wars, and whose prowess was the
most distinguished of the day. The crusades to the Holy Land were not
altogether forgotten; but the page of our history is marked with the
peculiar disgrace that English knights assisted the French in their
inhuman war on the Albigenses.

[Sidenote: Edward I.]

[Sidenote: His gallantry at a tournament.]

There was much of the chivalric character in Edward I. He was a diligent
reader of the ancient romances; and, as soon as he was invested with
knighthood, he went to foreign courts, in order that he might display his
prowess.[393] For the sake of acquiring military fame, he exposed his
person in the Holy Land, and, during his journey homeward, though ill and
forespent with travel, he displayed remarkable heroism at a tournament in
Savoy.[394] The challenger was the Count of Chalons; but if pontifical
authority could have destroyed chivalry, the knights never would have met.
The pope feared that some hostility was menaced, and earnestly dissuaded
Edward from the tournament. He warned him of his danger: he exhorted him,
as a son of the church, to decline these encounters, which the church had
forbidden; and he added, that as Edward now was king, he might decline the
challenge, as kings were not wont to risk their persons in these perilous
shocks. But most of these reasons were so many stimulants of his courage:
the more danger, the greater share of honour, and it was beneath the
gallantry of his bearing to have thrown his rank as a shield before his
knighthood. Followed by a thousand men-at-arms, and archers on horseback
and on foot, Edward pressed his bounding steed upon the chosen plain, and
the Count of Chalons met him with equal spirit, and nearly twice the
number of companions. The English king soon found that no lofty courtesy,
no love of chivalric exercises, had influenced the French lord. The
graceful tournament soon became a deadly fray. The cause of honour
triumphed, and the knights of Chalons were either slain or driven from the
field. After many cavaliers on each side had been disabled, the lords of
either host encountered. Their lances met and shivered; and if Chalons had
been a courteous knight, he would have passed to the other end of the
plain, and seized a new lance to continue his emprise; but, maddened at
his weapon failing, he threw himself upon Edward, endeavouring to crush
him by his prodigious weight. At that moment Edward's horse started
forwards, and the Count was thrown on the ground. His companions raised
him; but he was so much bruised by the fall that he cried for mercy. His
conduct had put him without the pale of chivalry, and Edward, therefore,
treated him like a base-born churl. He beat him with the flat part of his
sword; and, refusing to take him as his prisoner, he compelled him to
surrender himself to a man of mean condition.[395]

[Sidenote: His unchivalric cruelties.]

[Sidenote: He possessed no knightly courtesy.]

Edward's love of chivalric exercises was imitated by his nobility.
Tournaments and jousts were held in various parts of the country; and
Kenilworth is particularly marked as famous for its Round Table, to which
knights from every nation flocked.[396] In his Scotch wars, therefore,
his armies were not deficient in chivalric bravery. At the battle of
Falkirk the strength of the Scots was foot, as that of the English was
horse; and the repeated charges of Edward's chivalry decided the fate of
that memorable day. In his Welsh wars he had sullied his reputation for
knightly generosity by making a public exhibition of the head of his
worsted foe, Llewelyn ap Gryffyth, the last sovereign of Wales[397]; and
his well-known conduct to Wallace betrayed such an absence of all
nobleness of mind, that he forfeited his claims to knightly consideration.
The beautiful parts, the embellishments of chivalry, were subservient to
his ambition. Before his second war in Scotland he vowed, in Wesminster
Abbey, by God, and also by two swans which were introduced into the
assembly with great pomp and splendour, that he would punish the Scottish
nation for their breach of faith, and for the death of Comyn. Nor did any
of the courtesies of chivalry grace Edward: the queen of Bruce and her
ladies fell into his power, and in defiance of all chivalric gallantry,
he treated them as prisoners. There was something peculiarly ferocious in
his treatment of the Countess of Buchan, who was also his captive. Her
offence was, that she had crowned Bruce. Edward exclaimed, with the
deliberation of malignity, "As she has not used the sword, she shall not
perish by the sword; but for her lawless conspiracy, she shall be shut up
in a stone and iron chamber, circular as the crown she gave; and at
Berwick she shall be suspended in the open air, a spectacle to travellers,
and for her everlasting infamy."[398] And the English Tamerlane did not
relent.[399]

[Sidenote: Picture of ancient manners.]

The close of the reign of Edward I. is remarkable for a very splendid
scene illustrative of the ancient mode of creating knights, and of the
chivalric manners of our forefathers. Before his last and fatal journey
to Scotland, Edward caused proclamation to be made throughout England,
that all persons who were entitled to the honour of knighthood by custom
of hereditary succession, or who had estates sufficient to support the
dignity, should, at the next feast of Pentecost, repair to Westminster,
and that to every one would be delivered out of the King's wardrobe, at
the King's expence, the festive and inauguratory dress of a knight.

Accordingly, at the time and place appointed, there was a fair and gallant
show of three hundred young gentlemen, sons of earls, barons, and knights,
and among these aspirants to chivalry were distributed in ample measure,
according to their different ranks, purple, fine linen, furs, and mantles
embroidered with gold. The royal palace, though magnificently spacious,
could not accommodate all these young esquires with their retinue of
yeomen and pages. Many of them repaired to the New Temple, where, cutting
down the trees and levelling the walls of the garden, they set up their
tents and pavilions in brave emulation of actual war. They performed their
vigils in the Temple church, while the Prince of Wales, by command of the
King his father, passed the night in prayer in Westminster Abbey.

On the following day, the King invested his son with the military belt,
and assigned to him the duchy of Aquitaine. The Prince, being knighted,
went to the Abbey that he might confer the like military honor on his
companions. So close was the press of spectators round the high altar,
that two knights were stifled, and several fainted, though each was
supported by three knights of experienced prowess. The Prince, accompanied
by his father and the chief nobility, at length reached the altar, and his
guards made a passage for his friends to receive knighthood at his hands.
After he had dubbed and embraced them all, his attendants introduced two
swans covered with golden nets, which were adorned and embossed with studs
of gold. This was the most joyous part of the ceremony in the eyes of the
people, and their rude and joyous shouts drowned the clangor of the
trumpets. The King, as before stated, vowed by heaven and the swans that
he would go to Scotland; and even if he should die in the enterprise, he
would avenge the death of Comyn and the violated faith of the Scots. He
then adjured the Prince and the nobles, and his band of knights by their
fealty and chivalry, that if he should die in his journey to Scotland,
they would carry his body forwards, and never bury it till his son had
established his dominion. Every heart assented to this high resolve, and
the ceremony closed. The knights were feasted that day at the royal
palace; and while they were quaffing muscadel in honour of chivalry and
the ladies, the minstrels in their songs reminded them of their duty to
pledge themselves before the swans to perform some rare feats of arms. The
Prince vowed that he would never rest two nights in one place until he had
performed his father's high behests; and the other knights made various
fantastic vows for the promotion of the same object.[400]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Edward II.]

[Sidenote: Chivalric circumstances in the battle of Bannockburn.]

The defeat of the English chivalry at the battle of Bannockburn, (24th
June, 1315,) was the most remarkable circumstance in the reign of Edward
II. On the preceding day, Douglas[401] and Sir Robert Keith, marshal of
Scotland, were dispatched by Robert Bruce from the main body of his army
to descry whether the enemy was approaching.

  "And soon the great host have they seen,
  Where shields shining were so sheen,
  And basinets burnished bright,
  That gave against the sun great light.
  They saw so fele[402] brawdyne[403] baners,
  Standards, and pennons, and spears,
  And so fele[402] knights upon steeds,
  All flaming in their weeds.
  And so fele[404] bataills[405], and so broad,
  And too so great room as they rode
  That the maist host, and the stoutest
  Of Christendom, and the greatest
  Should be abaysit[406], for to see
  Their foes into such quantity."
                                  The Bruce, vol. ii. p. 111.

The English vanguard, commanded by the Earls of Gloucester and Hereford,
soon came in general sight. The appearance of Edward's army is described
by Barbour in a rich chivalric style.

  "The sun was bright, and shined clear,
  And armouris that burnished were,
  So blomyt[407], with the sun's beam,
  That all the land was in a leme[408],
  Banners right fairly flawinand[409],
  And pensels to the wind wawand."[410]
                                  Barbour, xi. 188-193.

Bruce was riding on a palfrey and marshalling his men, when Sir Henry de
Bohun started from the opposite host, and careered his horse against him.
Sir Henry was a fierce rather than a gallant knight, or he would not have
pressed his war-steed upon a foe who was riding on a palfrey.[411] But
his want of chivalric gallantry was justly punished.

  "And when Glosyter and Hertfurd were,
  With their battle approaching near,
  Before them all there come riding,
  With helm on head and spear in hand,
  Sir Henry Boune, the worthy,
  That was a wight knight, and a hardy;
  And to the Earl of Hertfurd cousin;
  Armed in arms good and fine;
  Come on a steed, a bow-shot nere,
  Before all other that there were.
  And knew the King, for that he saw
  Him so range his men in row;
  And by the crown, that was set
  Also upon his bacinet,
  And towards him he went on haste.
  And the King so apertly
  Saw him come, forth all his feres[412]
  In hy[413] to him the horse he steers.
  And when Sir Henry saw the King
  Come on forouting abaysing,[414]
  To him he rode in full great hy[415]
  He thought that he should well lightly
  Win him and have him at his will,
  Since he him horsed saw so ill.
  Sprent[416] they came unto a ling,[417]
  Sir Henry missed the noble king.
  And he, that in his stirrups stood,
  With the axe, that was hard and good,
  With so great mayn[418] reached him a dint,
  That neither hat nor helm might stynt,
  The hewy dusche[419] that he him gave,
  That near the head to the harness clave.
  The hand-axe shaft fruschyt[420] in tow;
  And he down to the yird gan go
  All flatlyngs[421], for him failed might.
  This was the first stroke of the fight."
                                  Barbour, vol. ii. p. 122.

The fine generousness of chivalry was very nobly displayed in another
circumstance which preceded the great battle. It was a main object with
the English to throw succours into the castle of Stirling; and Edward,
therefore, commanded Sir Robert Clifford and eight hundred horsemen to
make a circuit by the low grounds to the east, and approach the castle.
Bruce, in anticipation of the Englishmen's purpose, had charged Randolph
who commanded his left wing to prevent Stirling from being relieved; and
when he saw the English troops holding on their gallant course unchecked,
he cried, "A rose has fallen from thy chaplet, Randolph,"[422] and
bitterly reproached him for his want of vigilance. Nothing but the utmost
desperateness of valour could efface this shame; and gathering round him a
few hundred bold spirits, the Scottish General advanced against the
English. Clifford, in his pride of chivalry, thought that he could soon
disperse a band of lightly armed troops of foot-soldiers, who were now
being marshalled into a circle with their spears resting on the ground,
the points protruded on every side. The English charged, but the
resistance was more gallant than what they had foreseen. Still, however,
the Scots seemed gradually sinking under the force of numbers; and
Douglas, who saw the peril, requested the King's permission to go and join
him. "You shall not move from your ground," cried the King: "let Randolph
extricate himself as he best may. I will not alter my order of battle, and
lose the advantage of my position." But Douglas reiterated his request,
and wrung leave from the King. He flew to the assistance of his friend.
But before he reached him he saw that the English were falling into
disorder, and that the perseverance of Randolph had prevailed over their
impetuous courage. "Halt," cried Douglas, like a generous knight, "these
brave men have repulsed the enemy; let us not diminish their glory by
sharing it."

Of the battle of Bannockburn itself little need be said by me, because
there was not much chivalric character about it. Some historians describe
the defeat of the English as having been principally occasioned by the
Scottish cavalry throwing the rear of their archers into confusion. Others
affirm that Bruce, seeing the inadequacy of his own cavalry to cope with
that of the English, formed the battles or divisions of his army entirely
of foot-soldiers, and dug trenches before his line, slightly covering them
with turf and hurdles. The gallant knights of England, with the sun
streaming on their burnished helms and gilt shields, advanced to charge
the bristled front of the Scots: but the turf sunk beneath the pressure of
their horses' feet, and men and their steeds lay at the mercy of their
enemy. One or other of these circumstances turned the event of the battle,
and the Scotch reserve being judiciously brought up, completed the
victory. In every way the generalship of Bruce was admirable: but the fate
of the battle reflects nothing on the personal character of the English
chivalry; for they were not worsted in an encounter of lance to lance, and
horse to horse. The bravery of one English knight must not pass
unrecorded. Sir Giles D'Argentyn, upon seeing some of his friends around
him pause in alarm, cried that he was not used to fly, and spurring his
war-steed into the thickest of the press, gallantly perished. Nor was this
a solitary instance of courage; and even Edward seemed for a moment to be
inspired with the fire of the Plantagenets. He dashed into the enemy's
lines, and was by force drawn away by the Earl of Pembroke, when courage
was evidently unavailing.[423]

[Sidenote: Singular effect of chivalry in his reign.]

Though the chivalric character was only for one moment of his life
sustained by Edward II., yet it was too deeply fixed in the national mind
to die on account of its neglect by any particular monarch. There is a
singular circumstance on record illustrative of the power of this feeling.
During his war with the barons, which his system of unprincipled
favouritism had provoked, one of the lords refused the Queen the
hospitality of his castle. This act of individual insult had general
consequences. Disgusted with a cause which was blended with so much
uncourtesy, barons and knights immediately flocked round the standard of
the King; his arms completely triumphed, and the Spencers were
recalled.[424]


END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.


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FOOTNOTES:

[1] The History of Italy, from the Fall of the Western Empire to the
Commencement of the Wars of the French Revolution. By George Perceval,
Esq. 2 vols. 8vo. 1825.

[2] A third volume was added in the year 1781, which also bears the title
"Mémoires sur l'ancienne Chevalerie;" though more than half of the volume
relates to the sport of hunting, which is a baronial or feudal rather than
a chivalric subject.

[3] The Troubadour, &c. By L. E. L., author of The Improvisatrice. 12mo.

[4] Jean Froissart, called Sir Jean Froissart, (the title, Sir, being in
the middle ages common to all who were either in the holy orders of the
church or in the holy order of knighthood,) was born at Valenciennes in
the year 1337, and died in 1397.

[5] The Prologue of Froissart--Lord Berners' translation.

[6] I subjoin Schultens' Latin version of the Arabic passage in Bohadin,
vita et res gestæ Saladini, c. 127. p. 209. "Cupere Anglum ut Almalichus
Aladilus sororem ipsius in matrimonium duceret (eam e Sicilia cujus functo
domino nupta fuerat, secum avexerat frater, quum insulam illam
trajiceret)."

[7] Reiske's Latin version of Abulfeda is this:--"Illuc commeabant
Francorum pacis causa legati, eam offerentes conditionem, ut
Malec-al-Adel, frater Sultani sororem Regis Angliæ in matrimonium, et
Hierosolymas in regnum acciperet." Abulfeda, vol. iv. p. 111.

[8] Tacitus Germania, sec. 6. Cæsar de Bello Gallico, lib. i. s. 48.

[9] Tacitus Germania, s. 13. Mallet's Northern Antiquities, vol. i. p.
197.

[10] Tacitus Germania. Cæsar, lib. 6. s. 14.

[11] Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. 16. c. 13.

[12] Chron. Saxon, 57, &c. Florence, ad an. 784. William of Malmsbury, 7.

[13] Athenæus, lib. iv. c. 36.

[14] Treatise on the Virtue of the Female Sex.

[15] Tacitus Germania, s. 18. c. 19.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Strabo, lib. iv. Tacitus Historia, lib. iv. c. 61. 65. Pomponius
Mela, lib. iii. c. 6.

[18] Tacitus, Hist. lib. iv. c. 18. Life of Agricola, s. 32. Germania, s.
7.

[19] Barthol. p. 54. as cited by Warton, Dissert. I. Of the Origin of
Romantic Fiction in Europe, in the first volume of the late admirable
edition of his History of English Poetry.

[20] It is also curious that this blow was said to have been
customary.--"Dato eisdem, sicut consuetudinis est, manu colapho."

[21] Not exactly according to the form, for by this time a belt with a
sword inserted was girded round the military candidate, instead of
delivering a javelin to him. See the preceding page.

[22] William of Malmsbury, lib. ii. c. 6.

[23] Ingulph, p. 512.

[24] Caxton, Fayts of Arms and Chivalry, chapter entitled "Of the Honor
that ought to be done to a Knight."

[25] Spencer's Fairy Queen, book v. canto 5. st. 37. The romance of the
Morte D'Arthur says, that in early times there were no hermits, but who
had been men of worship and prowess; "and the hermits held great
household, and refreshed people that were in distress." Lib. 18. c. 10.

[26] The reader will find in Johnson's Dictionary the etymology of _sir_.
When this word, acknowledging power and superiority, was first used as the
title of chivalry, I do not know. Instances exist as high as the reign of
Henry II.

[27] Coke, Instit. 4. In the Reports of the Lords' Committees respecting
the Peerage, (printed 2d July 1821), doubts are often expressed regarding
the meaning of the word Banneret. A little attention to the difference
between the personal nobility of chivalry, and the nobility which arose as
a franchise appurtenant to land, would have prevented the entertaining of
such doubts, and the conclusion might have been drawn from principles,
instead of being guessed from precedent, that the title of banneret had no
relation to the dignity of Lord of Parliament. The Lords' Committees seem
surprised that barons should sometimes have had the addition of knights,
and at other times of bannerets but in truth chevalier was the title which
comprehended all others, and, like the word 'Lord,' was used in a general
sense.

[28] See Du Cange, Dissertation 9. on Joinville. This learned commentator
seems inclined to confound knights-banneret with barons, chivalry with
nobility; and a herd of subsequent writers, refining on his error, have
gravely placed knights-banneret as an order or class of society mediate
between Nobility and Knighthood.

[29] Some fortune was, however, always thought necessary for the support
of the dignity of knight-banneret. In the 28th of Edward III. John de
Cobham was made a banneret, and had a grant of an annuity of 100 marks,
out of the issues of the county of Norfolk, expressly for the better
support of that dignity. Dugdale's Baronage, vol. ii. p. 66. Many similar
instances are mentioned in the Parliamentary Rolls.

[30] A note of Waterhouse on Fortescue will illustrate this. "The title of
franklein is 'good man;' and yet they have oft knights' estates. Many are
called by courtesy 'masters,' and even 'gentlemen;' and their sons are
educated in the inns of court, and adopted into the orders of knights and
squires."

[31] Illegitimacy seems not to have been a matter of the slightest
consequence. Froissart. ii. 26.

[32] Favyn. i. 6.

[33] When Don Quixote was dubbed a knight, the landlord asked him whether
he had any money. "Not a cross," replied the knight; "for I never read in
any history of chivalry, that any knight-errant ever carried money about
him."--"Respondio Don Quixote que no traia blanca, porque él nunca habia
leido en las historias de los caballeros andantes, que ninguno los hubiese
traido." This was a very singular error in Cervantes, for in Amadis de
Gaul, which he characterizes as the best work of its class, and which is
evidently one of his textbooks, we read that the queen gave Adrian the
Dwarf enough money to last Amadis de Gaul his master for a whole year.
Book III. c. 6.

[34] Froissart, i. c. 448.

[35] Froissart, ii. c. 49.

[36] Thus, as Bracton observes, if a villain be made a knight, he is
thereby immediately enfranchised, and consequently accounted a gentleman,
l. iv. f. 198. b.

[37] Froissart, i. 384.

[38] Du Cange says, the third order of Chivalry consisted of the Esquires;
but he evidently thinks they were the personal attendants of knights, for
he calls them infancons or damoiseaux. He does not seem to have thought
that a grave old squire ever existed.

[39] ----"Mais le dit escuyer s'excusa; et dit qu'il ne pouvoit trouver
son bacinet."--Froissart, i. 211.

[40] favour.

[41] soon.

[42] diligently.

[43] attempted.

[44] against.

[45] rule.

[46] the minstrelsy art.

[47] went.

[48] knew.

[49] Geste of Kyng Horn, v. 233.

[50] Mr Rose's note on the Romance of Partenopex of Blois, p. 51.

[51] Caxton, Fayt of Armes and of Chyvalrye, c. 9., Mémoires du bon
Messire Jean le Maingre, dit Boucicaut, Maréchal de France, c. 5, 9. in
the sixth volume of the large collection of French Memoirs.

[52] L'Histoire de Guerin de Montglaive.

[53] L'Histoire et plaisante Cronicque du petit Jehan de Saintré, vol. 1.
c. 3-6. I have the authority of Sir Walter Scott and other able writers on
chivalry, to cite this romance as good evidence for the laws and manners
of knighthood. It was written in 1459; the first edition was printed in
Gothic characters in 1523, and it was reprinted in three volumes, 12mo. in
1724.

[54] Caxton, Fayt of Armes and Chevalrye, c. 9.

[55] _Damoisel_ et Eescuyer sont arrivés à Novandel demandant chivalarie,
lequel layant reçu n'est plus appellé de tels tiltres, ains seulement des
tiltre de chevalier.--Amadis de Gaul, liv. 3. c. 3.

[56] Fauchet de l'Origine des Chevaliers, liv. 1. ch. 1. Monstrelet, vol.
1. c. 138. L'histoire de Bertrand du Guesclin, c. 1.

[57] Paulus Warnefridus, lib. 1. c. 23.

[58] Eximinus Petri Salonava Justitia Arragonum. Lib. de privilegiis
baronum et riccorum hominum.

[59] Froissart, vol. 2. c. 31.

[60] Froissart, vol. 2. c. 92. The Earl of Oxenford had reason to repent
of his arrogance. Sir John Chandos, observes Froissart, marked well all
the matter between his squire and the earl, and remained quiet till the
prince was gone from them, and then coming to the earl, he said, "Sir
Thomas, are you displeased that I drank before you? I am constable of this
country; I may well drink before you, since my lord the prince, and other
lords here, are content therewith. It is of truth that you were at the
battle of Poictiers; but all who were there do not know so well as I what
you did. I shall declare it. When my lord the prince had made his voyage
in Languedock and Carcassone to Narbonne, and was returned hither to his
town of Bourdeaux, you chose to go to England. What the king said to you
on your arrival I know right well, though I was not present. He demanded
of you whether you had finished your voyage, and what you had done with
his son the prince. You answered, that you had left him in good health at
Bourdeaux. Then the king said, 'How durst you be so bold as to return
without him? I commanded you and all others when ye departed, that you
should not return without him, and you thus presume to come again to
England. I straitly command you, that within four days you avoid my realm
and return again to him, and if I find you within this my realm on the
fifth day, you shall lose your life, and all your heritage for ever.' And
you feared the king's words, as it was reason, and left the realm, and so
your fortune was good, for truly you were with my lord the prince four
days before the battle of Poictiers. On the day of the battle you had
forty spears under your charge, and I had fourscore. Now you may see
whether I ought to drink before you or not, since I am constable of
Acquitain." The Earl of Oxenford was ashamed, and would gladly have been
thence at the time; but he was obliged to remain and hear this reproof
from that right noble knight, Sir John Chandos.

[61] Fairy Queen, book 1. canto 10. st. 7.

[62] Froissart, 1. c. 269. M. Paris, 873.

[63]

  "Les prisons firent arreter,
  Et en lieu seur tourner,
  A leurs escuyers les liverent
  Et à garder les commandement."

[64] Ulrich von Lichtenstein, p. 70. Ulrich was a German knight, who lived
in the fourteenth century, and wrote his own memoirs. They often give us
curious glimpses into ancient chivalry.

[65] Chaucer, in drawing his squire, had certainly in mind a passage from
his favourite poem, "The Romaunt of the Rose:"--

  "Si avoient bien a Bachalier,
  Que il sache de vieler,
  De fleuter et de danser."

I do not notice this circumstance on account of the literary coincidence,
but to shew that the squire of France and the squire of England were in
Chaucer's view the same character.

[66] Du Cange, Dissert. 7. au Joinville, and Menage, Dict. Et. in verb.

[67] Fairy Queen, book 2. canto 3. st. 46.

  "So to his steed he got, and 'gan to ride,
  As one unfit therefore, that all might see
  He had not trained been in chivalry;
  Which well that valiant courser did discern;
  For he despised to tread in dew degree,
  But chaf'd and foam'd with courage fierce and stern,
  And to be eas'd of that base burthen still did erne."

In the old poem called the Siege of Karvalerock, a knight is praised for
not appearing on horseback like a man asleep.

  "Ki kant seroit sur le cheval,
  Ne sembloit home ki someille."

[68] Chaucer, Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Selden, Titles of Honour,
part 2. c. 3, 6.

[69] Froissart, vol. 1. c. 321. 'The lord Langurant did that day marvels
in arms, so that his own men and also strangers had marvels of his deeds.
He advanced himself so much forward that he put his life in great
jeopardy, for they within the town (against whose walls he was standing on
a ladder,) by clean force raised his helm from his head, and so had been
dead without remedy, if a squire of his had not been there, who followed
him so near that he covered him with his target, and the lord and he
together descended down the ladder by little and little, and in their
descending they, received on their target many a great stroke. They were
greatly praised by all that saw them.'--Berner's Froissart.

[70] Froissart, liv. 2. c. 24.

[71] Rigordus in Du Chesne, vol. 5. p. 59. Mr. Maturin, in that powerful
and magnificent romance, the Albigenses, has made a very fine use of the
instance related above of the squirehood of Philip Augustus.

[72] This strange practice prevailed, says Mr. Ellis, (Specimens of early
English Poetry, vol. i. p. 325.) at a time when the day-dress of both
sexes was much warmer than at present, it being generally bordered, and
often lined with furs; insomuch that numberless warrens were established
in the neighbourhood of London for the purpose of supplying its
inhabitants with rabbit skins. "Perhaps," continues Mr. Ellis, in his
usual style of pleasantry, "it was this warmth of clothing that enabled
our ancestors, in defiance of a northern climate, to serenade their
mistresses with as much perseverance as if they had lived under the torrid
zone."

[73] This circumstance was satirised, as the reader must remember, by
Cervantes, who did not always spare chivalry itself in his good humoured
satire of the romances of chivalry.

[74] Du Cange, articles Barbani radere, and Capilli. The complete shaving
of the head was not often submitted to by knights. It was generally
thought sufficient if a lock of hair was cut off.

[75] In the Fabliau of the order of knighthood the exhortation is somewhat
different, and necessarily so, for the candidate was a Saracen. It was not
to be expected that he would vow to destroy his erring brethren. The
exhortation deserves to be extracted, for it contains some particulars not
noticed in the one which I have inserted in the text. Whether specially
mentioned or not, attendance at church and serving the ladies were always
regarded as essentials of a knight's duty.

  "Still to the truth direct thy strong desire,
  And flee the very air where dwells a liar:
  Fail not the mass, there still with reverend feet
  Each morn be found, nor scant thy offering meet:
  Each week's sixth day with fast subdue thy mind,
  For 'twas the day of PASSION for mankind:
  Else let some pious work, some deed of grace,
  With substituted worth fulfil the place:
  Haste thee, in fine, where dames complain of wrong,
  Maintain their right, and in their cause be strong.
  For not a wight there lives, if right I deem,
  Who holds fair hope of well-deserv'd esteem,
  But to the dames by strong devotion bound,
  Their cause sustains, nor faints for toil or wound."
                                  WAY'S _Fabliaux_, vol. i. p. 94.

The expressive conciseness of the exhortation to the duties of knighthood
in the romance of Ysaie le Triste is admirable. "Chevalier soies cruel a
tes ennemys, debonnaire a tes amys, humble a non puissans, et aidez
toujours le droit a soustenir, et confons celluy qui tort a vefves dames,
poures pucelles et orphelins, et poures gens aymes toujours a ton pouvir,
et avec ce aime toujours Saincte Eglise."

[76] The more distinguished the rank of the aspirant, the more
distinguished were those who put themselves forward to arm him. The
romances often state that the shield was given to a knight by a king of
Spain, the sword by a king of England, the helmet from a French sovereign,
&c.

[77] The word dub is of pure Saxon origin. The French word adouber is
similar to the Latin adoptare, not adaptare, for knights were not made by
adapting the habiliments of chivalry to them, but by receiving them, or
being adopted into the order. Many writers have imagined that the accolade
was the last blow which the soldier might receive with impunity: but this
interpretation is not correct, for the squire was as jealous of his honour
as the knight. The origin of the accolade it is impossible to trace, but
it was clearly considered symbolical of the religious and moral duties of
knighthood, and was the only ceremony used when knights were made in
places (the field of battle, for instance,) where time and circumstances
did not allow of many ceremonies.

[78] Caxton, Fayt of Armes and Chivalry, c. 49. Favyn Theatre of Honour,
liv. i. c. 6. Daniel, Hist. de la Milice Francaise, liv. i. c. 4.

[79] Froissart, vol. i. c. 364. The romance writers made strange work of
this disposition of candidates for chivalry to receive the wished for
honours from the hands of redoubted heroes. In one of them a man wanted to
be knighted by the famous Sir Lancelot of the Lake. He however happened to
be dead, but that circumstance was of no consequence, for a sword was
placed in the right hand of the skeleton, and made to drop upon the neck
of the kneeling squire, who immediately rose a knight.

[80] Pinkerton's History of Scotland, vol. i. p. 71.

[81] Favyn, liv. iii. c. 12. Monstrelet, vol. vi. p. 82. Honoré,
Dissertations Historiques et Critiques sur la Chevaliere. 4to. Paris.
1718. p. 55.

[82] Selden likens the degradation of a knight to the degradation of a
clergyman by the canon law, previously to his being delivered over to the
secular magistrate for punishment. The order of the clergy and the order
of knighthood were supposed to be saved from disgrace by this expulsion of
an unworthy member. Selden, Titles of Honour, p. 787.

[83] Segar, Of Honour, lib. ii. c. 5.

[84] Stow's Chronicle.

[85] The iron of Poictou was particularly famous for making admirable
lance-heads; nor was it disliked as a shield. Thus an old French poet
says,--

  "Et fu armé sor le cheval de pris,
  D'Aubere, et d'iaume, d'escu Poitevin."
                                  Du Cange, art. Ferrum Pictavense.

The iron of Bourdeaux is frequently mentioned by Froissart as of excellent
use in armour. liv. 2. c. 117. 4. 6. And the old chronicle of Bertrand du
Guesclin says,--

  "Un escuier y vint qui au comte lanca
  D'une espée de Bourdeaux, qui moult chier li cousta."

[86] Menage, Diction. Etym. in verb.

[87] It is not worth while to say much about mere words. I shall only add
that the banner was sometimes called the Gonfanon.

  "Li Barons aurent gonfanons
  Li chevaliers aurent penons."

[88] This battle-axe is very amusingly described in the metrical romance
of Richard Coeur de Lion:--

  "King Richard I understond,
  Or he went out of Englond,
  Let him make an axe for the nones,
  To break therewith the Sarasyns bones.
  The head was wrought right wele,
  Therein was twenty pounds of steel,
  And when he came into Cyprus land,
  The ax he took in his hand.
  All that he hit he all to-frapped,
  The Griffons away fast rapped
  Natheless many he cleaved,
  And their unthanks there by lived,
  And the prison when he came to,
  With his ax he smot right thro,
  Dores, barres, and iron-chains,
  And delivered his men out of pains."
                                  Line 2197, &c.

[89] Monstrelet. Johnes' edit. vol. 5. p. 294.

[90] Thus Pandaro the giant in Palmerin of England carried a huge
mallet:--but I need not multiply instances.

[91] En loyal amour tout mon coeur, was a favourite motto on the shank of
a spur.

[92] Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. 1. p. 193.

[93] Chronicle of the Cid. p. 46.

[94] Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. 1. p. 201.

[95] Hoveden.

[96] Pellicer's note on Don Quixote, edit. Madrid, 1798. Dillon's Travels
in Spain, p. 143.

[97] Robert of Brune.

[98] Wormius, Lit. Run. p. 110. Hickes Thes. vol. 1. p. 193.

[99] The notion of applying the word jocosé to a sword is thus pleasantly
dilated on by St. Palaye. "Ils ont continuellement repandu sur toutes les
images de la guerre un air d'enjouement, qui leur est propre: ils n'ont
jamais parlé que comme d'une fête, d'un jeu, et d'un passe-temps. _Jouer
leur jeu_, ont-ils dit, les arbalétriers qui faisoient pleuvoir une grêle
de traits. _Jouer gros jeu_, pour donner battaile. _Jouer des mains_, et
une infinité d'autres façons de parler semblables se recontrent souvent
dans la lecture de recits militaires nos écrivains."

[100] Ellis' Metrical Romances. 2. 362.

[101] The shield therefore was fitted by its shape to bear a wounded
knight from the field, and to that use it was frequently applied. Another
purpose is alluded to in the spirited opening to the Lay of the Gentle
Bachelor.

  "What gentle Bachelor is he
  Sword-begot in fighting field,
  Rock'd and cradled in a shield,
  Whose infant food a helm did yield."

[102] Malmsbury, p. 170.

[103] Dr. Meyrick, in his huge work on armour, divides the sorts of this
early mail into the rustred, the scaled, the trellissed, the purpointed,
and the tegulated. The grave precision of this enumeration will amuse the
curious enquirer into the infinite divisibility of matter.

[104] In a masterly dissertation upon Ancient Armour, in the sixtieth
number of the Quarterly Review, it is said, that "though chain-mail was
impervious to a sword-cut, yet it afforded no defence against the bruising
stroke of the ponderous battle-axe and martel; it did not always resist
the shaft of the long or cross bow, and still less could it repel the
thrust of the lance or the long-pointed sword."--There is a slight mistake
here. All good coats of mail were formed of duplicated rings, and their
impenetrability to a lance thrust was an essential quality. "Induitur
lorica incomparabili, quæ maculis duplicibus intexta, nullius lanceæ
ictibus transforabilis haberetur." Mon. l. 1. ann. 1127.

[105] Froissart describes Sir John Chandos as dressed in a long robe,
which fell to the ground, blazoned with his arms on white sarcenet, argent
a field gules, one on his breast, and another on his back.

[106] Du Cange, Dissert. the first on Joinville. The extravagance of
people in the middle ages on the subject of furs is the theme of perpetual
complaint with contemporary authors. By two statutes of the English
parliament, holden at London in 1334 and 1363, all persons who could not
expend one hundred pounds a-year were forbidden to wear furs.

[107] Du Cange, ubi supra.

[108] Montfaucon, Pl. 2. xiv. 7. and Gough i. 137.

[109] Fairy Queen, Book i. canto vii. st. 31, 32.

[110] Shakspeare, Henry V. Act iii. sc. 7.

[111] Fairy Queen, Book i. c. 7. st. 29.

[112] Lay of the Knight and the Sword.

[113] Froissart, livre i. c. 342.

[114] Ellis's Specimens of Metrical Romances, i. 328. 366.

[115] Monstrelet, Johnes's edition, vol. v. p. 121. 126., et prestement un
nommé Olivier Layet à l'ayde de Pierre Frotier lui bouta une espée par
dessoules son haulbergeon tout dedans le ventre, &c.--En apres le
dessusdit duc mis à mort, comme dit est fut tantost par les gens du
Daulphin desuestu de sa robbe, de son haulbergeon, &c. Monstrelet, vol. i.
c. 212, 213.

[116] Books of military costume may illustrate the truth, how important
every man's occupation is in his own eyes. The old French writer, Fauchet,
has devoted some pages to a description of the regular process of
dressing, and his example has been followed by some of our English
antiquarians.

[117] In Dr. Meyrick's three ponderous quartos on Armour there is one
interesting point: he shews that the celebrated title of the Black Prince,
which the Prince of Wales gained for his achievements at the battle of
Cressy, did not arise, as is generally supposed, from his wearing black
armour on that day, nor does it appear that he ever wore black armour at
all. Plain steel armour was his usual wear, and the surcoat was emblazoned
with the arms of England labelled. When he attended tournaments in France
or England he appeared in a surcoat with a shield, and his horse in a
caparison all black with the white feathers on them; so that the colour of
the covering of the armour, and not of the armour itself, gave him his
title. Dr. Meyrick thinks the common story an erroneous one, that the
ostrich feathers in the crest of our princes of Wales arose from young
Edward's taking that ornament from the helmet of the King of Bohemia, who
was slain by him at the battle of Cressy. He contends that the feathers
formed a _device_ on the banner of the monarch, and were not worn on the
helmet, because plumes of feathers were not used as crests till the
fifteenth century. That Dr. Meyrick has not been able to find any instance
of their being thus worn goes but very little way to prove the negative.
On the other hand, we know that the swan's neck, the feathers of favourite
birds, such as the peacock and pheasant, were devices on shields, and also
at the same time continually surmounted the helmet, and the ostrich
feathers, which ever since the crusades the western world had been
familiar with, might in all probability have been used in this twofold
manner. How the King of Bohemia wore his we do not know with historic
certainty, but it is very difficult to believe that he, or our chivalric
ancestors, with their love of splendid ornament, would have been contented
with placing the ostrich feathers as a mere device on a shield, and not
have also fixed it where they set every thing peculiarly graceful, on the
summit of the helm.

[118] A very singular instance of the inconvenience of heavy armour
occurred in the year 1427, during a war between the Milanese and the
Venetians. Carmagnola, the Venetian General, had skilfully posted his army
behind a morass, the surface of which, from the dryness of the season, was
capable of bearing the weight of infantry. He irritated the enemy (the
Milanese) to attack him, by capturing the village of Macalo before their
eyes, but their heavy cavalry had no sooner charged along the causeway
intersecting the marshy ground, which he purposely left unguarded, than
his infantry assailed them with missiles on both flanks. In attempting to
repulse them the Milanese cuirassiers sank into the morass: their column
was crowded on the narrow passage, and thrown into confusion, and the
infantry of Carmagnola then venturing among them on the causeway, and
stabbing their horses, made prisoners of the dismounted cuirassiers to the
number of eight thousand, as they lay helpless under the enormous weight
of their own impervious armour. Perceval's History of Italy, vol. ii. p.
77.

[119] Quarterly Review, No. lx. p. 351.

[120] In marking the progress of chivalry through Italy I shall again have
occasion to notice the excellence of the Milanese armour.

[121] Note 8. on Marmion, canto 5.

[122] Grose, ii. 246.

[123] Caxton, Fayt of Armes and of Chyvalrye, c. 62, &c. If the reader be
curious for information on the subject of the allegories which were formed
from the armour and dress of the Knights of the Garter and the Bath, he
will find it in Anstis's Register of the Garter, p. 119, 120, and his
History of the Knighthood of the Bath, p. 77-80.

[124]

  Asturco dextrarius est, Astur caput ejus
  Nam prius Astur equum dextrandi repperit usum.
                                  Ebrardus Betuniensis in Græcismo, c. 7.

[125] An Arabian horse.

[126] Weak.

[127] Lockhart's Spanish Ballads, p. 66.

[128] William of Newbridge, c. 11. lib. ii. Brunetus in Thesauro, MS. part
1. c. 155, says "Il y a chevaus de plusieurs manieres, à ce que li un sont
déstreir quant pour li combat, li auter sont palefroy pour chevaucher à
l'aise de son cors pour li autres son roueis pour sommes porter," &c. and
the continuator of Nangis says, "Et apres venoient les grans chevaux et
palefrois du roy tres rechement ensellez, et les valets les menaient en
dextre sur autres roussins."

[129] History of the Crusades, vol. i. p. 357. note.

[130] Lest the reader's mind should wander in conjecture regarding the
purpose of barding a horse, I will transcribe, for his instruction and
illumination, a few lines from Dr. Meyrick's Chronological Inquiry into
Ancient Armour, vol. ii. p. 126. "The principal reason for arming the
horse in plate as well as his rider was to preserve his life, on which
depended the life or liberty of the man-at-arms himself; for when he was
unhorsed, the weight of his own armour prevented him from speedily
recovering himself or getting out of the way, when under the animal.
Besides this, by thus preserving the horse, the expence of another was
saved." Wonderful!

[131] Statutes of the Templars, c. 37.

[132] Vincent de Beauvais, Hist. lib. 30. c. 85.

[133] From the Loka Lenna, or Strife of Loc, cited in the notes on Sir
Tristrem, p. 350.; St. Palaye, "Memoires sur l'ancienne Chevaliere,"
partie 3.; Du Cange, Twenty-first Dissertation on Joinville; Glossary,
Arma Mutare, Companionship in weal and woe sanctioned by religious
solemnities, still exists among the Albanians and other people of the
eastern shore of the Adriatic. The custom is wrought into a very
interesting story in the tale of Anastasius, vol. i. c. 7.

[134] Juv. des Ursins anno 1411. Vraye fraternité et compagnie d'armes, is
the frequent expression in old writers for this chivalric union.

[135] Kennet's Parochial Antiquities, p. 57. cited in Henry's History of
England, vol. iii. p. 360. 4to.

[136] The romance of Amys and Amylion. It is abridged by Mr. Ellis in the
third volume of his Specimens of early English Metrical Romances, and
inserted at length by Mr. Weber in the second volume of his collection.
The reader may be amused to learn that the mother of the children was so
complaisant to her husband as to approve of his having cut their little
throats.

  "O lef lief! she said tho,
  God may send us children mo!
  Of them have thou no care.
  And if it were at my heart's root,
  For to bring thy brother boot,
  My life I would not spare.
  There shall no man our children sene,
  For to morrow they shall buried ben,
  As they fairly dead were.
  Thus that lady, fair and bright,
  Comforted her lord with her might,
  As ye may understand
  Sin[A] they went both right
  To Sir Amylion, that gentle knight,
  That ever was fre to fonde[B]
  When Sir Amylion awaked tho,
  All his foulehead away was go
  Through grace of God's Son.
  Then was he as fair a man
  As ever he was ere than
  Since he was been in londe."

The conclusion of the story shows the belief of the writer that heaven
approved of such sacrifices to friendship.

  "Then were they all blithe,
  Their joy could no man kithe,
    They thanked God that day.
  As ye may at me liste and lythe.[C]
  Into the chamber they went swythe.[D]
  Ther as the children lay.
  Without wern[E], without wound,
  All whole the children there they found,
  And lay together in play.
  For joy they went there, they stood
  And thanked God with mild mode
  Their care was all away."

    [A] After.

    [B] That ever could be met with.

    [C] Now you must listen to me.

    [D] Quickly.

    [E] Scar.

[137] It may be as well to notice that the barriers of a town, or its
outer fortification, are described by Froissart as being grated
pallisades, the grates being about half a foot wide.

[138] The remainder of this knight's story should be told, although it
does not relate to the matter of the text. "In the suburbs he had a sore
encounter, for, as he passed on the pavement, he found before him a
bocher, a big man, who had well seen this knight pass by, and he held in
his hands a sharp heavy axe, with a long point; and as the knight
returned, and took no heed, this bocher came on his side and gave him such
a stroke between the neck and shoulders, that he fell upon his horse, and
yet he recovered; and then the bocher struck him again, so that the axe
entered into his body, so that, for pain, the knight fell to the earth,
and his horse ran away, and came to the squire who abode for his master at
the streets; and so the squire took the horse, and had great marvel what
was become of his master, for he had seen him ride to the barriers, and
strike thereat with his glaive, and return again. Then he rode a little
forth thitherward, and anon he saw his master laying upon the earth
between four men, who were striking him as they would strike an anvil. And
then the squire was so affrighted he durst not go farther, for he saw he
could not help his master. Therefore he returned as fast as he might; so
there the said knight was slain. And the knights that were at the gate
caused him to be buried in holy ground." Lord Berners's Froissart, c. 281.

[139] Froissart, vol. i. c. 278.

[140] Froissart, c. 281.; Gray's Descent of Odin.; Herbert's Icelandic
Translations, p. 39; Scott's Minstrelsy, vol. 1. p. 45.

[141] Froissart c. 384.

[142] Froissart, c. 28. "Et si avoit entre eux plusieurs jeunes
bacheliers, qui avoient chacun un oeil couvert de drap, à fin qu'ils n'en
puissent veoir; et disoit on que ceux là avoient voué, entre dames de leur
pais, que jamais ne verroient que d'un oeil jusques à ce qu'ils auroient
fait aucunes prouesses de leur corps en royaume de France." The
disposition of knights to make vows was an excellent subject for
Cervantes' raillery. "Tell her," continued I, (Don Quixote) "when she
least expects it, she will come to hear how I made an oath, as the Marquis
of Mantua did, when he found his nephew Baldwin ready to expire on the
mountains, never to eat upon a table-cloth, and several other particulars,
which he swore to observe, till he had revenged his death. So in the like
solemn manner will I swear, never to desist from traversing the habitable
globe, and ranging through all the seven parts of the world, more
indefatigably than ever was done by Prince Pedro of Portugal, till I have
freed her from her enchantment." Don Quixote, part 2. c. 23.

[143] Every true knight said like him in the Morte d'Arthur, "Though the
knight be never so false, I will never slay him sleeping; for I will never
destroy the high order of knighthood." And again, "Well, I can deem that I
shall give him a fall. For it is no mastery, for my horse and I be both
fresh, and so are not his horse and he, and weet ye well that he will take
it for great unkindness, for every one good is loth to take another at
disadvantage."

[144] The true son of chivalry was like Banquo, of whom Macbeth says,

                    "'Tis much he dares;
  And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,
  He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour
  To act in safety."

Sir Philip Sidney excellently well describes the nature of chivalric
courage. "Their courage was guided with skill, and their skill was armed
with courage; neither did their hardiness darken their wit, nor their wit
cool their hardiness: both valiant as men despising death, and both
confident as unwonted to be overcome. Their feet steady, their hands
diligent, their eyes watchful, and their hearts resolute." Arcadia, p. 28.
Edit. 1590.

[145] Morte d'Arthur. 1. 7.

[146] Argentré, Histoire de la Bretagne, p. 391.

[147] Limoges had revolted on account of a tax which had been imposed on
the English dominions in France, to pay the expences of the war, which had
had for its object the restoration of Peter the Cruel.

[148] Froissart, liv. 1. c. 283. "Then the Prince, the Duke of Lancaster,
the Earl of Cambridge, the Earl of Pembroke, Sir Guiscard Dangle, and all
the others, with their companies, entered into the city, and all other
footmen ready apparelled, to do evil, and to pillage and rob the city, and
to slay men, women, and children; for so it was commanded them to do. It
was great pity to see the men, women and children that kneeled down on
their knees to the Prince for mercy, but he was so inflamed with ire, that
he took no heed to them, so that none was heard; but all put to death as
they were met withal, and such as were nothing culpable. There was no pity
taken of the poor people who wrought never no manner of treason; yet they
bought it dearer than the great personages, such as had done the evil and
trespass. There was not so hard a heart within the city of Limoges, and if
he had any remembrance of God, but that wept piteously for the great
mischief that they saw before their eyes: for more than three thousand
men, women and children were slain that day. God have mercy on their
souls, for I trow they were martyrs." Lord Berners' Translation.

[149] Romance of Guy of Warwick.

[150] Romance of Sir Otuel. And in the Morte d'Arthur it is said, "and
thus by assent of them both, they granted either other to rest, and so
they set them down upon two mole hills there beside the fighting place,
and either of them unlaced his helmet, and took the cold wind, for either
of their pages was fast by them to come when they called to lace their
harness, and to set them on again at their commandment." Morte d'Arthur.
lib. 8. c. 17.

[151] Romance of Sir Ferumbras.

[152] Froissart, liv. 2. c. 24. This story of Froissart reminds one of
Mortimer,

  "When on the gentle Severn's sedgy bank,
  In single opposition, hand to hand,
  He did confound the best part of an hour
  In changing hardiment with great Glendower:
  Three times they breath'd, and three times did they drink,
  Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood;
  Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks,
  Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds,
  And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank,
  Blood-stain'd with these valiant combatants."
                                  Henry IV. Part 1. Act 1. Sc. iii.

[153] Froissart liv. 1. c. 107.

[154] Froissart, liv. 2. c. 145.

[155] Froissart, liv. 2. c. 146.

[156] Froissart, liv. 1. c. 149. 233.

[157] Froissart, liv. 1. c. 235. 371. liv. 2. c. 152.

[158] Thus Don Quixote pleasantly says in his enumeration of chivalric
qualities, "whoever possesses the science of knight errantry ought to be
learned in the laws, and understand distributive and commutative justice,
in order to right all mankind."

[159] Fairy Queen, book iii. canto 1. st. 3.; and Tasso, with equal
attention to truth, thus describes the duty of a knight.

  Premer gli alteri, e sollevar gli imbelli,
  Defender gli innocenti, e punir gli empi,
  Fian l'arti lor.
                                  La Ger. lib. 10. 76.

[160] Piers Ploughman, first vision.

[161] M. Paris. 45.

[162] Matthew of Westminster, p. 353.

[163] Froissart, 1. c. 361. 2. 124. 202. 203.

[164] Froissart, 1. 46.

[165] Fairy Queen, book ii. canto c. st. 41.

[166] Even so judicious a writer as Mr. Dunlop says, (Hist. of Fiction,
vol. ii. p. 144.) that vigor of discipline was broken by want of unity of
command. St. Palaye, in whom want of acquaintance with the subject is less
excusable, says, "Si le pouvoir absolu, si l'unité du commandement est le
seul moyen d'entretenir la vigueur de la discipline, jamais elle ne dut
être moins solidement établie, et plus souvent ébranlée que du temps de
nos chevaliers. Quelle confusion, en effet, ne devoient point apporter
tant d'especes de chefs, dont les principes, les motifs et les interêts
n'etoient pas toujours d'accord, et qui ne tiroient point d'une même
source le droit de se faire obeir?" Memoires sur l'Ancienne Chevalerie,
partie 5.

[167] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 26.

[168]

  "Then said the gud Erl of Derby,
  Lo! here a fair sight sykkyrly.
  A fairer sight how may man see,
  Than knight or squire which ever he be,
  In-til his helm him thus got schryive?
  When I shall pass out of this life,
  I would God of his grace would send
  To me a like manner to end."
                        Wyntown's Cronykil of Scotland, book viii. c. 35.

[169] Caxton, Fayt of Armes and Chevalrie, fol. 40.

[170] Ibid. c. 48.

[171] Malmsbury, p. 186.

[172] Lai of Aucassin and Nicolette.

[173] Froissart, livre 1. c. 87. The romances of chivalry are full of
tales expressive of this feature of the knightly character. As amusing a
story as any is to be found in the Morte d'Arthur. "There came into the
court a lady that hight the lady of the lake. And she came on horseback,
richly bysene, and saluted King Arthur, and asked him a gift that he
promised her when she gave him the sword. 'That is sooth,' said Arthur, 'a
gift I promised you. Ask what ye will, and ye shall have it, an it be in
my power to give it.'--'Well,' saith the lady, 'I ask the head of the
knight that hath wore the sword, or the damsel's head that brought it. I
take no force though I have both their heads, for he slew my brother, a
good knight and a true, and that gentlewoman was causer of my father's
death.'--'Truly,' said King Arthur, 'I may not grant either of their heads
with my worship, therefore ask what ye will else, and I shall fulfill your
desire.'--'I will ask none other thing,' said the lady. When Balyn was
ready to depart, he saw the lady of the lake, that by her means had slain
Balyn's mother, and he had sought her three years; and when it was told
him that she asked his head of King Arthur, he went to her streyte, and
said, 'Evil be you found, you would have my head, and therefore shall lose
yours,' and with his sword lightly he smote off her head before King
Arthur. 'Alas! for shame,' said Arthur, 'why have you done so? you have
shamed me and all my court; for this was a lady that I was beholden to,
and hither she came under my safe-conduct. I shall never forgive you that
trespass.'--'Sir,' said Balyn, 'me forthinketh of your displeasure; for
this same lady was the untruest lady living, and by enchantment and
sorcery she hath been the destroyer of many good knights, and she was
causer that my mother was burnt through her falsehood and
treachery.'--'What cause soever ye had,' said Arthur, 'you should have
forborne her in my presence; therefore, think not the contrary, you shall
repent it, for such another despite had I never in my court, therefore
withdraw you out of my court in all haste that you may.'" Morte d'Arthur,
lib. ii. c. 3.

[174] Malmsbury, p. 184. Quem cuilibet, quamvis infestissimo inimico
negare, laudabilium militum mos non est.

[175] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 162.

[176] Froissart, ii. 26.

[177] This was part of the exhortation of a king of Portugal, on knighting
his son, according to a Portuguese historian, cited in Lord Lyttleton's
History of Henry II., vol. ii. p. 233. 4to.

[178] Morte d'Arthur; first book of Sir Tristram, c. 34.

[179] Caxton, c. 66.

[180] The necessity of courtesy of manner was so important in the minds of
the old poets that they ascribed it not only to every favourite hero, but
even to animals, whether real or imaginary. Our moral poet Gower thus
gravely sets forth the politeness of a dragon.

  "With all the cheer that he may,
  Toward the bed there as she lay,
  Till he came to her the beddes side,
  And she lay still and nothing cried;
  For he did all his things fair,
  And was courteous and debonair."
                                  Confessio Amantis, lib. 6. fol. 138.

[181] Extrait de l'Histoire de Du Gueslin, par P. H. Du Chastelet, p. 39,
&c.

[182] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 47. It is difficult to fancy the extravagant
degree of estimation in which hawks were held during the chivalric ages.
As Mr. Rose says in one of his notes to the Romance of Partenopex of
Blois, they were considered as symbols of high estate, and as such were
constantly carried about by the nobility of both sexes. Barclay, in his
translation from Brandt, complains of the indecent usage of bringing them
into places appropriated to public worship; a practice which, in the case
of some individuals, appears to have been recognized as a right. The
treasurer of the church of Auxerre enjoyed the distinction of assisting at
divine service on solemn days, with a falcon on his fist; and the Lord of
Sassai held the privilege of perching his upon the altar. Nothing was
thought more dishonorable to a man of rank, than to give up his hawks, and
if he were taken prisoner, he would not resign them even as the price of
liberty.

[183] Romance of Ipomydon.

[184] Froissart, vol. i. c. 177; and Sir Walter Scott's note to the
Romance of Sir Tristrem, p. 274.

[185] This statement of the objects of the minstrelsy art, is taken from a
manuscript cited by Tyrwhitt, Chaucer ii. 483. It is the railing of a sour
fanatic, who wished to destroy all the harmless pleasures of life. But we
may profit by his communication, while we despise his gloom.

I shall add another description of the various subjects of minstrelsy from
the Lay le Fraine.

  "Some beth of war and some of woe,
  And some of joy and mirth also;
  And some of treachery and of guile,
  Of old adventures that fell while;
  And some of jests and ribaudy;
  And many there beth of fairy;
  Of all things that men see,
  Most of love, forsooth, there be."

[186] Sir Orpheo.

[187] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 26. 52. 163. In Dr. Henderson's History of
Wines, p. 283, it is stated that our ancestors mixed honey and spices with
their wine, in order to correct its harshness and acidity, and to give it
an agreeable flavour. True, but it should also have been remarked that the
spices were not always mixed with the wine, but that they were served up
on a plate by themselves. This custom is proved from an amusing passage in
Froissart, which involves also another point of manners. Describing a
dinner at the castle of Tholouse, at which the king of France was present,
our chronicler says, "This was a great dinner and well stuffed of all
things; and after dinner and grace said, they took other pastimes in a
great chamber, and hearing of instruments, wherein the Earl of Foix
greatly delighted. Then wine and spices were brought, the Earl of Harcourt
served the king of his spice plate, and Sir Gerrard de la Pyen served the
Duke of Bourbon, and Sir Monnaut of Nouailles served the Earl of Foix."
Vol. ii. c. 264. Another passage is equally expressive: "The king alighted
at his palace, which was ready apparelled for him. There the king drank
and took spices, and his uncles also; and other prelates, lords, and
knights." Thus too, at a celebration of the order of the Golden Fleece, at
Ghent, in 1445, Olivier de la Marche, describing the dinner, says,
"Longuement dura le disner et le service. Là jouerent et sonnerent
menestries et trompettes; et herauts eurent grans dons, et crierent
largesse; et tables levées furent les espices aportées, et furent les
princes et les chevaliers servis d'espices et de vins, &c." Memoires,
d'Olivier de la Marche, in the vol. ix. c. 15. of the great collection of
French Memoirs: and in the Morte d'Arthur it is said they went unto Sir
Persauntes pavilion, and drank the wine and ate the spices.

[188] He was a great personage, if wealth could confer dignity. The
hospital and priory of St. Bartholomew in Smithfield, London, were founded
by Royer or Raherus, the king's minstrel, in the third year of the reign
of Henry I. A. D. 1102. Percy, Essay on the Ancient Minstrels, p. 32. The
SERJEANT of the minstrels was another title for the head of the royal
minstrelsy. A circumstance that occurred in the reign of Edward IV. shews
the confidential character of this officer, and his facility of access to
the king at all hours and on all occasions. "And as he (king Edward IV.)
was in the north country in the month of September, as he lay in his bed,
one, named Alexander Carlisle, that was _serjeant of the minstrels_, came
to him in great haste, and bade him arise, for he had enemies coming."
This fact is mentioned by Warton, on the authority of an historical
fragment. ad calc. Sportti Chron. ed. Hearne, Oxon, 1729.

[189] Wordsworth's Excursion, book ii.

[190] Wood, Hist. Antiq. Un. Oxon. 1. 67. sub anno 1224; and Percy, Notes
on his Essay on the Ancient Minstrels, p. 64.

[191] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 31. Writers on chivalry have too often
affirmed, that the minstrels besides singing, reciting, and playing on
musical instruments, added the entertainments of vaulting over ropes,
playing with the pendent sword, and practising various other feats of
juggling and buffoonery. That this was sometimes the case during all the
ages of the minstrelsy art, is probable enough, for the inferior minstrels
were in a dreadful state of indigence. But the disgraceful union of poetry
and juggling was not common in the best ages of chivalry. Chaucer
expressly separates the minstrel from the juggler.

  "There mightest thou karols seen,
  And folk dance, and merry ben,
  And made many a fair tourning
  Upon the green grass springing.
  There mightest thou see these flouters.
  Minstrallis and eke jugelours."
                                  Romaunt of the Rose, l. 759, &c.

Other passages to the same effect are collected in Anstis Order of the
Garter, vol. i. p. 304; and Warton, History of English poetry, vol. ii. p.
55. As chivalry declined, minstrelsy was discountenanced, and its
professors, fallen in public esteem, were obliged to cultivate other arts
besides those of poetry and music.

[192] Dunlop, History of Fiction, vol. i. p. 142.

[193] Wace, a canon of Bayeux, and one of the most prolific rhimers that
ever practised the art of poetry, continually reminded the great of the
benefits which accrued to themselves from patronising poets.

  "Bien entend conuis e sai
  Que tuit morrunt, e clerc, e lai;
  E que mult ad curte decrée,
  En pres la mort lur renumee;
  Si per clerc ne est mis en livre,
  Ne poet par el dureement vivre.

      *       *       *       *

  Suvent aveient des barruns,
  E des nobles dames beaus duns,
  Pur mettre lur nuns en estroire,
  Que tuz tens mais fust de eus memoire."

MS. Bib. Reg. iv. c. 11. cited by Mr. Turner, History of England, vol. i.
p. 442. 4to.

[194] This description (Spenser's) of chivalric manners, has sadly puzzled
his commentators. They are quite agreed, however, on one point, namely,
that to kiss the hand of a fair lady (which the word basciomani signified)
was not a custom indigenous to England, but that it was imported hither
from Italy or Spain. A preux chevalier of the olden time would have been
indignant at this insult to the originality of his gallantry.

[195] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 26.

[196] The Life of Ipomydon, Fytte, 1.

[197] Thus in the Romance of Perceforest (cited by Ellis, Notes to Way's
Fabliaux, vol. i. p. 220) it is said, "There were eight hundred knights
all seated at table, and yet there was not one who had not a dame or
damsel at his plate!"

In the tale of the Mule without a Bridle, it is said,

  "Fill'd with these views the attendant dwarf she sends:
  Before the knight the dwarf respectful bends;
  Kind greetings bears as to his lady's guest,
  And prays his presence to adorn her feast.
  The knight delays not; on a bed design'd
  With gay magnificence the fair reclin'd
  High o'er her head, on silver columns rais'd,
  With broidering gems her proud pavilion blaz'd.
  Herself, a paragon in every part,
  Seem'd sovereign beauty deck'd with comeliest art.
  With a sweet smile of condescending pride
  She seats the courteous Gawaine by her side,
  Scans with assiduous glance each rising wish,
  Feeds from her food the partner of her dish!"

[198] M. le Grand, in his valuable Histoire de la Vie Privée des Français,
has given us some very curious information regarding the mode of dressing
this distinguished bird. "It was generally," he says, "served up roasted.
Instead of plucking the bird (observes the Complete Housekeeper of former
times) skin it carefully so as not to damage the feathers; then cut off
the feet, stuff the body with spices and sweet herbs; roll a cloth round
the head, and then spit your bird. Sprinkle the cloth, all the time it is
roasting, to preserve its crest. When it is roasted enough, tie the feet
on again; remove the cloth; set up the crest; replace the skin; spread out
the tail, and so serve it up. Some people, instead of serving up the bird
in the feathers, carry their magnificence so far as to cover their peacock
with leaf gold: others have a very pleasant way of regaling their guests.
Just before they serve up, they cram the beak of their peacock with wool,
rubbed with camphor: then, when the dish is placed upon the table, they
set fire to the wool, and the bird instantly vomits out flames like a
little volcano."

[199] Du Chesne, House of Montmorencí, liv. i. p. 29, &c. M. de Couci, (c.
7.) 664, &c. Olivier de la Marche, p. 412. Hist. de Boucicaut, ed. de
Godefroi.

[200] Like Sir Guiscard Dangle, Earl of Huntingdon, who, according to
Froissart, possessed all the noble virtues that a knight ought to have,
for "he was merry, true, amourous, sage, sweet, liberal, preux, hardy,
adventurous, and chivalrous," vol. i. c. 384.

[201] See the verses of Des Escas, a Troubadour at the court of the King
of Arragon.

[202] Knight of the Tower, chap. "How goodly women ought to maintain
themselves courteously."

[203] Sir Tristram, Fytte second, st. 13. and Scott's note.

[204] Squire of Low Degree.

[205] Sir Degore.

[206] Romance of Guy of Warwick.

[207] Knight of the Tower, chap. "How young maidens ought not lightly to
turn their heads here and there."

[208] Knight of the Tower, chap. intitled, "Of them that will not wear
their good clothes on high feasts and holy-days," and, "How the daughter
of a knight lost her marriage." Memoires de Louis de la Tremouille, cap.
xii. p. 169, &c. in the 14th vol. of the great collection of French
Memoires.

[209] Fairy Queen, book ii. canto 11. st. 49.

[210] The manners of his times might, perhaps, have been the origin of
this picture, for even so late as the reign of Elizabeth, it is mentioned
among the accomplishments of the ladies of her court, that the eldest of
them are skilful surgeons. Harrison's Description of England, prefixed to
Holinshed.

[211] Fairy Queen, book iii. canto 5. st. 31. 33.

[212] Before the year 1680, when coaches were first used in England, as
Percy observes, ladies rode chiefly on horseback, either single on their
palfreys, or double behind some person on a pillion. Not but in case of
sickness, or bad weather, they had horse-litters, and even vehicles called
chairs, and carrs or charres. Note on the Northumberland Household Book.

[213] It is evident that the good King of Hungary was a boon companion,
and we will fancy that it was from a very common and natural feeling, that
he supposed his daughter's inclinations similar to his own. Of the
formidable list of wines which he gives, some names declare their growths
very clearly; of the rest, I believe, that Rumney wine means the wine from
La Romanée, a vineyard of Burgundy. Dr. Henderson, however, suggests that
it was an Andalusian growth. Malmesyne was a Greek wine, from Malvagia in
the Morea, the original seat of the Malmsey grape. Vernage was perhaps a
Tuscan wine. Osey was Alsatian wine. Respice, (vin rapé) was the produce
of unbruised grapes, and Bastard was a sweet Spanish wine.

[214] Baked meats were the usual food of our ancestors. Thus Chaucer says
of his Frankelein (the modern country squire),

  "Withoutin bake-mete never was his house."

[215] Station.

[216] Two species of hawks.

[217] Sewed or quilted.

[218] Rennes in Brittany was highly famous for its manufacture of linen.

[219] Inlaid with jewels.

[220] A modern princess, as Mr. Ellis says (Specimens of the early English
Poets, vol. i. p. 344), might possibly object to breathe the smoke of
pepper, cloves, and frankincense during her sleep; but the fondness of our
ancestors for those, and indeed for perfumes of all kinds was excessive.
Mr. Ellis adds, that in the foregoing description of diversions, the good
King of Hungary has forgotten one, which seems to have been as great a
favorite with the English and French as ever it was with the Turkish
ladies; this is the bath. It was considered, and with great reason, as the
best of all cosmetics; and Mr. Strutt has extracted from an old MS. of
prognostications, written in the time of Richard II., a medical caution to
the women, against "going to the bath _for beauty_" during the months of
March and November. Women also often bathed together for purposes of
conversation. The reader knows that the public baths were not always used
for such healthful and innocent purposes.

[221]

  "Vos, modo venando, modo rus geniale colendo
    Ponitis in varia tempora longa mora.
  Aut fora vos retinent, aut unctæ dona palæstræ;
    Flectitis aut fræno colla sequaris equi.
  Nunc volucrem laqueo, nunc piscem ducitis hamo.
    Diluitur posito serior hora mero.
  His mihi submotæ, vel si minus acriter utar,
    Quod faciam, superest, præter amare, nihil.
  Quod superest, facio; teque, o mi sola voluptas,
    Plus quoque, quam reddi quod mihi possit, amo."
                                  Ovid. Ep. Hero Leandro.

[222] Don Quixote affirmed, that no history ever made mention of any
knight errant that was not a lover; for were any knight free from the
impulses of that generous passion, he would not be allowed to be a lawful
knight, but a misborn intruder, and one who was not admitted within the
pale of knighthood at the door, but leaped the fence, and stole in like a
thief and a robber. Vivaldo, who was talking with the Don, asserted in
opposition to this opinion and statement, that Don Galaor, the brother of
Amadis de Gaul, never had any mistress in particular to recommend himself
to, and yet for all that he was not the less esteemed. Don Quixote, after
borrowing one of Sancho's proverbs, that one swallow never makes a summer,
replied that he knew Don Galaor was privately very much in love; and as
for his paying his addresses wherever he met with beauty, this was an
effect of his natural inclination, which he could not easily restrain. It
was an undeniable truth, concluded the Don, that Galaor had a favourite
lady whom he had crowned empress of his will; and to her he frequently
recommended himself in private, for he did not a little value himself upon
his discretion and secrecy in love. This defence of Galaor is very
amusing, and Vivaldo submitted to it. But he ought to have adduced the
opinions of that mad knight and merry talker of the Round Table, Sir
Dynadan, who marvelled what could ail Sir Tristram and many others of his
companions, that they were always sighing after women. "Why," said la
belle Isaud, "are you a knight and no lover? you cannot be called a good
knight, except you make a quarrel for a lady." "God defend me!" replied
Dynadan, "for the joy of love is so short, and the sorrow thereof and what
cometh thereof endureth so long."

  Morte d'Arthur, lib. i. c. 56.

[223] Fairy Queen, book iv. canto 9. st. 21.

[224] Gower's Confessio Amantis, book iv. p. 103, &c.

[225] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 117 and 118.

[226] Essais Histor. sur Paris, by St. Foix, vol. iii. p. 263, cited by
Strutt. Sports and Pastimes, &c. "As it happened, Sir Palomydis looked up
towards her (la belle Isaud) where she lay in the window, and he espied
how she laughed, and therewith he took such a rejoicing that he smote down
what with his spear and with his sword all that ever he met, for through
the sight of her he was so enamoured of her love, that he seemed at that
time, that had Sir Tristrem and Sir Launcelot been both against him, they
would have won no worship of him." Morte d'Arthur, book x. c. 70.

[227] Lovelier.

[228] Lived.

[229] Romance of Ywaine and Gawin.

[230] Froissart, c. 249. "Le duc de Lancastre avoit de son heritage en
Champaigne: c'estassavoir un chastel entre Troye et Chalons, qui
s'appelait Beaufort, et duquel un escuyer Anglais (qui se nommoit le
poursuivant d'amour) estait capitaine."

[231] Froissart, liv. i. c. 7.

[232] Barbour's Bruce, book vi. Hume's (of Godscroft) History of the House
of Douglas, p. 29, &c.

The description of the good Lord James of Douglas, in Barbour's Bruce, is
not uninteresting.

  "In visage was he some deal gray,
  And had black hair, as I heard say,
  But then he was of limbs well made,
  With bones great and shoulders braid.
  His body well made and lenzie,
  As they that saw him said to me.
  When he was blyth he was lovely
  And meek and sweet in company.
  But who in battle might him see
  Another countenance had he.
  And in his speech he lispt some deal,
  But that set him right wonder well."
                                  The Bruce, p. 13.

[233] Spenser's Fairy Queen, book i. canto 4. st. 1.

[234]

  "E se la us fa gelos
  E us en dona razo,
  E us ditz c'ancre no fo
  De so que dels huelhs vis,
  Diguatz Don. En suy fiz
  Que vos disetz vertat,
  Mas yeu vay simiat."

The name of the gentleman who thus consented to distrust the evidence of
his senses was Amanieu des Escas, a favourite troubadour in Spain during
the thirteenth century. One of the "statutes" in the Court of Love is,
according to Chaucer's report of it, pretty much in the same strain:

  "But think that she, so bounteous and fair,
  Could not be false, imagine this algate,
  And think that tongues wicked would her appair,
  Slandering her name, and worshipful estate,
  And lovers true to settin at debate,
  And though thou seest a fault, right at thine eye,
  Excuse it blith, and gloss it prettily."
                                  Chaucer, Urry's edit. fol. 563.

[235] Mr. Skottowe, in his Essays on Shakspeare (essays which have done
more for the right understanding of the great dramatist than all the works
of his commentators from Theobald to Malone), observes that, in the play
of Troilus and Cressida, a courtly knight of chivalry is often seen under
the name of a Trojan hero. The following challenge of Hector is conceived
and executed in the true chivalric spirit.

                      "Kings, princes, lords,
  If there be one, among the fair'st of Greece,
  That holds his honour higher than his ease;
  That seeks his praise more than he fears his peril;
  That knows his valour, and knows not his fear;
  That loves his mistress more than in confession,
  (With truant vows to her own lips he loves,)
  And dare avow her beauty and her worth,
  In other arms than hers,--to him this challenge.
  Hector, in view of Trojans and of Greeks,
  Shall make it good, or do his best to do it.
  He hath a lady, wiser, fairer, truer,
  Than ever Greek did compass in his arms;
  And will to-morrow with his trumpet call,
  Midway between yon tents and walls of Troy,
  To rouse a Grecian that is true in love:
  If any come, Hector shall honour him;
  If none, he'll say in Troy, when he retires,
  The Grecian dames are sun-burn'd, and not worth
  The splinter of a lance."
                                  Troilus and Cressida, act i. sc. 3.

[236] Cronique de Saintré, vol. iii. c. 65.

[237] This society of the Penitents of Love is mentioned by the Chevalier
of the Tower, whose book I have so often quoted in illustration of the
chivalric character.

[238] The Lai of Sir Gruélan.

[239] Way's Fabliaux, vol. ii. p. 170. The _moral_ of the Lay of Aristotle
brings to mind Voltaire's two celebrated lines under a statue of Cupid:--

  "Qui que tu sois, tu vois ton maitre,
  Il l'est, le fut, ou le doit être."

[240] Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, p. 8, &c.

[241] Ibid. p. 41.

[242] Lai of the Canonesses and the Gray Nuns.

[243] L'Histoire et plaisante Cronicque du petit Jehan de Saintré, vol. i.
c. 7.

[244] Lai of the Countess of Vergy.

[245] Romance of Guy of Warwick.

[246] Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, p. 104.

[247] Romance of Sir Bevis. In Ariosto, the heroine Bradamante wishes
Rugiero to be baptized; and he replies, with great gallantry, that he
would put his head not only into water, but into fire, for the sake of her
love.

  Non che nell' acqua, disse, ma nel foco
  Per tuo amor porre il capo mi fia poco.
                                  Orlando Furioso, canto xxii. st. 36.

[248] Don Quixote himself was not a greater idolater of the ladies, than
was the valiant Marshal Boucicaut, who, however, carried his fear of
impertinent intrusion to a more romantic pitch than perhaps the ladies
liked, for he would not even permit the knights of his banner to look a
second time at a window where a handsome woman was seated. Mémoires,
partie 3. c. 7.

[249] Boucicaut, Mémoires, partie i. c. 38, 39. The commencement of the
letters of those knights of the lady in the green field is worthy of
insertion on account of its chivalric tone. "A toutes haultes et nobles
dames and damoiselles, et à tous seigneurs, chevaliers, et escuyers, apres
tous recommendations, font á sçavoir les treize chevaliers compagnons,
portans en leur devise l'escu verd à la dame blanche. Premièrement pour ce
que tout chevalier est tenu de droict de vouloir garder et deffendre
l'honneur, l'estat, les biens, la renommée, et la louange de toutes dames
et damoiselles de noble lignée, et que iceulx entre les autres sont tres
desirans de le vouloir faire, les prient et requierent que il leur plaise
que si aulcune ou aulcunes est ou sont par oultraige, ou force, contre
raison diminuées ou amoindries des choses dessus dictes, que celle ou
celles à qui le tort ou force en sera faicte veuille ou veuillent venir ou
envoyer requerir l'un des dicts chevaliers, tous ou partie d'iceulx, selon
ce que le cas le requerra, et le requis de par la dicte dame ou
damoiselle, soit un, tous ou partie, sont et veulent estre tenus de mettre
leurs corps pour leur droict garder et deffendre encontre tout autre
seigneur, chevalier, ou escuyer, en tout ce que chevalier se peut et doibt
employer au mestier d'armes, de tout leur pouvoir, de personne à personne,
jusques au nombre dessus dicts et au dessoutes, tant pour tant. Et en
breifs jours après la requeste à l'un, tous ou partie d'iceulx, faicte de
par les dictes dames ou damoiselles, ils veulent presentement eulx mettre
en tout debovir d'accomplir les choses dessus dictes, et si brief que
faire se pourra. Et s'il advenoit, que Dieu ne veuille que celuy au ceulx
qui par les dictes dames ou damoiselles seroient requis, eussent essoine
raisonnable; a fin que leur service et besongne ne se puisse en rien
retarder qu'il ne prist conclusion, le requis ou les requis seront tenus
de bailler prestement de leurs compaignons, par qui le dict faict seroit
et pouvoit estre mené à chef et accomply."

[250] The Knight's Tale, l. 2108, &c. The following is Dryden's version of
the above lines. The spirit of the last two lines of Chaucer is entirely
lost.

  "Beside the champions, all of high degree,
  Who knighthood lov'd and deeds of chivalry,
  Throng'd to the lists, and envy'd to behold
  The names of others, not their own, enroll'd.
  Nor seems it strange, for every noble knight
  Who loves the fair, and is endu'd with might,
  In such a quarrel would be proud to fight."

[251] Monstrelet, vol. vi. p. 167. Boucicaut, Memoirs, c. 382.

[252] Froissart, liv. i. c. 389.

[253] Froissart, liv. ii. c. 6.; liv. i. c. 124, 125. "Puis passerent
oultre destruisans le pais d'entour et vindrent ainsi jusques au chastel
de Poys: ou il y avoit bonne ville, et deux beaux chasteaux: mais nul des
seigneurs n'y estait, fors deux belles damoiselles, filles au Seigneur de
Poys: qui tost eussent esté violees, si n'eussent esté deux chevaliers
d'Angleterre; messire Jehan Chandos, et le sire de Basset: qui les
deffendirent: et pour les garder les menerent au roy: qui pour honneur
leur fit bonne chere, et leur demanda ou elles voudroyent estre, si disent
à Corbie. Là les fit le roi conduire sans pareil."

[254] I have taken this story from Gibbon, (Antiquities of the House of
Brunswick, Miscellaneous Works, vol. iii. p. 530,) who says it is told (if
he is not mistaken) by the Spectator, and may certainly be supported by
ancient evidence.

[255] Fairy Queen, book iii. canto 1. st. 49.

[256] Ibid. book iii. canto 7. st. 60.

[257] Another writer says,

  "Ah! well was he that he forebore to blame;
  Misfortune be his lot and worldly shame,
  Nor, dying, let him taste of heavenly bliss
  Whoe'er of dame or damsel speaks amiss;
  And sure no gentle clerk did ever vex
  With foul discourtesy the gentle sex,
  But churl or villain, of degenerate mind,
  Brutal and base, the scandal of his kind."
                                  S. Rose's Partenopex of Blois, canto ii.

And in a similar strain of courtesy is the beginning of the Fabliau of
Constant du Hamel, as translated by M. Le Grand. "Je ne pardonne pas qu'on
se moque des dames. On doit toute sa vie les honorer et les servir et ne
leur parler jamais que pour leur dire choses courtoises. Qui agit
autrement est un vilain."

[258] As the romance of the Rose says,

  "Les chevaliers mieux en valoient,
  Les dames meilleures etoient
  Et plus chastement en vivoient."

[259] Caxton's Chevalier of the Tower, cap. "How every good woman ought to
keep her renommèe."

[260] Ord. Vit. p. 687, &c.

[261] Harleian MS. No. 166. 2087. p. 23. cited in Retrospective Review.
No. 19. p. 95.

[262] Froissart, liv. i. c. 138. Lord Hailes is not pleased that the queen
should have shared in the honour of the battle, and wishes to doubt her
presence, because Froissart is the _only_ writer who states it. Upon which
Mr. Turner (History of England, vol. 2. p. 204, 8vo.) very judiciously
observes, that, if we disbelieve all the facts of this reign, for which we
have _only_ Froissart's authority, our scepticism must take a large sweep.

[263] Wyntown's Cronykil of Scotland, book viii. c. 32. Lord Hailes, vol.
2. p. 218, 221. Border Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 170.

[264] Avesbury, p. 97. Froissart, liv. i. c. 69.

[265] La Comtesse de Montfort avoit courage d'homme et coeur de lion. Elle
estoit en la cité de Rénes, quand elle entendit que son seigneur fut
prins; et, combien qu'elle eust grand dueil au coeur, elle reconfortoit
tous ses amis vaillamment, et tous ses soudoyers: et leur monstroit un
petit fils (qu'elle avoit appelé Jehan, comme son pere) et leur disoit,
Haa, seigneurs, ne vous ébahissez mie de monseigneur, que nous avons
perdu. Ce n'estoit qu'un homme. Veez cy mon petit enfant, qui sera (si
Dieu plaist) son restorier, et vous sera des biens assez et j'ai de savoir
à planté; si vous en donneraz assez, et vous pourchaceray tel capitaine,
parquoy vous serez tous reconfortes. Froissart, liv. i. c. 73.

[266] Mrs. Charles Stothard, in her interesting Tour through Normandy and
Brittany, observes (p. 231.) that the massive walls which once surrounded
the town of Hennebon, remain in many places entire, and must have been
impregnable in their strength and construction.

[267] Froissart, c. 82. Lors descendit la Comtesse du Chastel, à joyeuse
chere, et vint baiser messiu Gautier de Manny et ses compaignons, les uns
apres les autre, deux fois ou trois, comme vaillante Dame.

[268] Spenser, Vision of the World's Vanity, st. 9.

[269] Like Gonzalo in the Tempest. "Now would I give a thousand furlongs
of sea for an acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, any thing.
The wills above be done; but I would fain die a dry death." Act i. sc. 1.

[270] The principal facts in the heroic life of the Countess of Mountfort
are recorded by Froissart, c. 68, 72, 80, 91, &c. Lobineau, Histoire de
Bretagne, vol. i. p. 320, &c. Argentré, Histoire de Bretagne, liv. vii. c.
9, 10.

[271] Hist. Gen. de la France, l. 452.

[272] See the chronicle of M. Villani in the 14th vol. of Muratori, Rerum
Scrip. Ital.; and Sismondi, Histoire des Rep. Ital. tom. vi. c. 45. Italy
has not many romantic associations, and there are now no remains of Cesena
to awaken the admiration of the traveller to the heroism of Marzia.
Forsyth, Remarks on Italy, vol. ii. p. 266.

[273] Fairy Queen, book iii. canto 4, st. 1.

[274] Ibid, book iii. canto ii. st. 27.

[275]

  "The lady's heart was on him cast,
  And she beheld him wonder fast;
  Ever on him she cast her eye,
  Ipomydon full well it seye[F];
  Anon it gave him in his thought,
  To loke again let would be not.
  Nor no more coward thought he to be
  Of his looking than was she.
  The lady perceived it full well,
  Of all his looking every dell,
  And therewith began to shame,
  For she might lightly fall in blame,
  If men perceived it any thing,
  Betwixt them two such looking,
  Then would they say all bydene[G],
  That some love were them between;
  Then should she fall in slander,
  And lose much of her honour.
  She thought to warn him privily,
  By her cousin that set him by.
  'Jason,' she said, 'thou art to blame,
  And therewith the ought to shame,
  To behold my maid in vain;
  Every man to other will sayne,
  That betwixt you is some sin,
  Of thy looking, I rede[H], thou blynne[I].'
  Ipomydon him bethought anon,
  Then that she blamed Jason,
  Without deserving every dell:
  But the encheson[J] he perceived well.
  Down he looked and thought great shame,
  That Jason bore for him the blame.
  Still he sat, and said no more,
  He thought to dwell no longer there."
                                  Romance of Sir Ipomydon.

    [F] Saw.

    [G] Together.

    [H] Council.

    [I] Cease.

    [J] Occasion.

[276] Full of frowardness, each mis-saying or reviling, as Ellis renders
the passage.

[277] Lai le Fraine.

[278] Du Cange gravely quotes Saint Isidore for this truth; and it is
credible even upon less solemn authority.

[279] Thus Holingshed, speaking of a royal joust and martial tournament,
held at Smithfield in 1389, says, "And so many a noble course and other
martial feats were achieved in those four days, to the great contentation
and pleasure of many a young bachelor desirous to win fame." P. 474. edit.
1587.

[280] The objects and tendencies of tournaments are extremely well
expressed by Jeffry of Monmouth:--"Many knights famous for feats of
chivalry were present, with apparel and arms of the same colour and
fashion. They formed a species of diversion, in imitation of a fight on
horseback; and the ladies being placed on the walls of the castles, darted
amorous glances on the combatants. None of these ladies esteemed any
knight worthy of her love but such as had given proof of his gallantry in
three several encounters. Thus the valour of the men encouraged chastity
in the women, and the attention of the women proved an incentive to the
soldier's bravery." Lib. ix. c. 12.

[281] Holingshed, vol. ii. p. 252. reprint.

[282] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 175.

[283] Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. i. p. 311. 323.

[284] The German nation, as it may be easily supposed, were more strict
than other people regarding the nature of the birth-right which authorised
a man to tourney. If any person be curious enough to enquire into the
fantastic subtleties of German heraldry about this matter, I refer him to
the Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. i. p. 293. 300.

[285] M. Westm. p. 300.

[286] Segar of Honor, lib. ii. c. 26. Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. i.
p. 302. There was a singular law in Germany, prohibiting from the
tournament those who had been the cause of imposing taxes or duties, or
had used their endeavours to get them imposed. Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen,
vol. i. p. 304.

[287] Croneca del Conde D. Pero Nino, p. 203., cited in the notes to the
preface to the reprint of the Morte d'Arthur, p. 61.

[288] Monstrelet, vol. vi. p. 333.

[289] Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. i. p. 323.

[290] Chaucer, Knight's Tale, l. 2493, &c. So Froissart says, "On the next
day you might have seen in divers places of the city of London squires and
varlettes going about with harness, and doing other business of their
masters." Vol. ii. p. 273.

[291] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 173.

[292] Smithfield was famous many years earlier, both as the place of
sports and the horse-market of London. Fitzstephen, who wrote in the time
of Henry II., says, "Without one of the gates is a certain field[K], plain
(or smooth) both in name and situation. Every Friday, except some greater
festival come in the way, there is a brave sight of gallant horses to be
sold: many come out of the city to buy or look on, to wit, earls, barons,
knights, citizens, all resorting thither."

    [K] Smethfield, as it were Smoothfield.


[293] Du Cange, Dissertation 6. on Joinville.

[294] Memoires d'Olivier de la Marche, liv. i. c. 14.

[295] This feeling is exceedingly well expressed in a challenge given by
some foreign knights in England to the English chivalry. "Ever in courts
of great kings are wont to come knights of divers nations, and more to
this court of England, where are maintained knighthood and feats of arms
valiantly for the service of ladies in higher degrees and estates than in
any realm of the world: it beseemeth well to Don Francisco de Mendoza, and
Carflast De la Vega, that here, better than in any place, they may shew
their great desire that they have to serve their ladies." Antiquarian
Repertory, vol. i. p. 148.

[296] elegant.

[297] embroidery.

[298] head-pieces.

[299] ornamented dresses.

[300] rubbing.

[301] straps.

[302] brazen drums.

[303] Chaucer, The Knight's Tale, line 2498, &c. Chaucer must have had in
his imagination one of the splendid tournaments of the days of Edward III.
when he wrote these spirited lines; for there is much more circumstance in
his description than could have belonged to a simple joust between the two
knights, Palamon and Arcite.

[304] Du Cange (Diss. 6. on Joinville) on the authority of an ancient MS.
regarding tournaments; and Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. i. p. 325.

[305] Harleian MSS. No. 69.

[306] Hist. de Charles VI. vol. ii. p. 120. fol. 1663. As every thing
regarding the ladies of chivalric as well as of other times is
interesting, no apology will be required for my hazarding a conjecture,
that the colour of the ribbon mentioned in the text was blue, the emblem
of constancy.

  "Lo, yonder folk, quoth she, that kneel in blue!
  They wear the colour ay and ever shall,
  In sign they were and ever will be true,
  Withouten change."
                                  Chaucer's Court of Love, l. 248, &c.

The author of the Romance of Perceforest has made a strange exaggeration
of the custom of ladies sending favours to knights during the heat of a
tournament. He says, that at the end of one of those martial games, "Les
dames étoient si dénues de leur atours, que la plus grande partie étoit en
pur chef (mie tête) car elles s'en alloient les cheveux sur leurs epaules
gisans, plus jaunes que fin or, en plus leurs cottes sans manches, car
tous avoient donné aux chevaliers pour eux parer et guimples et chaperons,
manteaux et camises, manches et habits: mais quand elles se virent à tel
point, elles en furent ainsi comme toutes honteuses; mais sitost qu'elles
veirent que chacune étoit en tel point, elles se prirent toutes a rire de
leur adventure, car elles avoient donné leurs joyaux et leurs habits de si
grand coeur aux chevaliers, qu'elles ne s'appercevoient de leur dénuement
et devestemens."

[307] The reader may wonder at this form of expression; but it proceeded
from the very noble principle of teaching young knights to emulate the
glories of their ancestors, and from the peculiar refinement and delicacy
of chivalry which argued that there was no knight so perfect, but who
might commit a fault, and so great a one as to efface the merit of all his
former good deeds. Heralds, therefore, observes Monstrelet, do not at
jousts and battles cry out, "Honour to the brave!" but they exclaim,
"Honour to the sons of the brave!" No knight can be deemed perfect, until
death has removed the possibility of his committing an offence against his
knighthood. "Il n'est nul si bon chevalier au monde qu'il ne puisse bien
faire une faute, voire si grande que tous les biens qu'il aura faits
devant seront adnihillez; et pour ce on ne crie aux joustes ne aux
batailles, aux preux, mais on crie bien aux fils des preux après la mort
de leur pere car nul chevalier ne peut estre jugé preux se ce n'est après
le trépassement." Monstrelet, vol. i. p. 29.

[308] "To break across," the phrase for bad chivalry, did not die with the
lance. It was used by the writers of the Elizabethan age to express any
failure of wit or argument. To the same purpose, Celia, in "As You Like
it," says of Orlando, tauntingly, "O that's a brave man. He writes brave
verses, speaks brave words, swears brave oaths, and breaks them bravely,
quite traverse, athwart the heart of his lover, as a puny tilter, that
spurs his horse but on one side, breaks his staff like a noble goose."

[309] The old English ordinances, fortunately, have been preserved, and
are exceedingly curious.

The ordinances, statutes, and rules, made and enacted by John Earl of
Worcester, constable of England, by the kinge's commandement, at Windsor,
the 14th day of May, in the seventh year of his noble reign (Edward IV.),
to be observed and kept in all manner of justes of peace royal, within
this realm of England, before his highness or lieutenant, by his
commandment or licence, had from this time forth, reserving always to the
queen's highness and to the ladies there present, the attribution and gift
of the price, after the manner and form accustomed, the merits and
demerits attribute according to the articles following:--

First, whoso breaketh most spears, as they ought to be broken, shall have
the price.

Item, whoso hitteth three times in the helm shall have the price.

Item, whoso meteth two times coronel to coronel, shall have the price.

Item, whoso beareth a man down with stroke of spear shall have the price.


How the Price should be lost.

First, whoso striketh a horse shall have no price.

Item, whoso striketh a man, his back turned, or disarmed of his spear,
shall have no price.

Item, whoso hitteth the toil or tilt thrice shall have no price.

Item, whoso unhelms himself twice shall have no price without his horse
fail him.


How Spears broken shall be allowed.

First, whoso breaketh a spear between the saddle and the charnel of the
helm shall be allowed for one.

Item, whoso breaketh a spear from the charnel upwards shall be allowed for
two.

Item, whoso breaketh a spear so as he strike him down or put him out of
his saddle, or disarm him in such wise as he may not run the next course,
shall be allowed for three spears broken.


How Spears broken shall be disallowed.

First, whoso breaketh on the saddle shall be disallowed for a spear
breaking.

Item, whoso hits the toil or tilt over shall be disallowed for two.

Item, whoso hitteth the toil twice, for the second time shall be abased
three.

Item, whoso breaketh a spear within a foot of the coronall, shall be
judged as no spear broken, but a good attempt.


For the Price.

First, whoso beareth a man down out of the saddle, or putteth him to the
earth, horse and man, shall have the price before him that striketh
coronall to coronall two times.

Item, he that striketh coronall to coronall two times shall have the price
before him that striketh the sight three times.

Item, he that striketh the sight three times shall have the price before
him that breaketh the most spears.

Item, if there be any man that fortunately in this wise shall be deemed he
bode longest in the field helmed, and ran the fairest course, and gave the
greatest strokes, helping himself best with his spear.

  Antiquarian Repertory, l. 145, &c.

[310] Olivier de la Marche, a hero of Burgundy in the fifteenth century,
thus describes a warder:--"Et tenoit le Duc de Bourgogne un petit blanc
baton en sa main pour jetter et faire séparer les champions, leurs armes
achivees, comme il est de coustume en tel cas." Memoires, p. 71.

[311] Walsingham, p. 8. In early times, in England, those tournament
festivals were held about a round table, and therefore the tournaments
themselves were often called round tables. Walter Hemingford, vol. i. p.
7. ed. Hearne.

[312] This was the address of the heralds after a tournament in the days
of Edward IV.:--

"Oyez, oyez, oyez, we let to understand to all princes and princesses,
lords, ladies, and gentlewomen of this noble court, and to all others to
whom it appertaineth, that the nobles that this day have exercised the
feats of arms at the tilt, tourney, and barriers, have every one behaved
themselves most valiantly, in shewing their prowess and valour worthy of
great praise.

"And to begin, as touching the brave entry of the Lord ----, made by him
very gallantly, the King's Majesty more brave than he, and above all, the
Earl ----, unto whom the price of a very rich ring is given by the Queen's
Majesty, by the advice of other princesses, ladies, and gentlewomen of
this noble court.

"And as touching the valiantness of the piques, the Duke of M. hath very
valiantly behaved himself, the Earl of P. better than he, and above all
others, the Earl of D., unto whom the price of a ring of gold with a ruby
is given, by the most high and mighty Princess the Queen of England, by
the advice aforesaid.

"And as touching the valiantness of the sword, ---- knight hath very well
behaved himself, the Earl of N. better than he, and Sir J. P., knight,
above all the rest, unto whom is given the price of a ring of gold with a
diamond, by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by the advice of other
princesses, ladies, and gentlewomen.

"And as touching the valiantness of the sword at the foil, Sir. W. R.,
knight, hath very valiantly behaved himself, the Marquis of C. better than
he, and above all others, the King's Majesty, unto whom was given the
price of a ring of gold with a diamond, by the Queen's Majesty, by the
advice of other princesses, ladies, and gentlewomen.

"Finally, touching the valiancy of the pique, the point abated, Thomas P.
hath well and valiantly behaved himself, Charles C. better than he, and
above all others, Z. S., unto whom was given by the Queen's Majesty a ring
of gold, by the advice of other princesses, ladies, and gentlewomen."

[313] Knights are always mentioned as good or unskilful tilters, according
to the judgment of the ladies. Froissart, vol. ii. c. 234. Monstrelet,
vol. i. c. 10.; and see the last note.

[314] The account of every tournament in our grave old chronicles warrants
the sentence in the Romance of Perceforest, "Pris ne doit ne peult estre
donne sans les _dames_; car pour elles sont toutes les prouesses fautes."

[315] This form of thanks prevailed also at the joust, as we learn from an
account of one in the days of Edward IV. See Lansdowne MSS., British
Museum, No. 285. art. 7.

[316] Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. i. p. 346.

[317] A tournament of this three-fold description took place at St. Denys,
in the year 1389.

[318] The love of our ancestors for tournaments is evident in a curious
passage of an ancient satirical poem, which Strutt has thus rendered:

  "If wealth, Sir Knight, perchance be thine,
  In tournaments you're bound to shine;
  Refuse--and all the world will swear,
  You die not worth a rotten pear."

[319] Mr. Sharon Turner (History of England, vol. i. p. 144. 4to. edit.)
says, that nothing could break the custom (of holding tournaments) but the
increased civilisation of the age. This is a mistake, for tournaments
increased in number as the world became more civilised. There were more
tournaments in the fourteenth century than in the thirteenth, and even so
late as the reign of Henry VIII. the whole of England seems to have been
parcelled out into tilting grounds.

[320] "De his vero qui in torneamentis cadunt, nulla quæstio est, quin
vadant ad inferos, si non fuerint adjuti beneficio contritionis." Du Cange
on Joinville, Dissert. 6.

[321] Still more absurd is the story of Matthew Paris, that Roger de
Toeny, a valiant knight, appeared after death to his brother Raoul, and
thus addressed him: "Jam et pænas vidi malorum, et gaudio beatorum; nec
non supplicia magna, quibus miser deputatus sum, oculis meis conspexi. Væ,
væ mihi, quare unquam torneamenta exercui, et ea tanto studio dilexi?"

[322] Thus Lambert d'Ardres writes: "Cum omnino tunc temporis propter
Dominici sepulchri peregrinationem in toto orbe, interdicta fuissent
torneamenta." Du Cange, Diss. 6. on Joinville.

[323] Du Cange calls any combat between two knights preliminary to a
general battle, a joust to the utterance. He might as well have called the
battle itself a joust.

[324] The agreement was made in legal form, as we learn from Wyntown. Sir
David de Lindsay had a safe-conduct for his purpose, and came to London
with a retinue of twenty-eight persons,--

  "Where he and all his company
  Was well arrayed, and daintily,
  And all purveyed at device.
  There was his purpose to win prize:
  With the Lord of the Wellis he
  Thought til have done there a _journée_ (day's battle),
  For both they were by _certane taillé_
  Obliged to do there that deed, _sauf faillie_ (without fail)."

Macpherson says, that challenges of this sort were called taillés
indentures, because they were bonds of which duplicates were made having
indentures taillés answering to each other.

[325] Holingshed, History of Scotland, p. 252. ed. 1587. Wyntown's
Cronykil of Scotland, book ix. c. 11. The Sir David de Lindsay, mentioned
above is the knight of whom Sir Walter Scott tells an amusing story in his
notes to Marmion, canto i. note 8.

[326] "Or verra l'on s'il y a nul d'entre vous Anglois, qui soit
amoureux." Froissart, vol. ii. c. 55. Lyons's edit.

[327] Froissart, i. 345.

[328] Berners' Froissart, vol. i. c. 374.

[329] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 78.

[330] Some writers, confounding the joust with the duel, have said that
bearded darts, poisoned needles, razors, and similar weapons, were lawful
in the jousts. The instance to support this assertion is the challenge of
the Duke of Orleans to Henry IV. of England, recorded by Monstrelet, vol.
i. c. 9., where the Duke declined to use them. But Orleans challenged
Lancaster to a duel, and not to a chivalric joust.

[331] Segar, of Honor, lib. iii. c. 13.

[332] I do not know when exactly this truly chivalric circumstance
occurred. The story is told in a manuscript, in the Lansdowne Collection,
British Museum, No. 285. It is described as the challenge of an ancestor
of the Earl of Warwick, and the MS. bears date in the days of Edward IV.

[333] Vous savez, et bien l'avez oui dire et recorder plusieurs fois, que
les ebatemens des dames et damoiselles encouragent voulontiers les coeurs
des jeunes gentils-hommes, et les elevent, en requerant et desirant tous
honneur. Froissart, vol. iv. c. 6. ed. Lyons, 1560.

[334] "Ye may know well that Charles the French King was sore desirous to
be at those jousts: he was young and light of spirit, and glad to see new
things. It was shewed me that from the beginning to the ending he was
there present, disguised as unknown, so that none knew him but the Lord of
Garansyers, who came also with him as unknown, and every day returned to
Marquise." Froissart, vol. i. c. 168.

[335] As the weather was bright, according to Froissart, I wonder he did
not, in his fondness for detail, mention the number of barrels of water
that were every evening poured on the dusty plain. On one occasion he
says, "The knights complained of the dust, so that some of them said they
lost their deeds by reason thereof. The King made provision for it: he
ordained more than two hundred barrels of water that watered the place,
whereby the ground was well amended, and yet the next day they had dust
enough, and too much." vol. ii. p. 157.

[336] Du Cange (Dissertation 7. on Joinville) is incorrect in saying that
a joust seldom terminated without some knights being slain, or very
grievously wounded. The jousts at St. Ingilberte were on the most
extensive scale, and nothing worse than a flesh-wound or a bruise from
falling was felt, even by the most unskilful or unlucky knight. Froissart
perpetually describes jousts of three courses with lances, three strokes
with axes, three encounters both with swords and daggers; and generally
concludes with saying, "And when all was done, there was none of them
hurt." "You should have jousted more courteously," was the reproach of the
spectators to a knight, when his lance had pierced the shoulder of the
other jouster. Froissart, vol. ii. c. 161. Du Cange preserved no clear
idea in his mind of the difference between the joust _à la plaisance_ and
the joust _à l'outrance_, and most subsequent writers have only blindly
followed him. I shall notice in this place another popular error on the
subject of jousts. Mr. Strutt, (Sports and Pastimes of the People of
England, book iii. c. 1.) and an hundred writers after him, assert that
the authority of the ladies was more extensive in the joust than in the
tournament. Mr. Strutt says, that "in the days of chivalry jousts were
made in honor of the ladies, who presided as judges paramount over the
sports." Now there are many jousts mentioned in Froissart and other
chivalric historians that were held only in the presence of knights. But I
can find no instance of a tournament being held without ladies. The joust
was a martial exercise; but the tournament was connected with all the
circumstances of domestic life.

[337] "Et si aimoit, par amour, jeune dame: dont en tous estats son
affaire en valoit grandement mieux." Froissart, vol. iii. c. 12. edit.
Lyons, 1560.

[338] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 160. 162. 168. Memoires du Mareschal de
Boucicaut, partie i. c. 17. The writer of those memoirs, a contemporary of
Boucicaut's, in his zeal for his hero, gives all the honor to the French
knights. Juvenal des Ursins (p. 83, &c.) is more modest, and he makes
certain judges of the court compliment many of the knights for their
valiancy.

[339] Most of these circumstances are unnoticed by our historians. I can
pardon their unacquaintance with the Lansdowne manuscripts, for those are
but recently acquired national treasures: but every scholar is supposed to
know the Biographia Britannica,--and in the article Caxton, some of the
chivalric features of the joust in question are mentioned.

[340] A very amusing little volume might be made on the romance of
flowers, on the tales which poetry and fancy have invented to associate
the affections and the mind with plants, thus adding the pleasures of the
feelings and the imagination to those of the eye. The reader remembers the
Love in Idleness, in Shakspeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. The Floure of
Souvenance, the Forget-me-not, is an equally pleasing instance. The
application of this name to the Myosotis Scorpioidis of botanists is of
considerable antiquity: the story in the text proves that the plant with
its romantic associations was known in England as early as the days of our
Edward IV. The following tale of the origin of the fanciful name has been
communicated to me by my friend Anthony Todd Thomson, whose Lectures on
the Elements of Botany, at once scientific and popular, profound and
elegant, take a high place in the class of our most valuable works.

"Two lovers were loitering on the margin of a lake, on a fine summer's
evening, when the maiden espied some of the flowers of Myosotis growing on
the water, close to the bank of an island, at some distance from the
shore. She expressed a desire to possess them, when her knight, in the
true spirit of chivalry, plunged into the water, and, swimming to the
spot, cropped the wished-for plant, but his strength was unable to fulfil
the object of his achievement, and feeling that he could not regain the
shore, although very near it, he threw the flowers upon the bank, and
casting a last affectionate look upon his lady-love, he cried,
'Forget-me-not,' and was buried in the waters."

"There are three varieties of the plant," Mr. Thomson adds; "the one to
which the tradition of the name is attached is perennial, and grows in
marshes and on the margins of lakes."

[341] The Lord Scales was a right good knight of worship, in spite of the
reflections on his courage which Edward IV. once threw out against him.
"The kyng hathe sayd of hym that even wyr he hathe most to do, then the
Lord Scalys wyll soonest axe leve to depart, and the kyng weenyth that it
is mist because of kowardyese." Paston Letters, vol. iv. p. 116.

[342] Rymer, Foedera, tom. ii. p. 573.

[343] Besides Holingshed, Stow, and other chroniclers, I have consulted
for this very interesting joust a curious collection of contemporary
documents, among the Lansdowne manuscripts (No. 285.) in the British
Museum. The Chevalier de la Marche accompanied the Bastard of Burgundy to
England, and his Memoirs furnish a few particulars not noticed by English
writers. His account of the joust itself differs from that of our
chroniclers, (whom I have followed,) for he makes all the advantage lie
with his own knight. It is neither possible nor important to discover the
truth. The spirit of the age which gave birth to the challenge and the
general interest excited by the joust are the points that deserve to be
marked. There is also much confusion regarding the dates of most of the
circumstances, and I hold my readers in too much respect to enter into any
arguments touching such trifling matters. Such few dates as are undoubted
I have mentioned. Let me add Hawkins's conjecture (Origin of the English
Drama, vol. iii. p. 91.), that the word _Burgullian_ or Burgonian meaning
a bully, a braggadochio, was derived from this joust. This is by no means
unlikely, observes Mr. Gifford, (note on Every Man in his Humour, act iv.
sc. 2.) for our ancestors, who were not over delicate, nor, generally
speaking, much overburdened with respect for the feelings of foreigners,
had a number of vituperative appellations derived from their real or
supposed ill qualities, of many of which the precise import cannot now be
ascertained.

[344] Prendergast mistook Orris for a French knight. Orris afterwards
refused the honor intended him, expressing, however, very high compliments
to the chivalry of France, and merely stating his Arragonese descent, on
the ground, that no honest man ought to deny his country.

[345] "Si prie au dieu d'amour qu'ainsi comme vous desirez l'amour de ma
dame la vostre, il ne vous l'ait de vostre dicte venue." Monstrelet, vol.
i. p. 3. ed. 1573.

[346] Lest it should be thought that I am drawing from a romance, I
subjoin part of the original letter from the grave old chronicler
Monstrelet. "Je ne scay se le dieu d'amours qui vous enhorta et meit en
couraige de vosdictes, lettres quand les envoyes, ait en aucune chose esté
si despleu: parquoy il ait changé ses conditions anciennes, qui souloient
estre telles que pour esbaudir armes et à cognoistre chevalerie. Il tenoit
les nobles de sa court en si royalle gouvernance, que pour accroissement
de leur honneur, apres ce qu'ils avoient fait leur dicte emprise, jusques
à tant que fin en fut faicte: ne aussi ne faisoient leurs compagnons
frayer, travailler, ne despendre leurs biens en vain. Non pourtant que n'y
voudroye pas qu'il trouvast celle deffaute en moy, si qu'il eut cause de
moy bannir de sa court. Je vueil encores demourer par deça jusques au
huictiesme jour de ce present mois de May preste a l'ayde de Dieu, de St.
George, et de St. Anthoine à vous deliverir, ainsi que ma dame et la
vostre le puissent scavoir que pour reverence d'icelles j'ai voulenté de
vous aiser de vostre griefue: qui par long temps vous a desaisié comme
vosdictes lettres contiennent: pourquoy aussi vous avez cause de desirer
vostre allegeance. Apres le quel temps se venir ne voulez, je pense au
plaisir de Dieu de m'enretourner en Angleterre par devers nos dames:
ausquelles j'ai espai en Dieu que sera tesgmoigné par chevaliers et
escuyers que je n'ai en riens mesprins envers le dit dieu d'amours: le
quel vueille avoir lesdits madame et la vostre pour recommandées, sans
avoir desplaisir envers elles pour quelque course qui soit advenue."

[347] Monstrelet, vol. i. c. 1.

[348] The phrase, the passage of arms, is used in the romance of Ivanhoe
as a general expression for chivalric games. But this is incorrect; for
the defence of a particular spot was the essential and distinguishing
quality of the exercise in question. Now there was no such circumstance in
the affair near Ashby-de-la-Zouche. Five knights challengers undertook to
answer all comers, but it was not expected that those comers should
attempt to pass any particular place. The encounters which were the
consequences of the challenges were simple jousts, and constituted the
first day's sport, on the second day there was a general tourney or mélée
of knights, and as in chivalric times the tournament was always regarded
as the chief military exercise, the amusements at Ashby-de-la-Zouch were a
tournament, and by that name, indeed, the author of Ivanhoe has sometimes
called them.

[349] The challenge of the Lord of Chargny is contained in Monstrelet,
vol. viii. c. 60, 61. The description of the passage of arms is given by
Olivier de la Marche in his Mémoires, c. 9. There are many other passages
of arms recorded in the histories of the middle ages, but there is only
one of them of interest, and it will find a place in my description of the
progress of chivalry in Spain.

[350] Nicetas, Hist. Byzant. 1. iii. c. 3. Johannes Cantacuzenus, 1. i. c.
42.

[351] Wordsworth.

[352] I may observe, however, that the ancient Templars were so dreadfully
afraid of their virtue, that they forbad themselves the pleasure of
looking in a fair woman's face; at least the statutes attempted to put
down this instinct of nature. No brother of the Temple was permitted to
kiss maid, wife, or widow, his sister, mother, or any relation whatever.
The statute gravely adds, that it behoves the knights of Jesus Christ to
avoid the kisses of women, in order that they may always walk with a pure
conscience before the Lord. I shall transcribe the statute in the original
Latin, and I hope that it will not be perused with that levity which an
allusion to it during Rebecca's trial at Temple-stowe excited in the
younger members of the valiant and venerable order of the Temple. The
title is sufficiently ascetic,--Ut omnium mulierum oscula fugiantur. It
proceeds thus:--"Periculosum esse credimus omni religioni, vultum mulierum
nimis attendere, et ideo nec viduam, nec virginem, nec matrem, nec
sororem, nec amitam, nec ullam aliam foeminam aliquis frater osculari
præsumat. Fugiat ergo foeminea oscula Christi Militia, per quæ solent
homines sæpe periclitari, ut pura conscientia, et secura vita, in
conspectu Domini perenniter valeat conversare." Cap. 72.

[353] Statutes, c. 51. 55.

[354] "I was a Scotsman ere I was a Templar," is the assertion of Vipont
in the dramatic sketch of Halidon Hill,--a sentiment confessedly borrowed
from the story of the Venetian General, who, observing that his soldiers
testified some unwillingness to fight against those of the Pope whom they
regarded as father of the church, addressed them in terms of similar
encouragement:--"Fight on--we were Venetians before we were Christians."

[355] The Templars find no favour in the eyes of the author of Ivanhoe,
and Tales of the Crusaders. He has imbibed all the vulgar prejudices
against the order; and when he wants a villain to form the shadow of his
scene, he as regularly and unscrupulously resorts to the fraternity of the
Temple, as other novelists refer to the church, or to Italy, for a similar
purpose.

[356] The Pope (Clement V.) committed the glaring absurdity of making a
provisional decree to be executed in perpetuity. The bull which he issued
at the council of Vienne, without asking the judgment of the assembled
bishops and others, declares, that although he cannot of right,
consistently with the Inquisition and proceedings, pronounce a definitive
sentence, yet by way of apostolical provision and regulation, he
perpetually prohibited people from entering into the order and calling
themselves Templars. The penalty of the greater excommunication was held
out as a punishment for offending.

[357] I add a complete list of the grand masters of the Temple, from the
time of Jacques de Molai to these days. (Manuel des Chevaliers de l'Order
du Temple. Paris. 1817.)

                                                                      A.D.
  Johannes Marcus Larmenius, Hierosolymetanus                         1314
  Thomas Theobaldus, Alexandrinus                                     1324
  Arnaldus de Braque                                                  1340
  Johannes Claromontanus                                              1349
  Bertrandus Du Guesclin                                              1357
  Johannes Arminiacus                                                 1381
  Bernardus Arminiacus                                                1392
  Johannes Arminiacus                                                 1419
  Johannes Croyus                                                     1451
  Bernardus Imbaultius, Vic. Mag. Afric. (Regens.)                    1472
  Robertus Lenoncurtius                                               1478
  Galeatius de Salazar                                                1497
  Philippus Chabotius                                                 1516
  Gaspardus de Salceaco, Tavannensis                                  1544
  Henricus de Montmorenciaco                                          1574
  Carolus Valesius                                                    1615
  Jacobus Ruxellius de Granceio                                       1651
  Jacobus Henricus de Duroforti, Dux de Duras                         1681
  Philippus, Dux de Aurelianensis                                     1705
  Ludovicus-Augustus Borbonius, Dux de Maine                          1724
  Ludovicus-Henricus Borbonius, Condæus                               1737
  Ludovicus-Franciscus Borbonius, Conty                               1741
  Ludovicus-Henricus Timoleo de Cossé Brissac                         1776
  Claudius Mathæus Radix de Chevillon, Vic. Mag. Europ. (Regens.)     1792
  Bernardus-Raymundus Fabré Palaprat                                  1804

[358] "I would fain know," quoth Sancho, "why the Spaniards call upon that
same St. James, the destroyer of the Moors: just when they are going to
give battle, they cry, St. Jago and close Spain. Pray is Spain open, that
it wants to be closed up? What do you make of that ceremony?"--"Thou art a
very simple fellow, Sancho," answered Don Quixote. "Thou must know, that
heaven gave to Spain this mighty champion of the Red Cross, for its patron
and protector, especially in the desperate engagements which the Spaniards
had with the Moors; and therefore they invoke him, in all their martial
encounters, as their protector; and many times he has been personally seen
cutting and slaying, overthrowing, trampling, and destroying the Moorish
squadrons; of which I could give thee many examples deduced from authentic
Spanish histories." Don Quixote, part ii. c. 58.

[359] The words are these:--Y asi mesmo hago voto, detener, voto defender,
y guardar en publico, y en secreto, que la Vergen Maria Madre de Dios, y
senora nuestra, fue concebida sin mancha de peccato original.

[360] Favyne. Theat. d'Honneur, l. 6. c. 5. Carode Torres, Hist. de las
Ordines Militares, l. 1. Mariana, l. 7. c. 10.

[361] Mennenius, Delic. Equest. p. 99, &c. Marquez Tesoro Milit. de
Cavale., p. 286. Favyn, Theat. de l'Honneur, lib. 6.

[362] Mennen. Delic. Equest. p. 102, &c. Miræus, and Fr. Caro de Torres,
in locis.

[363] Without rule.

[364] Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.

[365] Reman, Hist. Gen. de la Ordere de la Mercie, passim. Mennen. Del.
Eq. p. 107.

[366] Marquez, Tesoro Milit. 35, &c.

[367] Caligula. D. 6. in Bib. Cott. (cited in Anstis, Register of the Most
Noble Order of the Garter, vol. i. p. 66.) "Que le Roy ne povoit avec son
honneur bailler aide et assistence a icelluy son bon frere et cousin a
l'encontre du Roy de Naples, qui estoit son confrere et allye, veu et
considere qu'il avoit prins et receu l'ordre de la Jarretiere. Et si le
roi autrement faisoit ce seroit contrevenir au serment, qu'il a fait par
les statuz du dit ordre," &c.

[368] This assertion may be supported by some lines in a poem which
Chaucer addressed to the Lords and Knights of the Garter. He says to them,

  "Do forth, do forth, continue your succour,
  Hold up Christ's banner, let it not fall."

And again:

  "Ye Lordis eke, shining in noble fame,
  To which appropred is the maintenance
  Of Christ 'is cause; in honour of his name,
  Shove on, and put his foes to utterance."

[369] Ashmole on the Garter, c. iv. s. 5.

[370] This rule did not escape Cervantes. "If I do not complain of the
pain," says Don Quixote, after the disastrous chance of the windmills, "it
is because a knight-errant must never complain of his wounds, though his
bowels were dropping out through them."--"Then I have no more to say,"
quoth Sancho; "and yet, heaven knows my heart, I should be glad to hear
your worship hone a little now and then when something ails you; for my
part, I shall not fail to bemoan myself when I suffer the smallest pain,
unless, indeed, it can be proved, that the rule of not complaining extends
to the squires as well as knights." Don Quixote, part i. book 1. c. 8.

[371] Favyn, lib. vi. Mariana, lib. xvi. c. 2.

[372] Favyn, lib. iii. c. 12.

[373] Giraldus says, that the leg-bone of Arthur was three fingers longer
than that of the tallest man present at the opening. Selden, in his
Illustrations of Drayton, gives a very interesting account of the
discovery of Great Arthur's tomb. "Henry II., in his expedition towards
Ireland, was entertained by the way, in Wales, with bardish songs, wherein
he heard it affirmed, that in Glastonbury (made almost an isle by the
river's embracements) Arthur was buried betwixt two pillars; he gave
commandment to Henry of Blois, then abbot, to make search for the corpse;
which was found in a wooden coffin some sixteen foote deepe; but, after
they had digged nine foot, they found a stone, on whose lower side was
fixt a leaden cross with his name inscribed, and the letter-side of it
turned to the stone. He was then honored with a sumptuous monument; and,
afterwards, the skulls of him and his wife Guinever were taken out (to
remain as separate reliques and spectacles) by Edward Longshanks and
Eleanor. The bards sang, that, after the battle of Camlan, in Cornwall,
where traitorous Mordred was slain, and Arthur wounded, Morgan le Fay
conveyed the body hither to cure it; which done, Arthur is to return (yet
expected) to the rule of his country."

[374] At the high feast, evermore, there should be fulfilled the hole
number of an hundred and fifty, for then was the Round Table fully
accomplished. Morte d'Arthur, lib. vii. c. 1.

[375] The general objects of the knights of the Round Table are
exceedingly well stated in the following fine passage of genuine,
expressive old English:--"Then King Arthur stablished all his knights, and
to them that were of lands not rich he gave them lands, and charged them
never to do outrageouste, nor murder, and always to flee treason. Also by
no means to be cruel, but to give mercy unto him that asketh mercy, upon
pain of forfeiture of their worship and lordships to King Arthur, for
evermore; and always to do ladies, damsels, and gentlewomen, succour, upon
pain of death. Also, that no man take no battles in a wrongful quarrel for
no law, nor for no world's goods. Unto this were all the knights sworn of
the table round, both old and young. And every year were they sworn at the
high feast of Pentecost." Morte d'Arthur, lib. iv. c. last.

[376] Morte d'Arthur, lib. ult. cap. ult.

[377] Ashmole, p. 105.

[378] Pp. 5. 9. 11. ante.

[379] The exact degree of this influence it is impossible to ascertain
now. The author of the romance of Ivanhoe appears to deny it altogether;
and while he represents the Normans as perfectly chivalric, he describes,
for the sake of contrast, the Anglo-Saxons as totally unadorned with the
graces of knighthood. This is a sacrifice of historic truth to dramatic
effect, and materially detracts from the merit of Ivanhoe as a faithful
picture of ancient manners.

[380] Glaber Rod. c. 5.

[381] Snorre. Malmsbury, p. 174.

[382] Ingulf, p. 512. Order. Vit. p. 460. 463, &c. Malmsbury, passim.
Dudo, p. 82.

[383] Magna Charta, cl. xiv.

[384] Lord Lyttleton gives no higher date to this compulsory knighthood
than the reign of Henry III. But it surely must have existed earlier, as
it seems the natural consequence of the change of constitution, effected
by William I., by his uniting chivalry to feudalism.

[385] Wace tells us that William Rufus never could hear a knight of
prowess spoken of without endeavouring to engage his services.

  "Li reis ros fu de grant noblesce
  Proz, et de mult grant largesce.
  N'oist de chevalier parler,
  Qui de proesse oist loer,
  Qui en son breif escrit ne fust,
  Et qui par an del soen n'eust."

[386] H. Huntingdon, p. 381. Order. Vit. 854, &c.

[387] Stephan. Descrip. Lond. p. 7.

[388] Malmsbury, p. 121.

[389] Vinesauf, p. 338.

[390] Hoveden, p. 673. This principle of chivalric pride did not escape
the good-humoured ridicule of Cervantes. "As for myself," answered the
bruised Don Quixote, after his battle with the Yanguesian carriers, "I
must own I cannot set a term to the days of our recovery; but it is I who
am the fatal cause of all this mischief; for I ought not to have drawn my
sword upon a company of fellows, upon whom the honor of knighthood was
never conferred; and I do not doubt, but that the Lord of Hosts suffered
this punishment to befall me for thus transgressing the laws of chivalry.
Therefore, friend Sancho, observe what I am going to tell thee, for it is
a thing that highly concerns the welfare of us both: it is, that, for the
future, whenever thou perceivest us to be any ways abused by such inferior
fellows, thou art not to expect I should offer to draw my sword against
them, for I will not do it in the least; no, do thou then draw, and
chastise them as thou thinkest fit; but if any knights come to take their
parts, then will I be sure to step between thee and danger, and assault
them with the utmost vigour and intrepidity." Don Quixote, part i. book 3.
c. 1.

[391] Hoveden, p. 687.

[392] William of Newbridge, lib. v. c. 4.

[393] M. of Westminster, p. 300.

[394] Walsingham, p. 13.

[395] Matthew of Westminster, p. 402. Hemingford, p. 592.

[396] Walsingham, p. 8. Leland's Collectanea, p. 177.

[397] He sent the head up to London, adorned in derision with a silver
crown, that it might be exhibited to the populace in Cheapside, and fixed
upon the Tower. Knyghton, p. 2465. Mr. Sharon Turner (History of England,
vol. ii. p. 44.) judiciously contrasts the conduct of Edward with the
reprimand of William the Conqueror, to the knight who had wounded the dead
body of Harold.

[398] Matthew of Westminster, p. 460.

[399] The chamberlain of Scotland was directed by Edward I., A. D. 1306,
to fit up one of the turrets of the castle of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and
therein to build a strong cage of lattice-work, constructed with stout
posts and bars, and well strengthened with iron. The Countess was
prohibited from speaking with any person, Scotch or English, except the
keeper of the castle and a woman or two of the town of Berwick, appointed
by him to deliver her food. The sister of Robert Bruce was prisoner at the
same time, and treated in the same manner. Lord Hailes's observation on
this passage is amusing. "To those who have no notion of any cage but one
for a parrot or a squirrel, hung out at a window, I despair of rendering
this mandate intelligible."

[400] Matthew of Westminster, p. 457, &c. Trevet, p. 343.

[401] This was the good Lord James of Douglas, of whom see p. 205 ante.

[402] many.

[403] displayed.

[404] many.

[405] battalions.

[406] alarmed.

[407] gleamed.

[408] flame of fire.

[409] flowing.

[410] waving.

[411] Sir Walter Scott has made King Edward the author of this unknightly
conduct

  "'Knows't thou,' he said, 'De Argentine,
  Yon knight who marshals thus their line?'--
  'The tokens on his helmet tell
  The Bruce my liege: I know him well.'--
  'And shall the audacious traitor brave
  The presence where our banners wave?'--
  'So please my liege,' said Argentine,
  'Were he but hors'd on steed like mine,
  To give him fair and knightly chance,
  I would adventure forth my lance.'--
  'In battle-day,' the King replied,
  'Nice tourney rules are set aside.
  --Still must the rebel dare our wrath?
  Set on--sweep him from our path.'
  And at King Edward's signal, soon
  Dash'd from the ranks Sir Henry Boune."
                                  The Lord of the Isles, canto vi. st. 14.

[412] companions.

[413] haste.

[414] without shrinking.

[415] haste.

[416] spurred.

[417] line.

[418] moan.

[419] heavy clash.

[420] broken.

[421] flat.

[422]

  "For the king had said him rudely,
  That a rose off his chaplet
  Has fallen; for quhar[L] he was set
  To kep the way these men were past."
                                  Barbour, vol. ii p. 545-548.

    [L] where.

[423] Mon. Malms., p. 149, &c. Moor, p. 594. Fordun, vol. xii. p. 20.
Scala Chronica, p. 547. Dalrymple, vol. ii. p. 45, &c.

[424] Trokelowe in Hearne, p. 52. Moor in Camden, Angl. Norm. p. 595.








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