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 ... Cœur 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]

Chivalry connected with feudalism. 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.

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.

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]

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.

Troubadours and romance writers,—reign of Henry II. 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]

Cœur de Lion, the first chivalric king.

Martial daring, thus fostered and promoted, broke out with fresh vigour in the reign of Richard Cœur 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]

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.

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.

Edward I. 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]

His unchivalric cruelties. 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]

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]

Edward II. 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.

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.

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.

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]

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.

London: Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode. New-Street-Square.

INDEX.

Accolade, meaning of the, I. 53. note. Adelais, tale of her imprisonment, rescue by an adventurous knight, and subsequent marriage, II. 322. Albigenses, romance of, I. 48. note. Alcantara, order of, its principles, and its comparative rank with other Spanish orders, I. 353. Alfonso, story of his chivalric bearing, II. 258. Allegories, fantastic, made on knights and their armour, I. 108. 110. Amys and Amylion, Romance of, I. 121. Anglo-Saxons, state of chivalry among, I. 6. 9. 11. 383. Antharis, a Lombard king, story of his romantic gallantry, II. 321. Arabian horses, their repute in chivalric times, I. 111. Arabic, Spanish historians, account of, II. 242. note. Archers, excellence of English, II. 12. Fine passage from Halidon Hill expressive of, II. 13. note. An English archer in the days of Edward III., 14. Importance of at battles of Cressy and Poictiers, 15. Argonautes, order of, purpose of its institution, I. 358. Aristotle, lay of, I. 215. Armorial bearings, historical and philosophical sketch of the principles of, I. 86, 87. 89. Armour, beauty of ancient, I. 65. Value of enquiries into the minutiæ of, I. 94. Uncertainty of the subject, I. 95. Its general features, I. 99, &c. Golden armour, 102. Array, general nature of chivalric, I. 118. Arthur, his knightly honour, I. 132. note. Discovery of his remains at Glastonbury, account of, I. 375. His court the school of chivalric virtue, 376. His generosity to his knights, 376. note. See Round Table. Athenæus, his singular testimony to a state of chivalry, I. 6. Auberoch, beleagured by the French, and chivalrously relieved by the English, II. 31. Audley, Sir James, interesting story of his heroic achievements and of his generosity, II. 43. Axe, the battle, I. 67. Description of King Richard’s, 68. note. B. Bachelor, various meanings of the word, I. 19. 45. Bacinet, I. 91. Baked meats, fondness of people for them in the olden time, I. 191. and note. Ball, the, after a tournament, I. 284. Band, Spanish order of the, objects of the order, I. 367. Interesting, as descriptive of the state of Spanish manners, ib. Its fine chivalry to woman, I. 369. Banneret, qualification of a knight, I. 16. His privileges, 17. See Chandos. Bannockburn, battle of, I. 407. Barriers, description of, I. 124. note. Singular battles at the, I. 124. 127. Bath, order of, ceremonies used at the ancient creation of knights of, II. 150. 91, &c. Modern ceremonies, I. 364. Absurdity of our heralds’ dogmatic positiveness regarding the æra of the order’s foundation, II. 91. note. Batre, Claude de, a French knight. His joust with Maximilian I. of Germany, II. 315. Bauldrick, description of the, I. 73. Bayard, the chivalric, his early years, II. 217. Enters the service of the kings of France, 218. His valiancy, ib. His humanity, 219. His gallantry, ib. Holds a tournament in honour of the ladies, 220. His death, 222. Beauty, knights fought to assert the superiority of their mistress’s beauty, I. 209. The practice apparently absurd, but reason why it should not be too severely censured, II. 211. Black Prince, his conduct at Limoges, I. 132. His courtesy, II. 11. 16. His liberality, II. 45. His deportment to Peter the Cruel, II. 185. Not a favorite with the nobility in the English possessions in France, II. 191. His cruelty to Du Guesclin, ib. Blois, Charles of, his contention with Jane de Mountfort for the duchy of Brittany, I. 239. Blue, the colour of constancy in days of chivalry, I. 275. note. See Stocking. Bonaparte, his generousness to a descendant of Du Guesclin, II. 203. Bonnelance, Sir John, his remarkable courtesy to the ladies, I. 199. Boucmell, John, his joust with an English squire, I. 294. Bourbon, singular mode by which a Duke of, gained a fortress, I. 59. ——, order of, account of, I. 371. Boucicant, Marshal, his outrageous reverence for women, I. 223. note. His joust at St. Ingelbertes, near Calais, 303, &c. Bovines, importance of squires at the battle of, I. 47. Break-across, to, meaning of the phrase, I. 278, 279. note. Britomart, the perfection of chivalric heroines, I. 253. Brittany, revered for its chivalric fame, II. 174. Bruce, Robert, his chivalric humanity, II. 69. Burgundy, Bastard of, his joust with Lord Scales, I. 314. His skill in other jousts, II. 214. ——, court of, splendour of its tournaments, II. 213. The most chivalric country in Europe during middle of fifteenth century, ib. Chivalric circumstance at the court of, II. 351. C. Calais, stories regarding, II. 17-21. Calatrava, order of, its origin and history, I. 349. Calaynos, the Moor, praised by the Spaniards, II. 234. Carlisle, Sir Anthony Harclay, Earl of, ceremonies of his degradation from knighthood, I. 62-64. Carpet-knights, meaning of the term, II. 156. Carpio, Bernardo del, account of, II. 243. Cavalry, the principal arm of military power during the middle ages, I. 2. Caxton, his lamentation over the decline of chivalry, II. 99. His exaggeration of the evil, 102. Celts, humility of Celtic youths, I. 6. Cervantes, curious error made by, I. 20. Censures the chivalric custom of making vows, 129. note. Satirises chivalric contempt of bodily pain, 368. note. Ridicules the vigil of arms, I. 49. note. and the pride of knights, I. 393. note. Accuracy of his pictures, II. 297. Cesena, noble defence of, by Marzia degl’ Ubaldini, I. 249. Chandos, Sir John, story with the Earl of Oxenford, I. 38. History of his heroism, II. 46. Gallantry, 47. Tenacious of his armorial bearings, ib. Exploits at Auray, 49. Tries to dissuade the Black Prince from the Spanish war, 50. Ceremonies on his becoming a knight-banneret, ib. His remarkable generousness, 52. His death before the bridge of Lusac, 60, &c. General grief thereat, 63. Character, bluntness of the old English, shown at the creation of knights of the Bath, II. 165. Charity, a great chivalric virtue, instance of, I. 161. Charter-house, the, founded by Sir Walter Manny, II. 42. and note. Charlemagne, state of chivalry in his time, I. 10. His expedition into Spain, II. 244. Chargny, Lord of, a famous jouster, II. 298. His passage of arms near Dijon, I. 328. Cherbury, Edward Herbert, Lord of, memoir of him, II. 138. Chivalric fame of his family, ib. His vanity, 140-145. Made a knight of the Bath, 141. His curious adventures in France, 142. The disgusting vanity of his infidelity, 147. His general character, 148. His inferiority to the heroes of the reign of Edward III., 149. Chess, the high favour of this game in days of chivalry, I. 163. A story of a knight’s love of chess, 164. Chivalry, general oath of, I. 50. Form used in Scotland, II. 70. Exhortations to perform chivalric obligations, I. 51, 52. Beauty of chivalric costume, I. 65. First ages of, interesting to the reason, but not pleasing to the fancy, I. 1. Difference between feudal and moral chivalry, I. 3. Origin of, ib. Nature of, 2. Modified by Christianity, 9, 13. Early ceremonies of inauguration, 4. 11, 12. Personal nobility of, not to be confounded with feudal territorial nobility, 16. Morals of chivalric times unjustly censured, 229. Real state of them, ib. &c. Peculiar fineness of chivalric feeling, 277. note. Declined in France before the common use of gunpowder, II. 213. Recapitulation of the circumstances which gave birth to, 341. Its general nature, 342. Exact time of its influence difficult to mark, 346. Its merits, 348. Its effects, 358. Application of chivalric honours to men in civil stations, 155. Connected with feudalism, I. 384. A compulsory honour in England, 386. Christianity, its improvements on Gothic chivalry, I. 10. Cid, the, his birth, II. 246. His early ferocious heroism, ib. His singular marriage, 247. Enters the service of King Ferdinand, 249. His chivalric gallantry, ib. Ceremony of his being knighted, 251. Death of the King ib. Becomes the knight of Sancho, King of Castile, and his campeador, 252. Mixture of evil and good in his character, ib. Supports the King in his injustice, 253. His romantic heroism, ib. His virtuous boldness, 256. His second marriage, 260. Is banished from the court of Alfonso, the brother of Sancho, 261.; but recalled ib. Is banished again, 263. Story of his unchivalric meanness, ib. His history in exile, 264. His nobleness and generosity, 267. Is recalled, 269. Captures Toledo, 270.; and Valentia, 271. Unjust conduct to the Moors, 274. Marriage of his daughters, 276. His death, 284.; and character, 285. Claremont, the Lord of, his dispute with Sir John Chandos regarding armorial cognisances, II. 47. Clary, the Lord of, singular story of the censure on him by the court of France for want of courtesy to Sir Peter Courtenay, I. 154-157. Clergy, the weapons they used in battle, I. 68. A gallant fighting priest promoted to an archdeaconry, II. 80. Often turned knights, I. 350. Clermont, council of, sanctions chivalry, I. 12. Clifford, Nicholas, his joust with John Boucmell, I. 294, &c. Cloth of gold, chivalric circumstances at the field of, II. 111. Cochetel, battle of, II. 178. Cognisances, I. 87. Coliseum, Moorish and chivalric sports in, II. 329. Inferiority of the old Roman games in, to those of chivalry, I. 260. Colombe, Ernalton of Sainte, bravery of him and his esquire, I. 46. Companions in arms, nature of such an union, I. 118-123. Conde, D. José Antonio, value of his searches into Arabic Spanish historians, II. 242. note. Constancy, a greater virtue in chivalric times than in the present day, I. 206. Spenser’s exhortation to, 207. Constantine, fabulous order of, I. 374. Conversation of knights, its subjects, I. 175. Courage of the knight, I. 124-130. Courtenay, Sir Peter, his adventures in France, I. 154, &c. Courtesy, a knightly virtue, I. 160. Courtesy of a dragon, 161. note. At tournaments, 268. Cousines, dame des belle, her reproof of a young page for his not being in love, I. 32. Crawford, Sir David de Lindsay, Earl of, his joust with Lord Wells, I. 290. Cross, every military order had its, I. 362. Wretched taste in concealing the cross of the order of the Bath by a star, ib. Cyclas, I. 85. Cyneheard, his story, I. 5. D. Dagger of mercy, description of it, I. 92. Story of its use, 93. Dambreticourt, Lord Eustace, his chivalry inspired by the lady Isabella, I. 204. His valour at the battle of Poictiers, II. 44. Dames and Damsels. See Lady. Degradation, ceremonies of, I. 60. Derby, Earl of, the sort of death he desired, I. 147. Devices, what they were, I. 78. Worn in tournaments, 272-275. Discipline, chivalric array not inconsistent with feudal discipline, I. 145. Douglas, story of the perilous castle of, I. 205. Generousness of the good Lord James of, I. 206, 402. His character, ib. note. The Douglas of the sixteenth century, II. 67. Wins the pennon of Hotspur, 77. His heroism and noble death, 80. Archibald, at Shrewsbury, ib. Dress of ladies in chivalric times, I. 185. Importance of modesty of, 186. Dub, meaning of the word, I. 53. note. Dynadan, Sir, a merry knight of the Round Table, his pretended dislike of women, I. 196. note. E. Edward I., his chivalric character, I. 395. A chivalric anecdote of, I. 142. Edward II., state of chivalry in his reign, I. 402. 409. Edward III., state of armour in his time, I. 97. 100. Chivalry in his reign, II. 4, &c. Eloisa, the Lady, a heroine of chivalry, I. 235. England, antiquity of the sarcasm of its not being the country of original invention, II. 48. note. The melancholy of its mirth curiously noticed, ib. Errantry, facts relating to the knight-errantry of the middle ages, I. 140. 145. English knights-errant, 225. General facts and usages, 226, &c. F. Falconry. See Hawking. Falcons, placed on perches above knights at chivalric entertainments, I. 281. Father in chivalry, the respect which a knight bore to the cavalier that knighted him, I. 54. Festivals, description of chivalric, I. 176. 379. At tournaments, 281. Fidelity to obligations, a great virtue in knights, I. 151. Flodden, chivalric circumstances at battle of, II. 121. Flowers, Romance of, remarks on, I. 315. note. Forget-me-not, romantic story of this flower: joust concerning it, I. 315. France, state of, after the death of Du Guesclin, II. 203. Chivalry in baronial castles, II. 169. Knighthood given to improper persons, 211. Extinction of chivalry in, 226. Ridiculous imitation of chivalry by the profligate soldiers of a profligate king, 228. Francis I., his chivalric qualities, II. 223. Circumstances which disgraced his chivalry, 224. Knighted by Bayard, 225. Fraternity, origin and history of the spirit of, I. 4. Encouraged by the institutions of Arthur, 379. Froissart, character of his history, Preface. Frojaz, Don Rodrigo, a Spanish knight, chivalric mode of his death, I. 71. Furs, fondness of people in the middle ages for them, I. 49. 85. note. G. Gallantry, its origin, I. 7-9. Absurdity of antiquarians respecting, 175. note. Garter, order of the, objects of, I. 360. Its resemblance to a religious order, 361. Reasons of its being established, 360.; II. 4. Commonly ascribed origin a vulgar fable, 6. Meaning of the motto, 7. The collar, 8. Gawain, Sir, a knight of Arthur’s Round Table, character of, I. 378. Generousness of knights, high estimation of this quality, I. 153. Instances, 153-157. Gennet, order of the, I. 374. George, Saint, the person that was understood by this name, II. 9. Germans, superior virtue of German women owned by Tacitus, I. 7. Instances of this virtue, 7, 8. Political chivalry had no influence in Germany, II. 303. German knights quailed before undisciplined troops, 304. When and where tournaments were held, I. 262. Heraldic pride of the, 263. note. Singular matter regarding the, 265. note. Inferiority of to Italian condottieri, 305. Intolerance and cruelty of German knights, 306. Their education, 307. Cruelty to their squires, 308. Their avarice, 310. Little influence of German chivalry, 311. Singular exception, 312. Destruction of chivalry, 317. Gonfanon, what it was, I. 67. Gonsalez, Count Fernan de, a fabulous hero of Spanish chivalry, II. 245. Gordon, Adam, his chivalry, I. 56. Graville, Sir William, loses a fortress out of his love for chess-playing, I. 165. Green-field, knights of the Fair Lady in the, story of their chevisance, I. 223. Gueldres, Duke of, story of his regard for knightly honour, I. 138. Guesclin, Bertrand du, his birth, II. 174. Became a cavalier in opposition to paternal wishes, 175. His knightly conduct at Rennes, ib. Amusing interview with the Duke of Lancaster, 177. His gallant bearing at Cochetel, and the consequent recovery of the fame of the French arms, 178. Taken prisoner at Aurai, 180. Redeemed, 182. His chivalry in Spain, 184, &c. Taken prisoner again, 189. Treated with cruelty by the Black Prince, 191. Ransomed, 209. Made Constable of France, 194. Recovers the power of the French monarchy, ib. His companionship in arms with Olivier de Clisson, 195. His death before Randan, 199. Character, 201. H. Harald, the valiant, account of, I. 9. Hawking, a knowledge of, a necessary part of a knight’s education, I. 29. A great chivalric amusement, 161. Hawkwood, Sir John, story of his origin, and allusions to his battles, I. 23. Helmets, I. 88. Various sorts of, I. 89. Hennebon, noble defence of, by the Countess of Mountfort, I. 242-246. Henry I. and II., state of chivalry in their respective reigns, 387. 389. 395. Henry II., of France, killed in a tournament, account of the circumstances, II. 226. and note. Henry, Prince, son of James I., his love of chivalric exercises, II. 137. Henry IV., chivalric parley between him and the Duke of Orleans, II. 83. His unchivalric deportment at Shrewsbury, 88. Henry V., his love of chivalry, II. 85. 96. His chivalric modesty, 98. Henry VIII., account of his tournaments, II. 104, &c. Heroines, nature of female heroism in days of chivalry, and stories of, I. 234, &c. Hita, Genez Perez de, nature of his volume on the fall of Grenada, II. 288. note. Homildon Hill, interesting knightly story regarding battle at, I. 55. Honour, curious story of knightly, I. 138. The knights’ pursuit of, I. 144. See, too, 277. note. Horn, King, romance of, I. 27. Horse of the knight, I. 111. What horses were preferred, 112. The famous horse of the Cid, ib. II. 287. Armour of the horse, I. 114. Always very splendidly adorned, 115. Horsemanship, care with which knights were trained to, I. 44. Hotspur fights with the Douglas, II. 77. His gallant deportment at Otterbourn, 79. And at Shrewsbury, 87. Humanities of chivalric war, I. 129. 135. Humility, a knightly virtue, I. 158. Hunting, young squires instructed in the art of, I. 29. A part of the amusements of chivalry, 161. Huntingdon, Sir John Holland, Earl of, his skill in jousting, I. 307. I. Inauguration, ceremony of, into knighthood, when and where performed, I. 50. Its circumstances, 50-54. Ingelbertes, Saint, joust at, I. 302-314. Ipomydon, romance of, I. 28. Isabella, the Lady, a heroine of chivalry, I. 235. Italian armour, excellence of, I. 105.; II. 293. note, 330. Italy, but little martial chivalry in, II. 324. Chivalric education, 321. Changes of the military art in, 325. Chivalry in the north of, 329. Esteem in which the word of knighthood was held, ib. Chivalry in the south of, 331. Mode of creating knights in, 334. Religious and military orders in, 335. Political use of knighthood, 336. Folly of an Italian mob regarding knighthood, ib. School of Italian Generals, 328. Chivalric sports in, 338. Ivanhoe, errors of the author of, regarding Anglo-Saxon and Norman chivalry, I. 383. note; and concerning the Knights Templars, 387. note; and also concerning the nature and names of chivalric sports, 327. J. James, Saint, his popularity in Spain, I. 345. note; II. 230. Order of, I. 344. James II., of Arragon, gallantry of one of his decrees, II. 289. James IV., of Scotland, chivalric and romantic circumstances of his life, II. 118-124. Jealousy, no part of chivalric love, I. 207. Joanna of Naples, a chivalric anecdote regarding, II. 352. Joust, nature of the, to the utterance, I. 289. For love of ladies, 291. Various, à l’outrance, 289-297. A plaisance, 297, &c. Romance of, 324.; II. 215. Use of jousts, I. 330. K. Knights, their privileges, I. 17. Expensive equipment of, necessary to the dignity, 16. Preparations for knighthood, 48. His war-cry and escutcheon, 18. Qualifications, 19. Gentle birth not regarded when valour conspicuous, 22. By whom created, ib. (For his education, see Squire and Page.) Often turned priests, I. 14. Associations of, in defence of the ladies, 223-225. Stipendiary knights in England, 385. No resemblance between and the equites of Rome, 14. Made in the battle-field, and in mines, 56-59. Knight of honour, description of, 267. English wore golden collars, II. 8. Anxiety to receive the order from great characters, 55. and note. No knights made on compulsion, after the days of Charles I., 158. Degradation of, in the reign of James I., 157. Knot, order of the, I. 358. Knowles, Sir Robert, remarkable story of the heroism of one of his knights, I. 124. L. Lady in chivalry, character of, I. 182. 256. Her courtesy, ib. Education, 183. Amusements, 190. Deportment, 185. What ladies could create knights, 252. Singular blending of the heroic and the tender feelings in her character, 253. Not made prisoner in war, 227. Judge in the tournament, 267. 283. Her favours worn by her knights, 272. 275. and note. Lahire, the singular prayer of this knight, I. 147. Lance, the chief weapon of the knight, I. 66. The staff made from the ash-tree, ib. Langurant, Lord of, bravery of, and of his squire, I. 46. and note. Another story, 93. Largess, distributed at ceremonial of inauguration, I. 54. At tournaments, 284. Launcelot, generous modesty of this knight, I. 159. Singular proof of his high reputation, 55. note. Beautiful lamentation over his dead body, 377. Lee, Sir Henry, his gallantry, II. 132. Legnano, battle of, II. 304. Liberality, a great virtue in chivalry, I. 157. Liegois, their battle with the French chivalry, II. 204. Lists, description of the, I. 266. London, citizens of, their taste for chivalric amusements, II. 11. Lords, House of, errors of its committees, I. 15. note. Lorrys, Sir Launcelet de, a gallant knight, killed in a joust for love of his lady, I. 292. Love, peculiarities of chivalric, I. 212. 217-222. 194, &c. Perfection and purity of chivalric, II. 345. Quick-sightedness of courtly matrons regarding signs of, II. 322. Louis, Saint, his barbarous intolerance, I. 148. Loyes, Sir, of Spain, his cruelty, I. 151. M. Mail-armour, various descriptions of, I. 78-81. Mail and plate, 82. Mail worn in all ages of chivalry, 84. Manny, Sir Walter, succours the Countess of Mountfort, I. 245. His bravery at Calais, II. 18. An amorous knight, 27. His kindness to two brother-knights, 29. His joyous adventurousness, 30. Other feats, 31, &c. His filial piety, 34. Gentleness of his disposition, 38. His high rank in England, 39. His sageness, 40. His liberality, 41. Founds the Charter-house, 42. March, Countess of, story of her chivalric heroism in defending the castle of Dunbar, I. 237. Marche, Thomas de la, his duel with John de Visconti, II. Martel, nature of that weapon, I. 68. Marzia, degl’ Ubaldini, story of her heroic deportment at Cesena, I. 249. Maule, its qualities, I. 68. Not a perfectly chivalric weapon, 72. Maximilian the only Emperor of Germany of a chivalric character, II. 315. His joust with a French knight, ib. Medicine, knowlege of, possessed by dames and damsels, I. 186. Faith of knights in medicines administered by women, 187. Medici, Lorenzo de, won a prize at a tournament, I. 267. Men-at-arms, manner of their fighting, and description of their armour, I. 107. Mercenaries, their use in the French army, II. 209. Mercy, order of our Lady of, reason of the establishing of the, I. 354. Merlo, Sir John, a Spanish knight, account of his jousting in Burgundy, II. 297-300. Meyrick, Dr., character of his critical inquiry into ancient armour, I. 79. note, 101. note, 114. note. Michael of the Wing, purposes of the establishing of this order, I. 356. Milan, Sir Galeas, Duke of, his courtesy to the Earl of Derby, II. 330. Milanese armour, excellence of. See Italian armour. Missals, the merits of, decided by battle, II. 288. Minstrels, description of them and their art in connection with chivalry, I. 166, &c. Their chivalric importance in Italy, II. 327. Molai, Jacques de, appoints a successor to his authority over the Templars, I. 140. Montferrand, Regnaud de, the romantic excess of his love for chivalric honours, I. 59. Montglaive, Guerin de, I. 30. Montpensier, Henry de Bourbon, his death in a tournament, II. 226. Mountfort, Jane de, tale of her heroism, I. 239. Music, ladies in chivalry were taught, I. 183, 184. N. Naples, chivalry at, II. 331. Ceremonies of chivalric inauguration in, 332. Navaret, battle of, II. 189. Nobility, education of English, in the sixteenth century, II. 115. Normans, nature of their chivalry, I. 383. Plant chivalry in Italy, II. 331. O. Oak, in Navarre, order of, I. 374. Obedience, dignity of, I. 6. Olympic games, their inferiority to the games of chivalry, I. 259. Orbigo, account of a singular passage of arms at, II. 292-296. Orders, the religious, their general principles, I. 333. Qualifications for them, 336. Use of the religious, 337. Military orders, ib. Dormant orders, 366. Singular titles of, 371. Ordonnance, companies of, established by Charles VII., their unchivalric nature, II. 209. Orleans, Duke of, his satire on the heaviness of English armour, I. 91. Orris, Michael de, the romantic and chivalric nature of his love, I. 322. Ostrich feathers, whether originally a crest or a device of the Black Prince, I. 101, &c. Otterbourn, description of that chivalric battle, II. 76, &c. Oxenford, Earl of, amusing story of his absurd pride, I. 36. Oxford, Edward Vere, Earl of, his coxcombry and romantic gallantry, II. 150. P. Page, the first gradation in chivalry, I. 30. At what age a boy became one, ib. His duties, 31. Personal service, ib. Taught love, religion, and war, 32. His martial exercises, 35. (See Saintré.) Combats of pages, II. 208. State of English pages during the sixteenth century, 149. Palaye, Sainte, character of his Memoirs of ancient Chivalry, Preface. Paleaz, Martin, a Spanish knight, his story, II. 271. Passage of arms, what it was, I. 327. Error of the author of Ivanhoe concerning, ib. note. Description of one in Burgundy, 328.; and at Orbigo, in Spain, II. 292. Patriotism, not necessarily a knightly virtue, I. 139. But encouraged by the religious and military orders, 335, 336. Peacock, festival and vow of the, I. 177. Mode of dressing the, 178. note. Pelayo, his history, II. 242. Pembroke, Earl, stories of, II. 33. 52-58. Penitents of love, a singular set of fanatics in France, I. 211. Pennon, the streamer at end of a lance, I. 66. Perceval, Mr. George, excellence of his history of Italy, Preface. Cited, I. 102. note. II. 218. 325. note. 326-328. Percy. See Hotspur. Perfumes, fondness of people in the middle ages for, I. 194. note. Philippa, Queen, her heroism, I. 236. Plate-armour, description of, I. 83. Its inconveniences I. 84. 102. note. Peter the Cruel, his history, II. 181, &c. Politeness of knights in battle, I. 135. Pride of knights ridiculed by Cervantes, I. 393. Prisoners, when made by knights, delivered to the squires, I. 41. Curious pride of knights concerning, 138. Ladies were never made prisoners, 227. Pursuivant of love, the favourite title of a knight, I. 202. Pye, Lord Saint, his skill in jousting, I. 309, &c. Q. Quinones, Sueno de, account of his holding a passage of arms at Orbigo, in Spain, II. 292. Quintain, nature of that amusement, I. 44. R. Ramsey, William de, the chivalric nature of his death, I. 147. Ransoming, the general principles of, in chivalric times, I. 136. Rapier, an Italian weapon, II. 135. Fighting with it supersedes the sword and buckler, ib. Religion, nature of the knight’s, I. 146. 150. Brevity of his devotions, ib. Curious instance of it, 147. The chivalric glory of a man being shriven in his helmet, ib. Intolerance of the knight, 148. His ferocity against Pagans and Saracens, ib. His idle impiety at a tournament, 266. Maintained opinions by the sword, 349. Rienzi, Cola di, instance of his coxcombry, II. 335. note. Richard I., description of his battle-axe, I. 69. His chivalric character, 391. Rivers, mystery of, meaning of the phrase, I. 29. Romance of chivalry displayed in the tournament, I. 266. Great estimation of romances in chivalric times, I. 174. Beneficial effects of, on chivalry, II. 170. Their popularity in England during the sixteenth century, 100. Effects on Italy, 337. Roncesvalles, chivalric march through the valley of, by the soldiers of the Black Prince, II. 189. Question regarding battles in, at the time of Charlemagne, 244. Round Table, when and where held in England, II. 3. Number of knights attached to the fabulous, I. 376. note. Roy, Raynolde du, a good jouster, chivalric reason for it, I. 312. Rybamount, courtesy of Edward III. to Lord Eustace of, II. 19. S. Sageness, meaning of this old word, I. 129. Saintré, Jean de, curious account of the education in love of this knight, I. 32. Scales, Anthony Woodville, Lord, his joust with the Bastard of Burgundy, I. 314. Scarf, ladies’, on the knight, I. 85. 89. 101. Scotland, form of chivalric oath in, II. 70. Chivalric circumstances, 71. Frenchmen’s opinions of Scotsmen’s chivalry, 73. Reasons for Englishmen’s dislike of wars in, 75. Courtesies between English and Scottish knights, 75. See James IV. Shield, sentiments of honour connected with the, I. 77. Its various shapes, 78. Sidney, Sir Philip, his chivalric character, II. 126. His Arcadia, 127. Circumstances of his life, 128. Remarkable grief at his death, 129. Uncommon kindness of the Sidney family, ib., and note. His description of the nature of chivalric courage, I. 130. note. His apology for ladies studying surgery, I. 188. Sir, its title in chivalry, I. 31. Skottowe, Mr., excellence of his work on Shakspeare, I. 209. note. Smithfield, anciently the principal tilting ground in London, I. 269. Used for other purposes, note, ib. Its state in the sixteenth century evidence of the degeneracy of chivalry, II. 136. note. Spain, religious orders in, account of, I. 344. General nature of Spanish chivalry, II. 230. Religion and heroism, ib. Gallantry, 231. 289. Curious blending of Spanish and Oriental manners, 232. Beneficial effects from the union of Moors and Spaniards, 233. Religious toleration in Spain, 235. Loves and friendships of Moors and Christians, ib. Peculiarities of Spanish chivalry, 236. Forms of knighthood, 237. Various classes of knights, 238. Spanish knights travel to distant countries, asserting the beauty of Spanish maidens, 296. Extinction of Spanish chivalry, 301. The knight’s idolatry of women outlives this extinction, 302. Spanish poetry, 241. Story of Spanish manners 271. 277. State of Spanish chivalry after the death of the Cid, II. 287. Spenser, his Fairy Queen supports chivalry, II. 126. Object of the poem, ib. Poem cited, passim. Spices, fondness of knights for them, I. 169. note. 282. Spurs, buckling them on, a part of chivalric inauguration ceremonies, I. 53. Suspended in churches as memorials of victory and honour, II. 305. note. Squire, his personal and chivalric duties, I. 35, 36. 39. Never sat at the same table with knights, 36. Story of a high-spirited squire, 37. His dress, 39. Various sorts of squires, 40. Spenser’s picture of one, ib. His duties in battle, 41. Carried the pennon of a knight, ib. His gallantry, 41. 45. His martial exercises, 43. Undertook military expeditions, 45. His services in the battle-field, 41. 46. Nature of his armour, 107. Story of the boldness of a, I. 128. English squires wore silver collars, II. 8. See Bovines. Squirehood, the third class of the general order of chivalry, I. 23. Of whom it was formed, 24. Stephen, his courtesy to Matilda, I. 153. Important effects of chivalry in his reign, I. 389. Stocking, order of the, I. 379. Origin of the phrase Blue Stocking, 380. This contemptuous expression no longer applicable to Englishwomen, 381. Stothard, Mrs. Charles, her Tour in Normandy cited, I. 241. note. Surcoats, their materials and purposes, I. 85. Of the military orders, 86. Surgery, knowledge of, possessed by ladies in chivalric times, I. 188. Surry, Earl of, incorrectness of the common tale regarding, II. 114. Swinton, Sir John, his fine heroism, I. 56. Another story of the heroism of a, 128. Sword, girding of it on the knight a part of the chivalric inauguration ceremonies, I. 11. 63. The favourite weapon of the knight, I. 70. Swords had names and mottoes; the cross hilt; the handle contained the knight’s seal; Spanish swords, 70-77. Story of the Cid’s favourite swords, II. 279. T. Tabard, description of, I. 85. Templars, Knights, extravagance of their ascetism, I. 324. note. Errors of the author of Waverley regarding, 337. note. The valiancy of the, 338. Succession of Grand Masters from the persecution to the present time, 340, &c. Present state of, 342. Their importance in Spain, 241. Thistle, order of the, I. 363. Its absurd pretensions to antiquity, ib. Thomson, Anthony Todd, value of his botanical lectures, I. 315. note. Tournaments, superiority of, to Grecian games, I. 259. Origin of, 260. Objects, 261., and notes. Qualifications for tourneying, 263. 265. 272. Who tourneyed, 264. Ceremonies of the, ib. Procession to the, 268. Nature of tourneying weapons, 270. The preparation, 273. The encounter, 274. English regulations concerning, 279. note. Opposed by the Popes, 286. note. Their frequency in the reign of Edward III., II. 2. Time of their death in England, 137. Female tournament in Germany, 314. Tristrem, Romance of, I. 26. V. Valet, the common title of the page, I. 35. Vargas, Garcia Perez de, a splendid exemplar of Spanish chivalry. Story of his romantic gallantry, II. 289. Vigil of arms a necessary preliminary to knighthood, I. 49. Vilain, Sir John, anecdote of his remarkable prowess, I. 69. Virtue, degree of, expected in a knight, I. 149. Visconti, John de, his duel with Thomas de la Marche, II. 22. Vows, knightly, courage incited by, I. 127. Fantastic, ib., &c. 322. W. Wallop, Sir John, his men break lances for ladies’ love, II. 117. Warwick, an earl of, a famous jouster, I. 301. Wells, Lord, his joust with Sir David de Lindsay, first Earl of Crawford, I. 290. Werner, fiendlike ferocity and impiety of, II. 328. William Rufus, authors wrong, in calling him a chivalric king, I. 391. But he promoted the growth of chivalry in England, I. 387. Wines, dislike entertained by the Englishmen of old for the wines of Spain, I. 143. Wines drank in chivalric times, 193. and note. Wines and spices, 169. note. Woods, mystery of, I. 29. Worcester, John, Earl of, Constable. His regulations regarding tournaments in England, I. 279. note. Wordsworth, his beautiful description of the occupations and life of a minstrel, I. 171. X. Ximena, a Spanish maiden, story of her voluntary marriage with her father’s murderer, II. 247. Z. Zamora, story of that town and the Cid of Spain, II. 254.

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]

[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:”—

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.

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

[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.

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,—

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,—

[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.

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

[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 cœur, 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.

[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]

[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.

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