CHAP. VII. (continued 2)

[154] Argentré, viii. 3, 4.

[155] Voltaire says, that Bertrand du Guesclin was the first person over whom a funeral oration was delivered, and who was interred in the church destined for the tombs of the kings of France. He adds, “Son corps fut porté avec les mêmes cérémonies que ceux des souverains; quatre princes du sang le suivaient; ses chevaux selon la coutume du temps, furent présentées dans l’église à l’évèque que officiait, et qui les bénit en leur imposant les mains. Les détails sont peu importants; ils font connoitre l’esprit de chevalerie. L’attention que s’attiraient les grands chevaliers célèbres par leurs faits d’armes s’étendait sur les chevaux qui avoient combattre sans eux.” Essai sur les Mœurs, c. 78.

[156] Anselme in his Palais de l’Honneur, gives an amusing account of the chivalric rules for sepulchral monuments. They were better observed in France than in any other country, and even there they were not very scrupulously attended to. “They are,” however, as Gough remarks, (Sepulchral Antiquities, vol. i. p. cxvii.) “a curious specimen of monumental punctilio. Knights and gentlemen might not be represented by their coats of arms, unless they had lost their lives in some battle, single combat, or rencontre with the prince himself, or in his service, unless they died and were buried within their own manors or lordships; and then to show that they died a natural death in their beds, they were represented with their coat of armour ungirded, without a helmet, bareheaded, their eyes closed, their feet resting against the back of a greyhound, and without any sword. Those who died on the day of battle, or in any mortal rencontre, on the victorious side, were to be represented with a drawn sword in their right hand, and a shield in their left, their helmet on, which some think ought to be closed, and the visor let down, in token that they fell fighting against their enemies, having their coat of arms girded over their arms, and at their feet a lion. Those who died in prison, or before they had paid their ransom, were represented on their tombs without spurs or helmet, without coat of arms or swords, only the scabbard girded to, and hanging at their sides. Those who fell in battle or rencontre on the side of the conquered were to be represented without coats of arms, the sword at the side and in the scabbard, the visor raised and open, their hands joined on their breasts, and their feet resting against the back of a dead and overthrown lion. The child of a governor, or commander in chief, if born in a besieged city, or in the army, however young he died, was represented on his tomb, armed at all points, his head on his helmet, and clad in a coat of mail of his size at the time of his death. The military man, who at the close of his life took on him a religious habit and died in it, was represented completely armed, his sword by his side on the lower part; and on the upper the habit of the order he had assumed, and under his feet the shield of his arms. The gentleman who has been conquered and slain in the lists, in a combat of honour, ought to be placed on his tomb, armed at all points, his battle-axe lying by him, his left arm crossed over the right. The gentleman victorious in the lists was exhibited on his tomb, armed at all points, his battle-axe in his arms, his right arm crossed over the left.”

[157] Argentré, Hist. de Bretagne, liv. viii. Velly in an. and Memoires de Du Guesclin, ad fin.

[158]

[159] Chastelet, Hist. de Du Guesclin, p. 33. There were no children of either of these marriages. Du Guesclin, however, left a son, par amours. The last male heir of this family died in the year 1783, an officer in the French army. In the time of Napoleon, a Madame de Gîvres asserted and proved her descent from the Constable, and Bonaparte granted her a pension of 6000 franks a year.

[160] Monstrelet, vol. ii. c. 3. The battle between the Burgundians and Dauphinois, in August, 1421, was fought with similar cruelty. Vol. v. c. 62.

[161] All these curious particulars of ancient manners are contained in the Histoire de Jeanne d’Arc, of M. Le Brun des Charmettes.

[162] Daniel, Histoire de la Milice Francaise, liv. iv. c. 1. Monstrelet, vol. viii. c. 46. Velly, tome v. p. 394.

[163] Boutillier, La Somme rurale, compillée par lui, p. 671. Abbeville, 1486.

[164] Memoires d’Olivier de la Marche, vol. ix. c. 2. of the Collection des Memoires relatifs à l’Histoire de la France.

[165] Perceval’s History of Italy, vol. ii. c. 8.

[166] The old French, in which this dialogue was held, is exceedingly interesting and expressive. “Monseigneur de Bayard, mon amy, voicy la premiere maison ou avez esté nourry, ce vous seroit grand honte si ne vous y faisiez congnoistre, aussi bien qu’avez fait ailleurs. Le bon chevalier respondit, Madame, vous savez, bien que des ma jeunesse vous ay aymée, prisée et honorée, et si vous tiens à si saige et bien enseigné, que ne voulez mal à personne, et encores a moy moings que à un autre. Dites moy, s’il vous plaist que voulez vous que je face pour donner plaiser à Madame ma bonne maistresse, à vous sur toutes, et au reste de la bonne et belle compaignée qui est ceans. La dame de Fleuxas lui dit alors. Il me semble, Monseigneur de Bayard, mais que je ne vous ennuye point, que ferez foit bien de faire quelque tournoy en ceste ville, pour l’honneur de Madame qui vous en scaura très bon gré. Vous avez ici alentour force de vos compaignons gentils-hommes François et autres gentils-hommes de ces pays, lesquels s’y trouveront de bon cœur, et j’en suis asseurée. Vrayment, dit le bon chevalier, puis que le voulez il sera faist. Vous estes la dame en ce monde qui a premierement acquis mon cœur à son service, par le moyen de vostre bonne grace. Je suis asseuré que je n’en auray jamais que la bouche et les mains, car de vous requirir d’autre chose je perdrois ma peine, aussi sur mon ame j’aymerois mieulx mourir que vous presser de deshonneur. Bien vous prie que me veuillez donner un de vos manchons. Car j’en ay à besongner. La dame qui ne savoit qu’il en vouloit faire le lui bailla, et il le meit en la manche de son pourpoint, sans faire autre bruit.” Memoires, vol. xiv. p. 397.

[167] The Memoires of Bayard, by one of his secretaries, have furnished me with the chief facts in this account of Bayard. A very excellent English translation of them has been lately published in two vols. post 8vo. The Memoires Du Bellay (Paris, 1573,) have supplied some deficiencies in the narration of the loyal serviteur.

[168] Memoires de Bayard, in the great collection of French Memoires, vol. xv. p. 458. “Et puis après par maniere de jeu, cria haultement l’espée en la main dextre: tu es bien heureuse d’avoir aujourdhui à un si vertueux et puissant roy donné l’ordre de chevalerie. Certes ma bonne espée, vous serez moult bien reliques gardée et sur toutes autres honorée. Et ne vous porteray jamais, si ce n’est contre Turcs, Sarrasins, ou Maures, et puis feit deux faults, et après remeit au fourreau son espée.” This sword has been lost.

[169] This mode of receiving knighthood had, however, been stealing into a custom for some time. The earliest instance I have ever met with was in the case of an infant son of Charles VI. (A. D. 1371,) who was knighted by Du Guesclin, a cavalier who, one would think, was sufficiently jealous of the honour of chivalry. After the ceremonies of baptism, Du Guesclin drew his sword, and putting it naked into the hand of the naked child, (nudo tradidit ensem nudum,) said to him, “Sire, I give you this sword, and put it into your hand; and pray God that he will give you such a noble heart that you may prove as true a knight as any of your illustrious ancestors.” So, too, Monstrelet, in his account of the events in the year 1433, says, that the Duchess of Burgundy was delivered of a son at Dijon, who was knighted at the font. Vol. vii. p. 147.

[170] Part of Segar’s account of this tournament is too interesting to be omitted. “At the fourth course, by marvellous misadventure, the King became hurt with a splinter of the adversary’s lance, which pierced his eye so deep, as thereby his brain was much bruised. Thus was the nuptial feast disturbed, and joy converted to sorrow. Such is the state of worldly things: gladness is ever followed by sadness, and pleasure accompanied by pain. The rest of the troop who were ready to run were with that accident marvellously amazed, and not knowing what to do, every man let fall his lance, and cursed such triumphs. Some pressed to carry his person home, and others (as touched to the heart) shut their eyes from seeing a spectacle so miserable. The ladies likewise and gentlewomen of the court turned their faces from beholding, and closed their eyes with tears. To conclude, the whole number of courtiers were stricken with sorrow not explicable. The citizens, also, and, generally, all the subjects of that kingdom, were perplexed to see the tragical event of that disastrous triumph, which was intended to congratulate a new peace and an honourable alliance. The form and face of the city were thus converted from exceeding joy to unspeakable sorrow: some held up their hands to heaven, others made haste to the churches, and every one, with abundance of sighs and sobs, cried out, beseeching God to grant the King recovery; as if every man’s well doing had thereon depended. Then the physicians and surgeons, not only of France but of the Low Countries, came thither to show their skill, using all art and endeavour that might be; but the splinters of the lance had pierced the King’s eye so deeply, as the tenderness of the place could not suffer it to be taken out nor seen (the brain also being pierced), no means there were to cure the wound. The King, therefore, tormented with extreme pain, fell into a burning fever, whereof at the end of eleven days he died. In all which time he did never weep, nor speak any word that might be imputed to pusillanimity; but most magnanimously took leave of life. Only this he said, that seeing he was destined to die in arms, he would have been much better contented to have lost his life in the field than in those domestic pastimes.” Segar, of Honour, lib. iii. c. 40.

[171] Warton justly observes that this apotheosis of chivalry, in the person of their own apostle, must have ever afterwards contributed to exaggerate the characteristical romantic heroism of the Spaniards, by which it was occasioned, and to propagate through succeeding ages a stronger veneration for that species of military enthusiasm to which they were naturally devoted. Warton, Diss. on the Gesta Romanorum.

[172] Painters are as good witnesses for manners as romance writers; and in Murphy’s Arabian Antiquities of Spain there is an engraving from a picture in the Alhamrā, representing a martial game, wherein both Moors and Christians contended.

[173] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 44.

[174] Calaynos, however, went out of fashion, not for want of merit in the hero, but by reason of the form of the verse in which he was celebrated. Thus the phrase, Este no vale las coplas de Calainos, passed into a proverb. Sarmiento, Memorias para la Historias de la Poesia, y Poetas Espanoles, p. 228.

[175]

[176] For proofs of this circumstance, I must again refer the reader to the engravings in Murphy’s Arabian Antiquities of Spain.

[177] Pur su ley, pur su Sennor natural, pur su terra. Partidas, cited by Selden, Titles of Honour, part ii. cap. 4.

[178] Partidas, l. ii. tit. 21. lib. 36. tit. 2, &c.

[179] Selden, Titles of Honour, part ii. c. 4.

[180] Tomich, Conquestas de los Reyes de Aragon e los Comtes de Barcelona, 1534, folio 23.

[181] Our English translators of ancient Spanish poetry need not think, as they are inclined to do, that they are worshiping a shade in Pelayo. The Arabian History of Spain by Ahmadu-bn Muhammadi-bn Mūsa Abū Bakr Arrāzy, a writer of the fourth century of the Hegira, attests his existence in the manner stated in the text. This author, whose name I will not again attempt to transcribe, is one of the authorities of Mr. Shakspeare, whose able dissertation on the History of the Arabs in Spain accompanies Murphy’s splendid work on the architecture of that country. Great expectations have always been entertained of the illustrations of Arabic-Spanish history which the Escurial manuscripts could furnish. The work of Casiri encouraged the most ardent hopes of a successful result of more patient enquiry; and nothing could promise better than the circumstance that his very learned and intelligent successor in the librarianship, D. José Antonio Conde, was engaged in the work. The results of his labours were published at Madrid in 1820 and 1821. I have not been able to meet with a copy of his work in the original Spanish, but I have found it mixed up with other matter in a French book, entitled “Histoire de la Domination des Arabes et des Maures en Espagne, et en Portugal, depuis l’Invasion de ces Peuples jusqu’a leur Expulsion définitive; redigée sur l’Histoire traduite de l’Arabe en Espagnol de M. J. Conde. Par M. de Marlés.” 3 vols. 8vo. Paris. 1825. From the preface of M. de Marlés it appears that D. Conde’s book is entirely the tale of the Arabic historians, and not the judicious result of a critical comparison between these writers and the Spanish chroniclers. M. de Marlés has endeavoured to supply the deficiency, and to write a history of Spain from Mariana and others on the one hand, and D. Conde’s Arabians on the other. He has entirely failed; for a more feeble work was never written. Much of the fault rests with his authorities; for his history is only another proof, of what we possessed a thousand instances before, that sufficient materials do not exist for the compilation of a good and complete Spanish history. The insufficiency of D. Conde’s book to all real historical purposes appears in every page. Something, indeed, has been gained on the subject of the Moorish civil wars and dissentions, but such details are without interest. Little or nothing has been added to our stores on the subject of Pelayo, Charlemagne’s invasion, the Cid, or the conclusion of the Moorish history; all points whereon information is so much wanted. These remarks apply only to Conde’s researches into the political and civil history of Spain while under the dominion of the Moors, and not to his enquiries into the literary history of the Arabs.

[182] Chronicle, i. 20.

[183] Chronicle, i. 1.

[184] The circumstances about this marriage are so contradictory to modern usages, that the whole story has been regarded as a fable. Abundant evidence, however, of the marriage exists; and as that competent judge of Spanish manners, Mr. Southey, observes, “The circumstances of the marriage are not to be disbelieved for their singularity: had such circumstances appeared incredible or repugnant to common feeling, they would not have been invented;—whether they be true or false, they are equally characteristic of the state of manners.”

[185] Chronicle, i. 13.

[186] Chronicle, ii. 1.

[187] Chronicle, ii. 17.

[188] These last few words are judiciously placed in the Chronicle of the Cid by Mr. Southey. They are not contained in the ancient chronicles and ballads, but they are referred to by some, and implied in all.

[189] Chronicle, iii. 10, 11.

[190] Chronicle, iii. 13-16.

[191] Chronicle, iii. 17-22. Müller, in his Dissertation on the Cid, speaks as positively that the money was repaid, as if the receipt in full for all demands, authenticated by the city of Burgos, were lying on his table. There is no evidence of the repayment in the ancient writers; and when we consider that the Jews were always treated in Spain far worse than the Musulmans, we cannot conclude that the Cid would consider men whom he had cheated as entitled to justice.

[192] I borrow from Mr. Frere’s translation of part of the Cid.

[193] Chronicle, iv. 1-11.

[194] Chronicle, iv. 14-17.

[195] Chronicle, v. 17-20.

[196] Chronicle, vi. 29. The old Spanish writers observe that the Cid knew how to make a good knight, as a good groom knows how to make a good horse.

[197] Chronicle, vii. 19. Ximena was like the famous Oriana in Amadis of Gaul, who was always affrayed at military preparations.

[198] He had let it grow out of respect to Alfonso; and he intended it should be a matter of admiration both with Moors and Christians. Poema del Cid, v. 1230, &c.

[199] Chronicle, books 9 and 10. Every reader of Spanish history knows how fiercely the story of the Infantes has been discussed. I shall not burden my pages with a statement of the arguments, but I think that the balance is very much in favour of the truth of the story. Mr. Southey’s remark is judicious. “The conduct of the Infantes of Carrion is certainly improbable. There are instances enough of such cruelty, but none of such folly. Yet nothing can be so improbable as that such a story should be invented and related so soon after their death; of persons who had really existed, and were of such rank: and that it should be accredited and repeated by all the historians who lived nearest the time.”

[200] Hallam’s Middle Ages, iii. 482. 2d edit.

[201] The world has generally been acquainted with the fall of Grenada by the work of Genez Perez de Hita, which was translated into French, and acquired popularity when Florian made it the foundation of his Gonsalvo de Cordova. There is very little historical truth in the volume, and the value of the pictures of manners it contains has been much overrated: those pictures, moreover, are Moorish rather than chivalric, and therefore not of service to the present work.

[202] Warton on the Gesta Romanorum, in the first volume of his History of English Poetry.

[203] De Marca, Marca Hispanica, p. 1428.

[204] Con razon (dize) nos quitais las armas del linage, pues las ponemos à tan graves peligros, y traucos: vos las mereceis mejor, que como mas recatado, les teneis mejor guardados.

Mariana, Hist. de Espana, xiii. 7.

[205] Mariana, xiii. 7. This last story of Garcia Perez de Vargas is the subject of a beautiful ballad, which Mr. Lockhart has translated. The stanzas regarding the scarf are particularly pleasing.

[206] This is another and singular proof of the generally acknowledged excellence of Italian armour.

[207] Libro del paso honroso, defendido por el excelente caballero Sueno de Quinones, copilado de un libro antiquo de mano, por Juan de Pineda. 1588. Reprinted, Madrid, 1783.

[208] Paston, Letters, vol. i. p. 6.

[209] Monstrelet, vol. vii. c. 82.

[210] Sismondi. Hist. des Rep. Ital. vii. 439. The Germans were more observant of the forms than of the spirit of chivalry. The reader remembers that the spur, the golden spur, was the great mark of knighthood; and every ancient church in this country, or a copy of its antique monumental effigies, will inform him of the custom of placing a spur over or upon a knight’s tomb. This was also a custom among the Germans, who, besides, reposited spurs in churches, when age, infirmity, or other causes, unnerved the arm of the knight: moreover, they reposited spurs in churches as memorials of victory. In the fourteenth century five hundred pair of them, which had been taken in a victory over the French, were hung round the walls of the church at Gröningen. Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, p. 212.

[211] Olaus. Hist. Septent. lib. xiv. c. 7.

[212] Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, from the Teutonic and Scandinavian Romances, p. 76.

[213] Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. i. p. 59.

[214] Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. i. p. 60.

[215] Ibid. p. 71.

[216] Froissart, vol. i. c. 433.

[217] Froissart, liv. ii. c. 125.

[218] Schmidt, iv. 492.

[219] Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, p. 108.

[220] Ibid. vol. i. p. 7.

[221] Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. ii. p. 61.

[222] Ibid. vol. ii. p. 272.

[223] Ottokar v. Hornek, c. 268, &c. in his Annals of Austria.

[224] Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. ii. last chapter.

[225] Muratori, Dissert. 29.

[226] Ibid. 23.

[227] Giannone, lib. i.

[228] Muratori, Annali d’Italia, vol. v. part 2. p. 171, &c. Even the Modenese librarian throws aside his dust and parchments, and warms himself into a humanised being at this story; while Sismondi passes it over with frigid indifference.

[229] Muratori, Dissert. 49.

[230] See in the twenty-seventh Dissertation of Muratori (Della Milizia de secoli rozzi in Italia) for a minute account of the armour of these different classes. I observe that Mr. Perceval, in his History of Italy, vol. i. p. 197., holds a different opinion from that which I have expressed in the text. Instead of thinking that the change in the military art formed one of the causes which hastened the overthrow of the Lombard liberties, he contends that, perhaps, it might be more correctly numbered among the circumstances which, after that overthrow had been accomplished, perpetuated the work of slavery.

[231] Perceval’s History of Italy, vol. i. chap. 5. part 1.

[232] Monstrelet, vol. xi. p. 328.

[233] Muratori, Dissert. 23. Muratori describes from a contemporary chronicle the entrance of Charles. The carriage of the Queen seems to have excited great astonishment, as carriages were in those days seldom used by ladies, and seldomer by men.

[234] Giannone, Istoria Civile di Napoli, lib. xx. c. 3. s. 1.

[235] When that political coxcomb, Cola de Rienzi, thought fit to be knighted, he would not bathe in the ordinary way, but made use of the vase wherein, according to tradition, Constantine had been baptised. Vita di Cola Rienzi, c. 25.

[236] Muratori, Dissert. 29. 53.

[237] Sacchetti, Novelle, c. 153.

[238] Muratori, Dissert. 53. Thus, when Hildebrand Guatasca, in 1260, was made a knight at the expence of the city of Arezzo, he swore fidelity to his lord, or, as grammarians would have it, his lady, the good city that had knighted him.

[239] Muratori, Dissert. vol. ii. c. 29. p. 16.

[240] Muratori, Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, vol. xii. p. 535.

[241] Non ferro sed vino; non lanceis sed caseis; non ensibus sed utribus; non hastibus sed verubus onerantur.

[242] Polycraticus, p. 181.

[243] Lansdowne Manuscripts, British Museum, No. 285. Article 41. The manuscript breaks off here; but the result of the joust is of no importance to my argument.

[244] Brantome, Œuvres, les Vies des Dames illustres, vol. i. p. 410, &c. Brantome relates this story on the authority of an old-Italian book on Duels, written by one Paris de Puteo.

[245] Gesta Stephan. p. 962., cited in Turner’s England, vol. i. p. 461. 8vo.