The History of Chivalry Volume I Part 22

[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 Just.i.tia 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 Carca.s.sone 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 n.o.ble knight, Sir John Chandos.

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

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

[63]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[68] Chaucer, Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Selden, t.i.tles 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 s.e.xes 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 circ.u.mstance was satirised, as the reader must remember, by Cervantes, who did not always spare chivalry itself in his good humoured satire of the romances of chivalry.

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

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

"Still to the truth direct thy strong desire, And flee the very air where dwells a liar: Fail not the ma.s.s, there still with reverend feet Each morn be found, nor scant thy offering meet: Each week's sixth day with fast subdue thy mind, For 'twas the day of Pa.s.sION for mankind: Else let some pious work, some deed of grace, With subst.i.tuted worth fulfil the place: Haste thee, in fine, where dames complain of wrong, Maintain their right, and in their cause be strong.

For not a wight there lives, if right I deem, Who holds fair hope of well-deserv'd esteem, But to the dames by strong devotion bound, Their cause sustains, nor faints for toil or wound."

WAY'S _Fabliaux_, vol. i. p. 94.

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

[76] The more distinguished the rank of the aspirant, the more distinguished were those who put themselves forward to arm him. The romances often state that the s.h.i.+eld 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 circ.u.mstances 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 circ.u.mstance 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. Honore, 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, t.i.tles 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 s.h.i.+eld. Thus an old French poet says,--

"Et fu arme sor le cheval de pris, D'Aubere, et d'iaume, d'escu Poitevin."

Du Cange, art. Ferrum Pictavense.

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

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

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

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

"Li Barons aurent gonfanons Li chevaliers aurent penons."

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

"King Richard I understond, Or he went out of Englond, Let him make an axe for the nones, To break therewith the Sarasyns bones.

The head was wrought right wele, Therein was twenty pounds of steel, And when he came into Cyprus land, The ax he took in his hand.

All that he hit he all to-frapped, The Griffons away fast rapped Natheless many he cleaved, And their unthanks there by lived, And the prison when he came to, With his ax he smot right thro, Dores, barres, and iron-chains, And delivered his men out of pains."

Line 2197, &c.