Book III. c. 6.

[34] Froissart, i. c. 448.

[35] Froissart, ii. c. 49.

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

[37] Froissart, i. 384.

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

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

[40] favour.

[41] soon.

[42] diligently.

[43] attempted.

[44] against.

[45] rule.

[46] the minstrelsy art.

[47] went.

[48] knew.

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

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

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

[52] L'Histoire de Guerin de Montglaive.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[63]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[68] Chaucer, Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Selden, Titles of Honour,