Part 21

_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.

THE END.

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

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Warton (History of English Poetry, vol. i. p. 118. note, 8vo.) notices a passage in Piers Plowman, which shows how the reigning passion for chivalry infected the ideas and expressions of the writers of this period. The poet is describing the crucifixion, and speaking of the person who pierced our Saviour's side with a spear. This person our author calls _a knight_, and says, that he came forth _with his spear in hand and justed with Jesus_. Afterwards, for doing so base an act as that of wounding a dead body, he is pronounced a disgrace to _knighthood_, and our _champion chevaler chyese knight_ is ordered to yield himself recreant. fol. 88. b. So, too, in the Morte d'Arthur, Joseph of Arimathea is called the gentle knight that took down Jesus from the cross.

[2] Warton, vol. ii. p. 86.

[3] Barnes's Edward III., p. 564.

[4] Leland, Collect. vol. ii. p. 476.

[5] Arthur went to his mete with many other kings. And there were all the knights of the Round Table except those that were prisoners, or slain at a recounter, thenne at the high feast evermore they should be fulfilled the hole nombre of an hundred and fifty, for then was the Round Table fully accomplished. Morte d'Arthur. The tale of Sir Gauth of Orkeney, c. 1. And see Vol. I. of this work, page 376.

[6] Walsingham, sub anno 1344. Ashmole on the Order of the Garter, cap. v. s. 2.

[7] Preface to the Black Book of the Order of the Garter.

[8] Walsingham, p. 164. Froissart, c. 100.

[9] Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. iii. part 1. p. 139. As the story of Lady Salisbury's garter is fabulous, we must resort to some other conjectures for an explanation of the famous motto of the order, and the one cited in the text is extremely ingenious and plausible. With much less appearance of truth, Ashmole fancies that Edward by this motto retorted shame and defiance upon him that should dare to think ill of so just an enterprise as he had undertaken for the recovery of his lawful right to the French crown (whose arms he had lately assumed); and that the magnanimity of those knights whom he had chosen into this order was such as would enable him to maintain that quarrel against all who durst think ill of it. Ashmole's Order of the Garter, p. 184. There never was a knight more fond of impresses, mottoes, and devices, than King Edward III. He not only stamped them upon his own armour and that of his horse, but on his apparel, beds, and household furniture. "It is as it is," was one of these mottoes. Another was:--

"Ha! ha! the white swan, By God's soul I am thy man."

[10] Gibbon is the chief supporter of the last hypothesis, In his text (vol. iv. c. 23.) he states positively, that "the infamous George of Cappadocia has been transformed into the renowned St. George of England, the patron of arms, of chivalry, and the Garter." In a note, however, he observes that this transformation is not given as absolutely certain, but as extremely probable. Few people read this note, and, perhaps, Gibbon did not intend they should. He wished to strike their attention by the sentence in his text, and he satisfied his conscience for literary honesty by writing the modification at the bottom of the page.

[11] Froissart, c. 213.

[12] Barnes, p. 444.

[13] Knyghton. Chron. col. 2615.

[14] Stow's Chronicle.

[15]

----"these gallant yeomen, England's peculiar and appropriate sons, Known in no other land. Each boasts his hearth And field as free as the best lord his barony, Owing subjection to no human vassalage, Save to their king and law. Hence are they resolute, Leading the van on every day of battle, As men who know the blessings they defend. Hence are they frank and generous in peace, As men who have their portion in its plenty. No other kingdom shows such worth and happiness Veil'd in such low estate."-- Halidon Hill, act ii. sc. 2.

[16] This national characteristic is alluded to in Latimer's sermons, folio 69:--a work not of very good promise for such matters.

[17] Hair cut short.

[18] Chaucer, Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, line 101, &c. &c.

[19] Froissart, c. 131.

[20] Froissart, c. 163.

[21] Ibid. cc. 168. 174.

[22] Froissart, cc. 150. 152. "Messire Eustace vous estes le chevalier au monde, que veisse oncques plus vaillamment assailer ses ennemis, ne son corps deffendre: ny ne me trouvay oncques en bataille ou je veisse, qui taint me donnast affaire, corps à corps, que vous avez huy fait. Si vous en donne le pris, et aussi sur tous les chevaliers de ma cour, par droit sentence. Adonc print le roy son chappelet, qu'il portoit sur son chef (qui estoit bon et riche) et le meit sur le chef de Monseigneur Eustace; et dit Monseigneur Eustace, je vous donne ce chappelet pour le mieux combattant de la jouence, de ceux de dedans et de dehors: et vous pui que vous le portez ceste année pour l'amour de moi. Je say bien que vous estes gai et amoureux, et que volontiers vous vous trouvez entre dames et damoiselles. Si dites, par tout la ou vous irez, que je le vous ay donné. Si vous quitte vostre prison, et vous en pouvez partir demain, s'il vous plaist."

[23] Froissart, cc. 133. 146.

[24] Barnes's History of Edward III. p. 452, &c.

[25] There was a Lord of Manny, as well as Sir Walter, at Edward's court. The lord was a distinguished person, for he was among the bishops, earls, and barons, who accompanied Edward to France, upon his doing homage for the duchy of Guienne. St. Palaye has confounded the lord and the knight, and made but one of them. He overlooked the hundred and second chapter of Froissart, wherein the baron and the knight are separately and distinctly mentioned. There was also another Manny, called the courageous Manny. He was knighted by Sir Eustace Dambreticourt before a battle, and after fighting most valiantly he was left for dead in the field. Froissart shall tell the remainder of the story. "After this discomfiture, and that all the Frenchmen were departed, the courageous Manny being sore hurt and near dead, lift up his head a little, and saw nothing about him but dead men lying on the ground round about him. Then he rose as well as he might, and sat down, and saw well how he was not far from the fortress of Nogent, which was English; then he did so much, sometimes creeping, sometimes resting, that he came to the foot of the tower of Nogent; then he made tokens to them within, showing how he was one of their companions; then certain came down the tower to him, and bare him into the fortress, and dressed his wounds, and there he governed himself so well that he was healed." Froissart, c. 199.

[26] Froissart, c. 19.

[27] Froissart, cc. 24. 26.

[28] Appendix, No. xxiv., to Anstis's History of the Knighthood of the Bath.

[29] "Mais il dit à aucuns de ses plus privés, qu'il avoit promis en Angleterre devant les dames et seigneurs, qu'il seroit le premier qui entreroit en France, et prendroit chastle ou forte ville, et y feroit aucunes appertises d'armes," c. 36.

[30] Froissart, c. 36.

[31] Quand Messire Gautier veit ce, il dit, j'amais ne soye salué de madame et chere amie, se je réntre en chastel n'en forteresse, jusques à tant que j'aye l'un de ces venans verse. Froissart, c. 82.

[32] Froissart, c. 82.

[33] See Vol. I. p. 151.

[34] Froissart, c. 87.

[35] Vol. i. p. 246. ante.

[36] Froissart, c. 103. Le Comte D'Erby dit, Qui merci prie merci doit avoir. This sentence, I suppose has escaped the notice of writers who have represented the sole amusement of knights to have consisted in cutting the throats of common people.

[37] Froissart, c. 107.

[38] This is Lord Berners' rendering of the passage. The phrase "par un sien clerc" had crept into some editions of Froissart; and Mr. Johnes's translation is, "Sir Walter caused the inscription to be read to him by a clerk." This, perhaps, was necessary, as the inscription was in Latin, for heroes have not been famous for their clerkship. But the inference which some writers have drawn, that he could not read at all, is perfectly unwarrantable.

[39] Froissart, c. 110.

[40] Froissart, c. 135

[41] Froissart, c. 146.

[42] She was the Lady Margaret, daughter and heiress of Thomas Plantagenet, surnamed of Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk, and uncle to Edward III.

[43] Dugdale.

[44] The reader may, reasonably enough, enquire who could have been the vendor? I cannot tell him: I can only copy Stow in these matters.

[45] Stow's London, book 4. c. 3. Maitland's History of London, p. 661. This was the state of the Charter House till the suppression of the monasteries, in the reign of Henry VIII. Its annual value was 642_l._ It was given to Sir Thomas Audley, speaker of the House of Commons, with whose only daughter it went, by marriage, to Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, and from him, by descent, to Thomas, Earl of Suffolk. In the time of James I. it was purchased by that "right phoenix of charity," Thomas Sutton, citizen and girdler, for the large sum of 13,000_l._; and he converted the buildings and gardens into an hospital for the relief of aged men, education of youth, and maintaining the service of God.

[46] Froissart, 286.

[47] See vol. i. p. 204.

[48] Ashmole's History of the Garter, c. 26. s. 3. Froissart, cc. 142. 147.

[49] Dugdale, Baronage, i. 503.

[50] Authorities in Ashmole, p. 702.

[51] Froissart, c. 125. See the first volume of this work, page 228.

[52] Froissart, c. 161. Monseigneur Jehan de Clermont dit, Chandos, ce sont bien les parolles de vos Anglois, qui ne savent adviser riens de nouvel; mais quant, qu'ils voyent, leur est bel. This is a very curious proof of the antiquity of the common remark that Englishmen are a borrowing and improving people, and not famous for originality of invention. It might be contended, but not in this place, that we are both. And here I will transcribe another sentence of Froissart, more characteristic and true. "Les Anglois, selon leur coutume se divertirent moult tristement."

[53] Froissart, c. 226.

[54] Froissart, c. 237.

[55] Froissart, cc. 265, 266.

[56] Froissart, c. 270.

[57] Froissart, liv. ii. c. 82.

[58] 4 Plac. Parl. iii. 5.

[59] Thomas of Elmham, p. 72. His general expression, tapestries representing the ancient victories of England, I presume chiefly meant those of Edward III.

[60] The tales of chivalry had for their prologue some lines expressive of war and love; but in a grander strain the poetical biographer of the Bruce sings:--

"Ah! freedome is a noble thing; Freedome makes men to have liking; Freedome all solace to men gives; He lives at ease, that freely lives. A noble heart may have none ease, Nor ellys[A] nought that may him please, If freedome fail: for free liking Is _yearned_[B] o'er all other thing. Na he that aye has lived free May not know well the property, The anger, _na_ the wretched doom That is coupled to foul thraldom. But, if he had essayed it, Then all _perquer_[C] he should it wit, And should think freedom more to prize Than all the gold in world that is. Thus contrary things ever more Discoverings of the tother are." The Bruce, line 225, &c.

[A] nor else.

[B] eagerly desired.

[C] perfectly.

[61] haste.

[62] laundress.

[63] child-bed.

[64] stop.

[65] pity.

[66] pitched.

[67] moved.

[68] laundress.

[69] Selden's Titles of Honour, and Pinkerton's History of Scotland, on the authority of a book which I have not been able to meet with, called "Certain Matters composed together." Edinb. 1597. 4to.

[70] Henry's History of England, vol. iii. p. 80. 4to.

[71] Border History of England and Scotland, p. 91.

[72] Border History, p. 143.

[73] Nisbet's Heraldry, i. 7.

[74] Knyghton, col. 2580.

[75] This amusing opinion of the French knights should be given in the original language. "Adonc eurent plusieurs chevaliers et escuyers de France passage: et retournerent en Flandres, ou là ou ils pouvoyent arriver, tous affamés, sans monture, et sans armeures: et Escoce maudissoyent, et le heure qu'ils y avoyent entré: et disoyent qu'oncques si duc voyage ne fut: et qu'ils voudroyent que le roi de France s'accordast aux Anglois, un an ou deux, et puis allast en Escoce, pour tout destruire, car oncques si mauvaises gens ne verint: n'y ne trouverent si faux et se traistres, ne de si petite congnuissance." Vol. ii. c. 174.

[76] The Scotch knights procured horse-shoes and harness ready made from Flanders. Froissart, vol. ii. c. 3. Lord Berners' translation.

[77] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 142.

[78] "Henry Percy," says Holingshed, "was surnamed, for his often pricking, Henry Hotspur, as one that seldom times rested, if there were any service to be done abroad." History of Scotland, p. 240.

[79] The gallantry of this fighting priest was afterwards rewarded by the gift of the archdeaconry of Aberdeen.

[80] He was afterwards ransomed; and, according to Camden, Pounouny castle, in Scotland, was built out of the ransom money.

[81] Walsingham, (p. 366.) says, that the Earl of Dunbar came in and turned the scale in favor of the Scots. Nothing of this is mentioned by Froissart, who had his account of the battle from the Douglas family, at whose castle he resided some time. If it be said that their account was probably a prejudiced one, the same objection may be raised against that of Walsingham. The Douglas' always spoke of their victory with true chivalric modesty; for they declared that it was the consequence of the exhausted state of the English after the march from Newcastle.

[82] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 146. Buchanan, lib. 9. p. 173, &c.

[83] Monstrelet, vol. i. c. 9, &c. Rymer, Foedera, vol. viii. p. 310, 311.

[84] This Archibald Douglas, Earl of Galloway, called the Grim, was an illegitimate son of a good Sir James Douglas, and the successor in the earldom of Douglas to the Earl James who fell at Otterbourn. Archibald had been taken prisoner by Hotspur at the battle of Holmedon Hill; and Percy agreed, that if he would fight with him as valiantly against Henry IV. as he had fought during that battle, he would give him his liberty free of ransom-money. Douglas, as a soldier and an enemy of the English king, had no objection to these terms, and therefore he fought at the battle of Shrewsbury. Buchanan, book 10.

[85] Well, indeed, might the Scottish knight say,

"Another king! they grow like Hydras' heads: I am the Douglas, fatal to all those That wear these colours on them." Shakspeare, Henry IV, Part I. act v. scene 4.

[86] Otterbourne, p. 239. 244. Walsingham, p. 410, &c. Hall, folio 22. I mean not to say, however, that his conduct was without precedent, for at the great battle of Poictiers nineteen French knights were arrayed like King John.

[87] Camden has marked the commencement of this custom in the reign of Henry IV., and he has been followed by all our writers on heraldry and titles of honor, except Anstis, who endeavours to trace it to the reign of Edward I. Anstis mistook the matter entirely. Undoubtedly many instances may be met with in earlier times when knights were created with the full ceremonies of oblation of the sword at the altar, of bathing, &c.; and in strictness all knights should have been created in that manner. Whenever Anstis met with a knight inaugurated in that way, he called him a knight of the Bath. Now the question is, at what time was the first royal marriage, royal christening, or other festivity, when knights were made?--made, not exactly for military objects, not in consequence of feudal tenure, but in honour of the event which they were celebrating. Knights of the Bath were knights of peace, knights of compliment and courtesy. Camden's opinion was founded on the following passage in Froissart: "The vigil before the coronation (of Henry IV.) was on the evening of Saturday; on that occasion, and at that time, there watched all the esquires who were the next morning to be created knights, to the number of forty-six. Each of them had his esquire attending him, a separate chamber, and a separate bath, where the rites of bathing were that night performed. On the day following, the Duke of Lancaster (Henry IV.), at the time of celebrating mass, created them knights, giving them long green coats, the sleeves whereof were cut straight, and furred with minever, and with great hoods or chaperons furred in the same manner, and after the fashion used by prelates. And every one of these knights, on his left shoulder, had a double cordon or string of white silk, to which white tassels were pendent." Now there is nothing in this passage which can lead the mind to think that the coronation of Henry IV. was the first occasion when knights of the Bath were created; and, therefore, our writers on heraldry and titles of honor are not justified in the positiveness with which they always head their dissertations on knighthood of the Bath with the year 1399.

[88] That the shoulder-knot of the knights of the Bath was worn only for a time, and on the principle of chivalry which induced men to place chains round their legs until they had performed some deeds of arms, I learn from Upton, a writer of great reputation in heraldic matters, who lived in the days of Henry VI. See his treatise De Re Militari, p. 10., quoted in the Appendix to Anstis's History of the Knighthood of the Bath.

[89] Thus Chaucer:

"A custom is unto these nobles all, A bride shall not eaten in the hall, Till days four, other three at the least Ypassed be, then let her go to feast."

[90] MS. Norfolc. in Off. Arm. n. 15. See Anstis's Appendix to his History of the Knighthood of the Bath, p. 24.

[91]

"For to obeie without variaunce My lordes byddyng fully and plesaunce Whiche hath desire, sothly for to seyn Of verray knyghthood, to remember agayn The worthyness, gif I shall not lye, And the prowesse of olde chivalries." Lydgate, War of Troy.

[92] Henry V. Act ii. Chorus.

[93] He was kind and courteous to them immediately after the battle, and indeed as long as their deportment merited his friendship. The Duke of Orleans and four other Princes of the blood royal were taken prisoners at the battle of Agincourt, and for a while lived on their parole. But when they forfeited the titles of knights and gentlemen, by endeavouring to deceive and betray Henry while he was negotiating with the parties that distracted France, he then removed them to close confinement in Pontefract castle; nor did they obtain their liberty for many years. A great outcry has been raised against Henry for his conduct in this instance,--for his not showing a chivalric deportment to men who had forfeited their honour.

[94] Thus the Chorus in Shakspeare's Henry V. addresses the audience:

"So let him land, And solemnly, see him set on to London. So swift a pace hath thought, that even now You may imagine him upon Blackheath. When that his lords desire him, to have borne His bruised helmet and his bended sword, Before him through the city: he forbids it, Being free from vainness and self-glorious pride; Giving full trophy, signal, and ostent, Quite from himself, to God."

[95] Caxton, of the Order of Chivalry or Knyghthood.

[96] Ibid.

[97] Comines, vol. i. p. 31.

[98] Sir Tristrem, Scott's edition, Fytte first. st. 2.

[99] Rymer's Foedera.

[100] Warton pleasantly observes, that had Henry never murdered his wives, his politeness to the fair sex would remain unimpeached.

[101] Holingshed, p. 805, 806, &c. Henry's passion for disguising himself was singular, and carried him beyond the bounds of chivalric decorum. "Once on a time the King in person, accompanied by the Earls of Essex, Wiltshire, and other noblemen, to the number of twelve, came suddenly in the morning into the Queen's chamber, all apparelled in short coats of Kentish kendall, with hoods on their heads, and hose of the same, every one of them carrying his bow and arrow, and a sword and a buckler, like outlaws, or Robin Hood's men. Whereat the Queen, the ladies, and all other there were abashed, as well for the strange sight, as also for their sudden coming,--and after certain dances and pastimes made, they departed." Holingshed p. 805.

[102] Holingshed, p. 815.

[103] Holingshed, p. 807, 808.

[104] Holingshed, p. 85, &c.

[105] Shakspeare, Henry VIII. Act i. scene 1.

[106] Dr. Nott, in his life of Lord Surrey, prefixed to the works of His Lordship and Sir Thomas Wyatt, has by the evidence of facts completely overthrown this pleasing tale.

[107] These curious particulars are to be gathered, as Dr. Nott remarks, from the following passage in Hardynge's Chronicle.

"And as lords' sons been set, at four year age, At school to learn the doctrine of letture; And after six to have them in language And sit at meet, seemly in all nurture: At ten and twelve to revel is their cure, To dance and sing, and speak of gentleness: At fourteen year they shall to field I sure, At hunt the deer, and catch at hardiness.

"For deer to hunt and slay, and see them bleed An hardiment giveth to his courage. And also in his wit he giveth heed, Imagining to take them at advantage. At sixteen year to warry and to wage, To joust and ride and castles to assail, To skirmish als, and make sicker scurage, And set his watch for peril nocturnal.

"And every day his armour to essay, In feats of arms with some of his meynie; His might to prove, and what that he do may If that he were in such a jeopardy Of war befall, that by necessity He might algates with weapons him defend. Thus should he learn in his priority His weapons all, in armes to dispend."

See to the same effect, the Paston letters, vol. iii. 34, 35, &c.

[108] This curious circumstance is mentioned in a journal of Sir John Wallop's expedition, which Dr. Nott dug out of the State-Paper Office. The whole passage is amusing.