Part 23

[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 Alhamra, 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]

Caballeros Granadinos Aunque Moros, hijos d'algo.

[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 Musa Abu Bakr Arrazy, 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.

"He look'd around, and saw the scarf, for still the Moors were near, And they had pick'd it from the sward, and loop'd it on a spear. 'These Moors,' quoth Garci Perez, 'uncourteous Moors they be-- Now, by my soul, the scarf they stole, yet durst not question me!

"'Now reach once more my helmet.' The esquire said him nay, 'For a silken string why should you fling, perchance, your life away?' --'I had it from my lady,' quoth Garci, 'long ago, And never Moor that scarf, be sure, in proud Seville shall show.'--

"But when the Moslems saw him, they stood in firm array: --He rode among their armed throng, he rode right furiously. --'Stand, stand, ye thieves and robbers, lay down my lady's pledge,' He cried, and ever as he cried, they felt his faulchion's edge.

"That day when the lord of Vargas came to the camp alone, The scarf, his lady's largess, around his breast was thrown: Bare was his head, his sword was red, and from his pommel strung Seven turbans green, sore hack'd I ween, before Garci Perez hung." Lockhart's Ancient Spanish Ballads, p. 75.

[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, Oeuvres, 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.