Part 7

The education of our English gentry was nearly as chivalric then as at any previous period of our history. Boys were sent to school to learn to read at four years of age. At six they were taught languages and the first principles of manners: from ten to twelve dancing and music were added to their accomplishments, and politeness was particularly encouraged. At fourteen they were initiated into the sports of the field which prepared them for the ruder exercise of arms. At sixteen they were taught to joust, to fight at the barriers, to manage the war-horse, to assail castles, to support the weight of armour, and to contend in feats of arms with their companions. And there their education terminated.[107] When they went to battle they demeaned themselves worthy of their education.

[Sidenote: English knights continued to break lances for ladies' love.]

In all the military expeditions of the English on the Continent, the soldiers of either army were continually challenging each other to break a lance for their ladies' sake. Sir John Wallop, in his march with a British army to Landrecy, in the year 1543, went to the town of Terouenne, and, recollecting that the commandant was an old acquaintance, he addressed him in the true spirit of chivalry, that if there were any gentlemen under his charge willing to break a lance for their ladies' sake, six gentlemen should be sent from the English army to meet them. The challenge was accepted, the jousts were held, and, after this fine old chivalric mode of displaying his friendship, Sir John Wallop held on his course to Landrecy.[108]

[Sidenote: State of Scottish chivalry at this period.]

[Sidenote: James IV.]

The early part of the sixteenth century forms a very interesting æra of British chivalry; for it introduces to our notice James IV. of Scotland, a hero both of knighthood and romance. He was as expert and graceful in tournaments and jousts as any cavalier who was the theme of history or poetry. On occasion of his marriage with Margaret of England, his chivalric shows were splendid beyond example. He was wont to personate King Arthur, or to take the title and appearance of an imaginary creature, called the Savage Knight. His tilt-yards reflected the glories of the last king of the Britons, and the knights of the Round Table, or represented a wild and romantic country, with Highlanders clad in savage dresses guarding the barriers. Like a knight of the bye-gone time, he was a pilgrim as well as a soldier, and we will hope, for the purity of earlier days of chivalry, that his heroic predecessors did not often, like himself, turn aside from their pious peregrinations to wander amidst the bowers of castles, with ladies fair.

The romantic gallantry of his disposition was so well known, that cooler politicians used it to the purposes of their ambition. The French king, Louis XII., was abandoned by most of his allies, and was anxious to renew the ancient alliance of France with Scotland: yet England and Scotland were at that time at peace, and the two countries appeared to be united in friendship by the marriage of James with Margaret, the King of England's sister. But Louis knew the character of the man whose aid he required, and he played upon it with admirable dexterity. In 1504, he sent, as his ambassador to the Scottish court, Bernard Stuart, Lord of Aubigny, one of the most distinguished cavaliers of France. This envoy admirably supported the objects of his master: he soon won the affections of James, and his discourses on wars and tournaments disposed the King to love the chivalric French.

A few years afterwards Louis, still continuing to play on his chivalric feelings, made his wife, Anne of Britanny, choose James for her knight and champion, to protect her from all her enemies. The idea of winning by this scheme the Scottish King to the purposes of France originated with Andrew Forman, Bishop of Moray, the Scottish ambassador at Paris, who, to promote his own aggrandisement, would have sacrificed king and country.[109] The agent of the scheme was La Motte, the French ambassador at Edinburgh, who was as skilful as his martial predecessor, the Lord of Aubigny, in flattering James to his ruin. He presented him letters from the French Queen, wherein, taking the style of a high-born damsel in distress, she termed him her knight, and, assuring him she had suffered much blame in defence of his honor, she beseeched him to advance but three steps into the English territory with his army, for the sake of his mistress. These letters were accompanied by a present of 14,000 crowns, and a ring from her own finger.[110] The chivalry and vanity of James were rouzed by these appeals, and he became the willing tool of French ambition.

The circumstances which succeeded his allying himself with France fall not within my province to detail. The battle of Flodden Field was their crown and conclusion; and although there was nothing chivalric in the battle itself, yet a few matters which preceded it come within my subject. Indeed, in the times regarding which I am writing, chivalry was no longer a national distinction, and therefore cannot be marked in public affairs; its lights fell only upon a few individuals.

[Sidenote: Chivalric circumstances at Flodden.]

On the fifth of September, the Earl of Surrey[111], who commanded the English forces, dispatched a herald from Alnwick to the Scottish camp, offering James battle on a particular day, (Friday, the 9th of September, 1513,) and James, like a gallant knight, accepted the challenge. He then removed his camp from Ford[112], and took a strong position on the ridge of Flodden hill, "one of the last and lowest eminences detached from the ridge of Cheviot." On the sixth the English reached Wooller-haugh, a place within three miles of the Scottish camp, and, observing the admirable position of the foe, the Earl of Surrey formed a scheme which, he hoped, would make them relinquish their advantage. Knowing the King's undaunted courage, and high sense of honour, he wrote a letter, subscribed by himself and all the great men in his army, reproaching him for having changed his ground, after he had accepted the offer of battle, and challenging him to descend, like a brave and honourable prince, into the spacious vale of Millfield, that lay between the two armies, and there decide the quarrel on fair and equal terms.[113] This scheme failed; for James was not at that moment so ridiculously romantic as to forego an advantage which his skill had obtained; and he only replied that he should expect the English on the day appointed for battle. Surrey would have been mad to have attacked him in his present position; and he, therefore, on the morning of the 8th of September, formed his army into marching order, crossed the Till near Wooller, progressed towards Berwick, and rested at Barmore wood. The Scottish nobles apprehended that it was the intention of the English to plunder the fertile country of the Merse; and they therefore importuned James to march to the defence of his own dominions: but the King declined, alleging that his honour was engaged to remain in his present station until the morrow, which was the appointed time for battle. On that morrow Surrey directed his course to the Tweed; but, suddenly changing his line of march, he repassed the Till at the bridge of Twissel. Before the army had entirely passed, Robert Borthwick, the commander of James's artillery, entreated the permission of his sovereign to destroy the bridge, and thus break the enemy's force; but the King gave a stern denial, declaring that he wished to have all his enemies before him, and to fight them fairly.[114] By this fatal folly James lost all the advantages of his position; for the English formed behind him, and Flodden was open and accessible to them. If personal bravery, independent of sageness, had been the character of a knight, James deserved all chivalric honours; for, disdaining the counsel to behold the battle afar off, he mingled boldly in the thickest of the press. The field was won by the English archers; but James did not live to repent the enthusiasm of his chivalry, which had cost his country so much blood, for he was killed within a lance's length of Lord Surrey. The romantic chivalry of James was deeply injurious to Scotland. She had, in his reign, attained a considerable eminence of national prosperity, but the defeat at Flodden hurled her from her station. The country was "left a prey to foreign influence and intrigue, which continued till it ceased to form a separate kingdom: her finances were exhausted, her leaders corrupted, her dignity degraded, her commerce and her agriculture neglected."[115]

CHAP. III.

THE LAST YEARS OF CHIVALRY IN ENGLAND.

_The Chivalric Feelings of the Nation supported by Spenser ... and by Sir Philip Sidney ... Allusions to Sidney's Life ... particularly his kindly Consideration ... Chivalric Politeness of the Age of Elizabeth ... The Earl of Oxford ... Tilts in Greenwich Park ... Sir Henry Lee ... Chivalry reflected in the popular Amusements ... Change of Manners ... Reign of James the First ... Tournaments ceased, on Prince Henry's Death ... Life of Lord Herbert of Cherbury ... Chivalric Fame of his Family ... His Character ... His Inferiority to the Knights of yore ... Decline of Chivalric Education ... Important Change in Knighthood by the Parliament of Charles the First ... Application of Chivalric Honors to Men of civil Station ... Knights made in the Field ... Carpet Knights ... Knights of the Bath ... Full Account of the Ancient Ceremonies of creating Knights of the Bath._

[Sidenote: The chivalric feelings of the nation supported by Spenser,]

The reigns of Edward VI. and Mary present nothing to our purpose; but the Elizabethan age is fraught with interest. Our continued intercourse with Italy promoted anew the love for romance and allegory which religious controversy had for some years been gradually stifling. Though classical literature had revived in Italy, the muse of chivalry was most fondly worshipped, and the mind delighted to wander amidst the enchanted garden of Armida. Our well-travelled ancestors brought home with them the love for romantic poetry and allegory; and Spenser's genius, influenced by the prevailing taste of his day, chose Ariosto for his model, and painted the wild adventures of heroes and ladies. Chivalry was the supposed perfection of man's moral nature; and the English poet, therefore, described the chief private virtues exemplified in the conduct of knights: it being his wish, as he expressed his mind to Sir Walter Raleigh, to fashion a gentleman or noble person in valorous and gentle discipline. His principal hero, he in whom the image of a brave knight was perfected in the twelve moral virtues, was King Arthur; and the poet freely used the circumstances and sentiments in the romances relating to that British hero, and also the other popular tales of chivalry.

[Sidenote: and Sir Philip Sidney.]

If poetry nourished the love of valorous knighthood, learning was equally its friend; and when Spenser addressed Sidney as the noble and virtuous gentleman, and most worthy of all titles of learning and chivalry, he spoke the feeling of his age, that the accomplishments of the mind were best displayed in martial demeanour. At the birth of Sidney, as Ben Jonson says, all the muses met. In reading the Arcadia, it is impossible to separate the author from the work, or to think that he has not poured forth all those imaginings of his fancy which his heart had marked for its own. He has pourtrayed knights and damsels valiant and gentle, placing all their fond aspirations of happiness in a rural life, and despising the pageantry of courts for the deep harmonies of nature. But Sidney's mind was chivalric as well as romantic; and he was so fond of reverting to the fabled ages of his country, that it was his intention to turn all the stories of the Arcadia into the admired legends of Arthur and his knights.[116] To modern taste the Arcadia of Sir Philip Sidney presents no charms: yet, by a singular contradiction, the author, who was the personification of his book, is regarded as the model of perfection.

"The plume of war! with early laurels crown'd, The lover's myrtle, and the poet's bay."[117]

The popularity, however, of the Arcadia, in the Elizabethan age[118], and the high reputation of the author, showed the sympathy of the world in those days for the romance of chivalry.

[Sidenote: Allusions to his life.]

The few circumstances in the brief life of Sidney are too well known for me to be justified in detailing them: but I may remind my readers that he was born at Penshurst in Kent, in the year 1544; that he was accomplished in literature and chivalry by study and travel; that he was a courtier of Elizabeth, and yet could oppose her dearest fancies, if they were hostile to the interests of his country; that his opposition to her projected union with Anjou was spirited and well reasoned; that his love for his sister and his wife was the softening grace of that desire for chivalric valour which carried him with his uncle the Earl of Leicester to the plains of Flanders, in the year 1586; and when he received his mortal wound before the town of Zutphen, that he resigned a cup of water to the poor soldier whose lot he thought was more distressing than his own. His courage, his gallantry, and grace were his best known qualities, and those for which England and, indeed, Europe, lamented his death. His funeral in St. Paul's was a national one, the first instance in our history of honours of that description; and for many months afterwards not an individual in the court or city appeared in public, except in a garment of black:--in such high account were chivalric virtues held in the days of Elizabeth.

[Sidenote: Particularly his kindly consideration.]

One feature of his character but little noticed by modern writers was very remarkable in those days, and will be better valued now than it was then. All who enjoyed the hospitality of Penshurst were equal in the consideration of the host: there were no odious distinctions of rank or fortune; "the dishes did not grow coarser as they receded from the head of the table," and no huge salt-cellar divided the noble from the ignoble guests.[119]

[Sidenote: Chivalric politeness of the age of Elizabeth.]

[Sidenote: The Earl of Oxford.]

The polite gracefulness of Sidney was not rare in his time; and there was not a courtier, who, if placed in similar circumstances to those of Sir Walter Raleigh, that would not have cast his handsome plush cloak in the mire to serve for the Queen, as a foot-cloth. Tournaments as well masks were the amusements of the age. The prize was always delivered by Elizabeth who never thought that age could deprive her of the privileges of beauty. Edward Vere Earl of Oxford was more skilful in these manly exercises of chivalry than all the other courtiers, even than Sidney, who, like a magnanimous knight, was eloquent in his praise.

"Having this day my horse, my hand, my lance, Guided so well that I obtained the prize, Both by the judgment of the English eyes, And of some sent from that sweet en'my France: Horsemen my skill in horsemanship advance, Townsfolks my strength; a daintier judge applies His praise to sleight, which from good use doth rise: Some lucky wits impute it but to chance, Others, because of both sides I do take My blood from them who did excel in this, Think nature me a man of arms did make. How far they shoot awry! The true cause is, STELLA look'd on, and from her heavenly face Sent forth the beams which made so fair my race." Astrophel and Stella, st. 41.

The friendship of Sidney for him for awhile was the only circumstance which we know to his honour, and it implies the possession of virtuous qualities in the Earl. A considerable portion of coxcombry belonged to most of Elizabeth's courtiers; and the noble Lord in question was distinguished according to Stow, for introducing into this country embroidered and perfumed gloves.

[Sidenote: Tilts in Greenwich Park.]

The Queen's band of gentlemen-pensioners formed a perfect illustration of the chivalric principle of the dignity of obedience, for it was the highest ambition of the nobility to be enrolled among them. Their tilts in Greenwich Park would have done honour to the brightest days of chivalry. But still more select were the knights-tilters, a fraternity founded on the gallant resolve of Sir Henry Lee to appear in the royal tilt-yard on the anniversary of the Queen's birth in honour of Her Majesty. Some of these knights were preux chevaliers indeed. The Queen's glove accidentally dropped from her hand during a tournament, and the Earl of Cumberland had the good fortune to recover it. Fancying herself some dame of chivalry, she desired the Earl to retain it; and he with a gallant spirit, regarding it as the favour of a lady, had it set in diamonds, and always wore it on festival occasions in the high crowned hats which had superseded the helmet. For so polite was the court of Elizabeth, that

'Ne any there doth brave or valiant seem, Unless that same gay mistress' badge he wear.'[120]

[Sidenote: Sir Henry Lee.]

From 1571 to 1590 Sir Henry Lee was the Queen's champion; and being then worn down with age and infirmity, he resigned his office to the Earl of Cumberland. The ceremony is admirably expressive of the romantic feeling of the time and the vanity of Elizabeth. It was partly a mask and partly a chivalric show. On the 17th of November, 1590, Sir Henry Lee and the Earl, having performed their services in arms, presented themselves to the Queen at the foot of the stairs under her gallery-window in the tilt-yard, Westminster, where Her Majesty was seated, surrounded by the French ambassador, her ladies, and the chief nobility. Soft music then saluted the ears of the Queen, and one of the royal singers chaunted these lines:

"My golden locks time hath to silver turn'd, (Oh time too swift, and swiftness never ceasing!) My youth 'gainst age, and age at youth hath spurn'd; But spurn'd in vain, youth waneth by increasing: Beauty, strength, and youth, flowers fading been, Duty, faith, and love, are roots, and evergreen.

"My helmet now shall make a hive for bees; And lovers' songs shall turn to holy psalms: A man at arms must now sit on his knees, And feed on prayers that are old age's alms. And so from court to cottage I depart: My saint is sure of mine unspotted heart.

"And when I sadly sit in homely cell, I'll teach my swains this carol for a song: 'Blest be the hearts that think my sovereign well: Curs'd be the souls that think to do her wrong.' Goddess! vouchsafe this aged man his right, To be your beadsman now that was your knight."

A pageant of a temple of the vestal virgins rose out of the earth. Certain rich gifts were taken from the altar by the attending virgins, and with a votive tablet, inscribed "To Eliza," was presented to the Queen. Sir Henry Lee offered his armour before a crowned pillar at the temple-gate, and then presented the Earl of Cumberland to the Queen, humbly beseeching her to accept him as her knight to continue the yearly exercises. Her Majesty having accepted this offer, the aged knight armed the Earl and mounted him on his horse. He threw over his own person a gown of black velvet, and covered his head in lieu of a helmet with a bonnet of the country fashion.[121]

[Sidenote: Chivalry reflected in the popular amusements.]

The popular amusements of England corresponded with those of the court. "I remember at Mile-end-Green, when I lay at Clement's Inn, I was Sir Dagonet in Arthur's show," is the avowal of Master Shallow; and thus while tournaments were held by the court and nobility, other classes of society diverted themselves with scenic representations of the ancient chivalry. The recreations of the common people at Christmas and bridals, an author of the time assures us, consisted in hearing minstrels sing or recite stories of old times, as the tale of Sir Topas, the Reportes of Bevis of Southampton, Guy of Warwick, Adam Bell, and Clymme of the Clough, and other old romances or historical rhymes. And in another place the same author speaks of companies that were desirous to hear of old adventures, and valiances of noble knights in times past.[122] The domestic amusements of the age are thus enumerated by Burton: "The ordinary recreations which we have in winter are cards, tables and dice, shovel-board, chess-play, the philosopher's game, small trunks, balliards, music, masks, singing, dancing, ule games, catches, purposes, questions; _merry tales of errant knights_, kings, queens, lovers, lords, ladies, giants, dwarfs, thieves, fairies, goblins, friars, witches, and the rest."[123]

[Sidenote: Change of manners.]

In one respect, however, manners underwent a great and distinct change. In a former chapter, it was mentioned that the Italians invented the long and pointed sword; and it seems from many scattered allusions to customs in works of continental history, that it gradually superseded the use of the broader weapons of knighthood. In Elizabeth's reign the foreign or Italian rapier was a very favorite weapon. "Sword-and-buckler fight begins to grow out of use," is the lament of a character in an old comedy. "I am sorry for it. I shall never see good manhood again. If it be once gone, this poking fight of rapier and dagger will come up, then a tall man, and a good sword-and-buckler man will be spitted like a cat or rabbit."[124] The allusions to this state of manners are more marked and numerous in Ben Jonson's "Every Man in his Humour," but with that comedy my readers are of course familiar.

[Sidenote: Reign of James I.]

[Sidenote: Tournaments ceased on Prince Henry's death.]

For some of the early years of James I, tournaments divided with masks the favour of the court. As soon as Prince Henry reached his sixteenth year, he put himself forth in a more heroic manner than was usual with princes of his time, by tiltings, barriers, and other exercises on horseback, the martial discipline of gentle peace.[125] After his death chivalric sports fell quite out of fashion.

"Shields and swords Cobwebb'd and rusty; not a helm affords A spark of lustre, which were wont to give Light to the world, and make the nation live."[126]

This was the lamentation of Ben Jonson; and another poet thus describes, in the person of Britannia, the feelings of the nation:

"Alas! who now shall grace my tournaments, Or honour me with deeds of chivalry? What shall become of all my merriments, My ceremonies, shows of heraldry, And other rites?"[127]

Military exercises being entirely disused, the mask, with its enchantments of music, poetry, painting, and dancing, was the only amusement of the court and nobility.

[Sidenote: Life of Lord Cherbury.]

And now in these last days of chivalry in England a very singular character appeared upon the scene. This was Edward Herbert, afterwards Lord Herbert of Cherbury, who was born at Eaton, in Shropshire, in the year 1581. His family were of the class of gentry, and had for many years executed various royal offices of military trust. His grandfather was a staunch royalist in the days of Edward VI., and Queen Mary; and he gained fortune, as well as fame: for it appears that his share of plunder in the wars in the north, and of the forfeited estates of rebels, was the foundation of the family wealth.

[Sidenote: Chivalric fame of his family.]