CHAPTER III

The fourteenth century was eminently a period of transition and development in arms, armour, jousts, tournaments, and, indeed, in everything that related to warfare. During its course chain-mail harness had been gradually replaced by iron plate, bit by bit; a process hardly completed at the end. It was a century of almost incessant fighting among the nations, in the East as well as in the West; and the knightly armour of the period in its advancing stages lies open as a book before us, in a study of our effigies and brasses.

An epoch-making detonating force had come into operation, which inaugurated a new era in the art of war. In its early days ordnance was greatly inferior in destructive power to most of the mechanical engines of the period, but by the end of the century it had developed to an extent which produced a revolution in the relative resources at command for attack and defence; and the old chivalry became at length second in importance to the infantry arm.

Contemporary information regarding the jousts and tournaments of the earlier part of the fourteenth century is sparse; they are described in the _Romances of Richard Cœur de Lion, Sir Ferumbras_, and others, which teem with improbabilities though still of the greatest value; and there is a pictorial representation in _Roman du roy Meliadus_ of “_Une Mêlée de Tornois_”.[56] This romance, probably written about the middle of the century, contains several pictorial examples of jousts and tournaments, and a wealth of coloured and gilded drawings on military subjects generally; while others are figured in the Froissart plates[57], Hefner’s _Tratchten_ and Carter’s _Painting and Sculpture_. It is to Froissart that we are immeasurably most indebted for information regarding these martial games, more especially those of the second half of the fourteenth century, and his recitals contain much invaluable detail, which had been industriously collected from heralds, pursuivants, kings-of-arms and other officials at the tourney. Froissart was born about the year 1337, and he began to gather the material for his history when about twenty years of age, viz. eleven years after the battle of Crecy. _The Chronicles_ commence with the coronation of Edward III, in 1337, and with the accession of Philip of Valois to the crown of France, and they close about the end of the century with the death of Richard II of England. At the beginning of his career Froissart was closely associated with the English court as a poet and historian, acting, indeed, as clerk to the closet to Queen Philippa, after which he entered the Church, becoming later canon of Chimay. His fine personal gifts soon placed him in excellent and confidential relations with many prominent and influential personages, both of France and England, able to give him reliable information for his history. His industry was remarkable, his style of writing both original and luminous, and his facts and narrations, though often marshalled with some confusion, are most reliable, so far at least as we can judge now. He was no extreme partisan, but tried, as he often says, whenever possible to hear both sides to a question. The weak place in his history is his dates and the lack of them. Sainte-Palaye says of him: “_Froissart, qui a mieux réussi qu’acun de nos historiens à peindre les mœurs de son siècle_, ...”

Royal jousts were often held in celebration of the coronations and weddings of princes; and such were usually proclaimed in advance in other countries of chivalry, so as to afford opportunities for the attendance of foreign cavaliers anxious to distinguish themselves; and these were provided with safe-conducts by the crown.

In 1302 “Tournies, iustes, barriers, and other warlike exercises, which yovng lords and gentlemen had appointed to exercise for their pastime in diuerse parts of the realme, were forbidden by the kings proclamations sent downe to be published by the shirifs in euerie countie abroad in the realme: the teste of the writ was from Westminster the sixteenth of Julie.”[58]

A tournament was proclaimed by the King of Bohemia and the Earl of Hainault, to be held at Condé in 1327, just after the coronation of Edward III; and Sir John de Hainault, who had been present at the ceremony, left England to attend this tourney, accompanied by fifteen English knights, who intended taking part.[59]

Holinshed states that in September, 1330, the King (Ed. III) held jousts in Cheapside, when he with twelve challengers answered all comers. The meeting continued over three days, and no serious accidents took place.

A joust of the same year is figured in _Codex Balduini Trevirencis_. The cavaliers are seen jousting with lances tipped with coronals and with flat triangular shields, heraldically ensigned: they wear ample surcoats and the horses are trapped in cloth. The heaumes bear fan crests, the saddles are without supports; and the object in contemplation is the splintering of lances and unhorsing.

“Great iustes was kept by King Edward at the toune of Dunstable in 1341, with other counterfeited feats of warre, at the request of diuerse yovng lords and gentlemen, whereat both the king and queene were present, with the more part of the lords and ladies of the land.”[60]

King Edward held a tournament in London in the middle of August, 1342; and had sent heralds into Flanders, Brabant and France to proclaim it. Froissart states that the eldest son of Viscount Beaumont[61] was killed at this tournament. Other chroniclers date this passage of arms in 1343.

To cry a tourney—“Cy sensuyt la façon des criz de Tournois et des Joustes. _Cy peut on à prendre à crier et à publier pour ceulx qui en seront dignes_,” etc. Ashmolean MS., No. 764, 31, 43.[62] On the reverse of the last leaf is a picture of a Joust, wherein two combatants on horseback, bearing their crests, are fighting with lances within the lists.

The Round Table held at Windsor on St. George’s Day in 1344 has been referred to in the section devoted to the _Tabula Rotunda_. These hastiludes and jousts are mentioned by Froissart, who tells us that they were characterized by great splendour. The Queen was attended on the occasion by three hundred ladies, richly attired; while the King had a great array of earls and barons in his train. The “feast” was noble, with all good cheer and jousting, and lasted over fifteen days. Holinshed’s account, under the year 1344, is as follows:—“Moreouer, about the beginning of the eighteenth yeare (?) of his reigne, King Edward held a solemne feast at his castell of Windsore, where betwixt Candlemasse and Lent, was atchiued manie martiall feasts, and iusts, and tornaments, and diuerse other the like warlike pastimes, at which were present manie strangers of other lands, and in the end thereof, he deuised the order of the garter, and after established it, as it is to this daie. There are six and twentie companions or confrers of this felowship of that order, being called knights of the blew garter, and as one dieth or is depriued, an other is admitted into his place. The K. of England is euer chiefe of this order. They weare a blew robe or mantell, and a garter about their left leg, richlie wrought with gold and pretious stones, hauing this inscription in French vpon it, Honi soit qui mal y pense, Shame come to him who euill thinketh. This order is dedicated to S. George, as chéefe patrone of men of warre, and therefor euerie yeare doo the knights of the order kéepe solmne his feast, with manie noble ceremonies at the castell of Windsore, where King Edward founded a colledge of canons.”[63]

Shortly after this round table the King issued letters patent for hastiludes and jousts to be held annually at Lincoln, over which the Earl of Derby was nominated as Captain by the King, the office to be retained by the earl during life-time, but after his death to become elective.

The “Feast of the Round Table” was again held at Windsor in 1345, and within a few years of it jousts took place at Northampton, Dunstable, Canterbury, Bury, Reading and Eltham, the exact years of which do not appear in the wardrobe accounts which have been preserved. In July, 1346, King Edward invaded France, and did not return to London until October, 1347, his home-coming being celebrated by jousts, tournaments, masques and other festivities.

A manuscript covering the expenses of the great wardrobe of Edward III from December, 1345, to January, 1349, now in the Public Record Office, is printed in _Archæologia_ for the year 1846.[64] Some of the items scheduled cover robes for the person, which were delivered to certain of the knights taking part in a “round-table” held by the King at Lichfield in 1348 or 1349, more probably the former year; viz. for the King’s person and eleven knights of his chamber, these being Sir Walter Manny, John de L’Isle, Hugo Courtenay, John Gray, Robert de Ferrers, Richard de la Vache, Philip de Spencer, Roger de Beauchamp, Miles de Stapleton, Ralph de Ferrers and Robert de Mauley. To each of these knights two yards of blue cloth for coats and “three quarters and half a yard” of white cloth for hoods[65] was delivered. Similar cloth was also issued to some of the other knights. The challengers, or _tenans_, of the round table consisted of the king and seventeen of his knights; their opponents, the _venans_, comprised fourteen knights, with the Earl of Lancaster at their head. An entry in the wardrobe accounts shows that King Edward wore a harness bearing the arms of Sir Thomas Bradeston on the occasion. Any further particulars of this round table, beyond the details of the robes for the banquet, are lacking. This tournament was celebrated with great pomp and magnificence.

A spirited verse from Chaucer’s “Knight’s Tale” follows:—[66]

“The heraudes lefte hir prikyng up and doun; Now ryngen trompès loude and clarioun; Ther is namoore to seyn, but west and est In goon the speres ful sadly in arrest; In gooth the sharpè spore into the syde. Ther seen men who kan juste and who kan ryde; Ther shyveren shaftès upon sheeldès thikke; He feeleth thurgh the hertè-spoon the prikke. Up spryngen sperès twenty foot on highte; Out gooth the swerdes as the silver brighte; The helmès they to-hewen and to-shrede, Out brest the blood with stiernè stremès rede; With myghty maces the bonès they to-breste. He, thurgh the thikkeste of the throng gan threste, Ther, stomblen steedès stronge, and doun gooth al; He, rolleth under foot as dooth a bal.”

We see in the _Romance of Perceforest_ how the ladies at a tournament tore off pieces of their apparel to be used as tokens or favours by their devoted knights, to an extent leaving them in a condition of dishabille. A knight often wore “a kerchief of pleasance” on his helmet, a token from his lady-love.

In 1358 “Roiall iustes were holden in Smithfield, at which were present the Kings of England, France and Scotland ... of which the more part of the strangers were as their prisoners.”[67]

“Moreouer, this year (1359) in the Rogation wéeke was solemne iusts enterprised at London, for the maior and his foure and twentie brethern as challengers did appoint to ansuer all commers, in whose name and stéed the King with his foure sonnes, Edward, Lionell, John and Edmund, and ninetéene other great lords; in secret manner came and held the field with honor, to the great pleasure of the citizens that beheld the same.”[68]

“Moreouer this yeare (1362) the fiue first daies of Maie, were kept roiall iusts in Smithfield by London, the king and queene being present, with a great multitude of ladies and gentlemen of both the realms of England and France.”[69]

Much detailed information concerning the jousting of the fourteenth century has fortunately been preserved in the records of the wars in France, some examples of which follow.

At the time when the siege of Tournay was raised by means of a truce, a tournament was held at Mons, at which Sir Gerard de Verchin, Seneschal of Hainault, was mortally wounded.[70]

Froissart states[71] that a combat took place before the walls of the town of Rennes in 1357, then being besieged by the English forces, between _a young knight-bachelor_,[72] Bertrand du Guesclin, and an English cavalier, Sir Nicholas Dagworth. The articles of combat provided for three courses with the lance, three strokes with the battle-axe and three thrusts with the dagger. These were all duly delivered, the knights bearing themselves right gallantly, without hurt to either of them. The fight was viewed with extreme interest by both armies.

So far Froissart. But there is some doubt whether it was Sir Nicholas Dagworth who was one of the principals in this duel; for in the _Histoire de Bretagne_ it is stated that it was William de Blanchbourg, brother of the Governor of Fougerai, who was Sir Bertrand’s opponent on the occasion, and that he was wounded and unhorsed. It is more probable, however, that both duels were fought, though the last-named combat was not likely to have taken place under the walls of Rennes, for both cavaliers were Frenchmen.

There is a singularly beautiful brass in the pavement of the south chapel of Blickling Church, Norfolk, in memory of Sir Nicholas Dagworth, who was a man of importance in the reigns of kings Edward III and Richard II. He lived until the year 1401,[73] and his will appears in _Testamenta Vetusta_. The brass is given in the Boutell Collection. It affords an excellent example of the armour prevailing at the end of the fourteenth century, when the evolution from chain-mail to full plate-armour had been almost completed. The helmet is the pointed bascinet, with the camail, the latter with an ornamental bordering coming over the top of the jupon. The cyclas, which has an enriched fringing, hides the body-armour from view, and the knightly belt is elaborately decorated; the pouldrons are articulated. The gauntlets, with short cuffs, have gads over the fingers for use in the _mêlée_, and they show an imitation of finger-nails, and the solerets are freely articulated. The knight’s head rests on his great helm, which has a mantling; and a wreath, surmounted by the crest, a griffin. The armour is enriched with chasing. The Arms—Erm, on a fesse, gu., three bezants: impaling Rosale, Cu., a fesse between six martlet’s or.

The armour of the Black Prince in the Chapel of the Holy Trinity, at Canterbury Cathedral, affords an excellent illustration of the degree of progress reached in the last quarter of the fourteenth century. The process of evolution from chain-mail to plate is here almost completed, there being only small pieces of the former at the skirt, arms and insteps of the solerets. The Prince died in 1376, and the date of his effigy is somewhat later.

During a skirmish at Toury, in France, shortly before the death of King Charles V, in 1380, an esquire of Beauce, named Gauvain Micaille, enquired through an herald if any English gentleman would be willing to try a feat of arms with him—a joust of three courses, and the exchange of three blows with the battle-axe and of three thrusts with the dagger. The challenge was accepted by an English esquire, named Joachim Cator. The Frenchman received a severe wound in the thigh in the jousting, which was in contravention of the rules of the tourney; but the Englishman pleaded that it was an accident solely due to the restiveness of his horse; and this explanation was accepted by the umpire.[74]

An interesting tournament took place at Cambray in 1385 on the marriage of the Count d’Ostrevant to the daughter of Duke Philip of Burgundy. The ceremony was followed by a banquet at which the King of France was present as well as the Duke. The tournament was held in the market-place of the town, and forty knights took part, the King tilting with a knight of Hainault. The prize was a clasp of precious stones, taken from off the bosom of the Duchess of Burgundy; it was won by a knight of Hainault, Sir John Destrenne, and was formally presented by the Admiral of France and Sir Guy de la Trimouille.[75]

The number of courses run in jousting and the blows and strokes exchanged with battle-axes, swords and daggers at a meeting like that just described was usually three each; but they tended to increase as the century advanced, and five got to be a common number, and later as many as ten or even twelve. In the duel between Sir Thomas Harpenden and Messire Jean des Barres, at Montereau sur Yonne in 1387, they numbered “_cinq lances à cheval, cinq coups d’épée, cinq coups de dague et cinq coups de hache_.” The first four courses of the jousts were run with equal fortune, but in the fifth Sir Thomas was unhorsed and lay senseless on the ground; he revived, however, after a time, and all the strokes and blows were duly exchanged without further hurt to either knight. The King of France was present on the occasion.[76]

About this time, when the war between France and England was in full progress, there was much jousting with pointed lances between the knights and esquires of the two nations; safe-conducts being issued by the commanders on either side.

A meeting was arranged to take place near Nantes, under the auspices of the Constable of France and the Earl of Buckingham. The first encounter was a combat on foot, with sharp spears, in which one of the cavaliers was slightly wounded; the pair then ran three courses with the lance without further mishap. Next Sir John Ambreticourt of Hainault and Sir Tristram de la Jaille of Poitou advanced from the ranks and jousted three courses, without hurt. A duel followed between Edward Beauchamp, son of Sir Robert Beauchamp, and the bastard Clarius de Savoye. Clarius was much the stronger man of the two, and Beauchamp was unhorsed. The bastard then offered to fight another English champion, and an esquire named Jannequin Finchly came forward in answer to the call; the combat with swords and lances was very violent, but neither of the parties was hurt. Another encounter took place between John de Châtelmorant and Jannequin Clinton, in which the Englishman was unhorsed. Finally Châtelmorant fought with Sir William Farrington, the former receiving a dangerous wound in the thigh, for which the Englishman was greatly blamed, as being an infraction of the rules of the tourney; but an accident was pleaded as in the case of the duel between Gauvain Micaille and Joachim Cator. At this meeting the honours lay with the Frenchmen.[77]

Somewhat later a combat _à outrance_[78] took place at Chateau Josselin, near Vannes, between John Boucmel, a Frenchman, and Nicholas Clifford, in which Boucmel was struck on the upper part of the breastplate by his opponent’s lance, which, glancing off, entered his neck through the camail and severed the jugular vein, killing him instantly.[79] A plate of Froissart’s represents this duel as a combat on foot with long lances, taking place in a small quadrangular enclosure.

Juvenal des Ursins states[80] that at the marriage of Charles VI, of France, with Isabel (Isabeau) of Bavaria, 1385, jousts and grand fêtes took place in its honour. Sir Peter Courtenay came to France at the time with the object of accomplishing a feat of arms with the Seigneur de la Tremouille. The King’s consent to the duel had been obtained, and the day and place were fixed for its accomplishment. The knights appeared in the lists on the day appointed in order to fulfil their engagement in presence of the King, who, however, at the last moment, owing to some remonstrances, forbade the combat: but a duel did take place at the time between an English knight and the Seigneur de Clery, in which the Englishman was wounded and unhorsed. This joust had been brought to the notice of the Duke of Burgundy, who said that the offence committed by a Frenchman in jousting with an enemy without the consent of his sovereign was worthy of death; his Majesty, however, at length pardoned the offender.

Froissart describes a realistic tournament, held at Paris during the wedding festivities, as between the Saracens under Saladin, and the Crusaders, led by Richard Cœur de Lion.

The feat of arms between Sir John Holland and Sir Reginald de Roye, a French chevalier of distinction, held at the town of Entença, before the King and Queen of Portugal and the Duke and Duchess of Lancaster, presents features of its own. The French knight sent an invitation to the Englishman entreating him to joust with him three courses with the lance, and to exchange the same number of strokes with the battle-axe, sword and dagger, for the love of his lady. The challenge was promptly accepted, and an answer returned by the herald, together with a safe-conduct for the Frenchman and his company. Sir Reginald arrived in due time at Entença, handsomely accompanied by six score knights and esquires. The meeting was held in a spacious close in the town, the ground well strewn with sand; and galleries had been erected for the accommodation of the royal and ducal parties, with other spectators. The jousting was to be with sharp lances, to be followed by a contest with sharp and well-tempered battle-axes, swords and daggers. The champions were well mounted and rode into the lists in full armour, taking up positions for their careers at either end of the lists, with the distance of a bow-shot between them. The signal for the onset having been sounded, the knights charged each other at the gallop, and Sir Reginald struck the bars of his opponent’s visor so stoutly that his lance splintered on impact. Sir John Holland also struck the visor of his adversary well and fairly, but the helmet of the Frenchman, instead of having been securely laced to his body-armour as was usual, was only held by a single thong, and of course slipped off, leaving the knight bare-headed and Sir John’s lance unbroken. The jousters then returned to their stations, and charged each other as before, and again the same thing happened, owing to the same cause. The English who were present regarded the unusual loose fastening of the helmet as a trick, but the umpire, the Duke of Lancaster, ruled that it was admissible for Sir John Holland to have employed the same artifice had he chosen to do so, and that therefore he could not decide against the French knight.[81] After the stipulated three courses with the lance had been run, the knights fought three rounds each with battle-axes swords and daggers, without either receiving a scratch. The French chevalier was adjudged to have had the advantage, though both had done well.[82]

In 1389 a deed of arms was performed at Bordeaux before the Duke of Lancaster, between five Englishmen and five Frenchmen: three courses with the lance, three courses with swords, and the same number with battle-axes. None was wounded, but one of the English knights killed the horse of a Frenchman with his lance, which greatly angered the Duke, who replaced the loss with one of his own chargers.[83]

The most prominent and accomplished jouster of his day was the Chevalier Jean Le Maingre, called De Boucicaut, Mareschal of France 1368-1421, and his _Mémoires_,[84] by an unknown author, contain descriptions of some of his exploits in the tiltyard. One of these recitals[85] follows:—During the three years’ truce between France and England, when King Charles VI was at Montpellier,[86] the French Seigneurs De Boucicaut, de Sampi and de Roye challenged all comers, being foreign knights and esquires, to joust five courses with lances, pointed or blunted, at their pleasure, at St. Ingelbert,[87] a place near Calais; the _pas d’armes_ (or the “_table-ronde_,” as it is called in the _Chapitres d’Armes_, or articles of combat) to continue for thirty days. A great elm stood before the pavilions of the challengers, and hanging from its branches were two shields of wood, one of them plated with iron, “_l’un de paix, l’autre de guerre_,” so that each venant on arriving at the rendezvous could signify his pleasure as to whether he elected to fight with pointed or rebated lances by striking with a wand the shield for peace or that for war. The arms and devices of the three tenans were painted above the two shields, so that each venant might be able to select his adversary among them, and a note blown on a horn proclaimed his choice. Each venant was to furnish the king of arms with his name and titles, and to bring another cavalier with him as his sponsor. The lists were richly decorated, the challengers handsomely apparelled; and lavish hospitality was dispensed in a pavilion specially pitched for the purpose. Any arms, armour, or other requisites of which the venans might stand in need, were freely provided, the motto everywhere displayed being “Ce que vouldrez.” The chronicle goes on to state that on the first day of the jousting, Jean de Holland, Earl of Huntingdon, half-brother to King Richard, signified his intention of jousting with Boucicaut. Both lances were fairly splintered in the first encounter, the second and third being fought with equal fortune; but in the fourth the horse of the English knight fell with its rider, who was severely injured, his antagonist only retaining his seat by the prompt support of his varlets. Boucicaut then retired to his pavilion, but was not allowed to remain resting for long, for other English cavaliers desired to joust with him, and he disposed of two other knights the same day. While he was engaged in combat day after day, his fellow tenans were not idle, and the thirty days stipulated in the _Chapitres d’Armes_ ran their course. Among other cavaliers from England taking part were Earl Marschal, the knights de Beaumont, Thomas de Perci, de Clifford and Courtenay, besides Sir John d’Ambreticourt and many Spanish and German cavaliers. Boucicaut is said to have gone through the whole thirty days of jousting without a scratch.

The rôle of the tenans at a _pas d’armes_ was no sinecure, and for three knights to have held the _pas_ for thirty days against all comers, as in this case, must have been an arduous undertaking; and very dangerous also, more especially as much of the jousting was with pointed lances. No. XI of Froissart’s plates professes to depict one of the jousts of this _pas d’armes_; but it pictures one at the tilt, so that the drawing is obviously of a later date than that of the Inglevert meeting, and was, in fact, executed in the reign of Edward IV, when the tilt was in common use. Froissart[88] gives a long and circumstantial account of this meeting, and states that it was very richly appointed. King Charles of France was present incognito, and had subscribed very handsomely towards the heavy expenses incurred.

Monkish chronicles, written in times not contemporaneous with the events they describe, are usually unreliable in being coloured with the circumstances of a later age; and any illuminations or wood-cuts accompanying them are apt to reflect the times in which they were executed, rather than those they are represented to portray, for the artist fills in his picture with the details of the scenes before him. However, with the accumulated knowledge we now possess, we are enabled to correct some of the mistakes, from a chronological point of view.

A royal tournament was held in London by King Richard II, immediately after the Michaelmas of the year 1390, in honour of Queen Isabella; and heralds were sent to proclaim it throughout England, Scotland, Hainault, Germany, Flanders and France. Sixty knights were to joust with rebated lances, as tenans, for two successive days, the Sunday and Monday, against all comers; and the Tuesday following was set apart for the esquires. The jousting was to be followed by banquets, dances and sumptuous fêtes and entertainments of various kinds. The prizes for the Sunday were as follows:—A rich crown of gold for the best lance among the venans; and, for the most successful among the tenans, a very rich golden clasp. Those for the Monday are not stated; but for the Tuesday, the esquires’ day, they were a handsome charger, fully accoutred, and a falcon, for the best lances of the venans and tenans, respectively. The ladies were to act as judges and to present them. The Sunday’s jousting was called the feast of the challengers. At three p.m. the procession started from the Tower of London. Sixty barded chargers, an esquire mounted on each, advanced at a foot’s pace; then sixty ladies of rank richly apparelled and mounted on palfreys, rode in single file, each leading a knight, in full armour, by a silver chain. The procession thus formed proceeded along the streets of London, down Cheapside to Smithfield, attended by minstrels and trumpeters. The King and Queen, with their suites, accompanied by some of the great barons, had gone earlier to Smithfield, and there awaited the arrival of the procession and the knights from abroad. Their Majesties were lodged in the Bishop’s palace, and there the banquets and dances were to be held. Many foreign knights and esquires attended, and among them Sir William of Hainault (Count d’Ostrevant)[89] and the Count de St. Pol.

On the arrival of the procession at Smithfield the knights mounted their horses and prepared for jousting, which began soon after. The prize for the best lance of the venans on the Sunday, the first day of jousting, was awarded by the ladies to the Count de St. Pol; and that for the most skilful knight among the tenans, to the Earl of Huntingdon.[90] The King led the tenans on the Monday; and the prize for the best lance of the venans was awarded to the Count d’Ostrevant; that for the most successful of their opponents to Sir Hugh Spencer. The esquires jousted on the Tuesday, after which there was a banquet, and dancing was continued until daybreak. There was jousting on the Wednesday for knights and esquires indiscriminately; and on Thursday and Friday fêtes, masques and banquets, after which the royal party left for Windsor.[91]

Caxton refers to these royal jousts in the following terms:—

“All of the King’s hous were of one sute, theyr cotys, theyr armys, theyr sheldes and theyr trappours were embrowdred all with whyte hertis, with crownes of gold about their necks, and cheynes of gold hangyng thereon; whiche hertys were the King’s leverey, that he gaf to lordes, ladyes, knyghtes, ＆ squyers, to know his houshold peple from other; then four and twenty ladyes comynge to the justys, ladde[92] four and twenty lordes with chynes of gold, and alle in the same sute of hertes as is afore sayd, from the Tour on horsback thrurgh the cyte of London into Smythfeld.” The narrative of this tournament by Holinshed[93] is far from being so picturesque as that of Froissart, and it differs in some particulars from it. He says there were twenty-four ladies, not sixty, mounted on palfreys; and that the prizes for the first day were awarded to the Comte de St. Pol and the Earl of Huntingdon; and on the Monday to the Earl of Ostravant and Sir Hugh Spencer.

King Richard proclaimed another grand tournament to be held at Windsor in one of the closing years of his reign; the tenans or challengers to be forty knights and forty esquires, clothed in green. The Queen was present, but very few of the barons attended, owing to the great unpopularity and arbitrary actions of the King,[94] whose reign had begun under the happiest auspices, but the manifest defects in his character brought his career to a sorrowful ending.

There was a kind of tourney called the _Espinette_ held at Lille, in honour of a relic preserved there, which, though obscure, would seem to have been but an ordinary joust with which certain annual ceremonies were connected. Hewitt[95] quotes the _Chronicle of Flanders_ concerning a celebration in the year 1339:—“Jehan Bernier went to joust at the _Espinette_, taking with him four damsels, namely, the wife of Seigneur Jehan Biensemé, the wife of Symon du Gardin, the wife of Monseigneur Amoury de la Vingne, and mademoiselle his own wife. And the said Jehan Bernier was led into the lists by two of the aforesaid damsels by two golden cords, the other two carrying each a lance. And the King of the _Espinette_ this year was Pierre de Courtray, who bore Sable, three golden Eagles with two heads and red beaks and feet.” M. Leber gives some account of the _fête de l’épinette_ in the _Collection des traités_.

The vamplate, _avant-plate_, placed on the shaft of the lance, for the protection of the right hand and arm, first appears in the fourteenth century; and so does the lance-rest on the breastplate. An ordinance of the thirteenth century orders the lance to be blunted for the tourney; but in the fourteenth it was ordered to be tipped with a coronal, the short points of which were just sufficient to catch on to the armour without being capable of piercing it. The helmet of the fourteenth century was the pointed bascinet, with the camail or hood of mail worn over the top of the cyclas. The great heaume used early in the fourteenth century differs little from that of the end of the thirteenth; later it assumed the form of a cylinder, surmounted by a truncated cone. It was usually of iron, though sometimes of leather, either ordinary or of _cuir-bouilli_. The fan crest, doubtless adopted from a classic prototype, came into vogue in the last quarter of the thirteenth century, though it is represented on the seal of King Richard I.

Crests were made of various materials. Those for the cavaliers taking part in the tournament at Windsor Park, in 1278, were of calf-skin, one for the man and another for the horse, as shown in the Roll of Purchases; that of the Black Prince, at Canterbury,[96] was of cloth. They were attached to the helm by means of a thin iron bar. Crests were usually affixed to the great helm, which was worn over the bascinet; though there are instances of their being used alone on the smaller head-piece.

The heraldic crest does not appear before towards the close of the thirteenth century; a notable instance may be cited in the case of the remarkable effigy of Sir John de Botiler, in St. Bride’s Church, Glamorganshire, which dates about the year 1300. The helmet of this monument is the cervellière, which is a visor-less, saucer or shallow basin-shaped head-piece, going over the hood of mail; and the crest is embossed on its front. Crests were not generally worn before about the end of the first quarter of the fourteenth century, after which period they develop from comparative simplicity into fantastic and even ridiculous conceptions.

A strange fancy was the cap-of-maintenance, the placing of a cap of velvet or other material on the helm, surmounted by the family crest; and in the second half of the century or a little later the orle or wreath and mantling or lambrequin are added.

The shield of the century was of the triangular kite or heater-shaped form.

In 1390 “John de Hastings earle of Pembroke, as he was practising to learne to ioust, thrugh mishap was striken about the priuie parts, by a knight called Sir John S. John, that ran against him, so as his inner parts being perished, death presentlie followed.”[97]

In 1398 the Earl of Crawford, of Scotland, jousted _à outrance_, i.e. with sharp lances, with Lord Wells of England at London Bridge, the 23rd April, being the feast day of St. George. An attaint was made in the first course, and both champions kept their seats. The Earl sat so steadfast in his saddle under the shock that the by-standers cried out that he was locked to his seat, on hearing which he jumped off his horse and then vaulted back into his saddle again with such agility as greatly to astonish the people. In the second course they met again as before without either being hurt; but in the third Lord Wells “was borne out of the saddle and sore hurt with a grieuous fall.”

Not long after a duel on horseback took place in Scotland between Sir Robert Morley, an Englishman, and Sir Archibald Edmounston, and afterwards with another Scot Hugh Wallace, and the first-named was the victor in both cases; but he was at length overcome by one Hugh Traill, at Berwick, and died shortly after from chagrin.[98]

FOOTNOTES:

[56] British Museum. MS. Addl. 12, 2228, fol. 181.

[57] The illustrated Froissart in the British Museum, Harl. MS. 4379, was produced late in the fifteenth century.

[58] Holinshed, II, 536.

[59] Froissart (Johnes’), I, Chap. XLV.

[60] Holinshed, II, 623.

[61] There were no viscounts in England then.

[62] Appendix A.

[63] Holinshed, II, 628.

[64] Vol. XXXI, 26, in connection with “Observations on the Institution of the Order of the Garter,” a paper by Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, G.C.M.G.

[65] The use of white hoods had its origin in an ancient custom of the town of Ghent (Froissart, V, XX).

[66] A text by Alfred W. Pollard. 1898.

[67] Holinshed, II, 669.

[68] _Ibid._ II, 671.

[69] Holinshed, II, 677.

[70] Froissart, I, 249.

[71] II, 374.

[72] The italics are ours.

[73] A Sir Thomas Dagworth was slain in France in 1350 (Holinshed, II, 651).

[74] Froissart, V, Chap. XXXVIII.

[75] Froissart (Johnes’) VI, 378.

[76] Froissart, II, 756.

[77] _Ibid._ (Johnes’) V, Chap. XLVII.

[78] Meaning here with pointed lances.

[79] Froissart, V, XLVIII.

[80] _Histoire de Charles VI_, p. 368.

[81] This loose fastening of the helmet was a custom prevailing in Spain and Portugal.

[82] Froissart, VIII, Chap. XXXI.

[83] _Ibid._ IX, 336.

[84] _Le Livre des Faicts du Mareschal De Boucicaut._

[85] Chap. XVII.

[86] About 1389.

[87] St. Inglevert.

[88] X, Chap. XI.

[89] He was great-nephew of Queen Philippa of Hainault.

[90] Sir John Holland, afterwards Duke of Exeter.

[91] Froissart, X, XXI.

[92] Led.

[93] Chronicles, II, 810.

[94] Froissart, XII, 104.

[95] _Ancient Armour and Weapons_, II, 340.

[96] Died 1376.

[97] Holinshed, II, 800.

[98] _Ibid._ V, 443.