The History of Chivalry Volume I Part 14

[Sidenote: Ceremonies of the tournament.]

[Sidenote: Arrival of the knights.]

[Sidenote: Publication of their names.]

[Sidenote: Reasons for it.]

The knights were wont to arrive, at the respective hostels or tents a.s.signed them by the kings-at-arms and the heralds somewhile before the day of tournament; and they affixed their armorial ensigns over the entrances, and raised their banners and pennons in front of their parades.

The tourneying knights were known by their heraldry, and this publication of their names was made for a very n.o.ble purpose. If any one of them had been guilty of unchivalric deportment, the matter might be proved before the ladies or other judges of the tournament, and they would strike down his banner. None could tourney who had blasphemed G.o.d, or offended the ladies: he who had been false to grat.i.tude and honour; he who had violated his word, or deserted his brother in arms in battle, was unworthy of appearing at the splendid show; and the high courtesy of chivalry was maintained by the law, that no one could tourney who had without warning a.s.sailed his enemy, or by indirect means had despoiled his territory.[286]

[Sidenote: Disguised knights.]

These rules, however, were not always observed; for cavaliers were often permitted to partake of chivalric sports, though they declined to name themselves to the heralds. If they were novices in arms, and not very confident in their prowess, they would conceal their names till they had won renown; and if the chance of the game were against them, the spectators knew not who had failed to acquire honour. The baron who held the tournament might be the enemy of a gallant knight, who, from prudence, would not wish to make himself known, unless he could appear with the bold front of a conqueror. Sometimes the persons of the knights were not concealed by common armour, but by the guise which fancy had thrown over the fabled knights of yore. A troop of cavaliers calling themselves King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table often dashed into the lists; and their trumpet's defiance was answered by that of another band meeting them at speed from the other end, and calling themselves Charlemagne and his Paladins. This was a beautiful mode of realising the romances of chivalry.

Other disguises were not equally praiseworthy; and I can only state as an historical fact, without attempting to apologise for its madness and impiety, that at a tournament held at Valladolid in the year 1428, the King of Castille was accompanied by twelve knights, who personated the twelve Apostles.[287]

[Sidenote: The lists.]

The place of combat was the lists, a large s.p.a.ce surrounded by ropes or railing in single or double rows. Sometimes there was a wooden division in the lists or area to prevent the horses of the adverse knights from careening against each other.[288] The lists were decorated with the splendid richness of feudal power. Besides the gorgeous array of heraldic insignia near the champions' tents, the galleries, which were made to contain the proud and joyous spectators, were covered with tapestry, representing chivalry both in its warlike and amorous guise: on one side the knight with his bright faulchion smiting away hosts of foes, and on the other kneeling at the feet of beauty.

[Sidenote: Ladies were the judges of tournaments.]

The ladies were the supreme judges of tournaments; and if any complaint was raised against a knight, they adjudged the cause without appeal.[289]

Generally, however, they deputed their power to a knight, who, on account of this distinction, was called the _Knight of Honour_. He bore at the end of his lance a ribbon or some other sign of woman's favour; and with this badge of power he waved the fiercest knights into order and obedience.

The heralds read to the knights the regulations of the sport, and announced the nature of the prize they were to contend for. The dames and maidens sometimes proposed jewels of price, a diamond, a ruby, and a sapphire, as rewards of valour. But the meed of renown was often more military; and the reader of Italian history remembers that at a tournament celebrated at Florence in the year 1468, Lorenzo de' Medici bore away the prize of a helmet of silver with a figure of Mars as the crest. It was the general wont of tournaments for a vanquished knight to forfeit his armour and horse to his victor.

[Sidenote: Delicate courtesy at tournaments.]

Nothing was more beautiful than the courtesy of chivalric times. At a martial game held in Smithfield, during the reign of Richard II., the Queen proposed a crown of gold as the reward of the best jouster, were he a stranger; but if an English knight had the praise, then a rich bracelet was to be his reward. The same polite preference of strangers influenced the chivalry of England, and they promised to give to the lord of best desert, if he were a foreign knight, a fair horse, with his trappings; but if he were one of their own land, then only a falcon should reward him.

[Sidenote: Morning of the sports.]

On the morning of the tournament,

"When the day 'gan spring, Of horse and harneis, noise and clattering, Ther was in the hostelries all about."[290]

[Sidenote: Knights led by ladies,]

The knights then trooped to the listed plain, with lords, ladies, and damsels, the chivalry and beauty of the country, mounted on gaily-caparisoned steeds and palfreys, whose housings swept the ground.

Sometimes a lady fair led the horse of her chosen knight, and in the song of the minstrel the bridle became a golden chain of love. At the day appointed for a merry tournament, in the reign of Richard II., there issued out of the Tower of London, first, three-score coursers, apparelled for the lists, and on every one a squire of honour riding a soft pace.

Then appeared three-score ladies of honour, mounted on fair palfreys, each lady leading by a chain of silver a knight sheathed in jousting harness.

The fair and gallant troop, with the sound of clarions, trumpets, and other minstrelsy, rode along the streets of London[291], the fronts of the houses shining with martial glory in the rich banners and tapestries which hung from the windows. They reached Smithfield[292], where the Queen of England and many matrons and damsels were already seated in richly adorned galleries. The ladies that led the knights joined them; the squires of honour alighted from their coursers, and the knights in good order vaulted upon them.

[Sidenote: who imitated the dress of knights.]

This mode of conducting knights to the tournament was not the only pleasing prelude of the sports. As it was in perfect harmony with the general tone of chivalric feeling for knights to array themselves in weeds, which woman's taste had chosen or approved of, so dames and maidens, with equal courtesy, imitated in their attire the semblance of knights. They often rode to the tournament with their girdles ornamented with gold and silver, to resemble military belts, and, sportively, wielding short and light swords, embossed with emblems of love and war.

[Sidenote: Nature of tourneying weapons.]

When the knights reached the lists, their arms were examined by the constable; and such as were of a frame and fabric contrary to good chivalry were rejected. The lances were hurtless, the points being either removed altogether, or covered with broad pieces of wood, called _rockets_. The gallant manners of the age gave such lances the t.i.tle of _Glaives Courtois_. The swords were blunted and rebated. Instances are on record of knights encountering with swords made of whalebone, covered with parchment, the helmet and hauberk being made of leather.

There existed very often, however, a disposition to convert tournaments into real battles. National rivalry broke through the restraints of knightly gentleness; envy of martial prowess, or of woman's love, had found an occasion of venting its pa.s.sion; and, in spite of the authority of the king-at-arms and heralds to reject weapons of violence, bribery and power appear often to have introduced them. As the nature of offensive armour may be judged from the defensive harness, so in the laws of a country we may read the state of manners. The practice of converting the elegant tournament into a deadly fray occasioned an oath to be imposed on all knights that they would frequent tournaments solely to learn military exercises[293]; and, by a law of England made towards the close of the thirteenth century, a broad-sword for tourneying was the only weapon that was allowed to the knight and squire; and there was a stern prohibition of a sword pointed, a dagger pointed, or a staff or mace. Knights banneret and barons might be armed with m.u.f.flers, and cuishes, and shoulder-plates, and a scull-cap, without more. Spectators were forbidden from wearing any armour at all, and the king-at-arms and heralds, and the minstrels, were allowed to carry only their accustomed swords without points.

[Sidenote: Knights wore ladies' favors.]

The tilting armour in which knights were sheathed was generally of a light fabric, and splendid. Its ornaments came under a gentler authority than that of royal constables and marshals. If the iron front of a line of cavaliers in the battle-field was frequently gemmed with the variously coloured signs of ladies' favors, those graceful additions to armour yet more beseemed the tournament. Damsels were wont to surmount the helmets of their knights with chaplets, or to affix streamers to their spears[294], and a cavalier who was thus honoured smiled with self-complacency on the highly emblazoned surcoat of his rival in chivalry.

The desire to please ladies fair formed the very soul of the tournament.[295] Every young and gallant knight wore the device of his mistress, while, indeed, the hardier sons of chivalry carried fiercer signs of their own achievements: but they were unmarked by the bright judges of the tourney, for their eyes could only follow through the press their own emblems of love.

Nothing was now to be heard but the noise and clattering of horse and armour.

"Ther mayst thou see devising of harneis So uncouth[296], and so rich, and wrought so wele Of goldsmithey, of brouding[297], and of stele, The sheldes bright, testeres[298], and trappures; Gold hewn helms, hauberks, cote-armures; Lords in paramentes[299], on hir courseres, Knights of retinue, and eke squires, Nailing the speres, and helmes buckling, Gniding[300] of sheldes, with lainers[301] lacing; Ther as need is they were nothing idle: The fomy steeds on the golden bridle Gnawing, and fast the armourers also With file and hammer p.r.i.c.king to and fro; Yeomen on foot, and communes many on, With short staves, thick as they may gone; Pipes, trompes, nakeres[302], and clariounes, That in the bataile blowen blody sounes."[303]

[Sidenote: The preparation.]

After the arms had been examined, "_a l'ostelle, a l'ostelle_, to achievement knights and squires to achievement," was cried by the well-voiced heralds from side to side, and the cavaliers, making their obeisances to the ladies, retired within their tents to don their harness.

At the cry, "Come forth, knights, come forth," they left their pavilions, and mounting their good steeds, stationed themselves by the side of their banners. The officers-at-arms then examined their saddles; for though they might grow unto their seats, yet it could only lawfully be done by n.o.ble horsemanship, and not by thongs attaching the man and horse together.[304]

[Sidenote: The encounter.]

The ladies and gallant spectators being fairly ranged round the lists, and the crowds of plebeian gazers being disciplined into silence and order, the heralds watched the gestures of the knight of honour, and, catching his sign that the sports might begin, they cried, "_Laissez aller_." The cords which divided the two parties were immediately slackened, and the cavaliers dressing their spears to their rests, and commending themselves to their mistresses, dashed to the encounter, while the trumpets sounded the beautiful point of chivalry, for every man to do his devoir.[305]

Each knight was followed by his squires, whose number was, in England, by the ancient statute of tournaments already alluded to, limited to three.

They furnished their lord with arms, arranged his harness, and raised him from the ground, if his foe had dismounted him. These squires performed also the more pleasing task of being pages of dames and damsels. They carried words of love to re-animate the courage and strength of the exhausted cavalier, and a ribbon drawn from a maiden's bosom was often sent to her chosen knight, when in the shock of spears her first favour had been torn from the place where her fair hand had fixed it.[306]

The chivalric bands were so well poised, that one encounter seldom terminated the sport. Lances were broken, horses and knights overthrown, and the tide of victory flowed to either end of the lists. The air was rent with names of ladies. War-cries were changed for gentler invocations.

Each n.o.ble knight called upon his mistress to a.s.sist him, thinking that there was a magic in beauty to sustain his strength and courage. "On, valiant knights, fair eyes behold you!" was the spirit-stirring cry of those older warriors who could now only gaze at and direct the amus.e.m.e.nts of chivalry. The poursuivants-at-arms cried at every n.o.ble achievement, "Honor to the sons of the brave!"[307] The minstrels echoed it in the loudest notes of their martial music, and the chivalric spectators replied by the cry, "Loyaute aux dames!"

[Sidenote: What lance-strokes won the prize.]

The keen and well-practised eyes of the heralds noted the circ.u.mstances of the contest. To break a spear between the saddle and the helmet was accounted one point or degree of honour. The higher on the body the lance was attainted or broken, the greater was the consideration; and the difficulty of breaking it on the helmet was regarded as so considerable, that the knight who performed this feat was thought to be worthy of ten points. Either to strike one of the opposite party out of his saddle, or to disable him so that he could not join the next course, was an achievement that merited three points. A curious question once arose at a tournament held in Naples. A knight struck his antagonist with such violence as to disarm him of his shield, cuira.s.s, and helmet, and in turn, he was unhorsed. The judges had some difficulty in determining who merited least reproach; and it was at length decided, quite in consonance with chivalric principles, that he who fell from his horse was most dishonoured, for good horsemanship was the first quality of a knight.

Hence it was thought less dishonourable for a tourneying cavalier to fall with his horse than to fall alone. He who carried his lance comelily and firmly was more worthy of praise, although he broke not, than he who misgoverned his horse, and broke. He who ran high and sat steadily, accompanying his horse evenly and gently, was worthy of all commendation.

To take away the rest of his adversary's lance merited more honour than to carry away any other part of his harness. To break his lance against the bow or pommel of the saddle was accounted greater shame than to bear a lance without breaking. It was equally dishonourable to break a lance traverse, or across the breast of an opponent, without striking him with the point; for as it could only occur from the horse swerving on one side, it showed unskilful riding.[308] The courtesies of chivalry were maintained by the laws that he who struck a horse, or a man, when his back was turned, or when he was unarmed, deserved no honor. Any combatant might unhelm himself, and until his helmet was replaced, none could a.s.sail him.[309]

[Sidenote: Conclusion of the sports.]

[Sidenote: The festival.]

[Sidenote: Delivery of the prize.]

[Sidenote: Knights thanked by ladies.]

When all the knights had proved their valiancy, the lord of the tournament dropped his warder[310], or otherwise signed to the heralds, who cried "_Ployer vos bannieres_." The banners were accordingly folded, and the amus.e.m.e.nts ended. The fair and n.o.ble spectators then descended from their galleries, and repaired to the place of festival. The knights who had tourneyed clad themselves in gay weeds of peace, and entering the hall amidst long and high flourishes of trumpets, sat under the silken banners whose emblazonings recorded the antique glory of their families. Favourite falcons were seated on perches above their heads, and the old and faithful dogs of the chace were allowed to be present at this joyous celebration of their master's honor. Sometimes the knights encircled, in generous equality, a round table. On other occasions the feudal long table with its dais, or raised upper end, was used; and to the bravest knights were allotted the seats which were wont to belong to proud and powerful barons.[311] Every preux cavalier had by his side a lady bright. The minstrels tuned their harps to the praise of courtesy and prowess; and when the merriment was most joyous, the heralds[312] presented to the ladies the knights who had worthily demeaned themselves.[313] She, who by the consent of her fair companions was called _La Royne de la Beaulte et des Amours_, delivered the prizes to the kneeling knights.[314] This queen of beauty and love addressed each of them with a speech of courtesy, thanking him for the disport and labour which he had taken that day, presenting to him the prize as the ladies' award for his skill, and concluding with the wish that such a valorous cavalier would have much joy and worship with his lady.[315] "The victory was entirely owing to the favor of my mistress, which I wore in my helmet," was the gallant reply of the knight; for he was always solicitous to exalt the honor of his lady-love. As tournaments were scenes of pleasure, the knight who appeared in the most handsome guise was praised; and, to complete the courtesies of chivalry, thanks were rendered to those who had travelled to the lists from far countries.[316]

[Sidenote: The ball.]

[Sidenote: Liberality.]

Dancing then succeeded, the knights taking precedence agreeably to their feats of arms in the morning. And now, when every one's heart was exalted by the rich glow of chivalry, the heralds called for their rewards.