The History of Chivalry Volume II Part 10

"Sir," they said, "ye have heard it observed, divers times, he that embraceth too much holdeth the weaklier. It is for a truth that ye are one of the Princes of the world most praised, honoured, and redoubted, and hold on this side of the sea great lands and seigniories, thanked be G.o.d, in good rest and peace. There is no king, near nor far, who at this time dares to displease you; so renowned are you of good chivalry, grace, and good fortune. You ought, therefore, by reason, to be content with what you have, and seek not to get any enemies. Sir, we say not this for evil. We know well that the King, Don Peter of Castile, who is now driven out of his realm, is a man of high mind, right cruel, and full of evil conditions; for by him have been done many evil deeds in the realm of Castile; and he hath caused many a valiant man to lose his head, and brought cruelly to an end, without any manner of reason; and so by his villain deeds he is now put out of his realm: and also, besides all this, he is enemy to the church, and cursed by our holy father, the Pope. He is reputed, and hath been a great season, a tyrant; and, without t.i.ttle of reason, hath always grieved and made war with his neighbours, the King of Arragon and the King of Navarre, and would have disinherited them by puissance; and also, as the bruit runneth throughout his realm, how he causeth to die his wife, your cousin, daughter to the Duke of Bourbon.

Wherefore, Sir, you ought to think and consider that all this that he now suffers are rods and strokes of G.o.d sent to chastise him, and to give example to all other Christian kings and princes, to beware that they do not as he hath done."

Such were the counsels of the Gascon and English knights who attended Edward; but his resolution was formed, and he prepared for war. He drew from the White Companies those of his valiant liegemen, who, for want of other chevisance, had joined Du Guesclin; and, in England, when his purpose was bruited, all the youthful chivalry was on fire to join the hero of Cressy and Poictiers.

[Sidenote: Battle of Navaret, April 3. 1367.]

[Sidenote: Du Guesclin prisoner.]

He commenced his march with thirty thousand soldiers. It was winter when they pa.s.sed through the valley of Roncesvalles; and, while the snow drove in their faces, they cheered their spirits by singing the songs in which the minstrel-muse had celebrated the deeds of Charlemagne's paladins. At Pampeluna their distressful march was relieved by the King of Navarre, whose aid they had purchased; and the Prince of Wales proceeded to Castile. The battle of Navaret decided the contest. The common people of Spain, who composed the first ranks of Henry, fought so bravely with their slings, that the Englishmen were sorely troubled; but Edward's archers drew their bows right yeomanly, and soon checked their fury. Henry had on his side more than a hundred thousand men in harness, from Castile, Portugal, and other states; and well and chivalrously did they sustain his cause. The better-appointed force of Edward gradually prevailed, though King Henry's troops fought to the bravest point; for, as they had placed him on the throne, they felt their honour engaged to fight for him to the utterance. The battle, in all its press and din, was fought between the troops of Du Guesclin and those of Sir John Chandos. The n.o.ble Breton was taken prisoner, and the English remained masters of the field. Don Pedro was restored to his throne, and Edward somewhat redeemed his previous conduct, by inducing the King to grant a general pardon and amnesty. The ingrat.i.tude of Pedro was the consequence of the Black Prince's exertions in his favour; and I need not dwell upon such a natural circ.u.mstance.[149]

To furnish his troops with those arrears of pay which Peter should have satisfied, Edward was obliged to tax the possessions of the English in France. Between the people of England and the French there had been long-enduring jealousies: there was no community of ideas and manners between them; and the principle of obedience more naturally rested on a French than on an English sovereign. The demeanour of the Black Prince was not that of a courteous and gentle knight: his haughtiness lost him many friends; and his impolicy of giving all the offices of state in Gascony and Acquitain to Englishmen was bitterly complained of, and resented by the lords of those countries, who had perilled themselves, to the loss of their estates, in his cause.

On the other hand, the English were not backward in reproaching the Gascons. Certain knights of England once told the Black Prince, that he little knew the mind of these people, nor how proud they were. "They do not love us, and never did," continued these counsellors. "Sir, remember ye not how highly and greatly they bore themselves against you in the city of Bourdeaux, when King John of France was first carried thither? They said then, and maintained plainly, that by them only ye attained to achieve the taking of the King; and that right well appeared, for you were in great treaty with them for the s.p.a.ce of four months, ere they would consent that the French king; should be carried into England. First, it behoved you to satisfy their minds, to keep them in love."[150] Edward's attempt at taxation exasperated the angry feelings of his subjects, and was the great and immediate cause of their revolt to the French King.

[Sidenote: Treatment of him by the Black Prince.]

Edward detained Du Guesclin in prison longer than was consistent with the feelings of generosity, which were wont to warm the breast of a gentle knight. Yet Edward could state the reciprocal duties of conqueror and captive with accuracy; that the former ought not to exact too high a sum, and that the latter should not attempt to escape without paying his ransom. A cavalier, using the freedom of a festive hour, commented on this observation, by saying, that the world was blaming him for his severity towards one of his prisoners. Edward's sense of honour was touched by this remark, and he summoned Du Guesclin to his presence. The hero appeared before him, dressed in his coa.r.s.e prison garment; and in reply to some unknightly merriment of the Prince on the rudeness of his appearance, he said, that it remained with the pleasure of the conqueror when he should be better clothed; that for some time he had had only rats and mice for his companions, and, as he added with affecting simplicity, "even to the songs of the birds I have been a stranger."

[Sidenote: Ransomed.]

Edward offered him freedom on condition of his swearing not to war in favour of France or of Henry of Trastamarra, the candidate for the Spanish throne. Du Guesclin could not consistently with honour comply with these conditions; and Edward, stung by the recollection that the world had impeached his bravery and generousness, declared that, to show he dreaded no man, Du Guesclin should be restored to his liberty on paying a proper ransom. The n.o.ble Breton then required to be released on his parole, in order that he might fetch the necessary sum. Edward, touched by his spirited demeanour, resumed all his generous and chivalric feelings, and declared that Du Guesclin should name his own ransom; and instead of fixing it at ten thousand or twenty thousand livres, the captive hero proudly mentioned sixty thousand florins. The Prince was astonished at his apparent presumption, and asked him by what means he could pay so large a sum. "The Kings of France and Castile," he replied, "are my friends, and will never fail me in a case of necessity. I know a hundred knights of Brittany who would sell their possessions for my liberation; and there is not a woman sitting at her distaff in France who would not labour with her own hands to redeem me from yours." Du Guesclin was then liberated on his parole of honour, and people gazed with curiosity and respect upon a man who had so n.o.ble a sense of his own dignity.[151]

[Sidenote: Is made constable of France.]

This liberation took place in the year 1368, and the Breton immediately entered into the service of Henry of Trastamarra. Peter had renewed his cruelties when the Black Prince seated him on the throne, and his tyranny again provoked the Castilians to rebellion. The power of Henry slowly rose, and as soon as Du Guesclin and his Gascons took the field, he once more became king. Soon afterwards our knight was recalled by Charles V. to France, and placed at the head of his chivalry by the t.i.tle of Constable.

He entered Paris amidst general acclamations, the people saluting him with cries which hitherto had been appropriated to kings. He went to court, where the King, in the presence of his n.o.bles, declared, that he chose him to command his armies, and therefore gave him the sword of Constable. Du Guesclin then, with the modesty of a true knight, implored his sovereign to honour with this dignity some one who was more worthy of it than himself. But Charles declared that there was not a knight in France who did not acknowledge the superior worship of Du Guesclin, and therefore he commanded him to accept the office. Du Guesclin yielded; but fearing the courtiers of Paris more than his country's enemies, he entreated the King not to credit any tales which might be circulated to his prejudice, without first hearing his defence.[152]

[Sidenote: Recovers the power of the French monarchy.]

[Sidenote: Companionship in arms between Du Guesclin and Olivier de Clisson.]

Du Guesclin now began to achieve the high emprise of re-annexing to the crown of France those provinces which the gallantry of the Black Prince had wrested from it. Charles could not give him many troops; but the n.o.ble knight sold his estates in order to raise men-at-arms, and his wife parted with the ornaments becoming her station, in order to purchase lances and harness. He was soon surrounded by four thousand soldiers. They were chiefly levied in Normandy, and their rendezvous was Caen. Du Guesclin threw an air of chivalry over his emprise, for he introduced the usage of fraternity of arms. He chose for his own brother, Olivier de Clisson, or Du Guesclin, a knight whose name is mentioned with honour in all the great battles of the time. These two Breton cavaliers signed at Pontoison the act of their fraternity, whereby they engaged to defend the estate, life, and honour of each other.[153]

Du Guesclin then fell upon the English at Pontvelain with the force of thunder: most of them were taken prisoners; and Sir Robert Knowles, their leader, fled to Brittany, and concealed his head for shame, during the rest of his life in the castle of Derval.[154] The Black Prince was then at Bourdeaux, enfeebled by sickness: he had wasted his const.i.tution in the peninsular war; for the climate of Spain was not so favourable to the health of Englishmen in those days as it has been found in later times.

Instead of being able to gird on his armour and display his chivalry, Edward had scarcely strength to follow the counsel of his leeches to return to England. He left the Duke of Lancaster to preserve the English dominion in France from total ruin.

The year 1371 was a blank in the chivalric history of Du Guesclin, but the following spring he continued his attempt to subjugate Poictou. Many cities were sacked; and the abhorrence with which the cruelties of Olivier de Clisson were regarded by his own army may warrant the conjecture that inhumanity was not general. At the close of 1372, Poictou was entirely subdued. In the next year, Du Guesclin continued his conquests, and Guienne became the subject of his victories. The Duke of Lancaster was the successor of the power, but not of the chivalry, of the Black Prince; and De Mountfort, whom Edward sent to France as the opponent of Du Guesclin, not only recovered nothing, but lost much of Brittany; and thus, by the genius and fortune of one chivalric hero, all the bright visions of glory created in the fervid imaginations of our Edwards were blighted, and France recovered her station among the high powers of Europe.

[Sidenote: Du Gueslin's death before Randan.]

[Sidenote: His character.]

Du Guesclin continued in the service of Charles. The last years of his life it is impossible to describe, so contradictory are his biographers.

Some declare that the calumnies of Parisian courtiers deprived him of the favour of Charles, and that he lost his office of Constable. However this may have been, it is certain that in the year 1380 he commanded the French troops in Auvergne, and went to lay siege to Randan, a little fortress some leagues from Mendes, in the Govandau, between the sources of the Lot and the Alleir. The place, until then so little known, immediately became famous, in French history, for the loss which France sustained before its walls of one of her prowest knights. Du Guesclin, who, according to the wont of chivalry, had vowed not to sheath his sword while an enemy's lance was raised, pressed the siege with vigour, when he was attacked by a malady which was soon found to be mortal. He beheld the approach of death with Christian intrepidity, and he died while exhorting the knights around his bed to the duties of devotion to G.o.d, loyalty to the King, and mercy to those who were the objects of war. It was his wish to be buried at Dinan, in Brittany, but the King commanded the abbey of St. Denys to be the place[155]; and in kindness and grat.i.tude, he was anxious that a lamp should always hang over the tomb, in order that posterity might never lose remembrance of his great deeds.[156] The epitaph, on account of its simplicity, deserves mention. "Ici gist n.o.ble homme Messire Bertrand du Guesclin, Comte de Longueville, et Connetable de France, qui trepa.s.sa au chastel neuf de Randan en Gisaudan, en la Senechaussee de Beauncaire, le 13 jour de Juillet, 1380. Priez Dieu pour lui."[157]

Such was the life of a simple Breton gentleman, who with no advantage of birth, no powerful patronage, but with only his good sword to speed him, raised himself to the highest rank in the French nation, and his was one of the numerous instances in the middle ages where the personal merit of chivalry was of more avail than the hereditary right of aristocracy. In many of the essentials of knighthood, in lofty daring, sageness, and generosity, he was as preux a cavalier as the English Chandos' and Mannys; but there was none of that gallant grace over this darling of French chivalry, which distinguished the heroes of Edward III. He was so sensible of his own personal plainness, that he never cultivated the pleasing amenities of chivalry; but his modesty did not pa.s.s unrewarded[158]: for the ladies of Brittany were so deeply read in the romances of their country, that they loved only men who were famous for martial deeds. Du Guesclin was twice married: of the first of his wives nothing is on record; the other is said to have been a woman of beauty, fortune and wit.

She was an heiress in Brittany, and Charles of Blois promoted the union, hoping to attach him to his court. Her reputation as a prophetess was extensive, and her prediction of his success in a particular battle being verified, her vanity became interested in his fate. She had her days of good and of evil fortune, and if historians have written his annals faithfully, Bertrand often repented, both as a soldier and a husband, when he did not regard her councils.[159]

[Sidenote: Decline of chivalry.]

[Sidenote: Proof of it.]

The history of France after these circ.u.mstances was the struggle between the ruling powers and the people regarding the right of taxation. The civil wars that devastated France and Flanders, in consequence of this dispute, bore none of the character of chivalry; for monarchical and aristocratical haughtiness disdained to consider as their companions in arms those whom they called the raskal-rout, the base-born rabble. It was only wars of ambition that were graced and softened by chivalric generosity; and therefore all was blood, and horror, and confusion, when the houses of Orleans and Burgundy distracted France with their feuds. The pages of Monstrelet, the chronicler of the events to which I have alluded, form a gloomy contrast to the splendid scenes of Froissart. The field, indeed, continues to gleam with lances, and banners and pennons wave in the wind, but the spirit of honour and courtesy no longer hung over them,--and the prostrate soldier sued for mercy in vain. Knights were created before and after battles: tournaments, jousts, and other splendid shows were held; and as the essence of chivalry decayed its splendour seemed to brighten. An affair in Liege, in the year 1408, will show the manner of warfare when chivalry was on the wane. John Duke of Burgundy, John of Bavaria, the lords of Hainault and Orange, and other princes, appeared in arms to succour the Bishop of Liege, brother-in-law of the Duke of Bavaria, whom the Liegeois had expelled from the city. Instead of following the counsel of the new bishop and his father the Lord de Pier-vves, of remaining within the walls, and wearing out the enemy by a defensive war, the Liegeois, when the bells of the city announced break of day, left their fortifications, resolved to give battle to the well-appointed lines of Burgundy. Their numbers were fifty thousand; but except some pieces of artillery, five or six hundred men armed like cavalry, and a few score of stipendiary English archers, they were the disorderly population of the city. Their confidence of success was exalted to madness; and when the hour of battle arrived, they would not suffer their nominal leader, the Lord Pier-vves, to take any means of prudence.

It is curious to mark the difference of character in the two parties.

There was a wild frantic kind of courage in the Liegeois, inspired by the consideration, that they were fighting for their lives and liberties.

Their foemen had no such deep-seated enthusiasm: they moved to battle as sportively as to a joust; while their commanders were gaily exhorting their men-at-arms to behave themselves gallantly against the enemy, a rude and ignorant people who had rebelled against their lord, and who confidently trusted in their superior numbers for success. "If the warriors of Burgundy," (concluded the martial orators) "will dash into career with knight-like courage victory will be theirs, and they will gain everlasting honour."

The cannon of the Liegeois did not check the advance of the chivalry; and though the burghers endured well and courageously the close encounter, yet the prudence of their General was verified, that they could oppose no effectual resistance to the n.o.bles and gentlemen trained to war, and armed in proof. After an hour's struggle, the line of the Liegeois being charged in rear by a detachment of horse, six thousand of them quitted the ranks, and fled towards a village distant half a league from the field of battle.

The cavalry charged them several times, beating down and slaying them without mercy. The main body of the Liegeois was yet unsubdued; and for half an hour the noise of the war-cries was dreadful; the Burgundians and Hainaulters shouting, under their banners, "Our Lady for Burgundy!" "Our Lady for Hainault!" and the Liegeois ringing the air with the cry, "St.

Lambert for Pier-vves!" The detachment of horse returned, and fell upon the rear of the Liegeois, and pierced it through: a great slaughter was made, for none were admitted to ransom. Near the banner of the Duke of Burgundy, where the conflict raged with most fierceness, the Lord of Pierre-vves and his two sons (one was the new bishop) fell, and no consideration for their chivalry or religious profession saved them from death. The coolness of the Duke of Burgundy excites the praise of the historian; and no apology is thought necessary for his conduct, when on being asked, after the defeat, if they should cease from slaying the Liegeois he replied, "Let them all die together; let no prisoners be made; let none be admitted to ransom."[160]

Such was the spirit in which war was conducted where the humanising influence of chivalry was unfelt; and I shall not attempt to detail the more horrid crimes of the sacking of towns.

[Sidenote: Little chivalry in the second great series of French and English wars.]

In the short war between France and England in the reign of our Henry V., nothing peculiarly chivalric can be marked in the conduct of the French.

The great second series of our wars with France, though not characterised by knightly splendour, is not without knightly interest. France could seldom boast of braver cavaliers than Dunois, Lahire, and the chevalier Poton de Saintrailles. During the memorable siege of Orleans at the request of the English the festivities of Christmas suspended the horrors of war, and the nativity of the Saviour was commemorated by the sound of martial music. Talbot, Suffolk, and other ornaments of English chivalry, made presents of fruits to the accomplished Dunois, who vied with their courtesy by presenting to Suffolk some black plush he wished for as a lining for his dress in the then winter season. The high-spirited knights of one side challenged the prowest knights of the other, as their predecessors in chivalry had done. It is observable, however, that these jousts were not held in honour of the ladies, but the challenge always declared, that if there were in the other host a knight so generous and loving of his country as to be willing to combat in her defence, he was invited to present himself.

[Sidenote: Combats of Pages.]

History has preserved to us one circ.u.mstance, which is interesting, because it marks the change of manners in the attendants on the cavaliers.

We have seen that in early times each knight had his squire, who gave arms to his lord, and frequently mingled in the battle himself. The knight, now, had only his page, who buckled on his armour, and rendered similar acts of personal service; and, instead of generous emulation of the enterprises of cavaliers, a mock combat was held between the striplings of the two armies. Each party had its leader, and its standard. Their shields were made of osier twigs, and their javelins were blunted. On the first day the advantage was with the French, but on the second, the English youths bore away the standard of their antagonists, and the reputation of victory was theirs.[161]

[Sidenote: Further decay of chivalry.]

After this national contest chivalry continued to decline in France. The civil wars had left that country one universal scene of vice and misrule, and the people looked to the King for some measure of protection. So exhausted were the n.o.bility by their wars with England, that they declared their want of power to lead into the field the customary number of knights; and they therefore prayed a remission of military duty.

Charles willingly granted this pet.i.tion; and no opposition was made to his establishing a force which he might either use against the barons themselves or the nation's enemies. The importance of mercenaries had been extending itself ever since the reign of Philip Augustus, when they were first introduced; for the old levies of feudatories and va.s.sals had in France as in England been found insufficient for the great purposes of war. But the new bands of stipendiary adventurers were never a very important branch of the French military force, for the kings could not pay for many; and these hired soldiers were commonly infantry or lightly armed horse, who could not contend in the battle-field with mail-clad knights and squires. National feelings favoured the const.i.tutional levy; and the kings endeavoured to render the country's chivalry of sufficient service by enlarging the time of their attendance. St. Louis increased the period of military duty from forty days to two months, and Philip the Fair doubled the time determined by St. Louis.

[Sidenote: Abuses in conferring knighthood.]

Such was the state of affairs in France, when, in the year 1444, Charles established fifteen companies of cavalry. Each company consisted of one hundred lances, and each of these men-at-arms had his archers, a coutiller or soldier, whose weapon of offence resembled a knife rather than a sword, and his personal attendant the page. Every one of these followers served on horseback, and the whole force amounted to nine thousand cavalry. This was intended to be a permanent establishment; and it was understood that the soldiers should be paid out of the state finances, and should not like the mercenaries of former times subsist by plunder. These companies of ordonnance have ever been regarded as the foundation of the French standing army. Here, then, closes the public military history of chivalry in France. The new soldiers were stipendiaries, not cavaliers: they were not educated for chivalry: they had not pa.s.sed through the ranks of page and squire; and not being necessarily gentlemen by name or arms, their deeds could not be similar to those which sprang from the oath of the cavalier. This new military force caused the feudatories of the crown no longer to bring their va.s.sals with them to war, except in certain extreme cases, where the arriere ban was summoned, and then the appearance was but a faint picture of the ancient chivalry. Thus the usage of banners and pennons ceased, and with them the great distinctions of bannerets and knights, because those t.i.tles no longer conferred honour and command.[162] The t.i.tle of knight lost its military character; and, instead of being bestowed with religious solemnities, after a long and painful education, it was often given to very young men without any martial training whatever, when they first stepped from their father's castles into the busy scenes of life. There was another circ.u.mstance which sullied the glory of knighthood;--I mean the bestowing of its t.i.tle upon persons who were not of the military cla.s.s. The exact time when this innovation upon chivalry took place it is impossible to ascertain, and I wish not to weary my readers with profitless antiquarian researches.

Knights of the law, as distinguished from those of arms, were known in the thirteenth century; and when once the clergy, who exercised the judicial functions, began to a.s.sume military t.i.tles, (which they did from their spirit of engrossing every thing that was honourable,) the matter soon grew into a custom: the lawyers claimed the privilege of wearing gold, and in every point a.s.serted the equality of the law, with the chivalry of a country.[163] By degrees the t.i.tle of knighthood began to be applied to men distinguished for their learning or talents, or who for less honourable causes were favoured by the King. This application of chivalric honours to persons who were not within the order of chivalry was viewed with a jealous and malignant eye by the military knights, who were not satisfied with the consideration in which they were held when other cla.s.ses of society copied their t.i.tles, and shone by the reflection of martial glory. Their fierce minds felt no respectful sympathy for the literary and intellectual awarders of justice, and they wished that the lance of the knight-errant should continue to be the only refuge of the injured. In effect the t.i.tle of knight became of little estimation, and in the history of France, through the fifteenth century, we seldom read of the conferring of the order of chivalry upon soldiers in the field of battle.

Chivalry thus decayed in France, before gunpowder became the chief instrument of death. Though artillery had been known so early as the battle of Cressy, it did not immediately come into general use. During the last half of the fourteenth century, the French used it in sieges, and sometimes in the field. But still, when Charles VII. established the companies of ordonnance already mentioned, the strength of the army was cavalry. Soon afterwards the French armies began to consist of infantry; for the soldiers of France were mercenaries, and they were drawn from Switzerland, a country which from its poverty and mountain-form could not boast of many knights and plumed steeds.

While chivalry was losing its martial vigour in the French monarchy, some of the n.o.bility of France preserved it in their castles in all its stateliness and grace. But the records of those times are so faint and imperfect, that any thing beyond the mere circ.u.mstance of their general chivalry cannot be learned.

[Sidenote: Burgundy.]

[Sidenote: Its chivalry.]

The annals of Burgundy are somewhat more satisfactory. The Dukes of Burgundy became sovereigns of Flanders, and impressed on that country a character of chivalry and romance. Tournaments, jousts, and other knightly shows, graced the wealth of the Flemish cities, at the time when the commercial cities of Italy were distinguished for cla.s.sic elegance and taste. The court of the Dukes of Burgundy was so high in fame for the lofty daring and gallant grace of chivalric emprise, that when Constantinople fell under the Moslem yoke, the hearts of the n.o.ble Burgundian knights glowed with the bold and pious desire of recovering the metropolis of eastern Christendom. The desire perished, for it was not supported by the other powers of Europe; and Burgundy, deprived of its hope of leading the lances of the West, in a cause so well worthy of them, is only interesting in the history of chivalry for its gracefulness and splendour. To present the reader with detailed statements of all its martial games would be tedious and unprofitable; but one of them possesses considerable interest, as displaying a very singular state of manners, and proving that the romances, and tales of chivalry, were often realised.

[Sidenote: The romance of Burgundian tournaments.]

In the year 1468, the sister of Edward IV. of England married Charles Duke of Burgundy. The banquets and b.a.l.l.s which testified the general joy were varied by a martial exercise, called the Pa.s.sage of the Tree of Gold. It was held in the market-place at Bruges, which, on that occasion, exchanged its wonted appearance for one of chivalric gaiety. The ground was unpaved, and sanded like a royal tilt-yard; and galleries were erected around for the reception of the n.o.bles and dames of Burgundy and the wealthy merchants of Flanders. A door, at one end of the lists, painted with a tree of gold, was defended by the b.a.s.t.a.r.d of Burgundy, who jousted with such cavaliers as, by the permission of the ladies, were allowed to deliver the knight of the Tree of Gold of his emprise. According to the humour of the times, many knights appeared in fantastic disguises. One knight, though, l.u.s.ty and young, approached the lists in a litter, and presented every mark of feebleness and age. He requested leave to joust for that once only, and declared that he would then retire to some peaceful cell, and forget, in devotion and penitence, the vain delights of war.