The History of Chivalry Volume II Part 11

At another time, the dames and damsels were informed that a n.o.ble knight, who wished to joust, was without the lists; but that he would not present himself to the ladies of Burgundy until they perfectly knew his tale. All his life he had loved a lady of Sclavonia; and although she had not altogether accepted him as her servant, yet she had encouraged him to hope. His mental sufferings for her love deserved compa.s.sion; but she, forgetting that feminine virtue, and continuing her pride, had not treated his devotion as it merited; and he, therefore, for the nine months which preceded his appearance at Bruges, had lived among rocks and mountains, a prey to melancholy. When, however, the lady heard of this unquestionable proof of his pa.s.sion, she repented of her ingrat.i.tude, and had sent to him a damsel-errant, who was now his guide. She had beguiled the tedious way to Bruges by telling him that the pleasures of love could only be reached by labours, desires, and sufferings; that pain gave a zest to enjoyment, and that the greatest offence against love was despair. The lady had bade him hope; the damsel-errant had counselled him to go upon some chivalric quest, in order to dissipate his melancholy; and she had promised to accompany him, in order to deliver the tale of his adventures to his lady-mistress.

The dames and maidens of Burgundy accorded permission to this zealous servant of love to attempt the emprise of the Pa.s.sage of the Tree of Gold.

He was preceded into the lists by three men, dressed like Moors, and a lady followed, mounted on a white palfrey, and dressed, as the people thought, like a damsel-errant. She led the knight, who bestrode a cheval de lance, and afterwards came four n.o.bles, clad in the habits of Sclavonia, with the words "Le Chevalier Esclave" worked on their robes. He jousted with a knight who supplied the place of the b.a.s.t.a.r.d of Burgundy, but with what degree of gallantry history is silent.[164]

[Sidenote: Last gleams of chivalry in France.]

[Sidenote: Life of Bayard.]

I now return to France, whose chivalry, even in the last days of its existence, is interesting; for if ever the bright glory of one man could have changed the manners of his age, the knight without fear and without reproach would have revived the chivalric fame of his country. Pierre Terrail, or Du Terrail, known under the name of Bayard, was born in the year 1476, at the chateau of Bayard, in Dauphiny. His family was of ancient and n.o.ble race, and boasted that their ancestors had fought at the battles of Cressy and Poictiers. His own father had been so severely wounded in the service of his country, that he quitted the army before the usual time for retiring. He pa.s.sed the evening of his life in Dauphiny, occupied in the education of his children, of whom Peter was the only one that aspired to military glory. His wishes were grateful to his father; and his uncle, the Bishop of Gren.o.ble, promised to introduce him to the Duke of Savoy. In his paternal home Peter Bayard had learned some of the duties of the page of early chivalric times: like him he ministered to his father and his guests at table; and he had acquired admirable skill in horsemanship. The Bishop took the youth to Chambery, the then residence of the Duke, and by the grace of manner with which he attended his uncle at the dinner-table, and by a fine display of horsemanship, the Duke regarded him with kindness, and placed him in his service. Bayard was then about thirteen years old. Not many months afterwards he became an attendant of the King of France; for the Duke of Savoy, preferring Bayard's interests to his own, wished to advance his fortunes. Charles VIII. put him into the household of the Signeur de Ligny, where he remained till he was seventeen years old, when he was called into the cla.s.s of the gentlemen of the royal court. Besides acquiring the military exercises of his time, he graced his imagination with fairy and romantic tales: he was a knight in spirit and purpose, and he now aspired to gain the favour of the ladies by the prowess of his chivalry. A very few days after he had quitted his office of page, he broke a lance in a joust with one of the most distinguished cavaliers of the day, and his fame was bruited over all France. He remained all his life, in the service of the French kings. The theatre of his exertions was Italy; but, as a very able pen has lately traced the revolutions of that interesting country[165], I need not follow him through all his chevisance.

Such matters as display the points of his personal character, and show the remaining chivalric features of the time, come, however, within my province. In 1501, he alone sustained on a narrow bridge the efforts of two hundred cavaliers, who attacked him. It was then that he obtained from the King a device having for its emblem a porcupine, with the words "_Vires agminis unus habet_." At the taking of Brescia, he received a dangerous wound, and he remained awhile in a private house. When he was about to depart, his hostess wished to present him with two thousand pistoles for the grat.i.tude she felt at his having preserved her honour and her fortune; and he accepted the money only for the purpose of giving it to her daughters, as their marriage-portions. So highly was he esteemed, that Chabannes, a marshal of France, and Humbercourt, and D'Aubigny, general officers, all of higher rank and older service than Bayard, fought under his orders. Yet he never rose to high commands. His greatest dignity was that of lieutenant-general of Dauphiny.

But the most amusingly characteristic story of Bayard regards his gallantry. When he was page to the Duke of Savoy, he loved one of the attendants of the d.u.c.h.ess; but the pa.s.sion either was not mutual, or was not graced with any character of romance, for a few years afterwards the damsel married the Seigneur de Fleuxas. Bayard met her at the house of the widow of his first master, the Duke of Savoy. During supper, the lady of Fleuxas praised the chivalry in tournaments of her early admirer in such high terms, that he blushed for very modesty; and she added, that as he was now residing with a family who had been the first to cherish him, it would be great blame in him, if he did not prove himself as gallant a knight as he had done before. The answer of Bayard was that of a polite cavalier; for he requested her to tell him what he could do that would please the good and honourable a.s.sembly, his Lady of Savoy, and, above all the rest, her fair self. She advised him to hold a tournament. "Truly,"

replied Bayard, "it shall be done as you wish. You are the first lady whose beauty and grace attracted my heart. I know that my salutations of you can only be those of courtesy, for I should lose my labour were I to solicit your love, and I would rather die than accomplish your dishonour."

He then prayed her to give him one of her sleeves, for he said that he should have need of it in the approaching tournament. The lady accordingly took it from her dress, and he attached it to his.[166]

The martial pastime was held, and after the supper which succeeded, it was enquired to whom should the prizes (the sleeve and a ruby) be given. The knights, the ladies, and even those who had tourneyed with him, accorded it to Bayard. But he declared that the honour was not his; but that if he had done any thing well, Madame de Fleuxas was the cause, for she had given him her sleeve. He, therefore, prayed that she might be permitted to act according to her judgment and prudence. The Seigneur de Fleuxas knew too well the n.o.ble character of Bayard to feel any jealousy at this compliment to his wife, but with the other judges of the tournament he immediately went to her and related the matter. She was delighted at Bayard's gallantry, and declared that as he had done her the honour to avow that her sleeve had made him gain the prize, she would preserve it all her life for the sake of his love. The ruby she gave to the cavalier, who had next distinguished himself to Bayard.

And thus lived the knight without fear and without reproach, till the retreat of the French out of Italy in 1524, when he was fatally wounded by a stone discharged from an harquebouze. He fell from his horse, crying, "Jesus, my Saviour, I am dead." He kissed the cross-handle of his sword; and there being no chaplain present, he confessed himself to his esquire, who then, by the knight's command, placed him against a tree, with his face turned towards the enemy; "because," said Bayard, "as I have never yet turned my back to the foe, I will not begin to do so in my last moments." He charged his esquire to tell the King that the only regret he felt at quitting life was the being deprived of the power of serving him any further. The Constable of Bourbon, as he was pursuing the French, found him in this state, and a.s.sured him that he pitied his lot. But Bayard replied, "It is not I who stand in need of pity, but you who are carrying arms against your King, your country, and your oath." The news that he was mortally wounded quickly spread, and excited the deepest grief in the minds of both armies, for he was a valiant soldier and a generous foe. After a while he was removed to a tent and placed on a bed. He was shriven by a priest, and soon afterwards died, as, with true Christian piety, he was imploring his G.o.d and his Saviour to pardon his sins, and to show him mercy rather than justice.[167] He was buried at a convent of Minims, half a league from Gren.o.ble, the princ.i.p.al town of his native country.

[Sidenote: Francis I.]

During some of the last years of his life, his fine and chivalric spirit found a kindred soul in Francis I., who, it is remarkable, was the only French sovereign graced with any share of the character of chivalry. For, while the Plantagenets of England had shone as brilliantly by chivalric as by regal splendour, the Capetian princes of France could not present a king that displayed any powers beyond the ordinary qualities of royalty.

The valiancy, the liberality, the fine, open, and manly countenance, and the lofty form of the King, were altogether those of one of Charlemagne's paladins. His imagination was coloured with the gay and lively tints of romance, and so fondly did he dwell upon the fabulous glories of old, that in many a sportive moment he arrayed himself in the guise of the antique cavalier. But here our panegyric must cease; for no preux knight would, like Francis, have pledged his solemn word to observe a treaty, and immediately afterwards have violated it. However unkingly and unknightly Charles V. might have deported himself in treating Francis in prison with severity, and although the terms of the treaty of Madrid were such as no n.o.ble victor would have imposed, still the obligation of the pledge of Francis's word should have been felt as sacred. A n.o.ble cavalier, a Chandos or Du Guesclin, would have disdained to obtain his liberty by signing a treaty which he intended to break as soon as he should leave his prison. "All is lost, Madam, except our honour," as the French King wrote to his mother after the battle of Pavia: a generous, chivalric expression; and scarcely could it have been expected that he was the man who would have thrown away that honour.

The last faint gleam, however, of the sun of military chivalry in France fell upon Bayard and his sovereign, Francis; for after the battle of Marignan, in 1515, when they fought together against the Swiss, the King was, at his own request, knighted by the cavalier without fear and without reproach. After giving the accolade, Bayard addressed his sword, "Certainly, my good sword, you shall hereafter be honoured as a most precious relic, and never shall be drawn except against Turks, Moors, and Saracens." He then twice leaped up for joy, and plunged his trusty weapon into its sheath.[168]

Soon after the days of Francis I. the t.i.tle of knighthood became an empty name: it was preserved as the decoration of n.o.bility and lawyers; and, from respect to the ancient glories of their nation, kings received it at their baptism.[169] Montluc, that man of blood, was the last French soldier who received it in the field of battle. The accolade was given to him by the Duke d'Anguien, after the engagement of Cerisolles, in 1544.

[Sidenote: Abolition of tournaments.]

[Sidenote: Extinction of chivalry.]

The amus.e.m.e.nts of chivalry were soon abolished. The accidental death of Henry II. in a tournament[170], in the year 1559, did much to indispose the minds of the people from chivalric sports; and when in the following year Prince Henry de Bourbon Montpensier was killed, in consequence of his horse falling under him, while careering round the lists, tournaments ceased for ever; and with their abolition, as Voltaire says, the ancient spirit of chivalry expired in France; for that country, after the death of Henry II., was plunged in fanaticism, and desolated by the wars of religion. The spirit did not survive the forms of chivalry; for the intercourse with Italy introduced into France new opinions and feelings.

Machiavelian politics banished the open, manly demeanour of chivalry; and the most disgusting profligacy equally distinguished the ladies. It is amusing to observe that, long after the extinction of chivalry in France, the apparent homage and devotion of chivalric love still continued, although it was no longer sustained by virtue. Love, sublimed into idolatry, breathes in every page of the heroic romances which succeeded the romances of chivalry, and reflect the feelings of the nation; and so late as the reign of Louis XIV. a ruffled and well-powdered French General, whose soul was not illumined by a single gleam of the character of a preux chevalier, would fancy himself the very pink of sentiment, and sigh at the feet of his mistress,

"Pour meriter ton coeur, pour plaire a vos beaux yeux, J'ai fait la guerre aux rois, je l'aurois fait aux dieux."

CHAP. V.

PROGRESS OF CHIVALRY IN SPAIN.

_General Nature of Spanish Chivalry ... Religion and Heroism ...

Gallantry ... Blending of Spanish and Oriental Manners ... Its beneficial Tendencies ... Peculiarities of Spanish Chivalry ... Forms of Knighthood ... Various Ranks of Knights ... Spanish Poetry ...

Heroes of Chivalry ... Pelayo ... Bernardo del Carpio ... And incidentally of Charlemagne's Expedition into Spain ... The Life of the Cid ... His early ferocious Heroism ... His singular Marriage ...

Enters the Service of King Ferdinand ... The Cid's Chivalric Gallantry ... He is knighted ... Death of King Ferdinand ... The Cid becomes the Knight of Sancho, King of Castile ... Mixture of Evil and Good in the Cid's Character ... Supports the King in his Injustice. ... The Cid's romantic Heroism ... Sancho's further Injustice opposed by him ...

Death of Sancho ... Instance of the Cid's virtuous Boldness ...

Character of Alfonso, Successor of Sancho ... Story of his chivalric Bearing ... The Cid's second Marriage ... Is banished from Alfonso's Court ... Becomes the Ally of the Moors. ... But recalled ... Is banished again ... Singular Story of the Cid's unknightly Meanness ...

Fortunes of the Cid during his Exile ... The Cid's chivalric n.o.bleness and Generosity ... Is recalled by Alfonso ... The Cid captures Toledo ... and Valentia ... Story of Spanish Manners ... The Cid's unjust Conduct to the Moors ... The unchivalric Character of the Cid's Wife and Daughters ... The Cid recalled by Alfonso ... The Marriages of his Daughters ... Basely treated by their Husbands ... Cortez at Toledo to decide the Cause ... Picture of ancient Manners ... Death of the Cid ... His Character ... Fate of his good Horse ... Spanish Chivalry after his Death ... Gallantry of a Knight ... The Merits of Missals decided by Battle ... Pa.s.sage of Arms at Orbigo ... Knights travel and joust for Ladies' Love ... Extinction of Spanish Chivalry._

[Sidenote: General nature of Spanish chivalry.]

Spanish chivalry awakens the most splendid and romantic a.s.sociations of the mind. Europe, with her active courage,--her jealousy of honour,--her superior religion;--Asia, with her proud and lofty deportment,--her fervid and sublimated imagination, and the magnificent ceremonial of her pomp,--formed the knight of Spain; and, in consequence of this influence of Orientalism on his character, he represents the stateliness of chivalry as perfectly as the English cavalier its adventurousness, and the French its gaiety.

[Sidenote: Religion and heroism.]

There was an interesting blending of religious enthusiasm and romantic heroism in the Spaniard. His warm and creative imagination transformed the patron-saint of his country into a knight. He always saw St. James at his side, mounted on a stately white horse, and fighting the battles of Christianity and Spain; and, as if these chivalric exploits were not sufficient, he represented him as the professed and powerful champion of distressed damsels; for he supposed that this celestial ally had freed the nation from paying the annual tribute of a hundred Christian virgins to their infidel enemies.[171]

[Sidenote: Gallantry.]

Spain, too, appears to our fancy as the very land of chivalric love,--of love which was bred amidst difficulties and dangers, where the undistinguishable throng of "hopes and fears that kindle hope" gave a more imaginative cast to the feelings than can be known in the more settled frame of modern society. There was not only the feudal baron violating the laws of courtesy, as in other countries, but bands of Moors were careering over the plains, who did not think that woman was an object utterly unworthy of a perilous quest. Here, then, all the beautiful romance of knight-errantry might be realised; and in the breast of the rescued damsel love would spring from grat.i.tude.

[Sidenote: Blending of Spanish and Oriental manners.]

The germs of chivalry existed in the minds of the Visigoths, who overthrew the dominion of the Romans in Spain. Military invest.i.ture, respect for women, and the sports of hawking and hunting, were the new circ.u.mstances in Spanish character and manners: but in the times of those wretched barbarians, the Visigoths, it is in vain to search for the perfect developement of the chivalric character. Chivalry appears only in few and fitful gleams in those dark times; and her golden light did not shine in full and bright display till the days of the Arabians; and, throughout their long reign of seven centuries, it had a very remarkable effect on circ.u.mstances and characters. As its glory was personal, chivalry abated much of the fierceness of a religious or a national war; for the cavalier could admire, even in an enemy, qualities which it was his own pride and ambition to possess.

The nations met in the graceful encounter of the tournament, as well as in the more perilous battle-field; and the interchange of chivalric courtesies, when the image of war was exhibited, could not but mitigate the ferocity of real hostilities. At the Moorish or Christian festivals, a gallant soldier of the opposite religion would appear, and challenge the bravest of his adversaries to maintain the superiority of his nation and faith; and in maintaining that cause the cavaleresque deportment of the combatants was admired, when the avowed object of their encounter was forgotten; for the object of the a.s.sembly was amus.e.m.e.nt; and the eye and fancy were addressed in these gentle exercises and proofs of arms.[172]

[Sidenote: Its beneficial tendencies.]

The people of the two religions insensibly mingled, and each adopted something of the thoughts and manners of the other. If the Christian taught the Moors to use the lance of courtesy, the Christian learnt from the Moors to throw the cane, which was afterwards such a favourite Spanish amus.e.m.e.nt. From them, too, the knights of Spain adopted the javelin, and used it instead of the lance. They were wont to hurl it as forcibly as any Asiatic or Grecian heroes could have done; for a greater defence than what was afforded by mail and a quilted jacket was required to resist the stroke.[173]

The poets who lived in the chivalric days of Spain invariably gave the moral and personal costume of chivalry to the Arabian as often as to the European. Thus Calaynos, the Moor[174], is as much celebrated in the romances of Spain as the Cid himself; and it was the general confession that the knights of Granada were gentlemen although Moors.[175] This amalgamation of character formed the basis of those unions between the Arabians and the Spaniards which are so frequently recorded in the history of the Peninsula, and which strike the reader as incredible. It has been thought for the glory of the nation to represent the struggle as of ceaseless duration for seven long centuries, and too fierce to allow of the sheathing of the sword: but these alliances were so common, that Spain often presented the appearance of a number of petty states, each attempting to draw the others into its vortex, rather than the general cause of the Cross warring with the Crescent. Independently of these alliances there was scarcely a Christian cavalier of fame who did not in the course of his military career wield his good sword in the ranks of the Musulmans.

Among the blessings which sprang from this free intercourse, religious toleration was not the least valuable one. Spain, which in later times has been so remarkable for the cruelties of its bigotry, was in early days the only country of Europe where religious liberty could breathe. Since the Moors and Christians often treated each other as separate powers, mutual toleration ensued, and this liberal feeling in the minds of the Christians extended itself beyond the pale of their Moorish subjects and allies. The fathers of the Reformation were the Albigenses, many of whom were sheltered by the kings of Arragon, while their brethren were persecuted to death in France. No church, save that of England, was in such continued opposition to the papacy as the Spanish; and in every great dispute it espoused the cause of the heretics, as the a.s.sertors of the liberty of the human will were always called.

The humanities of chivalry were not limited to toleration or mercy, to the mosque or the field of battle, but Moors and Christians often lived in the same town, and commingled social charities. Friendships were formed, and, maugre the declamation of bigots, dearer affections attached the two nations. The knight was in consequence of the obligations of his chivalry the friend of the distressed; and when beauty pleaded, his heart forbad him from enquiring in what religion the damsel had been educated. The pa.s.sion of love in the breast of the Spanish cavalier was not more fervid or intense than in the breast of the cavalier of any other country. If the Spaniard be considered as a Goth by birth, and an Arab by education, still his natural and artificial circ.u.mstances formed but the same character of pa.s.sion; for both the Goth and the Arab adored as well as loved their mistress, and regarded her as a divinity as well as an object of affection.

[Sidenote: Peculiarities of Spanish chivalry.]

There was a gravity, perhaps a jealousy, both qualities of Oriental origin, about the conduct of the Spanish knight, which were foreign to the nature of the chivalry of other countries. The expression of his feelings was unlike theirs. Bold metaphors, rich and varied imagery and glowing sentiments, are mixed with the simple developement of pa.s.sion; and these orientalisms of his verse are not the elaborate and artificial ornaments with which fiction dresses up her image of pa.s.sion: but as the mind of the Spaniard had been trained by the Arab, it became natural to him to nourish his affection in the splendid dreamings of the East. If he borrowed ideas and fancies from the Moor, it must be remembered that he likewise freely communicated the character of his own system. In no Mohammedan country was woman so high in moral rank as in Spain. The Musulman woman was not pa.s.sion's object, but, like the lady in chivalry, she was the origin of honour; for she sat in the tournament as the judge of valour, and the Moorish knight received the guerdon of triumph from her hands. Asiatic jealousy abated something of its nature and its forms in Spain; for there woman mingled with man in social intercourse, and her beauties were not always shrouded by a veil.[176]

[Sidenote: Forms of knighthood.]

The forms of chivalric initiation in Spain were similar to those in other countries. The bath--confession--vigil in a church--ma.s.s--the spurs--the girding with the sword--the accolade,--these were the chief ceremonies.

The knight by his oath expressed willingness to die either for the defence of his law, or of his king or country.[177] The sword was then ungirt from him by some person of honour, who by so doing was supposed to become his padrino, or G.o.dfather in chivalry, and to confirm the knighthood thus bestowed. No circ.u.mstances could ever justify the cavalier in bearing arms against his padrino. He was, on the contrary, to defend him by his sword and his counsel to the utmost of his ability, and to be every thing to him, as a _man_ was to his lord in feudal relation.

These were the ancient ceremonies; but they were simplified in subsequent times. The mere dubbing was then held sufficient; and, by a law of Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1476, it was ordained that it should be at the pleasure of the King to use the old forms or not, and that the dignity of knighthood should be equally ill.u.s.trious if they were omitted.

[Sidenote: Various ranks of knights.]

The highest cla.s.s of knights in Spain was formed of the Knights of the Spur, the Cavalleros de Espuela d'Orada. They were always hidalgos, or gentlemen of birth of three descents. Kings' sons were of this cla.s.s of knighthood; and no one was crowned till he had been invested with the order.[178]