46 Katharine Szvynford 



arms as early as 1378 or 1379^" (Chaucer, we may remember, 

 is supposed to have first borne arms at the age of 19). Still 

 another Englishman who distinguished himself in the jousting 

 was Lewis Clifford, then about 54 years old.^" If we suppose 

 John Beaufort to have been only 17 years old at this time, how 

 can he have held his own with men so much older and more 

 experienced ? 



(2) From St. Inglevert a number of Englishmen repaired 

 to the siege of Mehediah (called by the chroniclers Africa), 

 southeast of Tunis. In one band there were 25 men of rank 

 (gentils hommes) and 100 archers, prominent among whom were 

 Lewis Clifford, Thomas Clanvowe,^* and Peter Courtenay.^^ At 

 this siege we find John Beaufort as a knight banneret,''^ encamped 

 as second in a group of 29 knights at the left of the commander 

 in chief of the expedition, Louis de Bourbon.^' 



(3) While it is uncertain whether he joined Henry of Derby 

 in Germany,^'* after the siege of Mehediah was raised, he was 

 certainly in Lithuania in 1394, where he took part in an extensive 

 raid,^'' and was probably at the disastrous battle of Nicopolis 

 on Sept. 25, 1396.-° Is it likely that he was a knight banneret at 

 17, encamped in so honorable a station; that he served with the 

 Prussian knights at the age of 21 (Henry, who was certainly 

 adventurous enough, did not go thither till after St. Inglevert, 

 when he was 24 years old ; Henry of Lancaster, his grandfather, 

 till he was 52 ; William Ufford, till he was 26 ; Thomas Beau- 



'" Froissart 21. 193. 



" Beltz, Memorials, p. 261; cf. Froissart 14. 110-2; Hist. Background, 

 p. 192. Clifford was made a Knight of the Garter in 1377 (Beltz, p. cliii). 



"Wylie 3. 261 ; cf. Hist. Background, pp. 214-5. 



^^ Cabaret, Chronique du Bon Due Loys de Bourbon, p. 222 (cf. pp. 

 238, 248-9; Cabaret misspells Courtenay's name); cf. Le Roulx, La 

 France en Orient i. 166 ff. ; Derby Accounts, p. xxxviii. Courtenay 

 became Knight of the Garter in 1388 (Beltz, p. cliv). 



'"Froissart 14. 225: 'Messire Jehan de Beaufort, tils bastard an due 

 de Lancastre, a baniere.' 



"' Cf. Hist. Background, p. 209; Wylie 3. 261; Derby Accounts, pp. 

 jxxxviii, 301; Le Roulx, La France en Orient i. 176, 242; 2. 14. 



^^ Derby Accounts, p. 301; Hist. Background, p. 209. 



" Hist. Background, p. 209. 



"" Wylie 3. 261 ; Le Roulx i. 242. 



