236 Chaucer's Knight and his Exploits in the South 



had expelled.^ He granted an interview tO' the sons of the Emir 

 of Mentesche, who had fled from fear of Bayezid, and taken 

 refuge at Sinope; but in the meantime their territory had been 

 ravaged by Tamerlane's skirmishers.^ The emir whom Tamer- 

 lane reinstated was EHas Beg, whose father* and brother'* were 

 both named Mohammed. It is not improbable, then, that the 

 emir whom Bayezid expelled in 1390 was Elias Beg,^ though, 

 since tlie latter lived till 1425, it may possibly have been his 

 father, Mohammed. Whichever it was, it seems to be the rela- 

 tion between the emir and Bayezid that Chaucer had in mind in 

 the lines of the Prologue which follow — in other words, between 

 a Seljuk and an Ottoman Turk; and, since any hostilities must 

 have taken place in 1390, this was early enough for Chaucer to 

 have heard of them.*^ He might also have been informed, through 

 Henry, of the offer made by Boucicaut and his friend, Renaud de 

 Roye," to Amurath I, father of Bayezid, in the spring of 1388, 

 that they would assist him in any wars against the Saracens.^ 



From the historical background which we have attempted to 

 sketch, a few forms stand out with peculiar clearness. These 

 are, almost without exception, personages of high rank, and 

 among them none, perhaps, rivet our attention more than two 



* Heyd, ib. 



' Hammer-Purgstall i. 330-1. 



' Heyd 2. 354, note 3. 



■'Heyd, ib.; Hammer-Purgstall i. 424. 



° Heyd 2. 353. 



° That information of the affairs of the East was current in the higher 

 circles of England at this time, is clear from the letter addressed by 

 Henry IV to Tamerlane in 1402 (or possibly 1403), congratulating him 

 on his victory in that year over Bayezid, whom he calls 'our enemy 

 and yours' (Ellis, Orig. Letters 3. i. 57), and from the treaty concluded 

 between the two sovereigns (Le Roulx i. 391). 



' See above, p. 226, note 2. 



* Le Roulx I. 163. Cf. the Livre dcs Faictes, Bk. i, chap. 16: 'Si s'en 

 allerent apres devers luy [to Gallipoli], et il les recent a grand feste, 

 et leur fit tres-bonne chere, et ils luy presenterent leur service, en cas 

 que il f eroit guerre a aucuns Sarrasins. Si les en remercia moult Amurat ; 

 et demeurerent avec luy environ trois mois : mais pource que il n'avoit 

 pour lors guerre a nul Sarrasin ils prirent conge, et s'en partirent.' 



