656 
tended to the rest of Europe. The ser- 
vice of the infantry was degraded to the 
plebeians, the cavalry formed the strength 
of the armies, and the honourable name 
of miles or soldier was confined to the 
gentlemen who served on horseback and 
were invested with the character of 
knighthood. é 
In perusing the very brief—too brief 
dissertation which is prefixed to these 
volumes upon the existing state of knight- 
hood in Europe, we find that chivalry is 
considered as the offspring of the Cru- 
sades. Itis true, indeed, that after the 
final reduction of the Holy Land the spi- 
rit of chivalry burned with the highest 
ardour among adventurers at home, but 
it was because they could not indulge 
their enterprising genius abroad. The 
spirit of chivalry sprung from the man- 
ners of the age, and notwithstanding 
the temporal honours and the advan- 
tages which the crusader enjoyed in this 
world, and the hopes of happiness which 
were held out to them as a remuneration 
of their pious toils in the next, so many 
thousand—so many million persons 
«ould not have assumed the cress had 
they not been already animated with that 
enthusiastic spirit of chivalry which in 
later times became more refined and 
more manageable. Perhaps the institu- 
tions of chivalry,, though certainly not 
the spirit of it, ofisinased in the customs 
of duelling, and judicial combat, which 
prevailed over Europe for so long a 
time. During the private wars which 
afticted Europe for so many centuries, a 
considerable degree of personal emula- 
tion as well as resentment would qrise 
in the bosom of those leaders, who had 
perhaps frequently struggled with each 
-other in the field of battle. And as as- 
sassination died away from the cowardly 
spirit which it indicated, the challenge 
to single combat succeeded, where the 
skill and prowess of the contending par- 
ties had ample room to display them- 
selves. ‘The hero of these ages disdain- 
ed ‘to take his enemy by surprise: he 
fought for victory, bet he also fought 
for glory, and this could not be attained 
unless his adversary commenced the 
combat upon equal terms. Each party 
vindicated his honour, and professed to 
‘be the champion of truth, virtue, and 
religion. These single combats were 
rather encouraged than restrained by the 
civil power, and indeed the more from 
those defectsin judicial proceedings, those 
uncertainties of proof arising from the 
MISCELLANIES. 
want of written documents, which pre« 
vail among a rude unlettered people. 
As these combats were appeals to heaven 
they were regulated with all the forma- 
lities of a solemn judicial process, and 
would naturally keep alive that jealousy 
of honour which became a fundamental 
principle of knighthood, and which eve- 
ry member of the order swore to main- 
tain with his sword, when at his invest- 
ment he received a slight touch on the 
cheek or shoulder, as the last blow he 
could suffer to be inflicted on him with 
impunity. Itis needless to remark that 
the custom of duelling and the trial by 
judicial combat prevailed a considerable 
time in Europe, though not in England, 
before the Crusades. - 
Selden does not allow of judicial coma 
bat in England before the Norman con- 
quest : the old Saxon laws of Alfred, 
Edward, Athelstane, Edmund, Edgar, 
are silent on the subject; nor says he, as 
J remember, have the monkish stories of 
that age any authority for the proof of 
it. But inthe laws of William the first 
it is decreed, that if a Frenchman ap- 
peal an Englishman of perjury, murther, 
theft, manslaughter, or robbery, Anglus 
se defendat per quod melius voluerit, aut 
judicio ferri aut duello. (Selden. Duello, 
chap. vi.) He considers the custom as 
having been derived from the Lombards, 
and quotes an old Italian historian (Ca- 
rol. Sigon. de regno Italia, lib. i) to 
prove the prevalence of the custom: 
Lengobardorum antiqua est consuetudo, 
ut crimina vel maxima singulari prelio 
purgarentur, qu postea per leges trans- 
lata per mu!ta tempora observata est. 
Now if there was any thing chivalrous 
in these decisions as well as superstitious, 
although orders of knighthood might not 
be instituted till the period of the wars 
for the recovery of the Holy Land, yet, 
it is evident, that the spirit which gave 
birth to these institutions, the high spirit 
of chivalry prevailed long before, and 
arose out of the turbulent and ferocious 
manners of more early times. 
The oldest order of knighthood is 
that of St. John of Jerusalem, instituted 
in the year 1048; but we read of the 
creation of individual knights in much 
earlier periods of history. The dignity 
of Knights of the Spur, or Bachelors, is 
often mentioned in the Saxen times: in 
a charter of Kenulph, king of Merce- 
land, of the year 806, to the Abbey of} 
Crowland, he confirms to the Abbey, 
Eleemosynam quam Algarus miles etiam 
