CHIVALRY. 



349 



:!iy. of treason, murder, or cowardice ; sometimes, even the 

 S -"~Y""'' circumstance of his being defeated in single combat, as 

 in the case of Henry de Essex, in 1163, who was van- 

 quished in a duel with Robert de Montfort, was sufficient 

 to degrade him. 



The knight who was adjudged to this punishment, 

 was led upon a scaffold, his spurs were hewn off by a ser- 

 vant, his sword broken over his head, his armorial bearings 

 torn to pieces, and his shield tied, with the upper part 

 downwards, to the tail of a horse, was dragged along 

 the ground. This position of the shield was deemed a 

 symbol of the death of a chevalier, and a chevalier who 

 had dishonoured himself was looked upon as dead. To 

 follow up this idea, the priests, after having recited the 

 funeral ceremony, repeated, over his head, the 107th 

 Psalm, which contains imprecations on all traitors. Thrice 

 the herald at arms demanded the name of the criminal ; 

 and as often as the pursuivant at arms named him, the 

 former replied, that this could not be the name of 

 the knight they said, since in him he beheld only a trai- 

 tor, at the same time pronouncing him no longer a knight 

 but a knave. On this the herald threw over him a bason 

 full of warm water, to efface the sacred character of chi- 

 valry, which the accolade had bestowed. He wan after- 

 wards taken from the scaffold, with a cord fastened un- 

 der his arms, laid on a hurdle, covered over with a pall, 

 and placed thus in a church, where the funeral service 

 was again said over him. 



For lesser faults, a knight was degraded by being 

 obliged to ride on a work-horse ; or by being deprived 

 of part of his armorial bearings. There was also a kind 

 of punishment inflicted on him, when he misbehaved, 

 ridiculous, and tantalizing, rather than severe. This 

 consisted in snatching away the cloth from the table 

 where he was eating, if he presumed to seat himself near 

 unsullied knights ; and if thus disturbed, he went to the 

 table of the esquires, he was there treated in the same 

 manner. Sometimes, when a knight had been ignomini- 

 ously conquered in battle or in feats of arms, he volun- 

 tarily condemned himself to abstain from chivalry for a 

 year and a day. 



Employ- A* a chevalier advanced in years, he gradually with- 



ment of drew himself from the employments of knighthood. He 

 the aged first abstained from engaging in tournaments ; and when 

 fciighu. he had reached his sixtieth year, he was authorised to de- 

 cline any challenge, and exempted from his fief j he was, 

 however, exp-cted to give his horse and his arms to the 

 lord under wh se banner he had fought, and under whom 

 he had held his land-'. These were in exchange for his 

 personal service ; if he held no tief, he generally, at the 

 close of his military life laid his arms at the feet of his 

 mistress, or deposited them in a church. It not unfre- 

 qu< utly happened, that the religiou-. feel ng, which had 

 been ea'ly instilled into his mind, and which, in the prime 

 of his lift, had been overshadowed by his love of arms 

 and liij gallantry, broke out with redoubled force in his 

 old age ; in this case, he exchanged the duties of a che- 

 val.er f..r those of a monk, or ukir.g up the cross, went 

 on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. A Provencal po. t, 

 in his Lay of a Bachelor at Anns, expressiy states, that, 

 in onier to c.htain ai>d deserve the appellation of a per- 

 fect cluvalitr (PreuMummr), it is necessary that the 

 la^ yiarsof a knigiit muiulil be spent in this manner. 

 If a chevalii r was killed in the field of battle, his funeral 



rites were celebrated with more regard to his glory than Chivalry. 

 to pomp and magnificence. If he was killed storming a """y"*' 

 castle or a fortress, his body was buried in the breach. 

 When he died a natural death, the ceremonies of his Ceremonies 

 funeral were varied according to circumstances ; if he had at ! "" 

 performed, or even only planned and begun a crusade, he t i le knights, 

 was carried to the grave armed, with his legs crossed ; 

 and the sculpture on the tomb was in the same attitude.* 

 The swords of the most renowned and valiant knights, 

 which had been the instruments of their victories, were 

 held in the highest estimation : they were sought after 

 with avidity ; and when obtained, they were hung up in 

 the arsenal or great hall of the castle, as honourable mo- 

 nument;:, and as proper incitements to rival the courage 

 of those, by whom they had been so often wielded with 

 success, in advancing the glory, and performing the du- 

 ties of chivalry. 



A discussion on chivalry, which should omit the sub- Knight r- 

 ject of knight errantry, would be deemed incomplete in rantr y- 

 the most curious, if not the most interesting point ; and 

 yet it is extremely difficult to obtain authentic evidence 

 respecting the knight errants. In the old romances, they 

 occupy the most distinguished place ; but in the old his- 

 torians and chronicles, only a few faint traces of them 

 are to be found. 



The spirit and the practice of going in quest of ad- 

 ventures, arose partly from the very nature of the insti- 

 tution of chivalry, and partly from the custom of knights 

 travelling wherever tournaments were to be celebrated : 

 this spirit and practice were undoubtedly increased by 

 the Crusades. In their expeditions to the Holy Land, 

 knights would necessarily meet with many opportuni- 

 ties of displaying their valour and their gallantry, and 

 of performing that part of their vow, which bound 

 them to succour the widow the orphan, and the helpless. 

 So desirous were the young knights of seeking and ob- 

 taining opportunities of signalizing themselves, and of 

 acting in the capacity of the avengers of the injured, and 

 the defenders of the weak, that they frequently bound 

 themselves to spend the first years of their knighthood 

 in visiting foreign lands, in order to make themselves 

 " perfect knights." For this purpose, they studied ihe 

 cu&toms of different countries, and rmde tMBMtfart ac- 

 quainted with the ritei of their tournaments, and the ce- 

 remonials of their courts. The character of their sove- 

 reigns, and especially of their mst celebrated ladies, was 

 also a part of their pr paratory knowledge. Thus fitted 

 for the object they had in vi w, they set out, attended 

 by their squires ; and they chose that road, which they 

 thought would present them with most opportunities of 

 meeting and overcoming danger, in the punishment of 

 crimes, in the repressing of violence, in the protection of 

 insulted, or in the liberation ot confined dau'.s 



A real knight-errat.t, more frequently met with in ro- 

 mances than in history, clothed in green, for that was 

 his fav. urite colour, as expressive of the freshness of his 

 age, and the v:gour of his courage, f and with nothing 

 but what was absolutely necessary for attack or defence, 

 chose In pjtli through forests or unfrequented tracks ; 

 for his food, he depended entirely on the animals he kil- 

 led ; these he cooked in the most simple and rude man- 

 ner ; a stone served him for a table, and it also served 

 him to press the blood from the newly killed animal. 

 Tliu* prepared, he made his scanty and savage meal, with 



!;i Marclic, however, ns nv-.'rH by St Pal. -.-us. that unless a knight wg slain in battle, his hairier. ' ' <<[, 



and Hi* pennon, were- ri'. 1 -*.! nf these. 



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