POLITICAL HISTORY 



to those which had been arranged only four years before at Lochmaban 

 and for the acceptance of which Hartcla had died a martyr. 



During the occasional periods of truce which occurred intermit- 

 tently in the reign of Richard II., cordial relations sprang up and ways 

 were opened for more frequent intercourse between the two kingdoms. 

 The English king was fond of the tilt and tournament, and his tastes in 

 that direction brought about an international rapprochement which 

 diplomacy had failed to effect. The court of chivalry had become an 

 established institution under his patronage. Though appeal to arms 

 had been from an early period a conspicuous feature of Border law, 1 the 

 internecine wars of the fourteenth century had a tendency to hasten the 

 decay of the personal duel. The reviving interest in chivalry brought 

 in a new type of combat which combined the old idea of judicial award 

 with the more modern instinct of sport and the exhibition of individual 

 skill. By special provision in the patent of the warden of the March 

 it was enjoined that in every case when the duel was challenged 

 between combatants, the acceptance, offer or wager should be reserved 

 to the king or his lieutenant. 2 With such regulations in force, the 

 adjudication of points of honour or dispute became a matter of public 

 interest, and distinguished men of both countries were brought face to 

 face under guarantees of safe conduct to settle their differences by feats 

 of arms. On 6 June 1390 Sir William Douglas, knight, had licence to 

 come to England with a retinue of forty horsemen, knights, squires and 

 valets, and armour for his own person only, and prosecute a plea in the 

 court of chivalry before the marshal of England which he had with Sir 

 Thomas de Clifford, chivaler, lord of Westmorland. 3 A more famous joust 

 in war (de guerra hastiludium) took place in the city of Carlisle from 2 1 to 

 27 June 1393, when Sir Richard de Redemane encountered William de 

 Halyborton and three other Scotsmen in the presence of Sir Henry de 

 Percy, who was ordered to be present as the king's lieutenant. 4 These 

 instances of international tilting bespeak a lull in the hostile relations of 

 the two kingdoms, and though peace was liable to interruption at any 

 moment, the custom may be regarded as an evidence of a good under- 

 standing, which was scarcely possible at any time since the outbreak 

 of the War of Independence at the close of the thirteenth century. 



Amid the vicissitudes of Scottish warfare a new mode of military 

 enterprise was introduced about the year 1382, which was destined 

 in time to revolutionize the whole system of frontier defence. Guns 

 and gunpowder, cannon and calivers were brought into use as engines 

 of destruction. 6 But it cannot be said that the shield, lance and bow- 



1 Leges Marchiarum (ed. Nicolson), 6. Neilson's Trial by Combat (London 1890), should be con- 

 sulted for the history of duel by law. 



a Rot. Scotia (Rec. Com.), ii. 49-50. 3 Chancery Files, bundle No. 416. 



Pat. 16 Ric. II. pt. iii. m. 16; Tower Privy Seals, 16 Ric. II. file 5 ; Cal.Rot. Pat. (Rec. Com.), 



226b. 



6 John Prior of Drax accounted for provision of ' gun-poudre ' and 'artelar' among lists of other 

 victuals for the castles of Berwick and Roxburgh between 1382 and 1384, and in the accounts of the 

 sheriff of Cumberland for 1384-5 there are several entries which show that the new power had been 

 called into play for the defence of Carlisle. Two great ' gunnes' were placed on the keep of the castle 



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