A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE 



The return of the triumphant king and his nobles from their conquests 

 at Crecy and Calais was naturally celebrated after the fashion of that age by 

 jousts, tournaments, and other chivalrous festivities, and in April, 1348, 

 Lichfield was selected as the scene of one of these rejoicings, which were 

 celebrated with great splendour. 



The prevailing dress for both ladies and gentlemen was a blue cloak 

 with a white hood presented by the king, and the ladies wore various masks 

 or visors. 137 Among those who were thus clothed from the royal wardrobe 

 were Sir Walter Manny, John de L'Isle, Hugh Courtenay, John Grey, 

 Robert de Ferrers, Philip de Spenser, Roger de Beauchamp, Miles de 

 Stapleton, Ralph de Ferrers, and the Earl of Lancaster, while among the lady 

 recipients were the king's daughter Isabella, the ladies Ulster, Juliers, Wake 

 and Segrave, and Darcy. These ladies, with others of high rank, watched 

 the king and seventeen knights joust with the Earl of Lancaster and thirteen 

 knights, and it is not unlikely that here the incident took place which 

 suggested to the chivalrous king the founding of the Order of the Garter. 138 



In May, 1 349, the Black Death which had first appeared in England in 

 the preceding year showed itself in Derbyshire, and for the next four months 

 raged with fury throughout the kingdom. 



At Poictiers in 1356, ' a battle far more hazardous and far better fought 

 than that of Crecy,' 139 Staffordshire was represented by Edward le Despenser, 

 James d'Audley, Sir Richard de Stafford, and Ralph Basset of Drayton, who 

 was as doughty a knight as his ancestor who won fame at Falkirk. Sir 

 James d'Audley and his four squires, two of whom, by name Dutton and 

 Delves, were Staffordshire men, performed prodigies of valour, fighting in 

 front of the army. 140 



For the expedition of 1359, which ended in the treaty of Bretigny, 

 Staffordshire contributed forty to the number of mounted archers ' of the 

 best and strongest in their counties, clothed uniformly,' U1 who were now 

 superseding the hobelars, and were like the dragoons of the seventeenth 

 century, rather mounted infantry than regular cavalry. One of the 

 commissioners who drew up the treaty which ended the war was Ralph 

 the great Earl of Stafford, a man renowned in war and peace, who had been 

 created earl by Edward III, and was one of the original Knights of the 

 Garter. He died in 1372. His son Hugh was worthy of him, and equally 

 active in his country's business; in 1376, at the meeting of the Good 

 Parliament, although he belonged to the court party, he was one of the four 

 earls appointed with four bishops arid four barons to confer with the 

 Commons, 142 and was a member of the standing council which the Commons 

 proposed and the king accepted. 



When John of Gaunt in 1373 was smitten with the 'midsummer 

 madness ' which made him dream of conquering France and Castile he had 

 Tutbury Castle, which had been neglected since the downfall of Thomas of 

 Lancaster, prepared for his children and the ' queen of Castile.' It was one 

 of the numerous castles, more than thirty in number, which this great 

 prince held in England, and had come to him through his marriage with 



'" Archaeohgia, xxxi, 118. m ReKj. six, 87. 



139 Oman, Art of War in Middle Ages, 632. " CoU. (Salt Arch. Soc.), viii, 99. 



141 Ibid. 102. I4> Stubbs, Const. Hist. (ed. 4), ii, 449. 



236 



