172 Chaucer and Henry, Earl of Derby 



An hundred lord^es^ hadde he with him there, 



Monumental Effigies, p. 82), Perhaps Chaucer was alluding to Henry's 

 foreshadowed kingship in thus endowing him, as 'king of Inde', with the 

 falcon (according to Juliana Berners, the gerfalcon belongs to a king). 



How Henry prized an exceptional falcon is shown by the fact that he 

 paid on occasion for a single one $250 (in 1387; Wylie 4. 158), $375 

 (in 1393; 4. I79)j and even (for a sparrow-hawk) $1200 (4. 433); at 

 Milan {D. A. 287. 10) he buys a great glove for the falcon {le fawcon). 

 Froissart represents him as feeding a falcon at a critical moment (Kervyn 

 16. 232). In 1402 his son John is the king's master oi the falcons 

 (Wylie 4. 222), and in 1408 is master falconer of England (4. 209, cf. 

 210). Falcons, like eagles, appear in his goldsmith's work (3. 103), 

 especially a white falcon on a green ground (4. 194), six white faucons 

 d'or (4. 196), and a falcon of silver (ib.). 



The falcon was an occasional badge of Edward HI (Richard the 

 Redeles, notes on 2. 9, 157; Palliser, Historic Devices, pp. 361, 371), as 

 was also the eagle (Wright, op. cit. i. 41, 46), and is associated with him 

 in the following lines (85-98) from Wynnere and Wastoure (1347-8) : 

 And als I waytted withinn I was warre sone 

 Of a comliche kynge crowned with golde, 

 Sett one a silken bynche with septure in honde. 

 One of the lovelyeste ledis — whoso loveth hym in hert — 

 That ever segge under sonn sawe with his eghne. 

 This kynge was comliche clade in kirtill and mantill — 

 Bery brown was his berde — brouderde with fewlys 

 (Ffawkons of fyne go[l]de fiakerande with wynges; 

 And ichone bare in ble blewe, als me thoghte, 

 A grete gartare of ynde), girde in the myddes. 

 Ffull gayly was that grete lorde girde in the myddis : 

 A brighte belte of ble broudride with fewles, 

 With drakes and with dukkes — daderande tham semede 

 Ffor ferdnes of fawcons fete, lesse fawked thay were. 

 From Edward it seems to have passed to John of Gaunt, in whose privy 

 seal, as used before 1371, two falcons appear as supporters (Armitage- 

 Smith, p. 456). Perhaps in rivalry with John of Gaunt or Henry, it 

 was also used by Richard H toward the end of his life, notably at the 

 abortive Windsor tournament of 1399 (Kervyn 16. 151; Ramsay 2. 348; 

 Richard the Redeles, end of note on 2. 2). It may be noted as a curiosity 

 that Lionel, Duke of Qarence (cf. pp. 179 ff.) bequeathed by will a 

 war-horse called Gerfalcon. 

 As Troilus escorted Criseyde toward the Greek camp (5. 65-6), 

 With hauke on bond, and with an huge route 

 Of knightes, 

 so Henry rides forth here. 



' A poetical round number. Henry had been traveling with seven 

 knights, ten esquires, two heralds, and some twenty-five to thirty valets 



