202 Chaucer and Henry, Earl of Derby 



Then, as they approached Vilna, the banner of Ragnit was the 

 first to cross the water, and there a certain knight, John de Loudeham 

 (Lutam),^ was slain. They attacked the wooden house, and quickly 

 took it, and among the many slain was a king named Korygiello 

 (Karigal).- . . . Duke Conrad^ was slain with an arrow. Here 

 they remained five weeks in continual conflict day and night.* . . . 



6. OTHER ENGLISHMEN IN PRUSSIA' 



Henry was by no means the first Englishman of rank to take 

 service with the Teutonic Order; for more than half a cen- 

 tury adventurous and ambitious spirits, among them men of 

 the highest rank, had sought Prussia in quest of worldly renown, 

 or at the bidding of the supreme pontiff of Christendom. 



1328. As early as 1328, we find that Englishmen came to fight 

 in the cause of the Order.*^ The Pope had proclaimed a crusade 

 against the heathen Lithuanians, and incited the Dominicans to 

 preach it zealously in various countries. King John of Bohemia, 

 with a distinguished body of noblemen, was present, and the 

 siege of Medewageln in February, 1329, is memorable for two 

 events — the sparing of three thousand prisoners at the inter- 

 cession of King John, when the Grand Master, Werner von 

 Orseln (1324-1330), would have had them cut down, and his 

 loss of one eye through the excessive cold and dampness^ (but 

 Liitzow, Bohemia, Everyman's Library, p. 64, places this in 1336). 



1331, July. Robert Ufford, first Earl of Suffolk.® He is said 

 to have led a hundred knights. The war in question was one 



^This was in the battle at the ford (Aug. 28). John de Loudeham 

 was aged 25 (D. A., pp. 303-4)- 



' See p. 199, note 2. 



'Takvyl, a brother of Vitovt; Conrad was his baptismal name 

 (Caro 3. 100). 



* Among modern accounts of the adventure, cf. those of Voigt (5. 

 541-9) ; Caro (3. 98-100) ; and Ramsay (2. 278-9). 



^ This section, while somewhat of a digression, is introduced for the 

 sake of its bearing on the general argument. 

 ''Voigt 4. 428. 



* Voigt 4. 426 if. ; Caro 2. 131-2. 



* Wigand {S. R. P. 2. 479) : 'Multi peregrini de Anglia advenerant, 

 Thomas de Offart comes,' etc.; cf. Capgrave, De Illustrihus Henricis. 

 But in 1331 there was no earl of that name. The first Earl of Suffolk 

 was Robert Ufford (ca. 1299-1369), created 1337. Wigand must of 

 course have written after this date. 



