Henry's Acquaintance with the Table of Honor 209 



1394, January or February. John Beaufort.^ The eldest 

 natural son of John of Gaunt by Katharine Swynford was pos- 

 sibly with his half-brother Henry on the latter's return to Eng- 

 land in 1391.^ At all events, he (Wigand calls him Bekvort) 

 was in Prussia in 1394,^ and took part in an expedition to Grodno, 

 Novogrodek, Lyda, and Merecz, in which 2200 prisoners were 

 made, and 1400 horses and much cattle carried off.* John had 

 been with Henry at St. Inglevert in the spring of 1390, and had 

 actually gone on the Barbary crusade,^ as Henry had planned 

 to do.« 



7. HENRY'S ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE TABLE OF HONOR, 

 AND ITS BEARING ON THE DATE OF THE PROLOGUE 



Henry would, no doubt, as we have already intimated,'^ have 

 talked with Chaucer about the Teutonic table of honor. That 

 Chaucer should have learned about it from any other source is 

 unlikely, for we know definitely of only five occasions when it 

 was held — in 1377, 1385, 139 1, 1392, and 1400. 



1377. This was described in a previous article.® It was held 

 at Konigsberg before the reyse.^ Henry would probably have 

 heard it described by a prominent participant, Albert HI of 

 Austria.^^ 



1385. In this year there was a great feast at Konigsberg, 

 at which were present 55 knights, 7 barons, 7 bannerets, and 



^Born ca. 1372 (Armitage- Smith, pp. 391, 462, 464-5); the Percy MS. 

 78 (see the last reference) says that he was born in the lifetime of 

 Blanche, that is, before Sept. 12, 1369; others say ca. 1375 {D. A., p. 301). 



^D. A., p. 301; but cf. p. XXXV. 



'Wigand {S. R. P. 2. 653) ; Voigt 6. 10; Caro 3. 154-5- 



*Voigt 6. 11; Caro 3. 154. By March 14 he was in Dantzic, where 

 he had to give a note for 312 gold nobles, probably for his return- 

 fare, and that of his companions Stephen Scrope and three others, to 

 England (note to Wigand, as above). 



^D. A., p. xxxviii; cf. Le Roulx, pp. 176, 242. 



^D. A., pp. xxxix-xliii. 



^ See above, p. 196. 



^'Beginning the Board in Prussia,' Jour. Eng. and Germ. Phil. 14. 

 375-388. 



'Voigt 5. 278-9. 

 " See above, p. 196. 



Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. XX. 15 1916 



