Henry's Acquaintance with the Table of Honor 211 



The order of precedence was determined according to the 

 general principles: 'noch seyner ere, dy her [er] vordynet hette 

 in ritterlichen gescheften* (yElt. Hochm.) ; *nach ritterlichen 

 ere* {ih.) ; 'der [Conrad] was der gepreiseste in ritterlichen 

 gescheften, wen her was obir lant gerethen zcu dem heiligen 

 grabe' {ih.Y The ceremony had never before been so brilliant 

 (John of Posilge). 



1392. In the autumn of this year, the marshal, Engelhard 

 Rabe, held another table of honor at Johannisburg, south of 

 Lake Spirding. Apel Fuchs of Franconia, who bore the banner 

 of St. George, began the board.^ 



1393. In January of this year there was an expedition against 

 Grodno, in which the. Duke of Guelders was present,^ and with 

 reference to which one historian speaks of a table of honor 

 being proclaimed* ; but I find no confirmation of this. 



1400. The decline of the institution is shown by its employ- 

 ment as a mark of honor to the wife of Vitovt in the summer 

 of 1400, when she and the chief members of her retinue were 

 entertained at Marienburg. At this banquet the guests were 

 presented with jewels and gilded drinking-cups, steeds and 

 palfreys, etc. 



With this the ceremony seems to have ended. It may well 

 have originated in an impulse derived from Edward Ill's insti- 

 tution of the Order of the Garter, which in turn may have been 

 influenced by the stories of Arthur's Roimd Table.^ It was now 

 at the end of its usefulness, as were the raids which it served 

 to encourage.^ 



^We see that if Henry had already visited the Holy Sepulchre, as 

 he was to do early in 1393, this of itself would have been a strong 

 recommendation. 



== Wigand {S. R. P. 2. 648-9) ; Dlugosz, Hist. Pol. 1. 137; Voigt 5. 624. 



» Voigt 5- 636-7. ^ 



* Caro 3- 154- 



''Voigt 5. 712; Treitschke i. 81. There had been a 'Round Table/ 

 presided over by Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, in 1328 (Knighton; 

 Avesbury). See also Bateson, MedicBval England, pp. 310-1, and especi- 

 ally Archcuologia 31 (1846). 104 ff. 



*Caro (3. 153) speaks of 'die allmalig in Europa sich verbreitende 

 Anerkennung der Thatsache, dass mit Ausnahme von Samogitien kein 



