1915.] THE CHEVAUCHEE DE ST. MICHEL. 249 



predecessors were wont to do from ancient times. And he 

 answers freely therein and puts himself upon the jury of the 

 country, but he cannot show any Royal grant made to him 

 therein, nor that it was allowed elsewhere in the Court of the 

 Lord the King, but only that he says they were so used from 

 ancient times." 



The date of 1309 proves that the theory put forward by 

 many of our historians, that this Chevauchee was derived from 

 the Corpus Christi festival, is incorrect, as the Corpus Christi 

 procession was not instituted until 1261, nor generally enforced 

 until early in the 14th Century, whereas we see that in 1309 the 

 Chevauchee was regarded as an institution dating from 

 " ancient times." Also, the earliest official notices of the 

 Chevauchee prove that in the 16th and early 17th Centuries 

 the ceremony invariably took place on a Monday, whereas the 

 festival of Corpus Christi has always beeu held on a Thursday. 



The books of the Court of St. Michel do not seem to have 

 been officially kept until 1507, the greater part of them are 

 now to be found in the Greffe of our Royal Court. The earliest 

 notice of the Chevauchee I have come across in these records is 

 dated 26th April, 1530, when, at the Chief Pleas of the Court 

 held after Easter, it is ordained that the Chevauchee shall take 

 place "le prochain lundy d'apres le jor St. Nichollasen moys de 

 May prochain." This St. Nicholas, who is no longer to be 

 found in the Roman Breviary, was a Swedish Saint whose 

 festival was kept either on the 6th or the 9th of May ; so that 

 the Chevauchee was then apparently originally held about a 

 fortnight earlier than in later years — for in 1536 it is ordained 

 to be held " le lundy de la my May si le temps est convenable." 

 The change in the date might possibly be due to the change in 

 the calendar. 



From 1599 upwards the last Monday in May seems to have 

 been the generally recognized date, and it took place regularly 

 every three years until 1644, when the Civil War, in which the 

 Islands were deeply involved, was in progress, and we find that 

 the Chevauchee was obliged to be postponed, at the request of 

 the Lieutenant-Governor, owing to the danger incurred in 

 passing along the roads exposed to the fire of the enemy ; and 

 this state of things lasted until 1657. Again after 1676 the 

 Chevauchee was held very irregularly, being continually put 

 off for various reasons, the absence of the Governor, the 

 request of the King's Receiver, etc., and now, when it did take 

 place, we find that it no longer was fixed exclusively on a 

 Monday, but on any convenient day, either in the last week in 

 May or the first week in June. In the 18th Century it was also 

 very often put off on such excuse as war with France, scarcity 

 of grain, the number of alien immigrants in the Island, the 

 disinclination of the members, or the expenses, which had to 

 be defrayed out of the Crown revenues. 



