30 
the year of oiir Lord 1439, and in the 17th year of the reign of 
King Henry the Sixth, came to the city of York, as the chief place 
of aU the north, and the same sword formerly of the aforesaid 
Emperor, covered with ruhy-colonred velvet upon the scahbard 
thereof, together with red scorpions worked in silk thereupon, he 
delivered to that honourable man Thomas Eidley, then Mayor of 
the same city, and gladly presented the same to be borne for ever 
before every Mayor of the same city for the time being at their 
pleasure. So that every Mayor in his time should rejoice in a 
variety of so many principal swords, and thence praise and honour 
should increase and multiply to all, and the people in passing 
might exclaim with joy and commendation, ‘Behold the two 
swords of the city of York, the fii’st, namely, of Elng Eichard; the 
other, indeed, of the Emperor.’ A third sword remains for daily 
use, not obtained by the gift of a king, but, truly, provided at the 
cost of the citizens. And thus the city of York is adorned with as 
many as three swords, each having two edges.” Such is the 
account of the presentation of the sword of the Emperor Sigismund 
as it appears in the contemporary record entered upon the archives 
of the Corporation. The visit of the Emperor-elect to England, 
a few months after the victory achieved by Eung Hemy the Eifth 
at Agincourt, was an event of deep significance in the eyes of all 
Europe. It took place during the sitting of the Council of Con¬ 
stance, that solemn ecclesiastical congress which had been brought 
about chiefly by the exertions of Sigismund, who was intrusted by 
the Council with the task of effecting a union of all the western 
powers of Christendom to support the Pa23al authority, and to arrest 
the progress of those heretical doctrines of which Huss in Grermany, 
and Wickliffe in England, were the great teachers. He found the 
English monarch but too ready to listen to his overtures, and to 
enter into any engagement that might contribute either to the sup¬ 
pression of the new heresy, or to the accomplishment of Henry’s 
favourite design of subjecting France to his sway. Sigismimd 
landed at Dover on the 30th of April, 1416, and was welcomed by 
the English monarch with the most elaborate pomp and magnifi¬ 
cence. He was entertained with a succession of those sjDlendid 
feasts and knightly sports which the Enghsh court was so well able 
to devise. Soon after his arrival the Emperor was created a knight 
of the Carter. He was solemnly enstalled on the 7th of May, the 
day on which the festival of St. Ceorge was celebrated at "Windsor. 
In an account of his master’s visit to England, given by Sigismimd’s 
