14 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
A Tale of Heraldry. 
The ‘‘Joust’’ or ‘‘Tournaments’’ 
began with the Germans. It is pop- 
ularly supposed that they were mock 
battles with blunted weapons in 
which mere skill and strength was 
the object of the contest and the dis- 
play of spectacular horsemanship, 
but often they were attended with 
severe wounds and fatalities. 
The Germans of the tenth and 
eleventh centuries, when these 
jousts may be considered to have 
arisen, were semi-barbaric, men of 
savage strength and they met not so 
much for friendly tests and popular 
amusement as for a display of their 
iron powers and many a field was 
made gory by slaughter in a pre- 
sumably friendly contest. 
The phrase ‘‘passage at arms’’ 
originated at the tournaments where 
a narrow pass was simulated, a 
cramped, limited place of battle in 
which space of attack and defense 
many lost their lives when nothing 
was to be gained but honors in the 
form of a crest or a court beauty’s 
smile. 
These tournaments were held on 
special occasions and some were of 
unusual magnificence. 
One of the most costly and _pic- 
turesque was that which originated 
in the scheming mind of Cardinal 
Wolsey; for it was not unusual to 
see in the thick of the contest the 
armorial insignias of the church. 
Literary bonors were ever the pre- 
rogative of the church, but combined 
with this a virile, martial spirit often 
seen in the ban of human progress. 
In the battle of human life the insig- 
nias of the church entwine with the 
ensignias of the state in spite of the- 
ories of separation. 
In the song and story of ‘‘The 
Field of the Cloth of Gold’’ we find 
this brilliant ecclesiastic bringing 
Henry VIII and Francis I of France 
and their satelites together in a gor- 
geous tournament. 
The flower of European aristoc- 
racy was there and nobility and roy- 
alty entered the lists, as on other oc- 
easions, in which they too, as the 
semi-barbaric Germans, shed each 
others blood, as set forth in the lines 
by Keats: 
‘And in the midst, “mong thousand 
heraldries * * * 
BY REV. LOUIS H. RUGE, 
(COPYRIGHTED, 1910, BY L. H. RUGE.) 
IV. 
THE TOURNAMENTS. 
A shielded scutcheon blushed with 
blood of queens and kings.’’ 
Almost three thousand tents from 
England, we are told were on the 
field in France whére the tourna- 
ment was held in the town of Giusne 
then belonging to England. 
The King of England’s pavilion 
was a very fountain of costly wines 
and liquors and in letters of gold 
the bibulous were invited, ‘‘Make 
good cheer who will.’’ 
Francis’ tent was draped outside 
with cloth of gold from which origi- 
nated the title of this famous tour- 
nament. 
To outrival one another on this 
occasion the nobility spread them- 
selves,—an eternal characteristic,—in 
selves,—an eternal charcteristic,—in 
such peacock splendor of equipments 
and royal robes that laid the es- 
tates of the nobility under heavy 
mortgages for generations, some 
never recovering from the poverty 
and seediness, until American mil- 
lons arose to burnish them up. 
This selling out everything for the 
honors of a day is not confined to 
any class, but proverbial of all since 
the days of Esau. 
It is said that the apparel of the 
ladies . was beyond description, 
whether in lavishness or as ques- 
tionable is not stated and may do 
as a general description for all times 
on state occasions, instead of the 
strained attempt by society scrib- 
blers to characterize dresses, best 
described as ‘‘dreams,”’ always re- 
membering the nature of dreams. 
In those days there was little dif- 
ferentiation, however, as to sex as 
the knights had their pavilion so 
gorgeously decorated with brilliant 
trappings and their horses and per- 
sons so magnificently apparelled as 
to make the beauties of the peerage 
turn green with envy. However, 
his sun has set sufficiently in the 
splendor of the wives and daughters’ 
luxuries since those days that a bat- 
tered hat of several seasons’ wear is 
sufficient for him. 
The wealthier the knight and the 
larger his credit, the more magnifi- 
cent the glamor in trappings of 
cloth of gold, silvered spangles and 
costly furs, above which shone 
their heraldic devices distinguishing 
them in the conflicts. 
Those old tilting fields of chivalry 
comprised all manner of trials to 
test the spirit of the knights from 
single handed contests to pitched 
battles. 
The field became the court of 
love’s disputes, a more civilized test 
than the bloody duel. 
It was often the supreme court of 
justice. Often all that was virtuous 
and valuable depended upon a man’s 
power and skill alone. Fame, for- 
tune, power, innocence, justice, love 
were the stakes for which they 
strove. 
The issues of the conflict were at- 
tributed to providence, thus often 
laying the odium of the triumph of 
wrong upon God in which even the 
innocent acquiesced. 
In the more friendly nature of 
these tournaments Montague says 
he saw ‘‘the outward spirit of a chiy- 
alry whose humanizing influence con- 
duced so rapidly to the extinction of 
the last traces of barbarism.’’ 
They often proved at last to be 
contests of the highest character and 
courage in which men scorned to be- 
tray a weakness. 
For an unknightly deed, for any 
foul or malevolent act a knight was 
publicly stripped of his armor 
which was broken and thrown into 
the dust of the highway, likewise 
his shield and spurs, and his banners 
were torn to shreds. With a loud 
voice the herald then would ask: 
‘““Who is this?’’ and answer, ‘‘A 
coward who has been false to his ~~ 
plighted faith.’’ Then the ceremony _ 
of the dead was read over him and ~ 
he was a knightly corpse ever after. 
And indeed to a true knight death 
was preferable. 
Some such social and political deg- 
radation as this, with name or sena- - 
torial toga dragged in scorn along 
the streets, might well be feared by 
many in high positions where laws 
and courts and even prison walls are 
defied. 
For the knightly honors won, dis- 
tributed by the hand of sovereign or 
court beauty, the true knight braved 
wounds and death and counted it an 
achievement beyond gold; and well 
may descendants proudly bear the 
trophies won so valiently in these 
