Knights, with a long retinue of their squires,
In gaudy liveries march and quaint attires;
One laced the helm, another held the lance,
A third the shining buckler did advance.
The courser paw'd the ground with restless feet,
And snorting foam'd and champ'd the golden bit.
The smiths and armourers on palfreys ride,
Files in their hands, and hammers at their side;
And nails for loosen'd spears, and thongs for shields provide.
The yeomen guard the streets in seemly bands;
And clowns come crowding on, with cudgels in their hands.
Palamon and Arcite
The condition of the English nation was at this time sufficiently
miserable. King Richard was absent a prisoner, and in the power
of the perfidious and cruel Duke of Austria. Even the very place
of his captivity was uncertain, and his fate but very imperfectly
known to the generality of his subjects, who were, in the
meantime, a prey to every species of subaltern oppression.
Prince John, in league with Philip of France, Coeur-de-Lion's
mortal enemy, was using every species of influence with the Duke
of Austria, to prolong the captivity of his brother Richard, to
whom he stood indebted for so many favours. In the meantime, he
was strengthening his own faction in the kingdom, of which he
proposed to dispute the succession, in case of the King's death,
with the legitimate heir, Arthur Duke of Brittany, son of
Geoffrey Plantagenet, the elder brother of John. This
usurpation, it is well known, he afterwards effected. His own
character being light, profligate, and perfidious, John easily
attached to his person and faction, not only all who had reason
to dread the resentment of Richard for criminal proceedings
during his absence, but also the numerous class of "lawless
resolutes," whom the crusades had turned back on their country,
accomplished in the vices of the East, impoverished in substance,
and hardened in character, and who placed their hopes of harvest
in civil commotion. To these causes of public distress and
apprehension, must be added, the multitude of outlaws, who,
driven to despair by the oppression of the feudal nobility, and
the severe exercise of the forest laws, banded together in large
gangs, and, keeping possession of the forests and the wastes, set
at defiance the justice and magistracy of the country. The
nobles themselves, each fortified within his own castle, and
playing the petty sovereign over his own dominions, were the
leaders of bands scarce less lawless and oppressive than those of
the avowed depredators. To maintain these retainers, and to
support the extravagance and magnificence which their pride
induced them to affect, the nobility borrowed sums of money from
the Jews at the most usurious interest, which gnawed into their
estates like consuming cankers, scarce to be cured unless when
circumstances gave them an opportunity of getting free, by
exercising upon their creditors some act of unprincipled
violence.
Under the various burdens imposed by this unhappy state of
affairs, the people of England suffered deeply for the present,
and had yet more dreadful cause to fear for the future. To
augment their misery, a contagious disorder of a dangerous nature
spread through the land; and, rendered more virulent by the
uncleanness, the indifferent food, and the wretched lodging of
the lower classes, swept off many whose fate the survivors were
tempted to envy, as exempting them from the evils which were to
come.
Yet amid these accumulated distresses, the poor as well as the
rich, the vulgar as well as the noble, in the event of a
tournament, which was the grand spectacle of that age, felt as
much interested as the half-starved citizen of Madrid, who has
not a real left to buy provisions for his family, feels in the
issue of a bull-feast. Neither duty nor infirmity could keep
youth or age from such exhibitions. The Passage of Arms, as it
was called, which was to take place at Ashby, in the county of
Leicester, as champions of the first renown were to take the
field in the presence of Prince John himself, who was expected to
grace the lists, had attracted universal attention, and an
immense confluence of persons of all ranks hastened upon the
appointed morning to the place of combat.
The scene was singularly romantic. On the verge of a wood, which
approached to within a mile of the town of Ashby, was an
extensive meadow, of the finest and most beautiful green turf,
surrounded on one side by the forest, and fringed on the other by
straggling oak-trees, some of which had grown to an immense size.
The ground, as if fashioned on purpose for the martial display
which was intended, sloped gradually down on all sides to a level
bottom, which was enclosed for the lists with strong palisades,
forming a space of a quarter of a mile in length, and about half
as broad. The form of the enclosure was an oblong square, save
that the corners were considerably rounded off, in order to
afford more convenience for the spectators. The openings for the
entry of the combatants were at the northern and southern
extremities of the lists, accessible by strong wooden gates, each
wide enough to admit two horsemen riding abreast. At each of
these portals were stationed two heralds, attended by six
trumpets, as many pursuivants, and a strong body of men-at-arms
for maintaining order, and ascertaining the quality of the
knights who proposed to engage in this martial game.
On a platform beyond the southern entrance, formed by a natural
elevation of the ground, were pitched five magnificent pavilions,
adorned with pennons of russet and black, the chosen colours of
the five knights challengers. The cords of the tents were of the
same colour. Before each pavilion was suspended the shield of
the knight by whom it was occupied, and beside it stood his
squire, quaintly disguised as a salvage or silvan man, or in some
other fantastic dress, according to the taste of his master, and
the character he was pleased to assume during the game.*
* This sort of masquerade is supposed to have occasioned the
introduction of supporters into the science of heraldry.
The central pavilion, as the place of honour, had been assigned
to Brian be Bois-Guilbert, whose renown in all games of chivalry,
no less than his connexions with the knights who had undertaken
this Passage of Arms, had occasioned him to be eagerly received
into the company of the challengers, and even adopted as their
chief and leader, though he had so recently joined them. On one
side of his tent were pitched those of Reginald Front-de-Boeuf
and Richard de Malvoisin, and on the other was the pavilion of
Hugh de Grantmesnil, a noble baron in the vicinity, whose
ancestor had been Lord High Steward of England in the time of the
Conqueror, and his son William Rufus. Ralph de Vipont, a knight
of St John of Jerusalem, who had some ancient possessions at a
place called Heather, near Ashby-de-la-Zouche, occupied the fifth
pavilion. From the entrance into the lists, a gently sloping
passage, ten yards in breadth, led up to the platform on which
the tents were pitched. It was strongly secured by a palisade on
each side, as was the esplanade in front of the pavilions, and
the whole was guarded by men-at-arms.
The northern access to the lists terminated in a similar entrance
of thirty feet in breadth, at the extremity of which was a large
enclosed space for such knights as might be disposed to enter the
lists with the challengers, behind which were placed tents
containing refreshments of every kind for their accommodation,
with armourers, tarriers, and other attendants, in readiness to
give their services wherever they might be necessary.
The exterior of the lists was in part occupied by temporary
galleries, spread with tapestry and carpets, and accommodated
with cushions for the convenience of those ladies and nobles who
were expected to attend the tournament. A narrow space, betwixt
these galleries and the lists, gave accommodation for yeomanry
and spectators of a better degree than the mere vulgar, and might
be compared to the pit of a theatre. The promiscuous multitude
arranged themselves upon large banks of turf prepared for the
purpose, which, aided by the natural elevation of the ground,
enabled them to overlook the galleries, and obtain a fair view
into the lists. Besides the accommodation which these stations
afforded, many hundreds had perched themselves on the branches of
the trees which surrounded the meadow; and even the steeple of a
country church, at some distance, was crowded with spectators.
It only remains to notice respecting the general arrangement,
that one gallery in the very centre of the eastern side of the
lists, and consequently exactly opposite to the spot where the
shock of the combat was to take place, was raised higher than the
others, more richly decorated, and graced by a sort of throne and
canopy, on which the royal arms were emblazoned. Squires, pages,
and yeomen in rich liveries, waited around this place of honour,
which was designed for Prince John and his attendants. Opposite
to this royal gallery was another, elevated to the same height,
on the western side of the lists; and more gaily, if less
sumptuously decorated, than that destined for the Prince himself.
A train of pages and of young maidens, the most beautiful who
could be selected, gaily dressed in fancy habits of green and
pink, surrounded a throne decorated in the same colours. Among
pennons and flags bearing wounded hearts, burning hearts,
bleeding hearts, bows and quivers, and all the commonplace
emblems of the triumphs of Cupid, a blazoned inscription informed
the spectators, that this seat of honour was designed for "La
Royne de las Beaulte et des Amours". But who was to represent
the Queen of Beauty and of Love on the present occasion no one
was prepared to guess.
Meanwhile, spectators of every description thronged forward to
occupy their respective stations, and not without many quarrels
concerning those which they were entitled to hold. Some of these
were settled by the men-at-arms with brief ceremony; the shafts
of their battle-axes, and pummels of their swords, being readily
employed as arguments to convince the more refractory. Others,
which involved the rival claims of more elevated persons, were
determined by the heralds, or by the two marshals of the field,
William de Wyvil, and Stephen de Martival, who, armed at all
points, rode up and down the lists to enforce and preserve good
order among the spectators.
Gradually the galleries became filled with knights and nobles, in
their robes of peace, whose long and rich-tinted mantles were
contrasted with the gayer and more splendid habits of the ladies,
who, in a greater proportion than even the men themselves,
thronged to witness a sport, which one would have thought too
bloody and dangerous to afford their sex much pleasure. The
lower and interior space was soon filled by substantial yeomen
and burghers, and such of the lesser gentry, as, from modesty,
poverty, or dubious title, durst not assume any higher place. It
was of course amongst these that the most frequent disputes for
precedence occurred.
"Dog of an unbeliever," said an old man, whose threadbare tunic
bore witness to his poverty, as his sword, and dagger, and golden
chain intimated his pretensions to rank,---"whelp of a she-wolf!
darest thou press upon a Christian, and a Norman gentleman of the
blood of Montdidier?"
This rough expostulation was addressed to no other than our
acquaintance Isaac, who, richly and even magnificently dressed
in a gaberdine ornamented with lace and lined with fur, was
endeavouring to make place in the foremost row beneath the
gallery for his daughter, the beautiful Rebecca, who had joined
him at Ashby, and who was now hanging on her father's arm, not a
little terrified by the popular displeasure which seemed
generally excited by her parent's presumption. But Isaac, though
we have seen him sufficiently timid on other occasions, knew well
that at present he had nothing to fear. It was not in places of
general resort, or where their equals were assembled, that any
avaricious or malevolent noble durst offer him injury. At such
meetings the Jews were under the protection of the general law;
and if that proved a weak assurance, it usually happened that
there were among the persons assembled some barons, who, for
their own interested motives, were ready to act as their
protectors. On the present occasion, Isaac felt more than
usually confident, being aware that Prince John was even then in
the very act of negotiating a large loan from the Jews of York,
to be secured upon certain jewels and lands. Isaac's own share
in this transaction was considerable, and he well knew that the
Prince's eager desire to bring it to a conclusion would ensure
him his protection in the dilemma in which he stood.
Emboldened by these considerations, the Jew pursued his point,
and jostled the Norman Christian, without respect either to his
descent, quality, or religion. The complaints of the old man,
however, excited the indignation of the bystanders. One of
these, a stout well-set yeoman, arrayed in Lincoln green, having
twelve arrows stuck in his belt, with a baldric and badge of
silver, and a bow of six feet length in his hand, turned short
round, and while his countenance, which his constant exposure to
weather had rendered brown as a hazel nut, grew darker with
anger, he advised the Jew to remember that all the wealth he had
acquired by sucking the blood of his miserable victims had but
swelled him like a bloated spider, which might be overlooked
while he kept in a comer, but would be crushed if it ventured
into the light. This intimation, delivered in Norman-English
with a firm voice and a stern aspect, made the Jew shrink back;
and he would have probably withdrawn himself altogether from a
vicinity so dangerous, had not the attention of every one been
called to the sudden entrance of Prince John, who at that moment
entered the lists, attended by a numerous and gay train,
consisting partly of laymen, partly of churchmen, as light in
their dress, and as gay in their demeanour, as their companions.
Among the latter was the Prior of Jorvaulx, in the most gallant
trim which a dignitary of the church could venture to exhibit.
Fur and gold were not spared in his garments; and the points of
his boots, out-heroding the preposterous fashion of the time,
turned up so very far, as to be attached, not to his knees
merely, but to his very girdle, and effectually prevented him
from putting his foot into the stirrup. This, however, was a
slight inconvenience to the gallant Abbot, who, perhaps, even
rejoicing in the opportunity to display his accomplished
horsemanship before so many spectators, especially of the fair
sex, dispensed with the use of these supports to a timid rider.
The rest of Prince John's retinue consisted of the favourite
leaders of his mercenary troops, some marauding barons and
profligate attendants upon the court, with several Knights
Templars and Knights of St John.
It may be here remarked, that the knights of these two orders
were accounted hostile to King Richard, having adopted the side
of Philip of France in the long train of disputes which took
place in Palestine betwixt that monarch and the lion-hearted
King of England. It was the well-known consequence of this
discord that Richard's repeated victories had been rendered
fruitless, his romantic attempts to besiege Jerusalem
disappointed, and the fruit of all the glory which he had
acquired had dwindled into an uncertain truce with the Sultan
Saladin. With the same policy which had dictated the conduct of
their brethren in the Holy Land, the Templars and Hospitallers in
England and Normandy attached themselves to the faction of Prince
John, having little reason to desire the return of Richard to
England, or the succession of Arthur, his legitimate heir. For
the opposite reason, Prince John hated and contemned the few
Saxon families of consequence which subsisted in England, and
omitted no opportunity of mortifying and affronting them; being
conscious that his person and pretensions were disliked by them,
as well as by the greater part of the English commons, who feared
farther innovation upon their rights and liberties, from a
sovereign of John's licentious and tyrannical disposition.
Attended by this gallant equipage, himself well mounted, and
splendidly dressed in crimson and in gold, bearing upon his hand
a falcon, and having his head covered by a rich fur bonnet,
adorned with a circle of precious stones, from which his long
curled hair escaped and overspread his shoulders, Prince John,
upon a grey and high-mettled palfrey, caracoled within the lists
at the head of his jovial party, laughing loud with his train,
and eyeing with all the boldness of royal criticism the beauties
who adorned the lofty galleries.
Those who remarked in the physiognomy of the Prince a dissolute
audacity, mingled with extreme haughtiness and indifference to
the feelings of others could not yet deny to his countenance that
sort of comeliness which belongs to an open set of features, well
formed by nature, modelled by art to the usual rules of courtesy,
yet so far frank and honest, that they seemed as if they
disclaimed to conceal the natural workings of the soul. Such an
expression is often mistaken for manly frankness, when in truth
it arises from the reckless indifference of a libertine
disposition, conscious of superiority of birth, of wealth, or of
some other adventitious advantage, totally unconnected with
personal merit. To those who did not think so deeply, and they
were the greater number by a hundred to one, the splendour of
Prince John's "rheno", (i.e. fur tippet,) the richness of his
cloak, lined with the most costly sables, his maroquin boots and
golden spurs, together with the grace with which he managed his
palfrey, were sufficient to merit clamorous applause.
In his joyous caracole round the lists, the attention of the
Prince was called by the commotion, not yet subsided, which had
attended the ambitious movement of Isaac towards the higher
places of the assembly. The quick eye of Prince John instantly
recognised the Jew, but was much more agreeably attracted by the
beautiful daughter of Zion, who, terrified by the tumult, clung
close to the arm of her aged father.
The figure of Rebecca might indeed have compared with the
proudest beauties of England, even though it had been judged by
as shrewd a connoisseur as Prince John. Her form was exquisitely
symmetrical, and was shown to advantage by a sort of Eastern
dress, which she wore according to the fashion of the females of
her nation. Her turban of yellow silk suited well with the
darkness of her complexion. The brilliancy of her eyes, the
superb arch of her eyebrows, her well-formed aquiline nose, her
teeth as white as pearl, and the profusion of her sable tresses,
which, each arranged in its own little spiral of twisted curls,
fell down upon as much of a lovely neck and bosom as a simarre of
the richest Persian silk, exhibiting flowers in their natural
colours embossed upon a purple ground, permitted to be visible
---all these constituted a combination of loveliness, which
yielded not to the most beautiful of the maidens who surrounded
her. It is true, that of the golden and pearl-studded clasps,
which closed her vest from the throat to the waist, the three
uppermost were left unfastened on account of the heat, which
something enlarged the prospect to which we allude. A diamond
necklace, with pendants of inestimable value, were by this means
also made more conspicuous. The feather of an ostrich, fastened
in her turban by an agraffe set with brilliants, was another
distinction of the beautiful Jewess, scoffed and sneered at by
the proud dames who sat above her, but secretly envied by those
who affected to deride them.
"By the bald scalp of Abraham," said Prince John, "yonder Jewess
must be the very model of that perfection, whose charms drove
frantic the wisest king that ever lived! What sayest thou, Prior
Aymer?---By the Temple of that wise king, which our wiser brother
Richard proved unable to recover, she is the very Bride of the
Canticles!"
"The Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley,"---answered the
Prior, in a sort of snuffling tone; "but your Grace must remember
she is still but a Jewess."
"Ay!" added Prince John, without heeding him, "and there is my
Mammon of unrighteousness too---the Marquis of Marks, the Baron
of Byzants, contesting for place with penniless dogs, whose
threadbare cloaks have not a single cross in their pouches to
keep the devil from dancing there. By the body of St Mark, my
prince of supplies, with his lovely Jewess, shall have a place in
the gallery!---What is she, Isaac? Thy wife or thy daughter, that
Eastern houri that thou lockest under thy arm as thou wouldst thy
treasure-casket?"
"My daughter Rebecca, so please your Grace," answered Isaac, with
a low congee, nothing embarrassed by the Prince's salutation, in
which, however, there was at least as much mockery as courtesy.
"The wiser man thou," said John, with a peal of laughter, in
which his gay followers obsequiously joined. "But, daughter or
wife, she should be preferred according to her beauty and thy
merits.---Who sits above there?" he continued, bending his eye on
the gallery. "Saxon churls, lolling at their lazy length!---out
upon them!---let them sit close, and make room for my prince of
usurers and his lovely daughter. I'll make the hinds know they
must share the high places of the synagogue with those whom the
synagogue properly belongs to."
Those who occupied the gallery to whom this injurious and
unpolite speech was addressed, were the family of Cedric the
Saxon, with that of his ally and kinsman, Athelstane of
Coningsburgh, a personage, who, on account of his descent from
the last Saxon monarchs of England, was held in the highest
respect by all the Saxon natives of the north of England. But
with the blood of this ancient royal race, many of their
infirmities had descended to Athelstane. He was comely in
countenance, bulky and strong in person, and in the flower of his
age---yet inanimate in expression, dull-eyed, heavy-browed,
inactive and sluggish in all his motions, and so slow in
resolution, that the soubriquet of one of his ancestors was
conferred upon him, and he was very generally called Athelstane
the Unready. His friends, and he had many, who, as well as
Cedric, were passionately attached to him, contended that this
sluggish temper arose not from want of courage, but from mere
want of decision; others alleged that his hereditary vice of
drunkenness had obscured his faculties, never of a very acute
order, and that the passive courage and meek good-nature which
remained behind, were merely the dregs of a character that might
have been deserving of praise, but of which all the valuable
parts had flown off in the progress of a long course of brutal
debauchery.
It was to this person, such as we have described him, that the
Prince addressed his imperious command to make place for Isaac
and Rebecca. Athelstane, utterly confounded at an order which
the manners and feelings of the times rendered so injuriously
insulting, unwilling to obey, yet undetermined how to resist,
opposed only the "vis inertiae" to the will of John; and, without
stirring or making any motion whatever of obedience, opened his
large grey eyes, and stared at the Prince with an astonishment
which had in it something extremely ludicrous. But the impatient
John regarded it in no such light.
"The Saxon porker," he said, "is either asleep or minds me not
---Prick him with your lance, De Bracy," speaking to a knight
who rode near him, the leader of a band of Free Companions, or
Condottieri; that is, of mercenaries belonging to no particular
nation, but attached for the time to any prince by whom they were
paid. There was a murmur even among the attendants of Prince
John; but De Bracy, whose profession freed him from all scruples,
extended his long lance over the space which separated the
gallery from the lists, and would have executed the commands of
the Prince before Athelstane the Unready had recovered presence
of mind sufficient even to draw back his person from the weapon,
had not Cedric, as prompt as his companion was tardy, unsheathed,
with the speed of lightning, the short sword which he wore, and
at a single blow severed the point of the lance from the handle.
The blood rushed into the countenance of Prince John. He swore
one of his deepest oaths, and was about to utter some threat
corresponding in violence, when he was diverted from his purpose,
partly by his own attendants, who gathered around him conjuring
him to be patient, partly by a general exclamation of the crowd,
uttered in loud applause of the spirited conduct of Cedric. The
Prince rolled his eyes in indignation, as if to collect some safe
and easy victim; and chancing to encounter the firm glance of the
same archer whom we have already noticed, and who seemed to
persist in his gesture of applause, in spite of the frowning
aspect which the Prince bent upon him, he demanded his reason for
clamouring thus.
"I always add my hollo," said the yeoman, "when I see a good
shot, or a gallant blow."
"Sayst thou?" answered the Prince; "then thou canst hit the white
thyself, I'll warrant."
"A woodsman's mark, and at woodsman's distance, I can hit,"
answered the yeoman.
"And Wat Tyrrel's mark, at a hundred yards," said a voice from
behind, but by whom uttered could not be discerned.
This allusion to the fate of William Rufus, his Relative, at once
incensed and alarmed Prince John. He satisfied himself, however,
with commanding the men-at-arms, who surrounded the lists, to
keep an eye on the braggart, pointing to the yeoman.
"By St Grizzel," he added, "we will try his own skill, who is so
ready to give his voice to the feats of others!"
"I shall not fly the trial," said the yeoman, with the composure
which marked his whole deportment.
"Meanwhile, stand up, ye Saxon churls," said the fiery Prince;
"for, by the light of Heaven, since I have said it, the Jew shall
have his seat amongst ye!"
"By no means, an it please your Grace!---it is not fit for such
as we to sit with the rulers of the land," said the Jew; whose
ambition for precedence though it had led him to dispute Place
with the extenuated and impoverished descendant of the line of
Montdidier, by no means stimulated him to an intrusion upon the
privileges of the wealthy Saxons.
"Up, infidel dog when I command you," said Prince John, "or I
will have thy swarthy hide stript off, and tanned for
horse-furniture."
Thus urged, the Jew began to ascend the steep and narrow steps
which led up to the gallery.
"Let me see," said the Prince, "who dare stop him," fixing his
eye on Cedric, whose attitude intimated his intention to hurl the
Jew down headlong.
The catastrophe was prevented by the clown Wamba, who, springing
betwixt his master and Isaac, and exclaiming, in answer to the
Prince's defiance, "Marry, that will I!" opposed to the beard of
the Jew a shield of brawn, which he plucked from beneath his
cloak, and with which, doubtless, he had furnished himself, lest
the tournament should have proved longer than his appetite could
endure abstinence. Finding the abomination of his tribe opposed
to his very nose, while the Jester, at the same time, flourished
his wooden sword above his head, the Jew recoiled, missed his
footing, and rolled down the steps,---an excellent jest to the
spectators, who set up a loud laughter, in which Prince John and
his attendants heartily joined.
"Deal me the prize, cousin Prince," said Wamba; "I have
vanquished my foe in fair fight with sword and shield," he added,
brandishing the brawn in one hand and the wooden sword in the
other.
"Who, and what art thou, noble champion?" said Prince John, still
laughing.
"A fool by right of descent," answered the Jester; "I am Wamba,
the son of Witless, who was the son of Weatherbrain, who was the
son of an Alderman."
"Make room for the Jew in front of the lower ring," said Prince
John, not unwilling perhaps to, seize an apology to desist from
his original purpose; "to place the vanquished beside the victor
were false heraldry."
"Knave upon fool were worse," answered the Jester, "and Jew upon
bacon worst of all."
"Gramercy! good fellow," cried Prince John, "thou pleasest me
---Here, Isaac, lend me a handful of byzants."
As the Jew, stunned by the request, afraid to refuse, and
unwilling to comply, fumbled in the furred bag which hung by his
girdle, and was perhaps endeavouring to ascertain how few coins
might pass for a handful, the Prince stooped from his jennet and
settled Isaac's doubts by snatching the pouch itself from his
side; and flinging to Wamba a couple of the gold pieces which it
contained, he pursued his career round the lists, leaving the Jew
to the derision of those around him, and himself receiving as
much applause from the spectators as if he had done some honest
and honourable action. |
