Volume I Part 19 (1/2)
[Sidenote: Fabulous orders.]
The chivalric nations of Europe attached as much consequence to orders which existed only in their own fervid imagination as to those whose lineage was certain. To Constantine the Great was ascribed the honor of inventing the first military order of knighthood. The great captains of his court were said to have been a.s.sociated under the t.i.tle of the order of the Constantinian Angelic Knights of Saint George, that Saint being in Greece, as well as in England, the patron of military men. The grand-masters.h.i.+p resided in the Imperial family. After the fall of the Eastern empire, the order pa.s.sed into Italy; and the knights of that country imagined the existence of papal bulls, which permitted the grand masters to sit at the same table with the Popes, to coin money, and to confer t.i.tles of honor, whether in n.o.bility or learning, and exercise every prerogative of independent princes. But it would be in vain to enquire after the names of any of these mensal companions of the Pope; and no cabinet of curiosities contains any coins which they struck in attestation of their power.
The memory of Charles Martel's great victory over the Moors was preserved in the middle ages of France, by the belief that the conqueror had established an order of knighthood called the Order of the Gennet; and lists of cavaliers were drawn out, and statutes imagined, attesting only the love of the French for chivalric distinctions. The Spaniards delighted to imagine that their early victories over the Moors were commemorated by an order called the Order of the Oak in Navarre, and founded on occasion of the Holy Cross, adored by an infinite number of angels, appearing to a Gothic chief who led the Christians.
[Sidenote: The Round Table.]
But of all these imaginary orders none is so interesting as that of the Round Table, inst.i.tuted by Uther Pendragon, King of Great Britain, and which reached its perfection of martial glory in the reign of his son Arthur. While our ancient historians exaggerated into heroism the patriotic efforts of the last of the British kings, the minstrels who sang in the baronial halls superadded the charms of chivalric circ.u.mstance.
Since the time of Adam, G.o.d hath not made a man more perfect than Arthur, was the favourite opinion; and when his remains were discovered in the Abbey of Glas...o...b..ry, in the year 1189, the people from their idea that prowess always corresponded with size of limb fancied that his bones were of gigantic frame.[373]
The court of Arthur was supposed to be the seminary of military discipline of knights of all countries; and it was thought that his hundred and fifty[374] good companions felt it their chief devoir to protect widows, maidens, and orphans[375], not only in England, but in every country whither they might be invited. They were champions of the public weal, and like lions repulsed the enemies of their country. It was their duty to advance the reputation of honor, and suppress all vice, to relieve people afflicted by adverse fortune, to fight for holy church, and protect pilgrims. They were likewise supposed to be enjoined to bury soldiers that wanted sepulture, to deliver prisoners, ransom captives, and heal men who had been wounded in the service of chivalry and their country.
Independently of these patriotic and humane charges, they were thought to have formed a standing court for the redress of injuries; for Arthur, in case of any complaint being laid before him, was bound to send one of his knights to redress it.
[Sidenote: Sir Launcelot.]
The virtues of the knights of the Round Table were the mirror in which the chivalry of England arrayed themselves. These virtues are admirably described in the lamentation of Sir Ector over the dead body of Sir Launcelot of the Lake, the prowest of all the companions of Arthur:--”Thou wert never matched of none earthly knight's hands; and thou wert the curtiest knight that ever bare s.h.i.+eld; and thou wert the truest friend to thy lover that ever bestrode horse; and thou wert the truest lover of a sinful man that ever loved woman; and thou wert the kindest man that ever struck with sword; and thou wert the goodliest person that ever came among press of knights; and thou wert the meekest man and the gentlest that ever ate in hall among ladies; and thou wert the sternest knight to thy mortal foe that ever put spere in the rest.”[376] Next in rank to Sir Launcelot was his friend Sir Tristram, the history of whose emprises and love entered so largely into the fancies and conversation of our ancestors.
Then came Sir Gawaine, a nephew of Arthur, the bright exemplar of courtesy, the virtue which was so highly prized in chivalric times.
Chaucer makes a very pleasing allusion to him in his Squire's Tale.
Describing the entrance of the strange knight, our old bard says that he
”Salueth king and lordes alle By order as they sat in the hall, With so high reverence and observance, As well in speech as in his countenance, That Gawain with his old courtesy, Though he were come agen out of faerie, Ne coude him not amenden with a word.”[376]
The most prominent of all the chivalric virtues which the inst.i.tutions of Arthur shadowed forth was that of fraternity: for it was believed that round one vast and mysterious table, the gift of the enchanter Merlin, Arthur and all his peerage sat in perfect equality; and to this idea may be traced the circ.u.mstance that the friendly familiarity of a chivalric round table broke down the iron distinctions of feudal haughtiness, and not only ”mitigated kings into companions, but raised private men to be fellows with kings.” Localities unlock the gates of memory, whether the stores within be treasured there by imagination or the sterner powers of the mind; and with a more serious interest than that with which the modern traveller follows Don Quixote in the Sierra Morena our ancestors were wont to mark Winchester and Windsor, Camelot in Somersets.h.i.+re, Carlion in Monmouths.h.i.+re, where
”Uther's son, Begirt with British and Armoric knights,”
held his solemn feasts about the Round Table.
[Sidenote: Order of the Stocking.]
[Sidenote: Origin of the phrase Blue Stocking.]
Many of the orders whose histories fill the pages of works on knighthood have no claims to their places; for they were only a.s.sociations of cavaliers without royal or pontifical authority, and wearing no badge or cross, except in the imagination of the writer. Only one of these fraternities merits mention here. The Society de la Calza (of the Stocking) was formed at Venice in the year 1400, to the honor of the inauguration of the Doge, Michele Steno. The employments of the members were conversation and festivity; and so splendid were the entertainments of music and dancing, that the gay spirits of other parts of Italy anxiously solicited the honor of seats in the society. All their statutes regarded only the ceremonies of the ball or the theatre; and the members being resolved on their rigorous performance, took an oath in a church to that tendency. They had banners and a seal like an authorised order of knighthood. Their dress was as splendid and elegant as Venetian luxury and taste could fas.h.i.+on it; and, consistently with the singular custom of the Italians of marking academies and other intellectual a.s.sociations by some external signs of folly, the members when they met in literary discussion were distinguished by the colours of their stockings. The colours were sometimes fantastically blended, and at other times one colour, particularly the _blue_, prevailed. The Society de la Calza lasted till the year 1590[377] when the foppery of Italian literature took some other symbol. The rejected t.i.tle then crossed the Alps, and found a congenial soil in the flippancy and literary triflings of Parisian society, and particularly branded female pedantry as the strongest feature in the character of French pretension. It diverged from France to England, and for a while marked the vanity of the small advances in literature of our female coteries. But the propriety of its application is now gradually ceasing; for we see in every circle that attainments in literature can be accomplished with no loss of womanly modesty. It is in this country, above all others, that knowledge a.s.serts her right of general dominion, or contends that if she be the sustaining energy of one s.e.x, she forms the lighter charm, the graceful drapery of the other.
CHAP. VIII.
PROGRESS OF CHIVALRY IN ENGLAND, FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO THE CLOSE OF THE REIGN OF EDWARD II.
_Chivalry connected with Feudalism ... Stipendiary Knights ...
Knighthood a compulsory Honour ... Fine Instance of Chivalry in the Reign of Edward I ... Effect of Chivalry in Stephen's Reign ...
Troubadours and Romance Writers in the Reign of Henry II ... Chivalric Manners of the Time ... Coeur de Lion the first Chivalric King ... His Knightly Bearing ... John and Henry III ... Edward I ... His Gallantry at a Tournament ... His unchivalric Cruelties ... He possessed no knightly Courtesy ... Picture of ancient Manners ... Edward II ...
Chivalric Circ.u.mstance in the Battle of Bannockburn ... Singular Effect of Chivalry in the Reign of Edward II._
In the first chapter we traced, by the help of the few lights which yet remain, the rise of chivalry in Europe. We may now mark its progress, and, in order to avoid the inconvenience of frequent transitions, it will be better to follow the historical train in each chivalric country, than to attempt to form one general collection of knightly events. And first, of its influence in England.
Many chivalric principles and customs were known to the Anglo-Saxons[378], and affected, in some degree, the character of the nation.[379] Many of the elements of chivalry were brought into England by the Normans, and, in the course of time, they were framed, by the energy which was involved in them, into a fair and n.o.ble system. The adventurousness of knighthood comported well with a people who, quitting the inhospitable sh.o.r.es of Scandinavia, had impressed their conquests on France, Italy, and even Greece. The Norman nation was one vast brotherhood, and therefore it was natural for them to nourish the principles of chivalric fraternity.[380]