Part 26 (1/2)
”_Seria vix recte agnoscit, qui ludicra nescit._
FINIS.”
CHRISTMAS TOURNAMENTS.
During the reign of James the First there was a revival of chivalric exercises, especially in connection with the training of the young Prince Henry. Almost as soon as he could wield a lance and manage his horse when clothed in complete armour, he insisted on taking his place at the lists; and from this time no great tournament took place in England in which his Royal Highness did not take part. The most important of these exhibitions was
THE GRAND ”FEAT OF ARMES”
which took place on Twelfth Night, 1610, at the palace of Whitehall, in the presence of King James I. and his queen, and a brilliant a.s.semblage of lords, ladies, and gentlemen, among whom were several foreign amba.s.sadors, when the heir-apparent, Prince Henry, was in the 16th year of his age, and therefore arrived at the period for claiming the princ.i.p.ality of Wales and the duchy of Cornwall. It was granted to him by the king and the High Court of Parliament, and the 4th of June following appointed for his invest.i.ture: ”the Christmas before which,”
Sir Charles Cornwallis says, ”his highnesse, not onely for his owne recreation, but also that the world might know what a brave prince they were likely to enjoy, under the name of Meliades, lord of the isles, (an ancient t.i.tle due to the first born of Scotland,) did, in his name, by some appointed for the same purpose, strangely attired, accompanied with drummes and trumpets, in the presence, before the king and queene, and in the presence of the whole Court, deliver a challenge to all knights of Great Britaine.” The challenge was to this effect, ”That Meliades, their n.o.ble master, burning with an earnest desire to trie the valour of his young yeares in foraigne countryes, and to know where vertue triumphed most, had sent them abroad to espy the same, who, after their long travailes in all countreys, and returne,” had nowhere discovered it, ”save in the fortunate isle of Great Britaine: which ministring matter of exceeding joy to their young Meliades, who (as they said) could lineally derive his pedegree from the famous knights of this isle, was the cause that he had now sent to present the first fruits of his chivalrie at his majesties'
feete: then after returning with a short speech to her majestie, next to the earles, lords, and knights, excusing their lord in this their so sudden and short warning, and, lastly, to the ladies; they, after humble delivery of their chartle concerning time, place, conditions, number of weapons and a.s.sailants, tooke their leave, departing solemnly as they entered.”
Then preparations began to be made for this great fight, and each was happy who found himself admitted for a defendant, much more an a.s.sailant. ”At last to encounter his highness, six a.s.sailants, and fifty-eight defendants, consisting of earles, barons, knights, and esquires, were appointed and chosen; eight defendants to one a.s.sailant, every a.s.sailant being to fight by turnes eight several times fighting, two every time with push and pike of sword, twelve strokes at a time; after which, the barre for separation was to be let downe until a fresh onset.” The summons ran in these words:
”To our verie loving good ffreind sir Gilbert Loughton, knight, geave theis with speed:
”After our hartie commendacions unto you. The prince, his highnes, hath commanded us to signifie to you that whereas he doth intend to make a challenge in his owne person at the Barriers, with six other a.s.sistants, to bee performed some tyme this Christmas; and that he hath made choice of you for one of the defendants (whereof wee have comandement to give you knowledge), that theruppon you may so repaire hither to prepare yourselfe, as you may bee fitt to attend him.
Hereunto expecting your speedie answer wee rest, from Whitehall this 25th of December, 1609. Your very loving friends,
Nottingham. T. Suffolke. E. Worcester.”
On New Year's Day, 1610, or the day after, the Prince's challenge was proclaimed at court, and ”his highnesse, in his own lodging, in the Christmas, did feast the earles, barons, and knights, a.s.sailants and defendants, until the great Twelfth appointed night, on which this great fight was to be performed.”
On the 6th of January, in the evening, ”the barriers” were held at the palace of Whitehall, in the presence of the king and queen, the amba.s.sadors of Spain and Venice, and the peers and ladies of the land, with a mult.i.tude of others a.s.sembled in the banquetting-house: at the upper end whereof was the king's chair of state, and on the right a sumptuous pavilion for the prince and his a.s.sociates, whence, ”with great bravery and ingenious devices, they descended into the middell of the roome, and there the prince performed his first feates of armes, that is to say, at _Barriers_, against all commers, being a.s.sisted onlie with six others, viz., the duke of Lenox, the earle of Arundell, the earle of Southampton, the lord Hay, sir Thomas Somerset, and sir Richard Preston, who was shortly afterwards created lord Dingwell.”
To answer these challengers came fifty-six earles, barons, knights, and esquiers. They were at ”the lower end of the roome, where was erected a very delicat and pleasant place, where in privat manner they and their traine remained, which was so very great that no man imagined that the place could have concealed halfe so many.” Thence they issued in comely order, ”to the middell of the roome, where sate the king and the queene, and the court, to behold the barriers, with the several showes and devices of each combatant.” Every challenger fought with eight several defendants two several combats at two several weapons, viz. at push of pike, and with single sword. ”The prince performed this challenge with wonderous skill and courage, to the great joy and admiration of the beholders,” he ”not being full sixteene yeeres of age until the 19th of February.” These feats, and other ”triumphant shewes,” began before ten o'clock at night, and continued until three o'clock in the morning, ”being Sonday.” The speeches at ”the barriers” were written by Ben Jonson. The next day (Sunday) the prince rode in great pomp to convoy the king to St.
James', whither he had invited him and all the court to supper, the queen alone being absent; and then the prince bestowed prizes to the three combatants best deserving; namely, the Earl of Montgomery, Sir Thomas Darey (son of Lord Darey), and Sir Robert Gourdon. Thus ended the Twelftide court festivities in 1610.
During the early years of James's reign tournaments divided with masques the favour of the Court; and, as we have just seen when Prince Henry reached his sixteenth year, he put himself forth in a more heroic manner than usual with princes of his time to engage in ”feats of armes” and chivalric exercises; but after his death (1612) these sports fell quite out of fas.h.i.+on, and George Wither, a poet of the period, expresses, in the person of Britannia, the feelings of the nation:--
”Alas! who now shall grace my tournaments, Or honour me with deeds of chivalry?
What shall become of all my merriments, My ceremonies, shows of heraldry, And other rites?”
[Ill.u.s.tration]
Religious matters received a good deal of attention from James I. in the later years of his reign, and his Majesty's proposals raised the question of the observance of
THE CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL IN SCOTLAND.
In 1617 the King made a journey to Scotland with the object of establis.h.i.+ng the English Church in all its forms and authority as the State Church of Scotland for ever. One of the famous Five Articles in which the King set forth his will proposed ”That the festivals of Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension Day, and Whit Sunday, should be observed in Scotland just as in England.” The Articles were received with unequivocal marks of displeasure, many of the churches refusing to obey the royal command, and the revival of the festival of Christmas was denounced as the return of the ancient Saturnalia. Three years later the King obtained an Act of Parliament enforcing the Articles on the repugnant spirit of the people. ”Dr. Laud, whose name we now meet for the first time, afterwards to become so notorious, even urged James to go further lengths; but his fatal advice was destined to act with more force on the next generation.”[63]
The King returned to London very much displeased with the religious views of his Scotch subjects, and his sourness seems to have manifested itself even at Christmastide, for on December 20th of this year Mr. Chamberlaine thus wrote to Sir Dudley Carleton: ”The King hath been at Theobald's ever since Wednesday, and came to town this day. I am sorry to hear that he grows every day more froward, and with such a kind of morosity, that doth either argue a great discontent in mind, or a distemper of humours in his body. Yet he is never so out of tune but the very sight of my Lord of Buckingham doth settle and quiet all.”[64]
So soothed and softened was the King by ”my Lord of Buckingham” that Mr. Chamberlaine, writing again on the 3rd of January, says that on New Year's Day the earl was created ”Marquis of Buckingham, a dignity the King hath not bestowed since his coming to this crown.” And, says the same writer, ”This night was the Lord Marquiss's [Buckingham's]
great