With the Normans came the horse litter, a native originally of Bithynia, and from thence introduced into Rome, where it is still used by the Pope on state occasions, and also among the mountain passes of Sicily, as well as in Spain and Portugal. Malmesbury records that the dead body of Rufus was placed upon a _rheda caballaria_, a kind of horse litter. King John, in his last illness, was conveyed from the Abbey of Swinstead _in lectica equestre_. These were for several succeeding reigns the only carriages in use for persons of distinction. Froissart writes of Isabel, the second wife of Richard II., as “La june Royne d’Angleterre en une litieré moult riche qui etoit ordonèe pour elle.” These litters were seldom used except on state occasions. When Margaret, daughter of Henry II., went into Scotland, she is described as journeying on a “faire palfrey,” but after her was conveyed by two footmen “one very riche litere, borne by two faire coursers vary nobly drest; in which litere the sayd queene was borne in the intryng of the good towns or otherwise to her good playsher.” Carriages proper were first introduced on the continent. Italy, France, Spain, and Germany contend with each other for the honour of the first introduction. The earliest record we have is on the authority of Beckmann, who says that, when at the close of the thirteenth century Charles of Anjou entered Naples, his queen rode in a _caretta_, the outside and inside of which were covered with sky-blue velvet interspersed with golden lilies. The English were not long before they adopted this new innovation. In an early English poem called the “Squyr of Low Degree,” supposed to be before the time of Chaucer, the father of the Princess of Hungary thus makes promise:— “To-morrow ye shall on hunting fare, And ride my daughter in a _chare_. It shall be covered with velvet red, And cloths of fine gold all about your head, With damask white and azure blue, Well diapered with lilies new: Your pomelles shall be ended with gold, Your chains enamelled many a fold.” The pomelles were doubtless the handles to the rods affixed towards the roof of the “chariette,” and were for the purpose of holding by when deep ruts or obstacles in the roads caused an unusual jerk in the vehicle. On the continent, there seems to have been a great deal of opposition to the use of carriages. In 1294, Philip, King of France, issued an ordinance prohibiting the citizens’ wives the use of cars or chars; and later on, Pope Pius IV. exhorted his cardinals and bishops not to ride in coaches, according to the fashion of the time, but to leave such things to women; and it really was thought _infra dig._ for a man to travel other than on horseback. Even his Holiness the Pope rode upon a grey horse; though to indemnify him for the exertion, his horse was led, and his stirrup held by kings and emperors.