Another story is told which points to the want of refined manners
and delicate feeling of the Middle Ages. King Edward was conducting
his royal prisoners, King John of France and King David of Scotland,
round the Lower Ward, when one of them pointed out that the Upper Ward
lay on higher ground and commanded a finer view. The King "approved
their sayings, adding pleasantly that it should so be, and that he
would bring his castle thither, that is to say, enlarge it so far with
two other wards, the charges whereof should be borne with their two
ransoms," as afterwards happened. The story of King Arthur and the
Round Table fired Edward with the idea of founding the institution of
the Garter, and carpenters and masons were soon busy erecting the Round
Tower for the Round Table. The table, made of fifty-two oaks, seems to
have been in the shape of a horse shoe rather than a perfect circle,
so that the attendants could stand in the middle to serve the guests.
In this tower assembled the flower of English knighthood--Warwick,
celebrated in the French wars, who, when he died of the plague in 1369,
left "not behind him his equal;" the young Earl of Salisbury, whose
beautiful mother is said to have given rise to the motto of the Order,
"Honi soit qui mal y pense;" and many others besides, whose names are
well known for their prowess and valour.
It was at Windsor that good Queen Philippa passed away, universally
lamented. Froissart touchingly describes her death:--"There fell in
England a heavy case and common, howbeit it was right piteous for the
King, his children, and all the realm. For the good Queen of England,
that so many good deeds had done in her time, and so many knights
succoured, and ladies and damsels comforted, and had so largely
departed of her goods to her people, and naturally loved always the
nation of Hainault, the country where she was born; she fell sick in
the Castle of Windsor, the which sickness continued on her so long that
there was no remedy but death. And the good lady, when she knew and
perceived that there was with her no remedy but death, she desired to
speak with the King, her husband. And when he was before her she put
out of her bed her right hand, and took the King by his right hand, who
was right sorrowful at heart. Then she said, 'Sir, we have in peace,
joy, and great prosperity used all our time together. Sir, now I pray
you, at our departing, that ye will grant me three desires.'" Her
requests related to her debts, her promises to churches, and to her
husband's "sepulture when so ever it shall please God to call you out
of this transitory life," beside her in Westminster. "Then the good
lady and Queen made on her the sign of the cross, and recommended the
King, her husband, to God, and her youngest son, Thomas, who was beside
her. And anon after, she yielded up the spirit, the which I believe
surely the holy angels received with great joy up to heaven, for in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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