"Fair Maiden Lilliard lies under this stane, Little was her stature, but great was her fame, On the English lads she laid many thumps, And when her legs were off, she fought upon her stumps." One of the most faithful adherents of Henry Bolingbroke in his days of adversity was Sir John de Pelham, who had been squire to old John of Gaunt. When Lancaster was banished by king Richard, Pelham followed him abroad, leaving Pevensey castle in charge of his wife, Lady Joan. Sir John was one of the fifteen lances who disembarked at Ravenspur, in July, 1399, with Henry; and on the 4th of the same month, while he was sharing the fatigues and perils of what seemed then a rash enterprise, the partizans of Richard II. laid siege to Pevensey castle. Lady Joan, a noble and spirited woman, took upon herself the conduct of the defence, and directed all the efforts of the garrison with such prudence and decision that the besiegers were forced to retire. When the Duke of Lancaster ascended the throne as Henry IV., he remembered the services of his faithful adherents. Sir John de Pelham was created a Knight of the Bath, and appointed royal sword-bearer, treasurer-at-war, and chief butler to the king. The king further displayed his confidence in Sir John by sending James I. of Scotland as a prisoner to Pevensey castle. The courage of Lady Joan was also publicly recognised and applauded. * * * * * Eric, Margaret's successor on the Scandinavian throne, proved to be a very inferior ruler to his illustrious aunt. Nearly all his reign was taken up with an inglorious war for the Duchy of Schleswig. The quarrel was decided in favour of Denmark by the Emperor Sigismund; but the Count of Holstein refused to accept the imperial decree, and the war waxed fiercer every day. The Hanseatic League, whose fleet then ruled the Baltic, joined the alliance against Denmark; and in 1428 a powerful armament, commanded by Count Gerard of Holstein, invested Copenhagen. The city would doubtless have fallen but for the courage of Eric's queen, Philippa, who was the daughter of Henry IV. of England. Throwing herself into the city, the queen, by her exhortations and example, inspired the garrison with such enthusiasm and patriotic fervour, that the foe were compelled to retire discomfited. Elated by her success, Philippa now resolved to carry the war into the enemy's country. So, while Eric was endeavouring to gather reinforcements of men and money in Sweden, the queen, with a fleet of seventy-five sail, invested Stralsund. But this time fortune was against the heroine. The Danish navy was almost entirely destroyed in a great sea-fight. Eric, without reflecting that he had himself suffered many a worse defeat, flew into a rage when he heard of this disaster; and carried away by his blind fury, he even struck the queen. The high-spirited Philippa, unable to forgive this brutality, retired to a convent, where she died shortly after.