Of the unfortunate Edward II., it may be said that he was an indifferent knight, who gave the honors of chivalry to very indifferent persons, and committed great outrages on knightly orders themselves. In the annals of knighthood he is remembered as the monarch who abolished the Order of Knights Templars in England. He treated the luckless chevaliers with far more generosity than Henry VIII. observed toward the ejected monks and abbots. He allowed two shillings per day to the deprived master of the Temple, and fourpence each daily to the other knights for their support, out of their former confiscated property. Edward himself loved carousing and hunting, more than any other pastime. There were other pleasures, indeed, in which he greatly delighted, and these are well catalogued in one of Gaveston’s speeches in Marlowe’s tragedy, called by this king’s name:-- “I must have wanton poets, pleasant wits, Musicians, that with touching of a string, May draw the pliant king which way I please; Music and poetry are his delight, Therefore I’ll have Italian masks by night, Sweet speeches, comedies, and pleasing slaves; And in the day, when he shall walk abroad, Like sylvan nymphs my pages shall be clad; My men, like satyrs grazing on the lawns, Shall with their goats’ feet dance the antic lay. Sometimes a lovely boy, in Dian’s shape, With hair that gilds the water as it glides Coronets of pearl about his naked arms, And in his sportive hands an olive-tree, To hide those parts which men delight to see, Shall bathe him in a spring; and there hard by One, like Actæon, peeping through the grove, Shall by the angry goddess be transformed, And running in the likeness of a hart, By yelping hounds pulled down, shall seem to die; Such things as these best please his majesty.” How dearly he paid for indulgence in such pleasures, and how meekly he accepted his fierce destiny or retribution, need not be detailed here. Whatever may be thought of the character of Edward II. himself, his chivalry wrought little good for the realm. The crown of England during his reign was weaker; and as the knight-historian, Sir J. Davies, remarks in his History of Ireland, “suffered more dishonor in both kingdoms than at any time since the Norman Conquest.” There were few such honest knights, too, in that reign, as in that of the third Edward, when Sir Thomas Rookesby, an eminent law-knight and judge, was wont to say that he “would eat in wooden dishes, but would pay gold and silver for his meat.” In this speech a blow was dealt at the extravagant people who in order “to eat off plate,” made no scruple of cheating their butcher.