The celebrated trial between the Dukes of Hereford and Norfolk, made immortal by Shakespeare, in his Richard II., occurred at Coventry, on September 16’, 1398. Hereford appealed the Duke of Norfolk of high treason, in Parliament, in the use of words tending to the king’s dishonor. Armour and coats of mail had been procured from Germany and Milan, for the warriors. Hereford, who was the people’s favorite, came to the lists mounted on a white horse, barbed with blue and green velvet. Norfolk’s horse was draped with crimson velvet. Ten thousand armed knights were in attendance, to prevent an affray and a large concourse of the populace attended, to cheer their respective favorites. When the combatants faced each other, the King, fearful, no doubt, that Hereford would prevail, banished both the combatants. Norfolk soon afterwards died, in Venice, but Hereford returned the following year to wrest the crown from the weak king and proclaim himself King Henry IV.[50] A lawyer entered the lists, in the year 1431, when John Upton, a notary, accused John Downe of treason, in attempting to accomplish the death of the king. The duel was fought in the presence of the king, on the 24’ of January and the writ, providing for the barriers and the making of the lists; the levelling and sanding of the ground and the removal of the stones, is fully set forth in Coke, on Littleton.[51] There was a fierce fight, but the king pardoned both contestants, before the final termination of the trial.[52] The battle between the armourer’s servant, John Davy and his master, William Catur, described by Shakespeare, in the second part of Henry VI., was actually fought, on January 31’, 1447. The armourer’s body was stripped of its armour and left upon the field of battle and the penalty of treason was inflicted, and the trunk was mutilated and the head set up on the London Bridge.[53] The case of Thomas Whithorn, in the year 1455, reported by William Gregory, Mayor of London, is not without interest. Whithorn was a convicted thief and in accordance with the custom of the period, to save his own life, he made a number of appeals against reputable citizens, some of whom, because of his physical prowess, were unable to stand up against him and were hanged, after unsuccessful trials by battle, with him. He finally charged crime against one James Fisher, who, to save his life, concluded to fight the thief. Both contestants were clad in white sheep’s leather, over their legs, head, face, hands and bodies and they fought with green ash staves, three feet long, with an iron ram’s horn on the end. Fisher broke his weapon early in the fight and the constable then took the approver’s away too and after that they fought “teeth and nail.” Fisher finally got the thief’s nose between his teeth and his thumbs in his eyes and he so tortured him that he cried “craven” and was hanged, “for he was fals unto God and unto hym.”[54]