It was considered a right regal offering from one prince to another. Henry III., King of Castile, sent a present to Timour at Samarcand, of Tapestry which was considered to surpass even the works of Asiatic artists in beauty: and when the religious and military orders of some of the princes of France and Burgundy had plunged them into a kind of crusade against the Turkish Sultan Bajazet, and they became his prisoners in the battle of Nicopolis, the King of France sent presents to the Sultan, to induce him to ransom them; amongst which Tapestry representing the battles of Alexander the Great was the most conspicuous. Tapestry was not used in the halls of princes alone, but cut a very conspicuous figure on all occasions of festivity and rejoicing. It was customary at these times to hang ornamental needlework of all sorts from the windows or balconies of the houses of those streets through which a pageant or festal procession was to pass; and as the houses were then built with the upper stories far overhanging the lower ones, these draperies frequently hung in rich folds to the ground, and must have had, when a street was thus in its whole length appareled and partly roofed by the floating streamers and banners above--somewhat the appearance of a suite of magnificent saloons. "Then the high street gay signs of triumph wore, Covered with shewy cloths of different dye, Which deck the walls, while Sylvan leaves in store, And scented herbs upon the pavement lie. Adorned in every window, every door, With carpeting and finest drapery; But more with ladies fair, and richly drest In costly jewels and in gorgeous vest." When the Black Prince entered London with King John of France, as his prisoner, the outsides of the houses were covered with hangings, consisting of battles in tapestry-work. And in tournaments the lists were always decorated "with the splendid richness of feudal power. Besides the gorgeous array of heraldic insignia near the Champions' tents, the galleries, which were made to contain the proud and joyous spectators, were covered with tapestry, representing chivalry both in its warlike and its amorous guise: on one side the knight with his bright faulchion smiting away hosts of foes, and on the other side kneeling at the feet of beauty."