The chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Vol. 10 [of 13] : $b containing an account of the cruel civil wars between the houses of Orleans and Burgundy, of the possession of Paris and Normandy by the English, their expulsion thence, and of other memorable events that happened in the kingdom of France, as well as in other countriesMonstrelet, Enguerrand de
History
The chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Vol. 10 [of 13] : $b containing an account of the cruel civil wars between the houses of Orleans and Burgundy, of the possession of Paris and Normandy by the English, their expulsion thence, and of other memorable events that happened in the kingdom of France, as well as in other countries
Monstrelet, Enguerrand de
Europe -- History -- 476-1492 -- Sources; France -- History -- House of Valois, 1328-1589; Hundred Years' War, 1339-1453
'The most magnificent of these tournaments was that performed by the
bastard of Burgundy and Anthony lord Scales, brother to the queen of
England, in Smithfield, A.D. 1467. The king and queen of England spared
no expense to do honour to so near a relation,--and Philip duke of
Burgundy, the most magnificent prince of that age, was no less profuse
in equipping his favourite son. Several months were spent in adjusting
the preliminaries of this famous combat, and in performing all the
pompous ceremonies prescribed by the laws of chivalry.
'Edward IV. granted a safe conduct, October 29, A.D. 1466, to the
bastard of Burgundy earl of La Roche, with a thousand persons in his
company, to come into England to perform certain feats of arms with his
dearly beloved brother Anthony Widville, lord Scales and Newsels; but
so many punctilios were to be settled, by the intervention of heralds,
that the tournament did not take place until June 11, A.D. 1467.
'Strong lists having been erected in Smithfield, 120 yards and 10
feet long, 80 yards and 10 feet broad, with fair and costly galleries
all around for the accommodation of the king and queen, attended by
the lords and ladies of the court, and a prodigious number of lords,
knights, and ladies, of England, France, Scotland, and other countries,
in their richest dresses.
'The two champions entered the lists, and were conducted to their
pavilions. There they underwent the usual searches, and answered the
usual questions, and then advanced into the middle of the lists. The
first day they ran together with sharp spears, and departed with equal
honour. The next day, they tourneyed on horseback. The lord Scales'
horse had on his chaffron a long sharp pike of steel,--and as the two
champions coped together, the said horse thrust his pike into the
nostrils of the bastard's horse, so that, for very pain, he mounted
so high that he fell on the one side with his master; and the lord
Scales rode about him, with his sword drawn in his hand, till the
king commanded the marshal to help up the bastard, who openly said,
'I cannot hold me by the clouds; for though my horse fail me, I will
not fail my encounter, companion:' but the king would not suffer them
to do any more that day. The next morrow, the two noblemen came into
the field on foot, with two pole-axes, and fought valiantly; but, at
the last, the point of the pole-axe of the lord Scales happened to
enter into the sight of the bastard's helm, and, by fine force, might
have plucked him on his knees; but the king suddenly cast down his
warder, and then the marshal severed them. The bastard, not content
with this chance, required the king, of justice, that he might perform
his enterprise. The lord Scales refused not. But the king calling to
him the constable and the marshal, with the officer of arms, after
consultation had, it was declared, for a sentence definitive, by the
duke of Clarence, then constable of England,' (John Tiptoft earl of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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