[79] Froissart, vol. i. c. 364. The romance writers made strange work of this disposition of candidates for chivalry to receive the wished for honours from the hands of redoubted heroes. In one of them a man wanted to be knighted by the famous Sir Lancelot of the Lake. He however happened to be dead, but that circumstance was of no consequence, for a sword was placed in the right hand of the skeleton, and made to drop upon the neck of the kneeling squire, who immediately rose a knight. [80] Pinkerton's History of Scotland, vol. i. p. 71. [81] Favyn, liv. iii. c. 12. Monstrelet, vol. vi. p. 82. Honoré, Dissertations Historiques et Critiques sur la Chevaliere. 4to. Paris. 1718. p. 55. [82] Selden likens the degradation of a knight to the degradation of a clergyman by the canon law, previously to his being delivered over to the secular magistrate for punishment. The order of the clergy and the order of knighthood were supposed to be saved from disgrace by this expulsion of an unworthy member. Selden, Titles of Honour, p. 787. [83] Segar, Of Honour, lib. ii. c. 5. [84] Stow's Chronicle. [85] The iron of Poictou was particularly famous for making admirable lance-heads; nor was it disliked as a shield. Thus an old French poet says,-- "Et fu armé sor le cheval de pris, D'Aubere, et d'iaume, d'escu Poitevin." Du Cange, art. Ferrum Pictavense. The iron of Bourdeaux is frequently mentioned by Froissart as of excellent use in armour. liv. 2. c. 117. 4. 6. And the old chronicle of Bertrand du Guesclin says,-- "Un escuier y vint qui au comte lanca D'une espée de Bourdeaux, qui moult chier li cousta." [86] Menage, Diction. Etym. in verb. [87] It is not worth while to say much about mere words. I shall only add that the banner was sometimes called the Gonfanon. "Li Barons aurent gonfanons Li chevaliers aurent penons." [88] This battle-axe is very amusingly described in the metrical romance of Richard Coeur de Lion:-- "King Richard I understond, Or he went out of Englond, Let him make an axe for the nones, To break therewith the Sarasyns bones. The head was wrought right wele, Therein was twenty pounds of steel, And when he came into Cyprus land, The ax he took in his hand. All that he hit he all to-frapped, The Griffons away fast rapped Natheless many he cleaved, And their unthanks there by lived, And the prison when he came to, With his ax he smot right thro, Dores, barres, and iron-chains, And delivered his men out of pains." Line 2197, &c. [89] Monstrelet. Johnes' edit. vol. 5. p. 294. [90] Thus Pandaro the giant in Palmerin of England carried a huge mallet:--but I need not multiply instances. [91] En loyal amour tout mon coeur, was a favourite motto on the shank of a spur. [92] Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. 1. p. 193. [93] Chronicle of the Cid. p. 46. [94] Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. 1. p. 201. [95] Hoveden.