The History of Chivalry; Or, Knighthood and Its Times, Volume 2 (of 2)Mills, Charles
Philosophy
The History of Chivalry; Or, Knighthood and Its Times, Volume 2 (of 2)
Mills, Charles
Chivalry
Next appeared the Marquis Dorset
and Sir Thomas Bullen, like two pilgrims from Saint James, in tabards of
black velvet, with palmers' hats on their helmets, with long Jacobs'
staves in their hands, their horse-trappings of black velvet, the harness
of men and steeds being set with scallop shells of fine gold and strips of
black velvet, every strip being also adorned with golden scallop shells.
Next came the Lord Henry of Buckingham, Sir Giles Capell, and many other
knights. The sports then commenced, and as on the preceding day the King
won the prize. In the evening the ambassadors and the nobility supped with
the royal family, and after the banquet the King with the Queen and lords
and ladies entered the white-hall of the palace. Songs, dancing, and
minstrels, succeeded, and in the midst of the merriment the King retired
unseen. Soon afterwards the trumpets at the end of the hall began to
sound, and a pageant upon wheels was brought in. A gentleman richly
attired descended from it, and approaching the Queen in a supplicatory
attitude, told her that in a garden of pleasure there was an arbour of
gold wherein were lords and ladies much desirous to show pastime to the
Queen and court, if they might be permitted so to do. The Queen replied,
that she was very desirous to see them and their pastime. A cloth of arras
was therefore drawn from the front of the pageant, and rich
representations of nature saluted the eye. Six ladies, dressed with more
bravery than the dull chronicler can describe, were seen in the arbour,
supported by the King and five gallant knights. The whole scene appeared
one blaze of gold. After the applause which this splendour elicited had
subsided, the lords and ladies descended from the pageant, the minstrels
sounded their music of gaiety, and the whole court mixed in the dance. And
the people, too, had their amusement; for some portion of the simplicity
of ancient times remained, and royalty was not thought to lose any thing
of its dignity by being presented to the public eye. The pageant was
conveyed to the end of the palace, there to tarry till the dances were
finished, and so to have received the lords and ladies again; but suddenly
the rude and joyous people ran to it, and tore and rent and spoilt it; and
the Lord Steward and his officers, seeing that they could not drive them
away without a conflict and disturbance, suffered the pageant to be
destroyed.[103]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Field of the cloth of gold.]
The field of the cloth of gold has been so often described in works of
ready access, that I should not be warranted in attempting to picture
again its gay and sparkling scene. But some of its circumstances have not
been sufficiently noticed; and they are so expressive of the chivalric
feelings of the time that a history of chivalry would be imperfect without
a description of them.
The whole ceremonial of the meeting between Henry VIII. and Francis I. was
regulated by Cardinal Wolsey,
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