From the commencement of the war of the roses, the trial by battle fell into desuetude. One of the latest instances of this ordeal was in the reign of Elizabeth, in 1571, when a suit having been instituted for recovery of certain manorial rights in the isle of Hartie, Kent, the defendant offered to maintain his claim by duel. The plaintiff accepted the challenge, champions were appointed, and the requisite arrangements made. On the day appointed, the judges, attended by the counsel of the parties, repaired to the lists in Tothill-fields, as umpires of the combat; but as the plaintiff did not make his appearance to acknowledge his champion, he was nonsuited, or rather the suit was compounded—the defendant remaining in possession by paying a stipulated sum to the petitioners; but yet to save the credit of the defendant, who had demanded the combat, all the ceremonials of time, place, and arms, were adjusted.[1] Another instance occurred in the Court of Chivalry, in 1631: a trial by battle was also demanded in the palatine of Durham, in 1638. Of late years, it was only in 1818, that a similar demand was made in the case of Thornton and Ashford, when this barbarous and superstitious practice was finally abolished. In 1542, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, who had distinguished himself in the jousts and tournaments on the marriage of Henry VIII. to Anne of Cleves, was imprisoned in the Fleet, on the ground of a quarrel with a private gentleman, and remained closely confined for several weeks, until he was liberated on giving security to keep the peace in the then enormous sum of ten thousand marks. He was not long out of durance, being recommitted for having eaten meat in Lent, and broken the windows of peaceable citizens by shots from his crossbow. The defence of this unfortunate nobleman for the latter offence was rather curious, as he maintained that he had broken their windows in the hope of correcting the licentious and corrupt manner of these citizens, by impressing them with an idea that such attacks, by means unheard and unseen, were supernatural warnings from Providence of impending vengeance, a plea which is now extant on the minutes of the Privy Council!