FOOTNOTES
[Footnote 1]: Generally and rationally supposed to have been derived from the country which poured forth the first numerous bands of these adventurers; i.e. Brabant. See Ducange, La Chenaye du Bois, &c. Philip Augustus in the end destroyed them for a time.
[Footnote 2]: The great companies of the fourteenth century had their type in the Brabançois, and various other bodies of freebooters, which appeared previous to that period. The chief characteristic of all of these bands was, the having degenerated from soldiers to plunderers, while they maintained a certain degree of discipline and subordination, but cast off every other tie.
[Footnote 3]: M. Charles Nodier.
[Footnote 4]: To ride a mare was reckoned in those days unworthy of anyone but a juggler, a charlatan, or a serf.
[Footnote 5]: Although this act of rashness certainly breathes the spirit of romance, yet such things have been done, and even in our own day.
[Footnote 6]: This is no fantastic remedy, but one of the most effectual the author of this work has ever seen employed. The skin of a sheep, however, is not a whit less potent in its effects than the skin of an izzard.
[Footnote 7]: Philip Augustus, after the death of his first wife, being still a very young man, married Ingerburge, sister of Canute, King of Denmark; but on her arrival in France, he was seized with so strong a personal dislike to her, that he instantly convoked a synod of the clergy of France, who, on pretence of kindred in the prohibited degrees, annulled the marriage. Philip afterwards married the beautiful Agnes, or Mary, as she is called by some, daughter of the Duke of Istria and Meranie, a district it would now be difficult to define, but which comprehended the Tyrol and its dependencies, down to the Adriatic.--See Rigord Gud. Brit. Lit. Innoc. III. Cart Philip II. &c.
[Footnote 8]: One of the four methods of electing a Pope is called by adoration, which takes place when the first Cardinal who speaks instantly (as is supposed by the movement of the Holy Ghost) does reverence to the person he names, proclaiming him Pope, to which must be added the instant suffrage of two-thirds of the assembled conclave.
[Footnote 9]: For a fuller account of this singular person, and the effect his counsels had upon the conduct of Philip Augustus, see Rigord.
[Footnote 10]: Later instances exist of wax having been used in the accounts of the royal treasury of France.
[Footnote 11]: The Chronicle of Alberic des Trois Fontaines gives some curious particulars concerning this personage, and offers a singular picture of the times.
[Footnote 12]: The difference between the chaperon, or hood, and the aumuce was, that the first was formed of cloth or silk, and the latter of fur.--Dic. des Franc.
[Footnote 13]: The name of Augustus was given to Philip the Second, even in the earlier part of his lifetime, although Mézerai mistakingly attributes it to many centuries afterwards. Rigord, the historian and physician, who died in the twenty-eighth year of Philip's reign, and the forty-second of his age, styles him Augustus, in the very title of his manuscript.
[Footnote 14]: It will be understood that this sudden appearance of the legate is a historical fact.
[Footnote 15]: Ducange cites the following formula from a work I cannot meet with. The passage refers to a fraternity of arms between Majon, high admiral of Sicily, and the archbishop of Palermo.
"Dictum est præterea quod ii, juxta consuetudinem Siculorum, fraternæ fœdus societatis contraxerint, seseque invicem jurejurando astrinxerunt ut alter alterum modis omnibus promoveret, et tam in prosperis quàm in adversis unius essent animi, unius voluntatis atque consilii; quisquis alterum læderet, amborura incurreret offensam."
The same learned author cites a declaration of Louis XI. where he constitutes Charles, Duke of Burgundy, his sole brother in arms, thereby seeming to imply that this adoption of a brother in arms was restricted to one.--Ducange, Dissert. xxi.
[Footnote 16]: This singular picture of the barbarism of the age immediately preceding that of Philip Augustus is rendered as literally as possible from the Life of Louis le Gros by Suger, Abbot of St. Denis.
[Footnote 17]: This part of the dress was a small pouch borne under the arm, and called escarcelle, or pera, when carried by pilgrims to the Holy Land. With the utmost reverence for the learning, talent, and patience of Ducange, it appears to me that he was mistaken in his interpretation of a passage of Cassian, relative to this part of the pilgrim's dress. The sentence in Cassian is as follows: "Ultimus est habitus eorum pellis caprina, quæ melotes, vel pera appellatur, et baculus;" which Ducange affirms to mean, that they wore a dress of goat-skins, a wallet, and a stick. Embarrassed by taking habitus in the limited sense of a garment, I should rather be inclined to think that the author merely meant that the last part of their (the monks') dress was what is called a pera, made of goat-skins, and a stick, and not three distinct articles, as Ducange imagines.--See Ducange, Dissert. xv.
[Footnote 18]: Guillaume le Breton says unqualifiedly, that Richard Cœur de Lion invented the arbalète, or cross-bow. Brompton, on the other hand, only declares that he revived the use of it, "hoc genus sagittandi in usum revocavit."
[Footnote 19]: This must not be looked upon as an expression hazarded without authority, notwithstanding its homeliness. The only titles of honour known in those days were Monseigneur, My Lord; Illustres Seigneurs, applied in general to an assembly of nobles; and Beau Sire, or Fair Sir, which was not only bestowed upon kings, on all occasions, but, even as lately as the reign of St. Louis, was addressed to God himself. Many prayers beginning Beau Sire Dieu are still extant.
[Footnote 20]: Eleanor Plantagenet, who was detained till her death, to cut off all change of subsequent heirs in the line of Geoffrey Plantagenet, John's elder brother.
[Footnote 21]: I know not precisely how far back a curious antiquary might trace the existence of such places of public reception. I find one mentioned, however, in the Chronicle of Vezelai, about fifty years prior to the period of which I write.
[Footnote 22]: There are various differences of opinion concerning the persons to whom the use of the haubert was confined. Ducange implies, from a passage in Joinville, that this part of the ancient suits of armour was the privilege of a knight. Le Laboureur gives it also to a squire. But the Brabançois and other bands of adventurers did not subject themselves to any rules and regulations respecting their arms, as might be proved from a thousand different instances.
[Footnote 23]: This conversation is reported by the chroniclers of the time to have taken place previous to Arthur's confinement in the tower of Rouen.
[Footnote 24]: The French writers of that day almost universally agree in attributing the death of Arthur to John's own hand. The English writers do not positively deny it, and we have indubitable proof that such was the general rumour through all the towns and castles of Europe at the time.--See Guill. Guiart. Guill. de Nangis. Guill. le Breton. Mat. Paris, &c.
[Footnote 25]: It has been asserted that these troops received no pay, but supported themselves by plunder. I find them, however, called mercenaries in more than one instance, which clearly implies that they fought for hire.
[Footnote 26]: Constable of Normandy in the year 1200, and following, as appears from a treaty between John and Philip, concluded at Gueuleton.
[Footnote 27]: Seldon has said that the custom of bearing coronets by peers is of late days. In this assertion, however, he is apparently mistaken, the proofs of which may be seen at large in Ducange, Dissért, xxiv. R. Hoved. 792. Hist. des Compte de Poitou, &c. The matter is of little consequence, except so far as the representation of the manners and customs of the times is affected by it.
[Footnote 28]: The closed crown was not introduced until the reign of Louis XII. or Francis I.
[Footnote 29]: A different banner from the famous oriflamme which was the standard of St. Denis.
[Footnote 30]: Lacurne de St. Palaye was decidedly wrong in attributing the use of the lance solely to knights. Besides the example before given, the present instance of the serjeants of Soissons puts the matter beyond doubt. The words of Guillaume Guiart are--
"Serjanz d'armes cent et cinquante. Criant Monjoie! ensemble brochent; Vers les rens des Flamens deseochent Les pointes des lances enclines," &c.
That the serjeants of arms of Soissons were simple burghers is evident from the contempt with which the Flemish knights received them--Guil. le Breton, in vit. Phil. Aug.
[Footnote 31]: This circumstance, however extraordinary, is not the less true; and though attributed by the various chroniclers to various persons, is mentioned particularly by all who have described the battle of Bovines.