“The Battle of the Paso Honroso is narrated in a book written by a Friar, named Pineda, who abridged it from an old manuscript work.” (Page 126.)
In Salamanca, in the year 1588, was published, a curious old book of Knight-errantry, entitled El Libro del Paso Honroso, defendido por el excelente caballero Suero de Quiñones, copilado de un libro antiguo de mano, por fray Juan de Pineda, religioso del orden de San Francisco.[78]
The petition addressed by Suero de Quiñones to King John of Castile ran thus—“It is just and reasonable that prisoners and bondsmen should wish to recover their liberty. Even so it is with me, your Majesty’s vassal and subject, who have long been the captive of a lady, in token of which captivity I wear every Thursday round my neck a collar of iron. This fact is notorious in your Majesty’s court and throughout all this kingdom, as well as in foreign parts, where my heralds have proclaimed it. But now, most powerful Prince, I have in the name of the Apostle St. James, devised a plan for effecting my deliverance, in this present year, of which this is the first day. My proposal is to break three hundred lances, with such knights and gentlemen as may accept my challenge—breaking three with every and each knight or gentleman who enters the lists;—the first blood drawn to be counted as one lance broken. The combats to be maintained during fifteen days prior to the festival of the Apostle St. James, (the guide and defender of your Majesty’s subjects) and during fifteen days after the said festival, unless my ransom be accomplished before the expiration of that period. The lists to be planted on the high road, along which most persons pass on their way to the city wherein is the Saint’s sacred sepulchre,[79] and that it be certified to all the foreign knights and gentlemen who may there assemble that they will find at the place of encounter, armour, horses, and above all lances with points of such good Milan steel, that it will require no light stroke to shiver them. And I pray that it be notified to every virtuous lady of rank, who may be in the vicinity of the scene of combat, that she must summon a knight to perform a passage of arms in her behalf, under pain of forfeiting her right hand glove. All these propositions I pray may be agreed to;—saving two conditions, which are—that neither your Royal Majesty nor the most noble Señor Constable, Don Álvaro de Luna, take part in these encounters.”
The petition having been assented to by the King, Suero de Quiñones, accompanied by nine knights his followers, set out on his romantic enterprise. He proclaimed himself the defender of the Honroso Paso of the Bridge of Orbigo. Sixty-eight adventurers, and not seventy as stated in the Buscapié, combated for the conquest of the Honroso Paso, and Suero, on being declared the victor, presented to the Umpires of the Field a petition, which was responded to in the following manner:—
“Virtuous Knight and Señor, we have heard your proposition and appeal, and it appears to us to be just. Considering that we ought no longer to delay pronouncing our judgment, we hereby declare that your arms have been triumphant and that your deliverance has been bravely purchased. And moreover, we hereby notify to you, as well as to all others here present, that of the three hundred lances specified in your petition to the king there remain only a few unbroken, and that there would not be even those few, but that on several days there could not be any passage of arms by reason of no knights having presented themselves to oppose the challenger. We accordingly decree that you be released from the iron collar, which we forthwith order the King-at-Arms, and the Herald to remove from your neck; and we declare that you have duly accomplished your emprise, and that you are henceforth delivered from bondage.”
In obedience to the command of the Umpires, the King-at-Arms and the Heralds descended from the platform and before the eyes of all present, took from the neck of Suero de Quiñones the iron ring which he wore as the sign and token of his bondage.
The records of Spanish chivalry mention numerous adventures, no less whimsical and extravagant than that of the doughty knight who was the hero of the Honroso Paso.—Several instances of the same kind are narrated by Hernán Pérez del Pulgar in his Claros Varones de Castilla. (Illustrious men of Castile).