CHAPTER II
Richard II.'s horse, Roan Barbary—Thoroughbred English horses characteristic of the nation—Chaucer; Cambuscan's wooden horse—Don Quixote's Aligero Clavileno—Horse race between the Prince of Wales and Lord Arundel—The Chevalier Bayard; his horse, Carman—The Earl of Warwick's horse, Black Saladin—Joan of Arc—King Richard's horse, White Surrey—Charles VIII. of France's horse, Savoy—Dame Julyana Berners—Wolsey's horsemanship—Queen Elizabeth's stud
“WHEN the Pale was troubled by an eruption of the O'Byrnes and O'Moores in 1372”—Professor Ridgeway writes in his interesting and instructive work, “The Origin and Influence of the Thoroughbred Horse”—“who burned the priory of Athy, John Colton, the first Master of Gonville Hall (now Gonville and Caius College) and successively Dean of St Patrick's, Chancellor of Ireland, and Archbishop of Armagh, raised a force of twenty-six knights and a large body of men-at-arms and fell upon the Irish and defeated them with great slaughter.”
Upon referring to the records of this incident, to be found in several of our histories, it becomes evident that in the Pale at that time there must have been many horses of the stamp that to-day we speak of as the “great” horse.
The insurrection alluded to so lightly as “an eruption of the O'Byrnes and O'Moores” in reality was a serious affair, due, we are told, mainly to the almost total disregard of certain just demands made by O'Byrne, O'Moore and their followers. The Irish were for the most part badly mounted and poorly armed, many of their horses having been seized surreptitiously a short time prior to the outbreak, but they appear to have made a very gallant defence.
John Colton's men-at-arms were, however, nearly all of great weight and heavily armed, so it is not surprising to read that they “made short work of the Irish rebels.” Remarkable would it have been had they not done so, for we must bear in mind that their suppressors were of immeasurably superior strength.
A horse foaled some years after this, which lived to become famous in British history, was King Richard II.'s barbary, often called Roan Barbary. The king, we are told in rather extravagant language, “loved Roan Barbary as an only son,” and certainly it is true that he was exceptionally fond of this particular horse which poets, dramatists and writers of romance at various periods have all united in immortalising.