Cavaliers sometimes took their title from the place where they were knighted: a very distinguished honor was to be called a Knight of the Mines, which was to be obtained by achieving feats of arms in the subterranean process of a siege. The mines were the scenes of knightly valour; they were lighted up by torches; trumpets and other war instruments resounded, and the general affair of the siege was suspended, while the knights tried their prowess; the singularity of the mode of combat giving a zest to the encounters. No prisoners could be taken, as a board, breast high, placed in the passage by mutual consent, divided the warriors. Swords or short battle-axes were the only weapons used.
In the year 1388, the castle of Vertueill, in Poictou, then held by the English, was besieged by the Duke of Bourbon. Its walls raised on a lofty rock were not within the play of the battering ram, and therefore the tedious operation of the mine was resorted to: both parties frequently met and fought in the excavated chambers, and a battle of swords was one day carried on between Regnaud de Montferrand, the squire of the castle, and the Duke of Bourbon, each being ignorant of the name and quality of the other. At length the cry “Bourbon, Bourbon! Our Lady!” shouted by the attendants of the Duke, in their eager joy at the fray, struck the ears of the squire, and arrested his hand. He withdrew some paces, and enquired whether the duke were present: when they assured him of the fact, he requested to receive the honour of knighthood in the mine, from the hands of the duke, and offering to deliver up the castle to him in return for the distinction, and from respect for the honour and valour he found in him. Never was a castle in the pride of its strength and power gained by easier means. The keys were delivered to the Duke of Bourbon by Regnaud de Montferrand, and the honor of knighthood, with a goodly courser and a large golden girdle, were bestowed on the squire in return.[81]
General ceremonies of degradation.
Such were the various ceremonies of chivalric inauguration. Those of degradation should be noticed. What the offences were which were punishable by degradation it is impossible to specify. If a knight offended against the rules of the order of chivalry he was degraded, inasmuch as he was despised by his brother knights; and as honour was the life-blood of chivalry, he dreaded contempt more than the sword. Still, however, there were occasions when a knight might be formally deprived of his distinctions. The ceremony of degradation generally took place after sentence, and previous to the execution of a legal judgment against him.[82] Sometimes his sword was broken over his head, and his spurs were chopped off; and, to make the bitterness of insult a part of the punishment, these actions were performed by a person of low condition; but at other times the forms of degradation were very elaborate. The knight who was to be degraded was in the first instance armed by his brother knights from head to foot, as if he had been going to the battle-field; they then conducted him to a high stage, raised in a church, where the king and his court, the clergy, and the people, were assembled; thirty priests sung such psalms as were used at burials; at the end of every psalm they took from him a piece of armour. First, they removed his helmet, the defence of disloyal eyes, then his cuirass on the right side, as the protector of a corrupt heart; then his cuirass on the left side, as from a member consenting, and thus with the rest; and when any piece of armour was cast upon the ground, the king of arms and heralds cried, “Behold the harness of a disloyal and miscreant knight!” A basin of gold or silver full of warm water was then brought upon the stage, and a herald holding it up, demanded the knight’s name. The pursuivants answered that which in truth was his designation. Then the chief king of arms said, “That is not true, for he is a miscreant and false traitor, and hath transgressed the ordinances of knighthood.” The chaplains answered, “Let us give him his right name.” The trumpets sounded a few notes, supposed to express the demand, “what shall be done with him?” The king, or his chief officer, who was present replied, “Let him with dishonour and shame be banished from my kingdom as a vile and infamous man, that hath offended against the honour of knighthood.” The heralds immediately cast the warm water upon the face of the disgraced knight, as though he were newly baptized, saying, “Henceforth thou shalt be called by thy right name, Traitor.” Then the king, with twelve other knights, put upon them mourning garments, declaring sorrow, and thrust the degraded knight from the stage: by the buffettings of the people he was driven to the altar, where he was put into a coffin, and the burial-service of the church was solemnly read over him.[83]
Ceremonies in England.
The English customs regarding degradation are minutely stated by Stowe in the case of an English knight, Sir Andrew Harcley, Earl of Carlisle who (in the time of Edward II.) was deprived of his knighthood, previously to his suffering the penalties of the law for a treasonable correspondence with Robert Bruce. “He was led to the bar as an earl, worthily apparelled, with his sword girt about him, horsed, booted, and spurred, and unto him Sir Anthony Lucy (his judge) spoke in this manner: ‘Sir Andrew,’ quoth he, ‘the king for thy valiant service hath done thee great honour, and made thee Earl of Carlisle, since which time thou as a traitor to thy lord, the king, led his people, that should have helped him at the battle of Heighland, away by the county of Copland, and through the earldom of Lancaster, by which means our lord the king was discomfited there of the Scots, through thy treason and falseness; whereas, if thou haddest come betimes, he hadde had the victory, and this treason thou committed for the great sum of gold and silver that thou received of James Douglas, a Scot, the king’s enemy. Our lord the king wills, therefore, that the order of knighthood, by the which thou received all the honour and worship upon thy body, be brought to nought, and thy state undone, that other knights of lower degree may after thee beware, and take example truly to serve.’ Then commanded he to hew his spurs from his heels, then to break his sword over his head, which the king had given him to keep and defend his land therewith, when he made him earl. After this, he let unclothe him of his furred tabard, and of his hood, of his coat of arms, and also of his girdle; and when this was done, Sir Anthony said unto him, ‘Andrew,’ quoth he, ‘now art thou no knight, but a knave; and for thy treason the king wills that thou shalt be hanged and drawn, and thy head smitten off from thy body, and burned before thee, and thy body quartered, and thy head being smitten off, afterwards to be set upon London bridge, and thy four quarters shall be sent into four good towns of England, that all others may beware by thee;’ and as Sir Anthony Lucy had said, so was it done in all things, on the last day of October.”[84]
CHAP. III.
THE EQUIPMENT.