'Strong lists having been erected in Smithfield, 120 yards and 10 feet long, 80 yards and 10 feet broad, with fair and costly galleries all around for the accommodation of the king and queen, attended by the lords and ladies of the court, and a prodigious number of lords, knights, and ladies, of England, France, Scotland, and other countries, in their richest dresses.
'The two champions entered the lists, and were conducted to their pavilions. There they underwent the usual searches, and answered the usual questions, and then advanced into the middle of the lists. The first day they ran together with sharp spears, and departed with equal honour. The next day, they tourneyed on horseback. The lord Scales' horse had on his chaffron a long sharp pike of steel,—and as the two champions coped together, the said horse thrust his pike into the nostrils of the bastard's horse, so that, for very pain, he mounted so high that he fell on the one side with his master; and the lord Scales rode about him, with his sword drawn in his hand, till the king commanded the marshal to help up the bastard, who openly said, 'I cannot hold me by the clouds; for though my horse fail me, I will not fail my encounter, companion:' but the king would not suffer them to do any more that day. The next morrow, the two noblemen came into the field on foot, with two pole-axes, and fought valiantly; but, at the last, the point of the pole-axe of the lord Scales happened to enter into the sight of the bastard's helm, and, by fine force, might have plucked him on his knees; but the king suddenly cast down his warder, and then the marshal severed them. The bastard, not content with this chance, required the king, of justice, that he might perform his enterprise. The lord Scales refused not. But the king calling to him the constable and the marshal, with the officer of arms, after consultation had, it was declared, for a sentence definitive, by the duke of Clarence, then constable of England,' (John Tiptoft earl of Worcester was the constable, and not the duke of Clarence: see Rymer) 'and the duke of Norfolk marshal, that if he would go forward with his attempted challenge, he must, by the law of arms, be delivered to his adversary in the same state, and like condition, as he stood when he was taken from him.
'The bastard, hearing this judgment, doubted the sequel of the matter, and so relinquished his challenge.'
See Stowe, &c.
[61] Stuffings,—mahotoitres. See Du Cange. Supplement. 'Maheria.'
THE DEATH AND INTERMENT OF THE NOBLE DUKE PHILIP OF BURGUNDY, AND THE GRAND OBSEQUIES PERFORMED FOR HIM IN THE CHURCH OF SAINT DONNAST IN BRUGES.
On the 12th day of June, in the year 1467, the noble duke Philip of Burgundy was seized with a grievous malady, which continued unabated until Monday, the 15th, when he rendered his soul to God, between nine and ten o'clock at night. When he perceived, on the preceding day, that he was growing worse, he sent for his son, the count de Charolois, then at Ghent, who hastened to him with all speed; and on his arrival, about mid-day of the Monday, at the duke's palace in Bruges, he went instantly to the chamber where the duke lay sick in bed, but found him speechless. He cast himself on his knees at the bedside, and, with many tears, begged his blessing, and that, if he had ever done any thing to offend him, he would pardon him. The confessor, who stood at the bedside, admonished the duke, if he could not speak, at least to show some sign of his good will. At this admonition, the good duke kindly opened his eyes, took his son's hand, and squeezed it tenderly, as a sign of his pardon and his blessing.
The count, like an affectionate child, never quitted the duke's bed until he had given up the ghost. May God, out of his mercy, receive his soul, pardon his transgressions, and admit him into paradise!