[Footnote 5]: In many countries, the distinction of station, if not of birth, was very strictly enforced, especially at meals; and I think it is Meyrick who mentions the ordonnance of some foreign prince, by which no one was permitted, under the grade of chivalry, to sit at the table with a knight, unless he were a cross-bowman, the son of a knight.
[Footnote 6]: His after advancement to the Earldom of Tankerville was won by deeds of arms, which shows that he must have been still hale and robust at this time.
[Footnote 7]: Dulle Grite.--This great cannon, or bombard, was forged for the siege of Oudenarde, in 1382, and is nearly twenty feet long, and about eleven in circumference.
[Footnote 8]: Some authors, and especially Monstrelet, represent the Duke of Burgundy as effecting his escape from the forest of Villeneuve St. George; but the reader of course cannot entertain the slightest doubt that the author of the present veracious history is, like all other modern historians and critics, better acquainted with the events of distant times than the poor ignorant people who lived in them.
[Footnote 9]: It may be necessary to remark that the incident here mentioned is not imaginary, but a recorded historical fact, most disgraceful to those who played the treacherous juggle.
[Footnote 10]: This term was greatly affected at the period we speak of, not only by kings, but by all powerful nobles.
[Footnote 11]: It is a strange omission on the part of the historians of the day, that in relating the escape of John of Croy, they have not mentioned the name of Richard of Woodville.
[Footnote 12]: The actual removal of the Canonesses of Cambray took place a few months later.