Ther wakeneth in the world wondred ant woe,
Ase god is swynden anon as so for to swynke.”
Political Songs, p. 152.
[82] The historian of this chivalrous knighthood was Froissart.
[83] Maintainers seem to have been of two sorts. On the borders of the counties palatine, confederacies were formed, who made sudden irruptions into the neighbouring counties, and carried off young women, particularly heiresses. They then retired within the freedoms of the counties palatine, and held their captives to ransom. The bodies of retainers who gathered round individual nobles, and stood by one another in such illegal actions as forcible desiesin, or ejection of rightful owners from their property, also received the name.
[84] The priest had, however, been dead a month before.
[85] Walsingham, 379.
[86] Four years afterwards he was captured and put to death, not as a traitor, but as a heretic. This throws considerable doubt on the truth of his connection with the present insurrection, a charge which was very slightly supported by evidence.
[87] There were fifteen Prelates and twenty-eight Temporal Peers at this council.
[88] A duke, 13s. 4d. a day; an earl, 6s. 8d; a baron, 4s.; a knight, 2s.; a man-at-arms, 1s.; an archer, 6d.; a hundred marks to each who supplied thirty armed men.