King Edward held a tournament in London in the middle of August, 1342; and had sent heralds into Flanders, Brabant and France to proclaim it. Froissart states that the eldest son of Viscount Beaumont[61] was killed at this tournament. Other chroniclers date this passage of arms in 1343.
To cry a tourney—“Cy sensuyt la façon des criz de Tournois et des Joustes. Cy peut on à prendre à crier et à publier pour ceulx qui en seront dignes,” etc. Ashmolean MS., No. 764, 31, 43.[62] On the reverse of the last leaf is a picture of a Joust, wherein two combatants on horseback, bearing their crests, are fighting with lances within the lists.
The Round Table held at Windsor on St. George’s Day in 1344 has been referred to in the section devoted to the Tabula Rotunda. These hastiludes and jousts are mentioned by Froissart, who tells us that they were characterized by great splendour. The Queen was attended on the occasion by three hundred ladies, richly attired; while the King had a great array of earls and barons in his train. The “feast” was noble, with all good cheer and jousting, and lasted over fifteen days. Holinshed’s account, under the year 1344, is as follows:—“Moreouer, about the beginning of the eighteenth yeare (?) of his reigne, King Edward held a solemne feast at his castell of Windsore, where betwixt Candlemasse and Lent, was atchiued manie martiall feasts, and iusts, and tornaments, and diuerse other the like warlike pastimes, at which were present manie strangers of other lands, and in the end thereof, he deuised the order of the garter, and after established it, as it is to this daie. There are six and twentie companions or confrers of this felowship of that order, being called knights of the blew garter, and as one dieth or is depriued, an other is admitted into his place. The K. of England is euer chiefe of this order. They weare a blew robe or mantell, and a garter about their left leg, richlie wrought with gold and pretious stones, hauing this inscription in French vpon it, Honi soit qui mal y pense, Shame come to him who euill thinketh. This order is dedicated to S. George, as chéefe patrone of men of warre, and therefor euerie yeare doo the knights of the order kéepe solmne his feast, with manie noble ceremonies at the castell of Windsore, where King Edward founded a colledge of canons.”[63]
Shortly after this round table the King issued letters patent for hastiludes and jousts to be held annually at Lincoln, over which the Earl of Derby was nominated as Captain by the King, the office to be retained by the earl during life-time, but after his death to become elective.
The “Feast of the Round Table” was again held at Windsor in 1345, and within a few years of it jousts took place at Northampton, Dunstable, Canterbury, Bury, Reading and Eltham, the exact years of which do not appear in the wardrobe accounts which have been preserved. In July, 1346, King Edward invaded France, and did not return to London until October, 1347, his home-coming being celebrated by jousts, tournaments, masques and other festivities.
A manuscript covering the expenses of the great wardrobe of Edward III from December, 1345, to January, 1349, now in the Public Record Office, is printed in Archæologia for the year 1846.[64] Some of the items scheduled cover robes for the person, which were delivered to certain of the knights taking part in a “round-table” held by the King at Lichfield in 1348 or 1349, more probably the former year; viz. for the King’s person and eleven knights of his chamber, these being Sir Walter Manny, John de L’Isle, Hugo Courtenay, John Gray, Robert de Ferrers, Richard de la Vache, Philip de Spencer, Roger de Beauchamp, Miles de Stapleton, Ralph de Ferrers and Robert de Mauley. To each of these knights two yards of blue cloth for coats and “three quarters and half a yard” of white cloth for hoods[65] was delivered. Similar cloth was also issued to some of the other knights. The challengers, or tenans, of the round table consisted of the king and seventeen of his knights; their opponents, the venans, comprised fourteen knights, with the Earl of Lancaster at their head. An entry in the wardrobe accounts shows that King Edward wore a harness bearing the arms of Sir Thomas Bradeston on the occasion. Any further particulars of this round table, beyond the details of the robes for the banquet, are lacking. This tournament was celebrated with great pomp and magnificence.
A spirited verse from Chaucer’s “Knight’s Tale” follows:—[66]
“The heraudes lefte hir prikyng up and doun; Now ryngen trompès loude and clarioun; Ther is namoore to seyn, but west and est In goon the speres ful sadly in arrest; In gooth the sharpè spore into the syde. Ther seen men who kan juste and who kan ryde; Ther shyveren shaftès upon sheeldès thikke; He feeleth thurgh the hertè-spoon the prikke. Up spryngen sperès twenty foot on highte; Out gooth the swerdes as the silver brighte; The helmès they to-hewen and to-shrede, Out brest the blood with stiernè stremès rede; With myghty maces the bonès they to-breste. He, thurgh the thikkeste of the throng gan threste, Ther, stomblen steedès stronge, and doun gooth al; He, rolleth under foot as dooth a bal.”
We see in the Romance of Perceforest how the ladies at a tournament tore off pieces of their apparel to be used as tokens or favours by their devoted knights, to an extent leaving them in a condition of dishabille. A knight often wore “a kerchief of pleasance” on his helmet, a token from his lady-love.
In 1358 “Roiall iustes were holden in Smithfield, at which were present the Kings of England, France and Scotland ... of which the more part of the strangers were as their prisoners.”[67]