The lists were cleared of the tilt and stands, and the mêlée began, there being twenty-five cavaliers on each side. They fought with rebated swords, and with such ardour that all signals to stop were disregarded, and it was only when the duke rode in among them unhelmed, sword in hand, that they could be induced to cease fighting and go and prepare for the banquet which was to follow.
Philip de Commenes was present and tilted with Jerom of Cambrai. The banquet was served on a splendid scale, and the side tables were curiously embellished. On one of the dishes was the figure of a unicorn the size of a horse, with a leopard on his back waving the banner of England in one hand, and holding in the other a fleur de marguerite. The unicorn was trapped in silk, on which were embroidered the arms of England. A fleur de marguerite was presented to the duke by the hand of a little female dwarf belonging to Marie of Burgundy. The dwarf was dressed as a shepherdess, in cloth of gold, and was mounted on a huge lion, bearing the arms of Burgundy, which opened its mouth by means of springs, and chanted a poem in honour of the beautiful shepherdess. There were many more mechanical contrivances; and on the last day of the fêtes a whale sixty feet long entered the hall, escorted by two giants. The whale wagged its tail and fins; its eyes were great mirrors, and when it opened its mouth sirens issued from it, chanting most melodiously. After further conceits the two giants were swallowed by the whale.
A copy of a very quaint manuscript, portions of it written at different times in the reign of Edward IV and up to that of Henry VIII, is given in Archæologia of the year 1846. It describes the marriage ceremony and the pageants, remarking as to the latter:—“the pageantes wear so obscure, that I fere me to writ or speke of them, because all was cuntenaunce and no wordes.”
As to the excitement of the mêlée and the disregard of the signals and commands to cease fighting, the MS. says:—“the Duke unhelmed hyme, and with a great staffe his person charged pece in paine of deth, and soe wt great labore he droffe the parties asounder.”
There was not much tourneying at the court of Burgundy after this, for Duke Charles was too busily and constantly engaged in military enterprises against his neighbours; and, indeed, his ambitious, predatory and headstrong career was fast drawing to a close, ending, in fact, in 1477 on the fatal field of Nancy. The jousting traditions of his house passed over through his daughter, his only child, to the Austrian and German courts, under Maximilian: and it is to these countries, more especially, to which we must now turn for the history of the tournament in its decline.
In the same year as the fêtes at Bruges, 1468, a joust was held in front of the king’s hotel at the Tournelles, Paris; the challengers against all comers being four gentlemen of the company of the Seneschal of Normandy. John Raquier hastened from Rouen to take part, and he broke five lances with distinction; then came Marc Senamy and two sons of Sir John Sanguin, who all acquitted themselves well, after whom Charles de Louviers, cup-bearer to the king, jousted successfully, and the prize of the day was adjuged to him. After all these encounters the tenans were much bruised, two of them carried their arms in slings and a third was severely wounded in the hand; so that the honours of the meeting lay with the venans.[163]
“At the marriage of Richard, duke of York, son of Edward IV, with Ann Mowbray, daughter to the duke of Norfolk in 1477, six gentlemen challenged all comers at the Just Roial, with helme and shield, in manner accustomed.
“Secondly, To runne in Ostling[164] harneis alonge a tilte.
“And thirdly, to strike certaine strokes with swoards and guise of torney.”[165]
A narrative by an eye-witness of this marriage and “of the grand justing then celebrated” is given in the Ashmolean MS. No. 856, 94-104,[166] which is at least as curious as the account of the jousting of Anthony Lord Scales with the Bastard of Burgundy. It was published by W. H. B. in the Excerpta Historica, in June, 1830.