FIELD HARNESS OF
ANNE DE MONTMORENCY.
In 1590, after the siege of Paris had been raised, King Henri IV challenged the Duc de Mayenne to single combat, in order that by a decisive result the calamities of France might be stayed, but nothing came of it.
A tournament was held at Westminster under the leadership of Walter, Earl of Essex, which is chiefly remarkable from the fact of its having taken place during the night. It was on the occasion when Anne de Montmorency, Constable of France, came to London to receive the Order of the Garter, in June, 1572. Queen Elizabeth gave a supper in celebration of the event, at which she presided, and in due time she retired to her apartments. The weather being warm, however, it pleased her Majesty to walk from her chamber on to the open terrace of the palace, where the French duke and his suite were assembled, with many of the English courtiers. The Earl of Essex entered the terrace quite suddenly, accompanied by twelve gentlemen armed at all points and well mounted.
“The Earl and his horse were furnished with white cloth of siluer, and the rest in white sattin, who after reuerence done to her Maiesty, marched to the east side of the Court, and there in troope, stood firme. Forthwith entered Edward Earle of Rutland, with a like number, in like sort armed and apparelled all in blew; and hauing presented his reuerence, stayed on the west end. Before either of these bands, one Chariot was drawen, and therein a faire Damsell, conducted by an armed Knight, who pronounced certain speeches in the French tongue, vnto her Maiestie. These Ceremonies passed, the Queene commanded the armed men to fall vnto fight, which they performed with great courage, and commendation, chiefly in the Earl of Essex, a noble personage, valorous in armes, and all other wayes of great vertue.
Of the Actors names in this Triumph (it seemeth) no note is kept: yet are many of them still liuing.”
The ordinances and regulations which controlled the routine of a tournament, some of them compiled for general use and others framed for particular contests, have been repeatedly referred to in these pages; but the method of the keeping of scores is nowhere clearly indicated, and, indeed, is but rarely mentioned. The score was marked in strokes by a king of arms, sometimes by a pursuivant,[231] on a scoring tablet, termed a “checque,” which was tricked with a shield of the arms of the owner, as shown on page 127. The scoring-board itself was in the form of a parallelogram, with three horizontal lines, the middle line projecting some distance beyond the others, and on the projection of this middle line the number of courses run (usually from two to eight) were registered. The attaints were noted on the top line; and they were often differentiated as hits on the body or head, which had a different value in the tale.[232] The middle line inside the parallelogram was for the staves well broken, and the bottom line for those “ill-broken”—that is, broken within a foot of the head of the lance or on the tilt, on the adversary’s saddle, etc.—these being deducted from the score or disallowed. The proportion in the number of attaints varied greatly, though on the average it would appear that the misses made in jousting at the tilt (i.e. when the jousters failed to touch each other in their careers) were greater in number than the hits made; while in jousting “at the wide” the proportion of attaints was much greater. The registration was done by vertical strokes on the horizontal lines.
As many as ten jousting cheques have been found, which help to a knowledge as to how the scoring was managed, though more light is needed on the subject.
The rules and regulations concerning the conducting of tournaments in Tudor times were based on those framed in 1466 by John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, Constable of England, which are given in our [Chapter IV]; but there is no rule among them directly mentioned concerning the method of scoring the points. There are, however, pictures of the scoring cheques, reproduced by Mr. ffoulkes in his paper in Archæologia, Vol. LXIII, Plate IV, Nos. 2, 3, which appear at the ends of two of the versions of the Tiptoft rules; viz. those in Harl. MS. 2413, fol. 16, and Ashmole MS. 763, fol. 149. Two cheques out of the fifty-six in Ashmole MS. 845, fol. 164, are reproduced on our Fig. 1. They are those of the Earl of Oxford and Charles Howard, being registers of their scores at the passage of arms which was proclaimed by Clarencieulx in 1570.
This somewhat intricate subject can only be lightly touched upon in these pages; but we may refer any of our readers who may wish to pursue the subject further to Lord Dillon’s paper, “Tilting in Tudor Times,” published in the Archæological Journal, Vol. LV, and to that written by Mr. Charles ffoulkes in Archæologia, LXIII, entitled “Jousting Cheques of the Sixteenth Century.”
Three writers on certain features in the routine of a tournament are mentioned in the last-named monograph, The Romance of Three King’s Sons, written about the end of the fifteenth century,[233] from which the following extract is given:—