Ther upon to thenche, that monie mihten see
And drede:
Why nolden hie be war,
Of the bataile of Donbar
How evele hem con spede?
The same poet gibes at a Scottish rebel who was then still living and calls him a ‘king of summer’ and ‘King Hob’—
Nou kyng Hobbe in the mures gongeth.
This King Hob of the moors was Robert the Bruce, wandering, as Barbour describes him, over the land. There is another very vigorous and rather long piece on a recent defeat of the French by the Flemings at Courtrai—
The Frenshe came to Flaundres so light so the hare
Er hit were midnight, hit fell hem to care