ENGLISH KNIGHTS TRAVELLING
From MS. in British Museum. Harl. 1319.
The wealth and state of the City itself were confided to the care of the Mayor and Aldermen, who lost no opportunity, whether by a Riding, or a Pageant, or a Feast, of exhibiting the wealth of the City by the liveries and splendour of dress worn by the citizens. Thus, Stow gives some particulars on the subject, which help to show us the real wealth of the citizens:—
“1236. The 20th of Henry III., the Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs, and citizens of London, rode out to meet the King and his new wife Queen Eleanor, daughter to Reymond Beringarius of Aragon, Earl of Provence and Narbone. The citizens were clothed in long garments, embroidered about with gold, and silk in divers colours, their horses finely trapped, to the number of three hundred and sixty, every man bearing a gold or silver cup in his hand, the King’s trumpets before them sounding, etc. as ye may read in my Annales.
1300. The 29th of Edward I., the said King took to wife Margaret, sister to Philip le Beau, King of France: they were married at Canterbury. The Queen was conveyed to London, against whom the citizens to the number of six hundred rode in one livery of white and red, with the cognisances of their mysteries embroidered upon their sleeves; they received her four miles out of London, and so conveyed her to Westminster.
1415. The 3rd of Henry V., the said King arriving at Dover, the Mayor of London, with the Aldermen and craftsmen riding in red, with hoods red and white, met with the King on the Black hith, coming from Eltham with his prisoners out of France.
1432. The 10th of Henry VI., he being crowned in France, returning into England, came to Eltham towards London, and the Mayor of London, John Welles, the Aldermen, with the commonality, rode against him on horseback, the Mayor in crimson velvet, a great velvet hat furred, a girdle of gold about his middle, and a bawdrike of gold about his neck trilling down behind him, his three henxeme, on three great coursers following him, in one suit of red, all spangled in silver, then the Aldermen in gowns of scarlet, with sanguine hoods, and all the commonality of the city clothed in white gowns and scarlet hoods, with divers cognisances embroidered on their sleeves, etc.
1485. The 1st of Henry VII., the Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs, and commonality, all clothed in violet (as in a mourning colour), met the King at Shireditch, and conveyed him to Bowles Church, where he offered his banners.
Thus much for liveries of citizens in ancient times, both in triumphs and otherwise, may suffice, whereby, may be observed, that the coverture of men’s heads was then hoods, for neither cap nor hat is spoken of, except that John Welles, Mayor of London, to wear a hat in time of triumph, but differing from the hats lately taken in use, and now commonly worn for noblemen’s liveries. I read that Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, in the reign of Edward II., gave at Christmas in liveries, to such as served him, a hundred and fifty-nine broadcloths, allowing to every garment furs to fur their hoods: more near our time, thereby remaineth the counterfeits and pictures of Aldermen and others that lived in the reigns of Henry VI. and Edward IV., namely, Alderman Darby, dwelling in Fenchurch Street, over against the parish church of St. Diones, left his picture, as of an Alderman, in a gown of scarlet on his back, a hood on his head, etc. as is in that house (and elsewhere) to be seen. For a further monument of those late times, men may behold the glass windows of the Mayor’s Court in the Guildhall above the stairs; the Mayor is there pictured sitting in habit, party-coloured, and a hood on his head, his sword-bearer before him with a hat or cap of maintenance; the common clerk and other officers bareheaded, their hoods on their shoulders: and therefore, I take it, that the use of square bonnets worn by noblemen, gentlemen, citizens, and others, took beginning in the realm by Henry VII., and in his time, and of further antiquity, I can see no counterfeit or other proof of use. Henry VIII. (towards his latter reign) wore a flat round cap of scarlet or of velvet, with a bruch or jewel and a feather: divers gentlemen, courtiers, and others did the like. The youthful citizens also took them to the new fashion of flat caps knitted of woollen yarn black, but so light that they were obliged to tie them under their chins, for else the wind would be master over them. The use of these flat round caps so far increased (being of less price than the French bonnet) that in short time the young Aldermen took the wearing of them: Sir John White wore it in his Mayoralty, and was the first that left example to his followers; but now the Spanish felt, or the like counterfeit, is most commonly, of all men both spiritual and temporal, taken to use, so that the French bonnet or square cap, and also the round cap, have for the most part given place to the Spanish felt; but yet in London amongst the graver sort (I mean the liveries of companies) remaineth a memory of the hoods of old time worn by their predecessors; these hoods were worn, the roundlets upon their heads, the skirts to hang behind in their necks to keep them warm, the tippet to lie on their shoulder, or to wind about their necks; these hoods were of old time made in colours according to their gowns, which were of two colours, as red and blue, or red and purple, murrey, or as it pleased their masters and wardens to appoint to the companies: but now of late time they have used their gowns to be all of one colour, and those of the saddest, but their hoods being made the one half of the same cloth their gowns be of, the other half remaineth red as of old time.”
The age was, above all, martial, therefore battle real or battle mimic was the sport which mostly moved the people. The tournament was nominally a mimic battle, yet it so closely resembled a real battle, and so often ended in wounds or death, that it was sometimes difficult to distinguish between a tournament and a duel. At the Tilt Yard at Whitehall, in Tothill Fields, at Smithfield and in Cheapside, tournaments were held. Among the most famous tournaments were the following:—
That of 1329 in Cheapside when the scaffolding erected for the Queen and her ladies fell, fortunately without injury to the Queen.
A TOURNAMENT IN LONDON
From Froissart’s Chronicles.
Those of 1357, 1362, and 1374. The last was especially splendid: it was held in honour of Alice Perrers, the “Lady of the Sun,” and continued for seven days.