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  The History of Chivalry
  or
  Knighthood and its times.


  By CHARLES MILLS, Esqr.
  Author of the History of the Crusades


  IN TWO VOLUMES.

  Vol: I.


  [Illustration: Engraved by A. Le Petit
  from a sketch by R. W. Sievier.]


  London.
  Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green
  MDCCCXXV.




PREFACE.


The propriety of my writing a History of Chivalry, as a companion to my
History of the Crusades, was suggested to me by a friend whose
acquaintance with middle-age lore forms but a small portion of his
literary attainments, and whose History of Italy shows his ability of
treating, as well as his skill in discovering, subjects not hitherto
discussed with the fulness which their importance merits.[1]

The works of Menestrier and Colombiere sleep in the dust of a few ancient
libraries; and there are only two other books whose express and entire
object is a delineation of the Institutions of chivalry. The first and
best known is the French work called "Memoires sur l'ancienne Chevalerie;
consideree comme un Etablissement Politique et Militaire. Par M. de la
Curne de Sainte Palaye, de l'Academie Francoise," &c. 2 tom. 12mo. Paris,
1759. The last half, however, of the second volume does not relate to
chivalry, and therefore the learned Frenchman cannot be charged with
treating his subject at very great length.[2] It was his purpose to
describe the education which accomplished the youth for the distinction of
knighthood, and this part of his work he has performed with considerable
success. But he failed in his next endeavour, that of painting the martial
games of chivalry, for nothing can be more unsatisfactory than his account
of jousts and tournaments. As he wished to inform his readers of the use
which was made in the battle field of the valour, skill, and experience of
knights, a description of some of the extraordinary and interesting
battles of the middle ages might have been expected. Here also
disappointment is experienced; neither can any pleasure be derived from
perusing his examination of the causes which produced the decline and
extinction of chivalry, and his account of the inconveniences which
counterbalanced the advantages of the establishment.

Sainte Palaye was a very excellent French antiquarian; but the limited
scope of his studies disqualified him from the office of a general
historian of chivalry. The habits of his mind led him to treat of
knighthood as if it had been the ornament merely of his own country. He
very rarely illustrates his principles by the literature of any other
nation, much less did he attempt to trace their history through the
various states of Europe. He has altogether kept out of sight many
characteristic features of his subject. Scarcely any thing is advanced
about ancient armour; not a word on the religious and military orders; and
but a few pages, and those neither pleasing nor correct, on woman and
lady-love. The best executed part of his subject regards, as I have
already observed, the education of knights; and he has scattered up and
down his little volume and a half many curious notices of ancient manners.

The other work is written in the German language, and for that reason it
is but very little known in this country. It is called Ritterzeit und
Ritterwesen, (two volumes octavo, Leipzig, 1823,) and is the substance of
a course of lectures on chivalry delivered by the author, Mr. Buesching, to
his pupils of the High School at Breslau. The style of the work is the
garrulous, slovenly, ungrammatical style which lecturers, in all
countries, and upon all subjects, think themselves privileged to use. A
large portion of the book is borrowed from Sainte Palaye; much of the
remainder relates to feudalism and other matters distinct from chivalry:
but when the writer treats of the state of knighthood in Germany I have
found his facts and observations of very great value.

Attention to the subjects of the middle ages of Europe has for many years
been growing among us. It was first excited by Warton's history of our
national verse, and Percy's edition of the Relics of ancient English
Poetry. The romances of chivalry, both in prose and metre, and the
numberless works on the Troubadour, and every other description of
literature during the middle ages which have been published within the
last few years, have sustained the interest. The poems of Scott convinced
the world that the chivalric times of Europe can strike the moral
imagination as powerfully and pleasingly in respect of character, passion,
and picturesqueness of effect, as the heroic ages of Greece; and even very
recently the glories of chivalry have been sung by a poetess whom Ariosto
himself would have been delighted to honour.[3] Still, however, no attempt
has been hitherto made to describe at large the institutions of
knighthood, the foundation of all that elegant superstructure of poetry
and romance which we admire, and to mark the history of chivalry in the
various countries of Europe. Those institutions have, indeed, been allowed
a few pages in our Encyclopaedias; and some of the sketches of them are
drawn with such boldness and precision of outline that we may regret the
authors did not present us with finished pictures. Our popular historians
have but hastily alluded to the subject; for they were so much busied with
feudalism and politics, that they could afford but a small space for the
play of the lighter graces of chivalry.

For a description, indeed, of antique manners, our materials are not so
ample as for that of their public lives. But still the subject is not
without its witnesses. The monkish chroniclers sometimes give us a glimpse
of the castles of our ancestors. Many of the knights in days of yore had
their biographers; and, for the most interesting time of chivalry, we
possess an historian, who, for vividness of delineation, kindliness of
feeling, and naivete of language, is the Herodotus of the middle ages.

"Did you ever read Froissart?"

"No," answered Henry Morton.

"I have half a mind," rejoined Claverhouse, "to contrive that you should
have six months' imprisonment, in order to procure you that pleasure. His
chapters inspire me with more enthusiasm than even poetry itself."

Froissart's[4] history extends from the year 1316 to 1400. It was begun by
him when he was twenty years old, at the command of his dear lord and
master, Sir Robert of Namur, Lord of Beaufort. The annals from 1326 to
1356 are founded on the Chronicles compiled by him whom he calls "The
Right Reverend, discreet, and sage Master John la Bele, sometime canon in
St. Lambertis of Liege, who with good heart and due diligence did his true
devoir in writing his book; and heard of many fair and noble adventures
from his being well beloved, and of the secret counsel of the Lord Sir
John of Hainault." Froissart corrected all this borrowed matter on the
information of the barons and knights of his time regarding their
families' gestes and prowesses. He is the chronicler both of political
events and of chivalric manners. Of his merits in the first part of his
character it falls not within my province to speak. For the office of
historian of chivalry no man could present such fair pretensions. His
father being a herald-painter, he was initiated in his very early years
into that singular form of life which he describes with such picturesque
beauty. "Well I loved," as he says of his youth, in one of his poems, "to
see dances and carolling, and to hear the songs of minstrels and tales of
glee. It pleased me to attach myself to those who took delight in hounds
and hawks. I was wont to toy with my fair companions at school, and
methought I had the art well to win the grace of maidens."--"My ears
quickened at the sound of opening the wine-flask, for I took great
pleasure in drinking, and in fair array, and in fresh and delicate viands.
I loved to see (as is reason) the early violets, and the white and red
roses, and also chambers brilliantly lighted; dances and late vigils, and
fair beds for my refreshment; and for my better repose, I joyously quaffed
a night-draught of claret, or Rochelle wine mingled with spice."

Froissart wrote his Chronicles "to the intent that the honourable and
noble adventures of feats of arms, done and achieved in the wars of France
and England, should notably be enregistered, and put in perpetual memory;
whereby the preux and hardy might have ensample to encourage them in their
well-doing."[5] To accomplish his purpose, he followed and frequented the
company of divers noble and great lords, as well in France, England, and
Scotland, as in other countries; and in their chivalric festivals he
enquired for tales of arms and amours. For three years he was clerk of the
chamber to Philippa of Hainault, wife of Edward III. He travelled into
Scotland; and, though mounted only on a simple palfrey, with his trunk
placed on the hinder part of his saddle, after the fashion in which a
squire carried the mail-harness of a knight, and attended only by a
greyhound, the favourite dog of the time, instead of a train of varlets,
yet the fame of his literary abilities introduced him to the castle of
Dalkeith, and the court of the Scottish King.

He generally lived in the society of nobles and knights,--at the courts of
the Duke of Brabant, the Count of Namur, and the Earl of Blois. He knew
and admired the Black Prince, Du Guesclin, the Douglas, and Hotspur; and
while this various acquaintance fitted him to describe the circumstances
and manners of his times, it prevented him from the bias of particular
favouritism. The character of his mind, rather than his station in life,
determined his pursuits. His profession was that of the church: he was a
while curate of Lestines, in the diocese of Liege; and, at the time of his
death, he was canon and treasurer of the collegiate church of Chimay. But
he was a greater reader of romances than of his breviary; and, churchman
though he was, knighthood itself could not boast a more devoted admirer
of dames and damsels. He was, therefore,