just; but the helmet paid at justing, does not exclude the claim of the heralds when a knight first enters the lists at the tournament. XXVI. THE ROUND TABLE. The just, as a military pastime, is mentioned by William of Malmsbury, and said to have been practised in the reign of king Stephen. During the government of Henry III. the just assumed a different appellation, and was also called the Round Table game. This name was derived from a fraternity of knights who frequently justed with each other, and accustomed themselves to eat together in one apartment, and, in order to set aside all distinction of rank or quality, seated themselves at a circular table, where every place was equally honourable. Athenæus, cited by Du Cange,3 says, the knights sat round the table, eorum scuta ferentes a tergo," bearing their shields at their backs: I suppose for safety sake. Our historians attribute the institution of the round table to Arthur, the son of Uter Pendragon, a celebrated British hero, whose achievements are so disguised with legendary wonders, that it has been doubted if such a person ever existed in reality. 66 In the eighth year of the reign of Edward I., Roger de Mortimer, a nobleman of great opulence, established a round table at Kenelworth, for the encouragement of military pastimes; where one hundred knights, with as many ladies, were entertained at his expense. The fame of this institution occasioned, we are told, a great influx of foreigners, who came either to initiate themselves, or make some public proof of their prowess. About seventy years afterwards Edward III. erected a splendid table of the same kind at Windsor, but upon a more extensive scale; It contained the area of a circle two hundred feet in diameter: and the weekly expense for the maintenance of this table, when it was first established, amounted to one hundred pounds; which, afterwards, was reduced to twenty pounds, on account of the large sums of money required for the prosecution of the war with France. This receptacle for military men gave continual occasion for the exercise of arms, and afforded to the young nobility an 1 ་་ Pugnæ facere quod justam vocant." Hist. Novellæ, fol. 106, sub an. 1142. 2 Matthew Paris properly distinguishes it from the tournament. "Non hastiludio, quod torneamentum dicitur, sed—ludo militari, qui mensa rotunda dicitur." Hist. Angl sub an. 1252. 3 Glossary, in voce mensa rotunda. Rogerus de Mortuo Mari. Tho. Walsingham Hist. Angl sub an. 1280, fol. 8 opportunity of learning, by the way of pastime, all the requisites of a soldier. The example of king Edward was followed by Philip of Valois king of France, who also instituted a round table at his court, and by that means drew thither many German and Italian knights who were coming to England.' The contest between the two monarchs seems to have had the effect of destroying the establishment of the round table in both kingdoms, for after this period we hear no more concerning it. In England the round table was succeeded by the order of the garter, the ceremonial parts of which order are retained to this day, but the spirit of the institution ill accords with the present manners. XXVII.-NATURE OF THE JUSTS. The cessation of the round table occasioned little or no alteration respecting the justs which had been practised by the knights belonging to it; they continued to be fashionable throughout the annals of chivalry, and latterly superseded the tournaments, which is by no means surprising, when we recollect that the one was a confused engagement of many knights together, and the other a succession of combats between two only at one time, which gave them all an equal opportunity of showing individually their dexterity and attracting the general notice. In the justs the combatants most commonly used spears without heads of iron; and the excellency of the performance consisted in striking the opponent upon the front of his helmet, so as to beat him backwards from his horse or break the spear. Froissart2 mentions a trick used by Reynaud de Roy, at a tilting match between him and John de Holland: he fastened his helmet so slightly upon his head that it gave way, and was beaten off by every stroke that was made upon the vizor with the lance of John of Holland, and of course the shock he received was not so great as it would have been, had he made the helmet fast to the cuirass; this artifice was objected to by the English on the part of Holland; but John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, who was present, permitted Roye to use his pleasure; though he at the same time declared, that for his part, he should prefer a contrary practice, and have his helmet fastened as strongly as possible. And again the same historian, speaking of a justing between Tho. Walsingham. Hist. Angl. sub an. 1344, fol. 154. Thomas Harpingham and sir John de Barres, says, "As me thought the usage was thanne, their helmes wer tied but with a lace, to the entente the spere should take no hold; " by which it seems the trick became more common afterwards.' Below is a representation of the just, taken from a manuscript in the Royal Library,2 of the thirteenth, or early in the fourteenth century, where two knights appear in the action of tilting at each other with the blunted spears.3 42. JUSTING.-XIV. CENTURY. This delineation was made before the introduction of the barrier, which was a boarded railing erected in the midst of the lists, but open at both ends, and between four and five feet in height. In performing the justs, the two combatants rode on Froissart, vol. iii. chap. cxxxiii. fol. 148, lord Berners' translation. 2 No. 14, E. ii. 3 [In the original engraving the knights are opposed to each other on the same line: in the present they are separated, and one placed below, in order to represent them within the octavo page of the size is the quarto.] separate sides of the barrier, and were thereby prevented from running their horses upon each other. XXVIII.-JUSTS, PECULIARLY IN HONOUR OF THE LADIES. We have seen that the privilege of distributing the prizes and remitting the punishment of offenders, was by the laws of the tournament invested with the fair sex, but at the justs their authority was much more extensive. In the days of chivalry the justs were usually made in honour of the ladies, who presided as judges paramount over the sports, and their determinations were in all cases decisive; hence in the spirit of romance, arose the necessity for every "true knight" to have a favourite fair one, who was not only esteemed by him as the paragon of beauty and of virtue, but supplied the place of a tutelar saint, to whom he paid his vows and addressed himself in the day of peril; or it seems to have been an established doctrine, that love made valour perfect, and incited the heroes to undertake great enterprises. "Oh that my lady saw me," said one of them as he was mounting a breach at the head of his troops and driving the enemy before him. The French writer St. Foix, who mentions this,' says in another place, "It is astonishing that no author has remarked the origin of this devotion in the manners of the Germans, our ancestors, as drawn by Tacitus, who," he tells us, "attributed somewhat of divinity to the fair sex.2" Sometimes it seems the knights were armed and unarmed by the ladies; but this, I presume, was a peculiar mark of their favour, and only used upon particular occasions, as, for instance, when the heroes undertook an achievement on their behalf, or combating in defence of their beauty or their honour.3 XXIX.-GREAT SPLENDOUR OF THESE SPORTS ATTRACTIVE At the celebration of these pastimes, the lists were superbly decorated, and surrounded by the pavilions belonging to the champions, ornamented with their arms, banners, and banerolls. The scaffolds for the reception of the nobility of both sexes who came as spectators, and those especially appointed for the royal family, 1 Essais Hist. sur Paris, vol. iii. p. 263. Ibid. vol. i. p. 327. As the ladies, say some modern authors, were l'ame, the soul of the justs, it was proper that they should be therein distinguished by some peculiar homage; and, accordingly at the termination of a just with lances, the last course was made in honour of the sex, and called the lance of the ladies. The same deference was paid to them in single combats with the sword, the axe, and the dagger. Encyclop. Fran. article joute. were hung with tapestry and embroideries of gold and silver. Every person, upon such occasions, appeared to the greatest advantage, decked in sumptuous array, and every part of the field presented to the eye a rich display of magnificence. We may also add the splendid appearance of the knights engaged in the sports; themselves and their horses were most gorgeously arrayed, and their esquires and pages, together with the minstrels and heralds who superintended the ceremonies, were all of them clothed in costly and glittering apparel. Such a show of pomp, where wealth, beauty, and grandeur were concentred, as it were, in one focus, must altogether have formed a wonderful spectacle, and made a strong impression on the mind, which was not a little heightened by the cries of the heralds, the clangour of the trumpets, the clashing of the arms, the rushing together of the combatants, and the shouts of the beholders; and hence the popularity of these exhibitions may be easily accounted for. The tournament and the just, and especially the latter, afforded to those who were engaged in them, an opportunity of appearing before the ladies to the greatest advantage; they might at once display their taste and opulence by the costliness and elegancy of their apparel, and their prowess as soldiers; therefore, these pastimes became fashionable among the nobility; and it was probably for the same reason that they were prohibited to the commoners. XXX.-TOYS FOR INITIATING CHILDREN IN THESE SPORTS. Persons of rank were taught in their childhood to relish such exercises as were of a martial nature, and the very toys that were put into their hands as playthings, were calculated to bias the mind in their favour. On the opposite page the reader will find two views of a knight on horseback, completely equipped for the just; four wheels originally were attached to the pedestal, which has a hole in the front for the insertion of a cord. The knight and his horse are both made with brass; the spear and the wheels are wanting in the original, but the hole in which the spear was inserted, still remains under the right arm, and it is supplied upon the print by something like it placed in the proper situation. This curious figure, which probably was made in the fifteenth century, is in the possession of sir Frederic Eden, with whose permission this copy, about the same size as he original, makes its appearance here. |