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PREFACE It will not be necessary in the present instance to enter into any preliminary dissertation to prove to the reader that the contents of the following poem are of an interesting character. If the brilliant achievements of his ancestors are dear to him and he has a spark of chivalric feeling within his breast, it will be enough to announce that the subject of it is the Black Prince, and the writer, not only a contemporary, but one who had been with his hero in the field, and witnessed probably some of those glorious exploits which he has described. It is only remarkable that the contents of the manuscript have not been long since made public, and that they should have escaped the researches of Barnes and Collins. The first printed notice of the volume occurs in Warton's History of English Poetry \ wher-3 it is described as written in the short verse of romance by « the Prince's herald, who attended close by his person in all his battles, according to the established mode of those times; » and it is added : « This was John Chandois- 2 Herald, frequently mentioned in Froissart . » The 1 London, 1824, 8vo., vol. ii, p. 166. 2 A further error is committed in the note at the foot of the page respecting our poet. The reader is directed to a curious description in Froissart of an interview between the Chandos Herald above mentioned, and a marshal of France, where they are said to enter into a dispute concerning the « devices d'amour » borne by each army. The dispute in question arose on the day preceding the battle of Poitiers from the meeting of Sir John Chandos with the Marshal of Clermont, who bore the same armour with himself, upon which some angry words passed between them. Christian name is an addition by Warton ; Froissart does occasionally mention him, as we shall presently see, but always simply as Chandos the Herald. It is indeed from this historian that the little we know concerning the author of the poem has been gathered, if we except one or two entries in records mentioned in the following- account drawn up by indefatigable John Anstis, Garter King at Arms. It has been taken from Anstis's papers deposited in the Herald's College. «Chandos was the herald of the famous Sir John Chandos, constable of Aquitaine, who was frequently employed by him, and in the service of the public. Froissart informs us that Sir Robert Knolles and Sir John Chandos besieged Domme, and from thence sent a mes- sage to the Prince of Wales by Chandos le Héraut, who brought them the commands of the Prince '. Sir John Chandos intimated his desire to the earl of Pembroke that he would be pleased to join with him in order ta give battle to the Marshal of France, which message was sent by Chandos le Héraut, who at his return found his master and his sons at Chàtellerault. In our records there is an entry of a protection granted to this herald in Nov. 41 Ed. III.; and what is memorable, he retained this i Froissart thus describes the interview of Chandos with the Prince at Angoulême:«When the herald Chandos was arrived in the presence of the Prince, he dropped on his knees, and recommended to him his masters who had sent him, and whom he had left at the siege of Domme. He then related their situation most wisely, as he had been ordered to do, and gave the credential letters which he had brought to the Prince. The Prince listened attentively to all that was told him, and said he would consider this subject. He kept the herald with him five days, and, on the sixth, he had letters delivered to him under the Prince's seal, who said to him on his departure : « Chandos, salute from me all our companions. » He replied : « Most willingly, my lord. - — When the herald set out, he took the road through Quercy. — vu — title after the death of his founder or master, which happened in battle 44 Ed. III., for he was soon afterwards by the title of Chanclos sent by the Earls of Cambridge and Pembroke * to oifer battle to the Duke of Bourbon, and in 1380 was sent with Aquitaine Herald 2 to defy the Duke of Burgundy by the Earl of Buckingham, in whose coat armour they were both invested ; and two years afterwards we find mention of an herald, Ireland King of Arms and Chandos by name, which was above mentioned as a supposed instance of the retaining the titles of heraldship as a surname after their promotions. But whether that was the case here, may be somewhat doubted in regard that Chandos Herald, without the addition of Ireland King of Arms, is soon afterwards in 7 Ric. II. entered as receiving a reward for going to Calais with letters of credence to the Duke of Lancaster and others, though this service, notwithstanding the time of payment, might have been performed by him before he 3 was made Ireland . » 1 He was then the bearer of the challenge following : « My masters and lords send me to you, and inform you by my mouth that they are quite astonished you have allowed them to remain fifteen days here, and you have not sallied out of your fort to give them battle. They therefore tell you that if you will come forth to meet them, they will permit you to choose any plot of ground for the field of battle, and let God give the event of it to whom so ever pleases. » Upon the duke's refusing to accept the challenge, he was again sent with this message : « Noblemen, my masters and lords inform you through me that since you are not willing to accept the offer they have made you, three days hence, between nine and twelve o'clock in the morning, you, my lord Duke of Bourbon, will see your lady mother placed on horseback and carried away. Consider ihis, and rescue her, if you can. » 2 Where they are called two kings at arms. 3 References to all the passages in Froissart r s Chronicles wherein Chandos Herald is mentioned, are pointed out in the Table analy- VIII — — 4. In the poem he speaks of himself only twice by name, in both which passages he styles himself Chandos le Herauld; and of anything further concerning his personal history, we are left in entire ignorance. The reader however has a right to know on what grounds our poet is entitled to his credit; and with this view we must consider the nature of the office he filled in the scenes which he describes. From his title it is evident that he was the domestic 1 herald of Sir John €handos, appointed probably to the post, after that knight had been raised to the rank of banneret at the battle of Nâjera. In this capacity it would have been a part of his duty to attend his master to the field of battle, and in such a situation he must have had ample means, both from personal observation and opportunities of enquiry, for, what he himself calls, « writing a good history » of passing events. Indeed we find that it was another part of a herald's duty to keep a register of what he saw and tique des noms, in the recent edition of Froissart published by the Baron Kervyn de Lettenhove, t. xxi, p. 540. — In the last paragraph of his note on the herald « qui racontait les exploits des Anglais en vers élégants », the learned editor risks the supposition that the rhymer was not an Englishman, on the authority of a charter printed by Jules Delpit (Collection générale des documents fran- çais qui se trouvent en Angleterre, t. i, Paris, 1849, 4to., p. 132), and which does not in the least refer to Chandos Herald. 1 Before the foundation of the Herald's College by Richard the Third, it was no unusual thing for noblemen to have their pursui- vants and heralds, appointed by themselves and giving their name for them.