Chivalry and Knighthood in England, 1327-77

The University of Hull All The King’s Men: Chivalry and Knighthood in England, 1327-77 Being a thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Matthew Thompson (B.A., B.A., M.A) January 2014 Acknowledgements In an undertaking such as this the author plays but a part. There are a number of people that I would like to thank for their help and support over the last three years or so. It is fitting to thank the University of Hull, of which I am very much a product, for the opportunity to engage in doctoral study, and for the faith placed in me in the award of a scholarship, without which the project would not have been possible. The staff at the Brynmor Jones library, the Graduate School and within the department of History have all helped the process along, I am grateful for their support and co-operation. A word of thanks should also be said to my employers, York Archaeological Trust, for the flexibility they have allowed me to have over the last three years. Thanks must also go to Dr Andrew Ayton, who I blame entirely for turning me into something resembling a Medievalist in the first place. I have come a fair way since first sitting in his office in 2008 discussing the plans for an Undergraduate thesis, and it is down to his infectious dedication to his subject that I have prevailed. His guidance and expertise has been an essential component to the construction of this piece of work, and he has managed to rein in my more bizarre metaphors, grounding this project in some kind of reality. I had not fully appreciated, prior to embarking upon this project, how all- consuming it would be. Whilst it was rewarding and fulfilling at times, it has also been harrowing and detracted my attentions from other matters that are equally important. It is for this reason that I must thank my wonderful wife Kirsty for her limitless patience with my near constant mumblings about the fourteenth century. She has been my greatest critic and staunchest ally throughout, and has endured the tribulations of doctoral study as much as I have. She makes me better. This thesis is therefore dedicated to her, with all my love. Matthew Thompson The University of Hull: PhD thesis abstract (January 2014) All the King’s Men: Chivalry and Knighthood in England, 1327-77 The reign of Edward III oversaw something of a formative period in the history of England. In the early years of the reign, the military community was engaged in the Scottish wars, and from 1337 England embarked on her greatest military endeavour to date, a conflict we have come to know as the Hundred Years War against France, the greatest military power in Europe. It was Edward’s reign that saw the first ravages of the great plague, the rise of the English language, and what has been termed a medieval military revolution that changed the way wars were fought forever. Chivalry is a complex subject, yet for many, it is central to the way in which knights interacted with one another and conducted themselves in war and peace. It is the aim of this thesis to gain an understanding of what chivalry meant to English knights in this most tumultuous, glorious and tragic of times, where knights were simultaneously at the height of their powers, and critically under threat as a dominant class socially and militarily. Thorough an examination of a sample of the military community, the focus will fall upon on what can be learned of their motivations and attitudes, in an attempt to evaluate how these observable characteristics relate to chivalry as described in didactic and romantic works. Methodologically, the approach adopted is influenced by the work of historians such as Andrew Ayton, examining the characteristics and relationships of the military community. Yet chivalry is a cultural phenomenon, and cannot be understood through an empirical approach alone. A socio-cultural position must also be adopted if we are to understand what chivalry meant in England in the reign of Edward III, encompassing many aspects of knightly culture and identity. This blend in approach will provide a fresh perspective on some old issues, and enable us to get closer to the chivalry of the English. Contents Acknowledgements Abstract Introduction 1 I. A Beginning Towards an Understanding of the Meaning of Chivalry 15 II. ‘Mani noble ich haue yseiýe / þat no Freynsche couþe seye’ 42 Chivalry and the English III. Brothers in Arms: The Military Community of Edward’s England 68 IV. England, Chivalry and Warfare: Prowess and Practicality 95 V. ‘Put all to sword, and make the spoil your own’. Beneath the Iron Mask: Knighthood, Chivalry and Criminality 126 VI. The Many-Coloured Host: Heraldry, Affiliation and Lineage 153 VII. ‘So shall the valiant gain renown’ Ritual, Spectacle and the Chivalric Arcane 184 Conclusion 215 Appendix I. On Dragons 221 II. The Variants of the Arms of England 225 Bibliography 226 Introduction ‘Some say that the age of chivalry is past, that the spirit of romance is dead. The age of chivalry is never past, so long as there is a wrong left unredressed on earth’.1 Charles Kingsley, ‘Sermon on Faith’, December 1865. From the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries, there was something of a revival of interest in the medieval period, and in particular, in medieval chivalry. The above quotation from a sermon by Christian Socialist reformer Charles Kingsley, given in St George’s chapel, Windsor, in the presence of Queen Victoria in 1865, is symptomatic of this revival that permeated popular culture and was influential in the subsequent understanding of chivalry and its tenets. It was a movement helped along in no small part, as is the way of such things, by literature. No lesser man than Lord Byron caused something of a furore in his pragmatic portrayal of noble conduct in the narrative poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Seemingly, it was thought by his critics that the protagonist, whilst being the son of a nobleman, displayed distinctly un-knightly characteristics, ranging from ‘riot most uncouth’ and blasphemy to enthusiastic whoring and a dedication to inactivity. Byron’s response was to say that the times when knighthood flourished were: the most profligate of all possible centuries…the vows of chivalry were no better kept than any other vows. Whatever other objection may be urged to that most unamiable personage, Childe Harold, he was so far perfectly knightly in his attributes.2 Whilst Byron may have seen through the veil of romanticism and struck closer to the mark with regards to chivalric reality than his critics, the reaction to his poem is indicative of the high esteem in which romantic chivalry was held by the contemporary literary establishment: Byron’s voice was discordant with the current trend of chivalric enthusiasm. Amongst his voluminous repertoire of historical fiction, Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe (1820) was followed by Quentin Durward (1823) and the two part Tales of the Crusaders (1825), all set in the period from the late twelfth to the late fifteenth centuries. Scott’s work is reminiscent of the world of medieval romance literature, and many of the episodes he describes call to mind the work of the great chronicler of chivalry, Jean Froissart, whose work had been published in translation by Thomas 1 M. Kaufman, Charles Kingsley: Christian Socialist and Social Reformer (London, 1892), p. 243. 2 The Complete Works of Lord Byron, ed. J. W. Lake (Paris, 1825), p. 8. 1 Johnes between 1803 and 1805.3 Arthur Conan-Doyle took Froissart’s chivalric subject, the Hundred Years War, as the setting for The White Company (1890) and Sir Nigel (1906), and it was these novels by which he wished to be remembered, rather than for his famous gentleman detective. 4 Additionally, Thomas Malory’s magisterial Morte d’Arthur, slumbering since its last printing in 1634, was revisited in three different editions between 1816 and 1817. 5 The availability of such rich Arthurian fayre prompted a raft of writing with knighthood as its theme. From 1822, Kenelm Digby drew on Malory’s work in the various editions of his Broad Stone of Honour. Tennyson included The Lady of Shallot in his 1832 volume of poems, and went on to pen his Idylls of the King (1859-1873). In 1837, Charlotte Guest took Arthur back to his Celtic roots with her translation of The Mabinogion.6 An image of medieval romantic revival and courtly love, ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’, inspired by the poetry of John Keates, by Sir Frank Dicksee (1853-1928). The romance and popularity of chivalry was not lost on the contemporary academic world. Charles Mills followed his successful The History of the Crusades (1820) with the enduringly popular History of Chivalry (1825). Mills’s ideal knight could be adequately encapsulated in the lovestruck warrior depicted above. Mills was in no doubt 3 M. Girouard, Return to Camelot: Chivalry and the English Gentleman (London, 1981), p. 42. 4 Ibid. p. 273. 5 A. D. Culler, The Victorian Mirror of History (New Haven, 1986), pp. 153-4. 6 M. Girouard, Return to Camelot, pp. 178-80. 2 that the ‘golden age’ of chivalry in England lay in the fourteenth century, doubtless telling of his fondness for Froissart and the manner in which the medieval revival had affected the Victorian consciousness.7 Bearing the above in mind, it is interesting to note that alongside this romantic medieval revival and a renewed interest in all things chivalric, Edward III, king during Mills’s ‘golden age’ and arguably the most ‘chivalric’ of English monarchs, was receiving rough treatment.

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