The Medieval Tournament: Chivalry, Heraldry and Reality An Edition and Analysis of Three Fifteenth-Century Tournament Manuscripts 2 Volumes Ralph Dominic Moffat Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds Institute for Medieval Studies August 2010 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. __________________________________________________________________ 2 Acknowledgments The production of this thesis is the culmination of a project conceived by my supervisors Dr Karen Watts and Prof. Wendy Childs. With the funding of the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Trustees of the Royal Armouries a collaborative doctoral studentship was secured. This included on-the-job curatorial training at the Royal Armouries and academic training at the Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds. Both of these were convivial places to work and I am grateful to the many friends and colleagues who so generously shared their expertise. My supervisors have been a constant source of encouragement and guidance allowing me the freedom to take the project in my own direction. I wish to thank my employer Glasgow Museums and in particular my Line Manager Ms Jean Walsh for being so flexible and understanding. I would also like to thank the staff of the various archives and libraries consulted. Especial thanks are due to Profs Peter Ainsworth, Sydney Anglo, Noel Fallows, and Richard Morris, Drs Rosalind Brown-Grant, Tobias Capwell, Meredith Cohen, Elizabeth L’Estrange, William Flynn, Alan Murray, Zsuzsa Papp, Katie Stevenson, Mary Swan, and Messrs Philip Abbott, Stuart Carrington, Stuart Ivinson, Arne Koets, Philip Lankester, Thom Richardson, Graeme Rimer, Robert Woosnam-Savage, and Ms Alison Martin. My family have been unfailing in their support: Scott and Caroline, Norah and Frank, and Jennie who has had to put up with me in the final stages. This work is dedicated to them. 3 Abstract In the Royal Armouries collection is a codex comprising three fifteenth-century manuscripts in French. The codex is not only unpublished, it has never been transcribed or translated. The content is a primary source for the study of the medieval tournament as well as many other aspects of the elite culture of late-medieval Burgundy, England, and France. It is composed of fourteen different texts called items. This edition comprises a transcription of over 50,000 words of text in three different hands and a translation from the medieval French into English. The commentary is tripartite. The first section is a technical physical description, with an investigation of the palaeography, provenance, and miniatures of the three manuscripts. The second is a discussion of the origin of the production of the codex. It will be postulated that it was produced by heralds for heralds. In the third section explanatory notes are given to the fourteen items to allow a greater understanding of the codex. Drawing on similar primary source material, much of it unpublished, a clearer definition of the terminology employed for the various forms of combat is offered. Often subsumed under the category of ‘the tournament’, the examination of the organization and regulation of, and specialized equipment used in, these forms of combat reveals a more complicated phenomenon than is often represented in current studies. 4 Table of Contents List of Abbreviations ........................................................................................... 8 Introduction …………………………………………………………………………… 12 1. The Manuscripts …………………………………………………………………....14 Physical Description…………………………………………………………………....14 Provenance………………………………………………………………………………19 2. Function: The Role of the Herald and the Authorship of the Codex ………22 3. Context: Investigation of the Sections ………………………………………….32 Item 1. Philippe Bouton’s Challenge [1 May 1467] (fols 6 r-7r)………………………32 Item 2. The Declaration of the Pas d’armes of the Golden Tree [Bruges 1468] (fols 7 r- 10 r)…………………………………………………………………………………51 Item 3. The Statute of Arms Concerning Tourneys [by the Parliament of England 1292] (fols 10 r-10 v)………………………………………………………………….54 Item 4. A Copy of the Chapitres of Certain Feats of Arms both on Foot and on Horseback done by Two Gentlemen of Germany [undated] (fols 10 v-11 r)……60 Item 5. The Tourney between the Lord of Jonvelle and the Lord of Commines [before 1430] (fols 11 r-12 v)………………………………………………………………..62 Item 6. To Cry a Joust [Smithfield 1390] (fols 13 r-13 v)………………………………...64 Item 7. Untitled [The Ordinance of Thomas of Lancaster, Caen, 3 September 1408] (fols 13 v-14 r)…………………………………………………………………………..72 Item 8. Chalons [Feats of Arms at Tours, 5 February 1446/7] (fols 14 r- 17 r)…………………………………………………………………………………………. .73 Item 9. Untitled [ Chapitres of the Bastard of Burgundy as the Knight of an Oppressed Lady for a Pas d’armes , 25 February 1462] (fols 17 r-20 v)……………………….81 Item 10. Untitled [Sir Philippe de Lalaing’s Pas d’armes of the Perron Phae, Bruges 1463] (fols 21 r-37 v)………………………………………………………………...82 Item 11. Untitled [A Short Description of England and a Genealogy of Chalons and De Bueil by John Anstis, eighteenth century] (fols 38 r-38 v)……………………….85 Item 12. Untitled [Feats of Arms at Tours, 5 February 1446/7] (fols 39 r-43 v)………..85 Item 13. Jousts of my lord Antoine Bastard of Burgundy done in England [1467] (fols 44 r-72 v)…………………………………………………………………………………92 Item 14. Feats of Arms of Sir Jehan de Chassa and Louis de Bretelles [1467] (fols 74 r- 84 v)…………………………………………………………………………………..94 Item 15. Nuptials of my lord Charles Duke of Burgundy with Lady Margaret of England 5 [Bruges 1468] (fols 86 r-121 r)………………………………………………………97 4. Editorial Principles ……………………………………………………………………...99 5. Text of the Codex: Transcription and Translation……………………………….103 Transcription………………………………………………………………………………..103 Volume II Translation…………………………………………………………………………………..236 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………370 Glossary of Arms and Armour Terminology ………………………………………...371 Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………….383 List of Illustrations Fig. 1. Detail of MS 1 (fol. 6 r) of the codex……………………………………………….16 Fig. 2. Detail of MS 2 (fol. 40 v) of the codex……………………………………………..16 Fig. 3. Detail of MS 3 (fol. 113 r) of the codex…………………………………………….17 Fig. 4. Yale UL MS 230, c. 1480…………………………………………………………..17 Fig. 5. Utrecht UL MS 1114, 1460s……………………………………………………….17 Fig. 6. Letter of René of Anjou, 1472……………………………………………………..18 Fig. 7. Inventory of the Library of the Louvre, 1413……………………………………..18 Fig. 8. BM Cambrai MS 1114, 1460s……………………………………………………..18 Fig. 9. Presentation Signature of Richard Champeney on fol. 43 v of the codex……..19 Fig. 10. Signature of Thomas Wriothesley on fol. 38r of the codex……………………20 Fig. 11. Detail of a MS miniature of a jousting scene, English, mid-fifteenth century………………………………………………………………………………………..29 Fig. 12. Signatures of the witnesses to a feat of arms, 1448…………………………...30 Fig. 13 Detail of a painting of c. 1480……………………………………………………..37 Fig. 14 Detail of an armour, c. 1415……………………………………………………….37 Fig. 15 Detail of Miniature 2 of the codex…………………………………………………37 Fig. 16 Detail of a MS miniature of a foot combat scene, English, mid-fifteenth century………………………………………………………………………………………..41 Fig. 17 Detail from a painted doorway, Urbino, 1467……………………………………41 Fig. 18 Sixteenth-century lance with vamplate…………………………………………...41 Fig. 19. Detail from a MS recording of Duke Louis of Orleans’s jousting expenses……………………………………………………………………………………..42 Fig. 20. Detail from the Beauchamp Pageant , c. 1480………………………………….44 6 Fig. 21. Coronal for a jousting lance, c. 1500…………………………………………..45 Fig. 22. MS miniature of Philippe Bouton’s coat of arms………………………………50 Fig. 23. Detail of a fourteenth-century copy of the statute of arms concerning tourneys of 1292………………………………………………………………………………………55 Fig. 24. Detail from another fourteenth-century copy of the above…………………...55 Fig. 25. Detail from the Petworth House MS copy of the same statute………………56 Fig. 26. Detail from the copy of the same statute in BL MS Lansdwone 285……….57 Fig. 27. Detail from the copy of the statute in the codex………………………………57 Fig. 28. Detail as in fig. 23………………………………………………………………...57 Fig. 29. Detail as in fig. 24………………………………………………………………..57 Fig. 30. Detail as in fig. 25………………………………………………………...……..58 Fig. 31. Detail from a list of payments for armour in the reign of Edward III………..58 Figs 32 to 35. Details as in figs 26 & 27………………………………………………..59 Fig. 36. Detail from an English inventory of 1355……………………………………..71 Fig. 37. Detail of a miniature from the Sherborne Missal, early-fifteenth century….72 Fig. 38 Detail of a Scottish tomb effigy, early-fifteenth century………………………79 Fig. 39. Detail of an armour of c. 1440………………………………………………….79 Fig. 40. MS miniature of an arming scene, English, mid-fifteenth century………….80 Fig. 41. Miniature 1 (fol. 39 r) of the codex ……………………………………………..86 Fig. 42. Sallet, Brescian, c. 1460………………………………………………………..87 Fig. 43. Miniature 2 (fol. 40 r) of the codex……………………………………………..88 Fig. 44. Miniature 3 (fol. 41 r) of the codex……………………………………………..89 Figs 45 & 46. Miniatures 4 & 5 (fols 41 v & 42 r) of the codex…………………………90 Figs 47 & 48. Miniatures 6 & 7 (fol. 42 r) of the codex…………………………………91 Fig. 49. Miniature 8 (fol. 43 r) of the codex……………………………………………..92 Fig. 50. Armet, Milanese, c. 1440………………………………………………………371 Fig. 51. Barbute, Brescian, c. 1450…………………………………………………….372