| It is the octaves of the Holy Trinity, A.D. 1217, [the
eight days after Trinity Sunday, eight weeks after Easter
Sunday] and summer has just commenced….The Angel
Inn at Blyth, an inn from time immemorial, the Saracen’s
Head, and other inns and hostelries there, and at Tickhill,
Worksop, Retford, and even Doncaster, are crowded with
the grooms and other humbler retainers of the great men
who are to take so prominent a part in the proceedings
of the coming day, while the magnates themselves and their
esquires, are receiving noble hospitality in the mansions
of the lords of Tickhill, Worksop, Torksay, Conisbrough
and Sprotborough….the champions of England’s
liberties, and the admiration of Europe, are to be seen
hastening to the field, attended by their esquires, whose
special office is to furnish their lords with arms, arrange
their harness, and raise them from the ground if haply
dismounted.
From every town and village for miles around may be
seen the artisan and the peasant, in their best holiday
attire, flocking to the great point of attraction, together
with numerous wandering pedlars and minstrels, who gain
their living by following in the train of English chivalry,
and whose wild appearance and restless habits give a
peculiar hue and character to these gatherings.
The lists are already fenced off, the ladies and gallant
spectators are ranged around, the heralds have read
to the combatants the rules of the tournay and announced
the prizes, diamond, ruby, and sapphire rings, chargers,
bears and other rare and valuable gifts; and the arms
are under examination by the constable of the games.
The lances must be covered at the point with broad pieces
of wood, the swords blunted (glaives courtois), the
defensive armour simple….at the cry of the heralds
‘à l’ostelle, à l’ostelle,’
the cavaliers retire within their tents to don their
armour, and speedily re-appear with their helmets surmounted
with chaplets and their lances adorned with streamers,
the gifts of the beautiful and the fair. They are arranged
in two hostile troops; and on a signal from the Knight
of Honour the heralds cry ‘Laissez aller,’
and drop the cords which separate the combatants…the
heralds note carefully the turns and events of the combat.
And now the nobles and knights have tested the skill
and mettle of each other; the Knight of Honour drops
his white baton and the heralds cry ‘Ployez vos
bannieres;’ the banners are folded, the prizes
awarded, and the contending troops disarm. The ground
is cleared, and the aristocracy in the halls of their
high-bred hosts, the more humble spectators in the warm
corners of the hostelries, or by their own firesides,
discuss the events of the day and the comparative merits
of Warren, De Vere and others who have made a conspicuous
figure in the tournament field of Blyth.
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