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 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
 The craftsman per annum £4 0 0
His wife 2 0 0
His four children 4 0 0
£10 0 0

He would, therefore, want a wage of four shillings a week or 8d. a

day. Now the wages given to the workmen at St. Stephen’s Chapel in
1358 are preserved in the Account Rolls of Edward III. Some of
them, enough for our purpose, are extracted in Britton and Bayley’s
History of Westminster Palace (p. 174). The wages varied.
Eighteenpence a day was paid to Master Edmund Canon, stone-
cutter, one shilling a day to Hugh the painter, 10d. a day to C.
Pokerick, 8d. a day to W. Lincoln and W. Somervile, 6d. a day to W.
Heston, 4½d., and even 4d., a day to J. York and W. Cambridge.
The craftsman, therefore, who had a family to keep was paid from
4d. to 8d. a day. His standard of living must have been considerably
lower than that of the priest, who obtained the same allowance in
money, but had no family to bring up.
In a word, if we assume, what we have no right to assume, that a
clergyman of the present day has the same standard of living as the
priest of the fourteenth century, and, when unmarried, lives in the
same style, that is to say, without giving away money in charity,
without buying books, without having a club, without travelling,
living quite plainly, he could manage on about £80 a year compared
with the priest’s £6 or £7, so that money in the fourteenth century
was worth about twelve times what it would purchase at the present
day. But that theory breaks down when we consider that a sheep
could be bought for a shilling, and a cock or hen for 1½d., because
at the present day a sheep cannot be bought for twelve shillings,
and a cock or hen for eighteenpence. So that it comes to what I said
above, that it is perfectly impossible to ascertain the value of money
in the fourteenth or any other century compared with this, unless we
know a great quantity of things which we can never ascertain.
 Into the subject of dress we cannot venture, if only for the reason
that the fashions changed then as now, and nearly as often. Some
attempt was made at sumptuary laws, but without effect, for the
simple reason that every woman will always, in every age, despite
any laws to the contrary, dress herself as well as her means allows,
and that with men splendour of dress was then accepted as a proof
of success and wealth. Their fashions were on the whole far more
beautiful than those of modern days, and not more absurd.
 CHAPTER X
SPORT AND RECREATION
As regards the sports and pastimes of the City, there is
cockfighting on Shrove Tuesday, with hockey. Every Friday in Lent
there are tournaments with “disarmed” lances; when Easter has
made the river a little less inclement there will be water sports,
tilting in boats, etc.; in the summer the young men leap, dance,
shoot, wrestle, cast the stone, practise their shields, play at quarter-
staff, single-stick, football and bucklers; the maidens play their
timbrels and dance as long as they can see. In spring boars, bulls,
badgers, and even horses are baited; when the water is frozen over
the young men slide and skate on bones, particularly on the marshy
ground at Moorfields and behind Bankside; many of the citizens keep
hawks and hounds, “for they have liberty of hunting in Middlesex,
Hertfordshire, all Chiltern, and in Kent to the water of Cray.” Fitz
Stephen’s description of London in the reign of Henry II. tells us this
and much else; it is repeated by Stow, who says that with the
exception of the tilting on horseback these sports were continued to
his day. He then enumerates the sports and pastimes belonging to
every successive season of the year:—

“First in the feast of Christmas, there was in the King’s house,

wheresoever he was lodged, a lord of misrule or master of
merry disports, and the like had ye in the house of every
nobleman of honour or good worship, were he spiritual or
temporal. Amongst the which the Mayor of London, and either
of the sheriffs, had their several lords of misrule, ever
contending, without quarrel or offence, who should make the
rarest pastimes to delight the beholders. These lords beginning
their rule on Allhallon Eve, continued the same till the morrow
after the Feast of the Purification, commonly called Candlemas
Day. In all which space there was fine and subtle disguisings,
masks, and mummeries, with playing at cards for counters nails,
and points, in every house, more for pastime than for gain.
Against the feast of Christmas every man’s house, as also the
parish churches, were decked with holm, ivy, bays, and
whatsoever the season of the year afforded to be green. The
conduits and standards in the streets were likewise garnished;
amongst the which I read, in the year 1444, that by tempest of
thunder and lightning, on the first of February at night, Paule’s
Steeple was fired, but with great labour quenched; and towards
the morning of Candlemas Day at the Leadenhall in Cornhill, a
standard of tree was being set up in the midst of the pavement,
fast in the ground, nailed full of holm and ivy, for disport of
Christmas to the people, was torn up and cast down by the
malignant spirit (as was thought) and the stones of the
pavement all about were cast in the streets, and into divers
houses, so that the people were sore aghast of the great
tempests.
In the week before Easter had ye great shows made for the
fetching in of a twisted tree, or with, as they termed it, out of
the woods into the King’s house; and the like into every man’s
house of honour or worship.
In the month of May, namely, on May-day in the morning,
every man, except impediment, would walk into the sweet
meadows and green woods, there to rejoice their spirits with
the beauty and savour of sweet flowers, and with the harmony
of birds, praising God in their kind; and for example hereof
Edward Hall hath noted, that King Henry VIII., as in the 3rd of
his reign and divers other years, so namely in the 7th of his
reign, on May-day in the morning, with Queen Katherine his
wife, accompanied by many lords and ladies, rode a-maying
from Greenwich to the high ground of Shooter’s Hill, where, as
they passed by the way, they espied a company of tall yeomen,
clothed all in green, with green hoods, and bows and arrows, to
the number of two hundred; one being their chieftain, was
 called Robin Hood, who required the King and his company to
stay and see his men shoot; whereunto the King granting, Robin
Hood whistled, and all the two hundred archers shot off, loosing
all at once; and when he whistled again they likewise shot
again; their arrows whistled by craft of the head, so that the
noise was strange and loud, which greatly delighted the King,
Queen, and their company. Moreover, this Robin Hood desired
the King and Queen, with their retinue, to enter the greenwood,
where, in harbours made of boughs and decked with flowers,
they were set and served plentifully with venison and wine by
Robin Hood and his men, to their great contentment, and had
other pageants and pastimes, as ye may read in my said author.
I find also, that in the month of May, the citizens of London of
all estates, lightly in every parish, or sometimes two or three
parishes joining together, had their several mayings, and did
fetch in maypoles, with divers warlike shows, with good archers,
morris dancers, and other devices, for pastime all the day long;
and toward the evening they had stage plays and bonfires in the
streets.” (Stow’s Survey.)

Stow mentions the Lord of Misrule, but he hardly assigns sufficient

importance to this functionary. The great event of the Christmas
holidays were the masques, mummings, and frolics prepared and
played by the Lord of Misrule, or the Master of the Revels, not only
at Court, but in every great house in the country. During his tenure
of office the Lord of Misrule was treated with all the deference and
state that belonged to the King. He had his Lord Keeper, Treasurer,
and body-guard; his chaplains preached before him, bowing low as
they entered the pulpit; his Master of Requests received petitions for
him; he conferred knighthood; had his favourites, and was permitted
to spend his money freely. At every one of the Inns of Court they
had at Christmas a Lord of Misrule.
The Lord of Misrule in the year 1551 was one George Ferrers, who
gave great satisfaction not only to the King, but also to the City. For
that year his style was “Master of the King’s Pastimes.” Stow says:—

“Mr. Ferrers being lord of the merrie disportes all the twelve
days, so pleasantly and wisely behaved himself, that the King
had great delight in his pastimes. On Monday the 4th of
January, he came by water to London, and landed at the Tower
wharf, entered the Tower, and then rode through Tower street,
where he was received by Serjeant Vawce, Lord of Misrule to
John Mainard, one of the Sheriffs of London, and so was
conducted through the City, with a great company of young
lords and gentlemen, to the house of Sir Geo. Barne, Lord
Mayor, where he with the chief of his company dined, and
afterwards had a great banket, and at his departure the Lord
Mayor gave him a standing cup with a cover of silver gilt, of the
value of ten pounds, for a reward; he also set a hogshead of
wine and a barrell of beer at his gate for his train that followed
him; the rest of his gentlemen and servants dined at other
Aldermen’s houses and with the Sheriffs, and so departed to the
Tower wharfe again, and to the Court by water, to the great
commendation of the Mayor and Aldermen, and highly accepted
of the King and Counsaille.” (Archæeologia, vol. xviii.)

Some of the bills and charges for the masques and plays
presented by Ferrers remain to show the kind of entertainment
provided. There were, for instance, four challengers and twenty
horses properly apparelled. The Lord of Misrule was attended by his
heir, his other sons, his base sons, counsellors, pages of honour,
gentlemen ushers, serjeants-at-arms, a provost marshal, heralds,
trumpeters, and an orator, a jailer, a footman, jugglers, Irishmen,
and fools. The masque was the Triumph of Mars and Venus; there
were jousts and tournaments; there were mock courts of justice,
with a pillory, stocks, and sham executions. The whole show was
magnificently mounted, as appears from the following bill for
dressing the Lord of Misrule himself:—
 “For Christmas day and that week, the Lord of Misrule himself
had a robe of white bawdekyn, containing nine yards at 16s. a
yard, garded with a great embroidered gard of cloth of gold,
wrought in knots, fourteen yards, at 13s. 4d. a yard, having a
fur of red feathers, with a cape of chamblet thrum. A coat of flat
silver fine with works, five yards at 50 shillings, with an
embroidered gard of leaves of gold and silk coloured, containing
fifteen yards at 20 shillings. A cap of maintenance of red
feathers and chamblett thrum, very rich, with a plume of
feathers. A pair of hosen, the breeches made of a garde of cloth
of gold imbroidered in paynes, nine yards of gardind at 13s. 4d.
lined with silver sarsnet, one ell at 8 shillings. A pair of buskins
of white bawdekyn, one yard, at 16 shillings. A pair of pantacles
of brydges [? Bruges] sattin, 3s. 4d. A girdle of yellow sarsnet,
16d. The cost £51: 17: 4.” (Archæeologia, vol. xviii.)

But there are other details not yet mentioned. The year’s sports
very properly began with the New Year’s gifts.
“These giftes the husband gives his wife and father eke the child,
And master on his men bestows the like with favour mild;
And good beginning of the year they wish and wish again,
According to the ancient guise of heathen people vain.
Then eight days no man doth require his debts of any man,
Their tables do they furnish forth with all the meat they can.”
On the day before Ascension there was the annual beating of the
bounds, a custom still observed, but without the old ceremony of
beating each other for the better preservation of the memory of the
ancient boundaries. At Whitsuntide there was feasting with Whitsun
ale. Stow has told us how May-day was kept. But he writes as an old
man, coldly; the full meaning of May-day he has forgotten.
Remember what it meant for the young Londoner. It fell on what is
now the 12th of May, a time when, except at very rare springs, the
biting east wind is over, and spring has really begun. The leaves and
blossoms are out at last, after struggling against the cold winds
since the middle of March; the days have lengthened; it is now light
till nine o’clock, and twilight all the night through. There is no more
huddling around the fire, perhaps without candles, going off to bed
as soon as is possible, rising before the break of day, sitting all day
long in a workshop darkened by the lowering of the shutters as well
as by the dreary grey skies of winter, working with frozen fingers,
living on salt meat for six months except for the fast days and the
forty days of Lent, when for a change there was salted fish. Spring
had come at last, and in this northern clime the City, like the gardens
and the fields, sprang into new life and returned to the joy of living.
Then all went out into the fields on May-day Eve. They passed
over the marshy and muddy plain of Moorfields till they came to the
little village of Iseldon or Iselden, where the great forest began.
There grew the whitethorn and the blackthorn, the broom and the
gorse blossomed, there the wild crab was covered with a garment of
pink and white, and the wild rose was all glorious to behold; the
people came home bearing boughs of those sweet blossoms, singing
and dancing as they went; with them marched the lusty fellow with
pipe and tabor, with them ran barking and fighting, for pure joy, all
the dogs of the parish. Then they set up their Maypole adorned with
ribbons and garlands, and they danced around it, singing, hand in
hand, right hand with left hand, and left hand with right, covered
with chaplets of wild rose and wild apple blossom. As at Christmas
they celebrated the close of the old year and the beginning of the
new, so now they celebrated the end of the winter and the birth of
the spring. They had Tom Fools, mummers, hobby horses, Robin
Hood, Maid Marian, Little John; they had bonfires; and they had
feasting and drinking. ’Twas the most joyous festival of all the year.
On the feast of St. Bartholomew were held athletic sports with
races, archery, and wrestling. At Holyrood they went nutting in the
woods; at Martinmas they feasted—I know not why. Then in the
long summer days they celebrated the eves of festivals and the
festivals themselves by a kind of open-house hospitality. Then
burned bonfires in the streets—this was partly with a view to keep
off infection; and certainly in their narrow streets it was necessary to
renew the air as much as possible. Then the wealthier sort spread
tables before their doors and furnished them on the vigils with bread
and drink, and on the festival days with meat and drink, to which
they would invite all passers-by, “praising God for His benefits
bestowed upon them.” There were feasts of reconciliation and amity
for those who had quarrelled. The feast of reconciliation was a
ceremony observed down to the last century.
A kind of Flower Feast was held on the vigil of St. John the
Baptist, and on the days of St. Peter and St. Paul the Apostles. Then
every man’s door was decorated with “green birch, long fennel, St.
John’s wort, orpin, white leten, and such like.” Garlands of flowers
were hung up among the leaves, with small lamps of glass
containing enough oil to last all through the night; there were
branches of wrought iron hung out over the street thus decorated,
and some houses had hundreds of lamps hung up all over them.
Picture to yourself a street in Old London, narrow, with lofty gabled
houses projecting in each storey, so that at the top one might almost
shake hands across. Even in the soft and limpid twilight of a June
evening it is generally almost dark in the streets thus deprived of the
sky; but to-night it is lighter than at noontide. There are rows on
rows, one row above the others of bright lamps, red and blue and
green, gleaming among green branches and white flowers; there are
people dancing and pledging each other, there is music—nay, not
pipe and tabor only, but harp and rebeck, flute and silver bells, drum
and syrinx. And of course the lads and maidens are dancing with all
the spirit they possess.
 A HUNTING PARTY
From fourteenth-century MS. Bibliothèque Nat. de Paris.

Dancing was a passion with everybody. From the Queen to the

milkmaid all the women danced; from the King to the craftsman all
the young men danced. They danced in the streets whenever it was
possible, which was one of the reasons why May-day was so joyous
a festival. The more courtly people had dances dignified and stately,
such as the Danse au Virlet, in which each performer sang a verse,
and then they all danced round singing the same verse in chorus;
the Pas de Brabant, where every man knelt to his partner; the Danse
au chapelet, where every man kissed his partner; they danced
together singing minstrels’ songs; they danced in the garden, they
danced in the meadow, they went out at night to dance with tapers
in their hands; they danced to beautiful music played by an
orchestra. But for the humbler folk the street was the ball-room, and
the pipe and tabor the music; while the dance was the simple Hey,
or a round with capers of surprising agility, or the interlacing of
hands and the dancing round a maypole.
 The wrestling match filled much the same place in the civic mind
as the football match of the present day. It was not a sport so much
as a battle, and occasionally, as in the case of London v.
Westminster, it caused serious riots and disturbances. The usual
prize at a wrestling match was a ram, or a ram and a ring.
Sometimes there were more valuable prizes, as in the old poem, “A
mery Geste of Robin Hood,” quoted by Strutt,10 in which a white
bull, a courser with saddle and bridle, a pair of gloves, a gold ring,
and a pipe of wine, were prizes. In Chaucer’s Prologue we read, “At
wrastling he wolde have alwey the ram.” And Matthew Paris
mentions a wrestling match at Westminster, a.d. 1222, at which a
ram was the prize.
Then there was the valuable right of hunting in the forest of
Middlesex. The country was nearly covered with a vast forest,
opened up here and there by the clearings of charcoal-burners,
woodcutters, and licensed huntsmen. The forest of Middlesex
extended on the east side far into Essex. It was filled with fallow
deer, red deer, wild swine, and wild boar. Of vermin there were
wolves still, wild cats, foxes, badgers, and the smaller creatures. The
rabbit warren or the coney garth was found on every estate, partly
for food and partly for the fur. Two thousand rabbits were supplied in
one year for the table of a rich Norfolk squire. Hares and pheasants
were bred in the coney garth. The crane, the bittern, the great
bustard, together with wild ducks and smaller birds innumerable,
were also found—by the marshes along the river side or in the
forests. It is noted that in London even the craftsmen feasted freely
on hares and rabbits.
Music was even a more favourite form of recreation than dancing.
To learn the use of some instrument was part of every gentleman’s
education. The details of the education of the lower class are scanty,
but there is a treasury of manners and customs in Chaucer, from
which it is certain that all classes learned and practised music of
some kind. For instance. Of the Squire, he is said to have been
singing or fluting all the day.
Of the Nun the poet says—
“Ful wel sche sange the service devyne
Entuned in hire nose ful semely.”
 THE PARDONER THE FRIAR
THE NUN’S PRIEST THE SECOND NUN
TYPES OF CHAUCER’S CHARACTERS
From the Ellesmere MS.
 Of the Mendicant Friar—
“And certainly he had a merry note
Wel couthe he synge and playe on a rote
Somwhat he lipsede for his wantonnesse,
To make his Englische swete upon his Tunge.
And in his harping when that he had sunge
His eyghen twynkeled in his hed aright,
As du the sterris in the frosty night.”
Of the Miller—
“A baggepipe well could he blowe and sowne.”
Of the Pardoner—
“Ful loude he sang ‘Come hider love to me.’”
Of the Scholar—
“And al above ther lay a gay sautrye (psaltery)
On which he made a-nightes melody
So swetely that all the chamber rang,
And Angelus et Virginem he sang.”
Of the Carpenter’s wife—
“But of her song it was so loude and yerne (brisk)
As eny swalwe chitering on a berne.”
And so on,—they could all sing and play. It was a disgrace for any
not to play some kind of instrument.
A bas-relief on a capital in a Norman church of the eleventh
century represents a concert in which the performers are playing on
different instruments. There was the violin, the violoncello, the
guitar, the harp, the syrinx or Pandora pipes, a zither, great bells and
little bells, and an unintelligible instrument. The list does not include
the flute, pipe, or whistle of various kinds, the bagpipe, the lute, the
trumpet, the horn, the water organ, the wind organ, the cymbals,
the drum, the psaltery, the three-stringed organistrum, the hurdy-
gurdy, the pipe and tabor, the rebeck, and others. Of course many of
them are but varieties. The instruments dear to the common people
were the fiddle and the pipe and tabor, at the music of which the
bear capered, the bull was baited, the prentices and maidens
danced, and the tumblers performed; at the tap of the tabor, and
the call of the pipe, everybody turned out to see what was going on.
In every tavern there was music of a more pretentious kind; there
sat the harper, there the mandoline was touched by those who sat in
the place to drink; then to flute and viol the dancing girl gave her
performance; then the story-teller sang his long tale to the sound of
the lute in a low monotone, while the music rambled up and down,
in the same way as a Welsh singer sings while the air itself rolls
round and round about his words. In every church there was the
organ, sometimes only a hand organ; sometimes a great and
glorious organ, the thunders of which awed the trembling soul while
its soft notes uplifted and cheered the worshipper. There was long
opposition to the introduction of the organ; and it was not until the
thirteenth century that the voice of opposition was hushed
altogether; once the organ found admission the difficulty was to
make it splendid enough. Winchester boasted as early as the year
951 an organ divided into parts, each with its own bellows, its own
keyboard, and its own organist. At Milan Cathedral the organ pipes
were made of silver; at Venice they were made of gold. The best
organs of western Europe were made after the model of an organ
presented by Constantine Copronymus to King Pepin.
 A BANQUET
From Willemin, Monuments inédits, etc.

Another form of recreation in the City life was the garden. The
poetry of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is full of the garden.
In Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale Emelie goes into the garden to make a
chaplet:—
“And in the garden at the sonne uppriste
Sche walketh up and doun, and as hir liste,
Sche gadereth floures, party white and redde,
To make a sotil gerland for here hedde,
And as an angel hevenly sche song.”
Every house of importance in London had its garden. Of these
gardens some traces yet remain. The Drapers’ Garden until recently
covered a large area, and there is still a little left; other Companies
retain some portion of their old gardens; apart from the
churchyards, now converted into gardens, there are still even in
some crowded parts of the City one or two private gardens left. The
garden afforded a safe and pleasant place of recreation for the
ladies of the house. It seems as if, with the noise, the dirt, the
crowds, the violence, there was no place for ladies in the streets of
Mediæval London; they were escorted to and from church, and for
the rest of the day there was the house or the garden “ful of leves
and of floures.”
“And craft of mannes hand so curiously
Arrayed had the gardeyn of such pris,
As if it were the verray paradise.”
Here the ladies kept their singing birds, of which they were
extremely fond.

KING AND JESTER

From MS. in British Museum. Harl. 1892.

Then, for recreation in the daily life, we have the morning mass,
the several services of the Church, the work of the shop for the
craftsman, the house for his wife; in summer evenings ramblings in
the fields, rowing on the river, dancing in the streets, athletics of all
kinds, for the young; for the men the tavern with its songs and
drink; for the women, talk in the street at the house doors in the
summer; in the evening, work and music and singing and talk before
the fire. In addition to the festivals and the rejoicings on stated days
there was the procession of the watch, the miracle play within the
church or without, the Royal pageants and the City ridings. The
procession of the watches has been given in London in the Time of
the Tudors, p. 362.
 THE SQUIRE THE MILLER
THE SERJEANT-AT-LAW THE REEVE
 TYPES OF CHAUCER’S CHARACTERS
From the Ellesmere MS.

What part, if any, had cards in the houses of Mediæval London?

The origin of card-playing need not concern us here. Probably the
theory that cards first appeared at Viterbo, whither they were
brought from the East, is true; that they spread over Italy, Germany,
France, and Spain is quite certain. In the year 1393 occurs the well-
known and often-quoted passage in the account of the Treasurer of
France, Charles Poupart. “Givin to Grinfonneur, painter, for three
packs of cards, gilt and coloured, and variously ornamented, for the
amusement of the King, fifty-six livres.” From this passage it has
been argued that cards were invented for the solace of the mad King
Charles VI. But if they were a new invention the entry would not
have been made with such simplicity, and, in fact, we now know that
cards had before this date been brought into France. Whatever was
known or practised in France speedily crossed over to England. Yet it
is remarkable that Chaucer makes no mention of card-playing. In the
year 1463 it was practised. This is proved by a clause in an Act of
1463, by which the importation of cards, among other wares of
foreign manufacture, was forbidden. In one of the Paston Letters,
dated Dec. 24, 1484, Margery Paston tells her husband that in a
certain great lady’s house there were at Christmas “no disguisings,
nor harpings, nor luting, nor singing, nor none loud disputes; but
playing at the tables, chess and cards.” It may therefore be assumed
that card-playing was known in London during the fifteenth century;
that it was not an amusement or a form of gambling belonging to
the common sort, but that it belonged to the wealthier class. This is
what we should expect from the cost of the early cards with their
gold and their hand-painted faces and backs. Of gambling with dice
a great deal is said, and it would appear the lower classes as well as
the upper classes were greatly addicted to dice and games of pure
chance. Every tavern had its gaming table; the keeper advanced
money to those who lost: there were then as now gamesters
acharnés who gambled away all that they had and more. In the
satirical drawings of the time they are represented as having
stripped themselves of everything, including every shred of clothing.
The lower classes of London have always been, and are still,
incurably addicted to the pursuit of fortune, blind and incapable of
favouritism. Laying on the odds and backing his fancy takes the
place with the young Londoner of the old-fashioned dice.
For games we have the rhyme:—“The men and maids do merry
make, at Stoolball and at Barley-break.” The games played by boys
were “Hoop and hide,” “Hide and seek,” “Harry Racket,” “Fillip the
toad,” “Hoos and Blind,” “Hoodwink Play,” “Loggats,” “Slide Sheriff or
Shove groat.”
“To wrestle, play at stooleballe, or to runne;
To pitch the Barre, or to shoote off a gun;
To play at Luggats, nine holes, or Tenpinnes:
To try it out at Football by the shinnes.”
Fitz Stephen says that on Shrove Tuesday the boys brought cocks
to school and made them fight—the Master received from every boy
a “Cockpenny.” The custom was kept up in some parts of England, I
believe in the town of Lancaster, until well into the eighteenth
century.
With all these aids to rest and recreation it will be seen that
London was a City full of joy and cheerfulness. But there was a great
deal more than this. No City on the Continent, not even Antwerp,
Bruges, or Paris, surpassed London in the splendour and
magnificence of her Pageants and Ridings. They were the public
processions and rejoicings at coronations whether of the King or his
consort, those after great victories, those when the King rode in
state through London, those in which foreign sovereigns were
received, and the Ridings of the Mayor and Aldermen. Let us
consider what was meant by such a Pageant in the thirteenth,
fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, the period to which this chapter
belongs. They were rare events, naturally—a coronation does not
happen often in one generation,—so rare were they that the
principal Pageants can all be enumerated in a few lines. Thus:—
A.D. 1205 Reception ofOtho, nephew to King John.
1216 ” ”Louis the Dauphin.
1236 ” ”Henry III.
1243 ” ”Beatrice, Countess of Provence.
1274 ” ”Queen Margaret.
1307 ” ”Queen Isabella.
1328 ” ”Queen Philippa.
1357 ” ”King John of France.
1363 ” ”King John of France, King David of Scotland, and the King
of Cyprus.
1377 ” ” King Richard II.
1382 ” ” Queen Anne.
1392 Reconciliation of King Richard II. and the City.
1396 Coronation of Queen Isabella.
1399 ” ” Henry IV.
1399 Reception of Emmanuel, Emperor of Constantinople.
1413 Coronation of Henry V.
1415 Return of Henry V. after Agincourt.
1416 Reception of the Emperor Sigismund.
1421 Return of Henry V. and Queen Katherine.
1422 Reception of infant King Henry VI.
1432 ” ” Henry VI.
1445 ” ” Margaret of Anjou.
1461 Coronation of Edward IV.
1465 ” ” Queen Elizabeth Grey.
1483 Reception of Edward V.
1483 Coronation of Richard III.

Thus in 278 years there were twenty-seven Pageants and

Receptions, an average of one in every ten years. It is certain that at
every coronation there was some kind of pageant or procession, but
there seems no record of those of Kings Edward II. and III. The first
of which a detailed account has come down to us is the reception of
Henry III. on his marriage in 1286. It is by Matthew Paris:—
“There were assembled at the King’s nuptial festivities such a host
of nobles of both sexes, such numbers of religious men, such crowds
of the populace, and such a variety of actors, that London, with its
capacious bosom, could scarcely contain them. The whole City was
ornamented with flags and banners, chaplets and hangings, candles
and lamps, and with wonderful devices and extraordinary
representations, and all the roads were cleansed from mud and dirt,
sticks and everything offensive. The citizens, too, went out to meet
the King and Queen dressed in their ornaments, and vied with each
other trying the speed of their horses. On the same day when they
left the City for Westminster, to perform the duties of butler to the
King (which office belonged to them by right of old, at the
coronation), they proceeded thither dressed in silk garments, with
mantles worked in gold, and with costly changes of raiment,
mounted on valuable horses, glittering with new bits and saddles,
and riding in troops arranged in order. They carried with them three
hundred and sixty gold and silver cups, preceded by the King’s
trumpeters and with horns sounding, so that such a wonderful
novelty struck all who beheld it with astonishment. The Archbishop
of Canterbury, by the right especially belonging to him, performed
the duty of crowning with the usual solemnities, the Bishop of
London assisting him as a dean, the other bishops taking their
stations according to their rank. In the same way all the abbats, at
the head of whom, as was his right, was the abbat of St. Alban’s (for
as the Protomartyr of England, B. Alban, was the chief of all the
martyrs of England, so also was his abbat the chief of all the abbats
in rank and dignity), as the authentic privilege of that church set
forth. The nobles, too, performed the duties, which, by ancient right
and custom, pertained to them at the coronations of kings. In like
manner some of the inhabitants of certain cities discharged certain
duties which belonged to them by right of their ancestors. The Earl
of Chester carried the sword of St. Edward, which was called
‘Curtein,’ before the King, as a sign that he was earl of the palace,
and had by right the power of restraining the King if he should
commit an error. The Earl was attended by the Constable of Chester,
and kept the people away with a wand when they pressed forward in
a disorderly way. The Grand Marshal of England, the Earl of
Pembroke, carried a wand before the King, and cleared the way
before him both in the church and in the banquet-hall, and arranged
the banquet and the guests at table. The wardens of the Cinque
Ports carried the pall over the King, supported by four spears, but
the claim to this duty was not altogether undisputed. The Earl of
Leicester supplied the King with water in basins to wash before his
meal; the Earl Warrenne performed the duty of King’s cupbearer,
supplying the place of the Earl of Arundel, because the latter was a
youth and not as yet made a belted knight. Master Michael Belet was
butler ex officio: the Earl of Hereford performed the duties of
marshal of the King’s household, and William Beauchamp held the
station as almoner. The Justiciary of the Forests arranged the
drinking cups on the table at the King’s right hand, although he met
with some opposition, which however fell to the ground. The citizens
of London passed the wine about in all directions, in costly cups, and
those of Winchester superintended the cooking of the feast; the rest,
according to the ancient statutes, filled their separate stations, or
made their claim to do so. And in order that the nuptial festivities
might not be clouded by any disputes, saving the right of any one,
many things were put up with for the time which they left for
decision at a more favourable opportunity. The office of Chancellor
of England, and all the offices connected with the King, are ordained
and assized in the Exchequer. Therefore the Chancellor, the
Chamberlain, the Marshal, and the Constable, by right of their office,
took their seats there, as also did the barons according to the date
of their creation, in the City of London, whereby they each knew his
own place. The ceremony was splendid, with the gay dresses of the
clergy and knights who were present. The Abbat of Westminster
sprinkled the holy water, and the Treasurer, acting the part of sub-
dean, carried the paten. Why should I describe all those persons
who reverently ministered in the church to God as was their duty?
Why describe the abundance of meats and dishes on the table? the
quantity of venison, the variety of fish, the joyous sounds of the
glee-men, and the gaiety of the waiters? Whatever the world could
afford to create pleasure and magnificence was there brought
together from every quarter.” (Giles’s trans. pp. 8, 9.)
 TOURNAMENT OF THE EARL OF WARWICK
From Strutt’s Manners and Customs.

It must have been a wealthy city which could thus furnish for a
coronation banquet three hundred and sixty wealthy citizens, who
could afford to dress in silk with gold-embroidered mantles, and to
ride stately horses richly caparisoned, and to carry every man a gold
or silver cup, and to decorate and light up their houses with flags
and banners, chaplets and hangings, candles and lamps. The
magnificent dress of the citizen at all these pageants strikes one with
astonishment. They welcomed Queen Margaret in 1300 to the
number of 600 in a livery of red and white, each with the cognisance
of his Mystery embroidered on his sleeve. They followed King Henry
IV. in 1399 with a train of 6000 horse—all of London and clothed in
their proper livery. When Henry V. came home after Agincourt, the
Mayor and Aldermen met him clothed in “orient grained scarlet,”
with 400 citizens in murrey, well mounted, with collars and chains of
gold; with them went a multitude of the city clergy in sumptuous
copes with rich crosses and massy censers.

CORONATION OF HENRY IV.

From Froissart’s Chronicles.
 The Lord Mayor’s Show began with the presentation of the Mayor
elect to the King or his justiciary. The new Mayor had to ride to
Westminster; of course he rode in state with the Sheriffs, Aldermen,
and officers of the city. It was in 1452 that John Norman, then
Mayor, is said to have changed the custom of riding by land to going
by barge. For this purpose he presented the City with a beautiful
barge; the Companies followed his example, and provided
themselves with barges; of course it was no new thing for a wealthy
citizen or a nobleman to have his barge; the Thames was always,
until quite recent times, the chief highway of the City—witness the
line of palaces which lay along its north bank from Baynard’s Castle
to the King’s House of Westminster. The innovation of Norman was
to present the City with its barge of state: there is reason to believe
that before his time some of the journeys to Westminster had been
made by water. Some notes of the cost of such a procession have
been preserved. For instance, in the year 1401, on the Riding of
John Walcote, Mayor, there is the following entry in the books of the
Grocers’ Company:—
£ s d
Itm. Meres Averes paie po le chevache du John Walcote mayr, po vi
mynstrelles po. lo. sabire XL
Itm. po. lo. cheprous and po. lo. pessure VIIj
It. po. lo. dyner & po vyn po. le chaucer XXI
Itm. po. un cluvue po. le bidge IIIj
 ENGLISH KNIGHTS TRAVELLING
From MS. in British Museum. Harl. 1319.

The wealth and state of the City itself were confided to the care of
the Mayor and Aldermen, who lost no opportunity, whether by a
Riding, or a Pageant, or a Feast, of exhibiting the wealth of the City
by the liveries and splendour of dress worn by the citizens. Thus,
Stow gives some particulars on the subject, which help to show us
the real wealth of the citizens:—

“1236. The 20th of Henry III., the Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs,

and citizens of London, rode out to meet the King and his new
wife Queen Eleanor, daughter to Reymond Beringarius of
Aragon, Earl of Provence and Narbone. The citizens were
clothed in long garments, embroidered about with gold, and silk
in divers colours, their horses finely trapped, to the number of
three hundred and sixty, every man bearing a gold or silver cup
in his hand, the King’s trumpets before them sounding, etc. as
ye may read in my Annales.
1300. The 29th of Edward I., the said King took to wife
Margaret, sister to Philip le Beau, King of France: they were
married at Canterbury. The Queen was conveyed to London,
against whom the citizens to the number of six hundred rode in
one livery of white and red, with the cognisances of their
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