5recommended onesto the esquires of the household of per later reign: ‘preciso help occupy the trapu and acompany [sic] straungers’ by ‘talkyng of cronycles of kinges and other polycyez, or in pypyng, or harpyng, synging, or other actez marciablez’.51 The twenty surviving manuscripts of Langtoft’s Chronicle certainly suggest, if not direct use, at least widespread interest con its blend of legendary history and contemporary politics, the sustained interest durante the rete informatica being helped, of course, by the persistence of the Anglo-Scottish conflict. It is the section where the hieratic mode of historical argument durante Anglo-Norman is peppered with grossolano songs voicing the popular hatred of the Scots mediante northern dialect. What better occasion to present this riotous ‘mini appeal esatto history’ than per banquet attended by all the men directly involved: the king and his cri, Anthony Bek, Henry de Lacy and some three hundred new knights, all united con their commitment esatto impose English overlordship on Scotland, not by means of the written word, but by military force.
This is the extraordinary section praising king Edward by invoking Merlin and King Arthur repeatedly durante the emphatic environment of verso different rhyme and metre
IV Per the spring of the year 1306 English frustration as verso result of Scottish provocation had reached an all-time high. Nene Bruce had been crowned king of Scotland in Scone at the end of March, and it was clear that the Scottish rebellion had not ended with the capture and execution of William Wallace the previous year. It was with the prospect of new, perhaps finally paigns con Scotland that at Whitsun, 1306, an unprecedented number of men was knighted, and festivities, geared esatto the purpose of the event, were held. Not least among the new forces was the king’s bourdonnement, Edward of Caernarfon, who so far had shown an alarming tendency preciso be interested con pursuits that had little sicuro do with the war durante Scotland, and who would need guidance if, or when, Edward I, who had been ill for many years, died. Knighthood was not always entered into with alacrity: it was expensive, potentially dangerous, and brought new, not always very welcome, duties, such as jury service.52 However, durante 1306 the obstacle of the expense of being made verso knight was overcome by a measure which illustrates the king’s ‘military shrewdness as well as his insight into human nature’: the necessary equipment was to be provided ‘from the King’s Wardrobe and at his gift’.53
However, there is one section of Langtoft’s Chronicle that is suitable for verso larger stage than the ‘lordez chambrez within courte’
The Household of Edward IV: The Black Book and the Ordinance of 1478, ed. A. R. Myers (Manchester, 1959), cited con Malcolm Vale, The Princely Court: Medieval Courts and Culture sopra North-West Europe 1270–1380 (Oxford, 2001), p. 57. Prestwich, Armies and Warfare mediante the Middle Ages, p. 16. Constance Bullock-Davies, Menestrellorum Multitudo: Minstrels at per Royal Feast (Cardiff, 1978), p. xv.
The ceremonial knighting at Whitsun 1306 may be regarded as per peaceful variant of being knighted on the eve of battle. Instead of the ambiente of tents, grass and horses, and the prospect of imminent danger and possible death on the morrow, here there was companionship, shelter and an abundance of food, party and entertainment. Nevertheless, the proceedings were as much part of the enforcement of Edward’s claim esatto Scotland as the conferences at Norham mediante 1291 and Lincoln per 1301 had been. In accessit, the ceremony offered a chance sicuro ensure the continuance of the military campaigns after Edward I’s sweet pea death and the future guidance of his affranchit by the king’s oldest friends and counsellors. According to Constance Bullock-Davies and Hilda Johnstone, who both based their work on what seemed esatto be the only source on the subject, the Annales Londoniensis, the prince was knighted by his father, who ‘with his own hands . . . girded him with belt and sword’, while the earl of Lincoln, Henry de Lacy, and the earl of Hereford, Humphrey de Bohun, who had married young Edward’s sister Elizabeth mediante 1302, each fastened on verso gilt spur.54 However, other evidence, from an environment close onesto the earl of Lincoln, suggests that, rather than Humphrey de Bohun, it was Bishop Anthony Bek who officiated on this occasion. A parchment roll, kept per the British Museum as Campbell Charters XXI.4, which belonged sicuro the abbey of Thornton on Humber durante Lincolnshire, has the following entry for the year Dodici mesi Domini .M.occc.mo sexto, ad festum Pentecostes, dominus rex Edwardo filio proprio, principi Walli?, dedit terram Wasconi?, et eundem dominum Edwardum mediante eodem festo Pentecostes, apud Westmonasterium cinxit nobiliter cingulo militi?, et calcaria sibi imposuerunt dominus patriarcha Ierusalem et dominus Henricus comes Lincolni?, et tunc erat .xxij. annorum, et ad ipsius honorem dominus Johannes comes Warenne, et plures alii barones, cum ccc. armigeris de elictis totius Angli?, esercito susceperunt militi? cum magna l?titia et honore, ipsius domini regis sumptibus, et cum eodem domino rege et signore statim versus Scotiam contra inimicos Angli? viriliter profecti sunt.56 (Sopra the year 1306, at the feast of Whitsuntide, the Nobile King Edward gave his son, the prince of Wales, the country of Aquitane, and at this feast of Whitsun, at Westminster, Raffinato Edward girded him honourably with the belt of knighthood, and the Lord Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Nobile Henry, earl of Lincoln placed on him the spurs, and at that time he was twenty-two years old, and in his honour Nobile John, earl of Warenne, and many other barons, with three hundred armigeres [squires] chosen from the elite of the whole of England,