Of what profit is a good knight? I tell you that through good knights is the king and the kingdom honoured, protected, feared, and defended. I tell you that the king, when he sends forth a good knight with an army and entrusts him with a great emprise, on sea or on land, has in him a pledge of victory. I tell you that without good knights, the king is like a man who has neither feet nor hands.
From The Unconquered Knight, trans. J. Evans (London: Routledge, 1926).
The Murder of a Feudal Lord
GALBERT OF BRUGES
1127
Now the pious count [Charles of Flanders] wishing to bring back good order to his realm, sought to find out who properly pertained to him [i.e., his ministerials, officials, often of high social rank but of servile status], who were serfs, and who free men in the land. While the business of the courts was being carried on, the count was often present, hearing in the discussion of secular liberty and the condition of serfs, that in matters of high justice and general pleas, free men did not deign to make answer to serfs. Those whom the count was able to discover as pertaining to him, he sought to claim for himself.
A certain provost, Bertulf of Bruges, and his brother the castellan in Bruges [Didier Hackett] together with his nephews Borsiard, Robert, Albert, and other well-known members of that kinship, studied with every kind of craft and cleverness how they might remove themselves and escape from the servitude and possession of the count; for those pertaining to the count were of servile condition. At length after taking counsel on the matter, the provost gave his marriageable nieces, whom he had reared in his own home, in marriage to free knights so that by this circumstance of marrying both he and his family might enter upon secular liberty after a certain manner. But it happened that a knight, who had taken to wife one of the nieces of the provost, in the presence of the count challenged to single combat a certain other knight of the count who according to the descent of his family was free; and the one challenged replied vehemently for himself, refusing indignantly, saying that he was not of servile condition but on the contrary born of free rank according to the descent of his family, and for this reason he would not meet the challenger as an equal in single combat. For, according to the law of the count, whoever had taken to wife a servile woman, after he had held her for a year, was no longer free, but became of the same condition as his wife. Then that knight grieved who had lost his liberty on account of his wife through whom he had hoped to be freer when he had accepted her; and then the provost and his family grieved and strove by all means to free themselves from servitude to the count. Therefore when the count had learned from the investigation of the facts, and by the report of the elders of the kingdom, that they pertained to him without doubt, he tried to claim them for himself in servitude. Now all this would have sunk into oblivion, as it were lulled to sleep and neglected after such a long time, because the provost and his kinsmen had not been questioned or challenged about their servile status by the count’s predecessors up to this time, if it had not been recalled to mind in the aforesaid summons to battle.
But the provost with all his nephews, who after the count was the most powerful in the land and the most renowned in reputation and religion, affirmed that he himself was free and both his ancestors and his successors, and with a certain excessive pride and arrogance insisted that it was so. He strove therefore by deliberation and by influence to remove himself and his family from the possession and ownership of the count, saying, “That Charles of Denmark would never have attained the countship if I had wished otherwise. Now then, when he has been made count through me, he does not remember that I did well by him but instead tries by all means to cast me with my whole family into servitude, inquiring of the elders whether we are his serfs. But let him seek as much as he wishes, we will always be free and we are free, and there is no man on earth who can make us into serfs.” He spoke thus boastfully in vain, however, for the count, on his guard, had perceived the intention of the provost and his family and had heard of their fraud as well as of their treachery. When the provost and his relatives saw that they could not succeed in defending themselves but on the contrary were about to be deprived of their usurped liberty, they preferred to perish rather than to be handed over to the count in servitude. At length in the evil deceit of wicked deliberation they began to discuss among themselves the death of the most pious count and to consider the place and the opportunity of killing him.
Now when strife and discord had broken out between his nephews and Thancmar [of Straeten] whose side the count justly favoured, the provost rejoiced because he now had opportunities for betraying the count, for he had summoned all the knights of our province, some for a price, others through influence, or claim to the aid of his nephews against Thancmar. They besieged him on every side in the place where he had entrenched himself and finally, in an armed band, they strongly attacked the besieged and breaking the bolts of the gates, they cut down the barriers and enclosures of their enemies. The provost, however, was not present but, acting as if he had done nothing, he did everything by plan and guile; he outwardly showed nothing but benevolence and told his enemies that he regretted that his nephews were responsible for so much strife and murder, whom indeed he himself had inspired to all kinds of evil.
In the aforesaid conflict many on both sides fell dead and wounded on that day. For when the provost had learned that the attack was actually going on, he himself went to the carpenters who were working in the cloister of the monks, and ordered their tools, that is, their axes, to be taken there, with which they might knock down the tower, walls, and houses of their enemies. Then he sent through the several houses in the suburbium to collect axes which were quickly brought. And when in the night his nephews had returned with five hundred armed knights and a great number of foot soldiers, he took them into the cloister and refectory of the monks where he refreshed them all with various kinds of food and drink, and on this occasion he was elated and boastful. While he was thus assiduously attacking his enemies and making a great outlay for those who were helping his nephews, at first the squires and then the knights began to rob the peasants, even to the extent of seizing and devouring the cattle and herds of the serfs. Whatever the peasants possessed for their own use, the nephews of the provost seized violently and allotted to their expenses. But from the beginning of the realm none of the counts had allowed pillage to be carried on in the land because great slaughter and strife result from it.
Consequently when the peasants heard that the count had come to Ipres, about two hundred of them went to him secretly by night and, bent down at his feet, begged from him his paternal and customary help, that he should order their goods returned to them, namely, their cattle and herds, clothes and silver, as well as all the other equipment of their houses, all of which the nephews of the provost had seized, and those who had fought with them night and day in the execution of that siege. After the count had gravely heard these complaints he called together his councillors and many also who were of the kinship of the provost, inquiring of them by what punishment and severity the law should treat this crime. And they gave counsel that without delay he should destroy the house of Borsiard by fire, because Borsiard had pillaged the peasants of the count; and for this reason they strongly advised that the aforesaid house be destroyed, because as long as it stood, so long would Borsiard carry on strife and plunder and even murder, and so he would continuously lay waste that whole vicinity.
On this advice the count went and burned the house and destroyed the dwelling to the foundations. Then that Borsiard and the provost and their accomplices were troubled beyond measure, both because the count in this deed was seen to have agreed with and lent aid to their enemies, and because the count was daily disturbing them about their servile status and trying in every way to get them handed over to him.
After the house was burned the count came up to Bruges. When he had entered his home and settled down, some of his intimates came to him and put him on his guard, saying that the nephews of t
he provost would betray him because now they would seize the opportunity given by the burning of the aforesaid house, although even if the count had not done this, nevertheless he would have been betrayed by them. Now after the count had dined, there came into his presence intercessors on behalf of the provost and his nephews who begged the count to turn his indignation away from them and in pity to take them back into his friendship. But the count replied that he would deal justly with them and even mercifully if they would henceforth give up strife and plunder, and he promised to bind himself in addition to restore to Borsiard an even better house. In the place where the house was burned up, however, he swore that, as long as he held the countship, Borsiard would never again obtain any possession, because as long as he had remained there next to Thancmar he had never done anything but engage in strife and discord against his enemies and against the citizens with pillage and slaughter. In truth the intercessors, for the most part conscious of the treachery, did not vex the count very much about the reconciliation, and since the servants were going about offering drinks, they asked the count to order better wine to be brought. When they had drunk this, as drinkers are wont to do, they kept on asking for their healths to be drunk and more abundantly, until, when they had received the count’s final dismissal, they should go off to bed. By the order of the count healths were drunk to all who were present until, after final dismissal was received, they withdrew.
Then Isaac, Borsiard, William of Werwicq, Ingran, and their accomplices, with the approval of the provost, hastened what they were about to do by free will indeed, not from the necessity of divine providence. For at once those who were mediators and intercessors between the count and the provost’s nephews, having gone to the provost’s home, denounced the response of the count, that is, that they had not been able to secure any favour either for the nephews or for their supporters, and that he would act toward them only as the judgment of the primates of the land had determined in the severity of justice. Then the provost and his nephews withdrawing into a [inner] room, having summoned those whom they wished, with the provost himself guarding the door of the room, gave their right hands to each other, pledging that they would betray the count. For this crime they proposed Robert the Young, asking him to give his right hand to them in pledge that he would carry out with them that same thing which they were about to do, for which they had given their right hands to each other. But the noble youth, forewarned by the strength of his soul, and considering that it must be a grievous thing which they were urging on him, resisted, unwilling to be ignorantly led into their compact, unless he should know what things they had agreed to do. When they were constraining him to this, drawing away, he hastened toward the door. But Isaac and William and the others called to the provost who was then watching the door, not to let Robert go out until he had been forced by the provost’s order to carry out what they had demanded of him. Immediately, overcome by the blandishments and threats of the provost, the youth came back and gave his hand on their terms, not knowing indeed what act he was about to perform with them, and now in league with the traitors, he asked what he should do. They replied, “That Count Charles is working in every way for our destruction and hastening to claim us as his serfs; his betrayal we have already sworn, and now you must carry through this same treachery with us both in word and deed.” Then the youth, terrified and dissolved in tears, said, “Heaven forbid that we should betray our lord and the count of our land. Nay rather, if you do not desist, I shall go and speak openly to the count and to all of your treachery, nor shall I ever, God willing, lend any aid or counsel to this plan.” But they forcibly held him as he tried to flee from them, saying, “Listen, friend, we made-known the aforesaid treachery to you as if we were about to do it in earnest, in order to try out in this way whether you wish to stay with us in some serious business; there is indeed something else which we have concealed from you so far, by reason of which you are bound to us by faith and compact, which we may tell you tbout in the future.” And turning it off as a joke they concealed the treachery.
Then each one of them, going from the room, went to his own place. When Isaac had finally come home, he went off as if to bed—for he was awaiting the silence of the night—and soon, mounted on his horse, he returned to the castle, stopping at the quarters of Borsiard, and, calling him and others whom he wished, they went separately to the quarters of another, Walter the knight. And when they had entered they straightway extinguished the fire in the house, lest by chance through the lighted fire it should be noted by those awake who were in the house and what business they were carrying on contrary to custom at that time of night. Secure therefore in the darkness they took counsel about the treachery to be done promptly at dawn, choosing from the household of Borsiard the most courageous and bold for this crime, and they promised them great riches. They offered to the knights who should kill the count four marks and to the serving men who should do the same two marks, and they bound themselves together by the most evil compact. And so Isaac returned home about dawn after he had inspired the others by his counsel and made them ready for such a great crime.
Therefore when day had dawned, very dark and foggy so that no one could see anything a spear’s length away, Borsiard secretly sent a few servants to the court-yard of the count to watch for his going out into the church. The count indeed had risen early at dawn and had distributed [alms] to the poor, as he was wont to do in his own house, and was about to go to church. (But as his chaplains related, at night when he had composed himself in bed for sleeping, he was troubled by a certain anxiety of wakefulness, his mind confused and disturbed, so that, disquieted by meditation on many things, now turning and tossing, now sitting on his bed, he seemed quite ill.) And when he had proceeded on his way to the church of St. Donatian, the servants who had watched for his exit announced to the traitors that the count had ascended into the solarium [gallery] of the church with a few persons. Then that mad Borsiard and his knights and servants, with their bare swords under their cloaks, followed the count into the same solarium, dividing into two groups so that none of those whom they wished to betray could escape at either end of the solarium, and lo! they saw the count kneeling as was his custom near to the altar on a low stool, where he was devoutly chanting psalms to God and likewise saying prayers and giving pennies to the poor....
In the year 1127, or the sixth day before the nones of March, on the second day, that is, after the beginning of the same month ... while the pious count in Bruges in the church of St. Donatian ... was bowed in prayer that he might hear the early morning mass, according to his pious custom he was distributing a profusion of alms to the poor, with his eyes fixed on reading the psalms and his right hand stretched out to bestow alms; for his chaplain, who attended to that duty, had placed near the count many pennies which he was distributing to the poor while in the act of prayer. Now when the office of the first hour was ended, and the response of the third hour finished, when “Our Father” is said, the count according to custom was praying, reading aloud dutifully; then at length, after so many plots and oaths and pledges made among themselves, the wretched traitors, already murderers at heart, left for dead the count devoutly praying and giving alms, bowed in supplication to the divine majesty, pierced by the swords and run through again and again. And so God gave the palm of the martyrs to the count, washed clean of his sins by the rivulets of his blood, with the course of his life terminated in good works. In the last moment of life and at the onset of death, he most fittingly turned his face and his royal hands to heaven as well as he could in the midst of so many blows and thrusts of the swordsmen, and so he gave up his spirit to the Lord of all, and he offered himself up to God as a morning sacrifice. And now the bloody body of such a great man and prince lay alone, without the veneration of his people and the proper reverence of his servants. Whence whoever has heard the circumstance of his death, suffering in tears that pitiable death, has commended to God such a great and lamented prince, brought to an end by a martyr�
��s death.
From Histoire du meurtre de Charles le Bon, H. Pirenne, ed. (Paris: A. Picard, 1891); trans. J.B.R.
The Battle of Poitiers
GEOFFREY LE BAKER
September 19, 1356
The prince [Edward of Wales, the “Black Prince”] then entrusted the vanguard of the army to the earls of Warwick and Oxford, the middle part he himself commanded, and the rear was led by the earls of Salisbury and Suffolk. In the whole army of the prince there were not more than four thousand men at arms, one thousand armed soldiers, and two thousand archers.
The proud nobility of the French approached, very disdainful of the small numbers of the English, for their army contained eight thousand fighting soldiers and an uncounted number of soldiers, under four score and seven standards. Many of our men murmured on this account, because recently a large part of our army had been sent to defend Gascony....
When the armies had been arrayed on both sides, ready to fight early Sunday morning, which dawned very fair, the cardinal of Périgord came to the prince. He besought the prince, for the honour of God who was crucified and for love of His Virgin Mother, and in reverence of the ecclesiastical peace and for the sparing of Christian blood, that it might please him to post pone the war for a time, so that peace might be discussed. This he promised should be carried out honourably, through his own intercession, if he should be allowed to mediate. The prince, altogether untouched by tyranny, neither feared war nor refused peace, but modestly agreed to the request of this holy father. Then during that whole day, which had been set aside for the making of peace, the army of the French increased by the number of a thousand men of arms, and a great multitude of people. The next morning, on Monday, the cardinal came again from the French king [John], asking for a year’s truce, which the prince refused. But at the insistence of the cardinal, he granted a truce lasting until the next Christmas. Then the cardinal, returning to the French king, asked him for pledges of peace, which should be given according to the agreement of the lord prince. But, although the Marshal de Clermont advised the king to agree, this petition was opposed by the Marshal d’Audrehem, Geoffrey de Charny, and Douglas the Scot, by whom the king was greatly influenced. They persuaded him that in the common course of nature the English could not at that time prevail, especially since there were few of them, and in a strange land, miserably fatigued by their laborious travels, against the great numbers of Frenchmen defending their own soil....
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