A Love Beyond: A Scottish Historical Romance (The Reivers Book 2)

by Belle McInnes

  Antoine de Pluvinel left for Italy at the age of 10 or 17 to begin studying horsemanship under Giovanni Battista Pignatelli, and trained under him until 1571 or 1572. He then returned to France to study under M. de Sourdis, before becoming the premier ecuyer to the Duc d'Anjou (who would later become Henri III) and accompanying him to his new throne in Poland. After the death of King Charles IX, Henri returned to France, taking Pluvinel with him.

  Giambattista Pignatelli was an early sixteenth-century Italian riding master who had influence on the development of dressage. He was one of three influential masters of the Napolese school. The term "Napolese School" did not refer to the modern day city of Naples, but to the southern part of Italy, including Sicily.

  The Napolese masters who had the most lasting influence on modern training were Pignatelli- his particular area of influence is largely in the work of training the horse in the pillars, as noted in the works of Federico Grisone, who wrote Gli Ordini di Cavalcare (1571) and Caesar Fiaschi, who wrote Trattato dell'imbrigliare, atteggiare, & ferrare cavalli in which he equated equitation with music and published not only training notes but musical scores to accompany the training.

  These three masters of the Neapolitan school were highly influential for three reasons: first, European nobility was, at this time, sending their sons to the Italian schools for an education, thus, these masters mentored students from aristocratic families from all over Europe. Second, these three masters published written material about their work, and Grisone's treatise particularly was translated in many different languages- his work on the Napolese ideas was an early and very influential "best seller". And third, Pignatelli's student Antoine de Pluvinel was commissioned by the French court to establish a riding school in France. Thus, Pignatelli was instrumental in beginning the French 'Golden Age of Equitation', an era of state supported the exploration of training as a high art that would last for two hundred years, until that aristocratic focus was ended by the French Revolution.

  Federico Grisone was a Neapolitan nobleman and one of the first masters of dressage and courtly riding. Referred to in his time as the "father of the art of equitation",[1] he wrote the first book on this subject to be published in early modern Europe.

  Grisone was admired and respected in his lifetime, and considered a great master of his time. Caracciolo wrote of him in 1566:[2]

  "From the first it seems that every horse obeys his signal, such that those who watch are amazed."

  — Pasquale Caracciolo, La Gloria del Cavallo

  His training methods profoundly influenced the training of horses in his day, and were spread into France by Giovanni Battista Pignatelli and his pupils Salomon de la Broue and Antoine de Pluvinel.

  Grisone started a riding academy in Naples in 1532, and in 1550 published the influential Gli ordini di cavalcare, "The Rules of Riding", one of the first works on horsemanship since the time of Xenophon.[4] This work was a best-seller of its time. Between 1550 and 1623, twenty-one Italian editions were printed; fifteen translated editions were published in French, seven in German, one in Spanish and six in English.[3] The earliest of these, The arte of ryding and breakinge greate horses, an abridged and adapted translation made by Thomas Blundeville at the suggestion of John Astley and published with plates from the original in 1560, is the earliest book in English on equitation.

  Blundeville, Thomas (trans.), Federico Grisone. A newe booke, containing the arte of ryding, and breakinge greate Horses, together with the shapes and Figures of many and divers kyndes of Byttes... London: Willyam Seres, [1560?]

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  Chapter Forty-Two

  oak, ash, aspen, juniper, rowan, alder, willow, birch and cherry

  * * *

  Chapter Forty-Three

  During the High Middle Ages, the section of the route between Jedburgh and Edinburgh was known as the Royal Way (Latin: Via Regia). It connected the larger part of Scotland with the important ecclesiastic sites of the Scottish Borders. King Malcolm IV established his Church and Hospital of the Holy Trinity halfway along this section to provide succour for the many pilgrims using it.[21]

  After the destruction of the Border Abbeys during the "Rough Wooing" of Mary, Queen of Scots, by the Earl of Hertford's forces and during the Reformation of the Scottish Church, the route fell into disuse and disrepair. It was used mainly for driving livestock and occasional travellers daring enough to venture into the lawless border region.[22]

  Dere Street continued in use between Durham and York in medieval times. Being limited by daylight, "about thirty miles in a day in winter on horseback and between thirty-six and forty in summer was what a man could do." Tough, vigorous men could walk from Darlington to York, and it was said that the quality of a horse could make the difference between a possible thirty and fifty miles per day. A wish to hear mass or the organisation of a train by the rich could shorten the travelling day to twenty miles. Roads were described as so muddy and difficult between November and February that to finish the journey by daylight one could barely stop to eat; however a "royal highway" or alta via regia strata was passable in winter between York and Durham, and this could have been Dere Street. Heavy packhorse loads were taken on the route, for example 20 stone (130 kg) of wool. Clerics, traders and the nobility were more likely to travel than others, and some people rarely travelled at all. Travelling in style involved the use of carts for luggage, but carts bogged down in winter mud, so traders with packhorses travelled more easily in winter than the rich.

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  Chapter Forty-Four

  Contractions can be found all over Shakespeare's plays. They were an integral part of the language, and were readily accepted in both works of entertainment and more scholarly works. In fact, Early Modern English holds many more contractions than are used today, such as shan't, 'twere, 'twon't, 'tis, ha'n't, and many more. It wasn't until the early 18th century that anybody questioned the use of contractions. Unfortunately for the poor words, by the end of the century they were considered to be an abomination in formal writing. Although even scholars used them in daily conversation, for some reason or another they deemed them unacceptable in scholarly writing.

  Some contractions that appear during the Early Middle English period include I'll (I will), 'twould (it would) and 'twill (it will), as well as negative contractions of every form including can't (cannot), don't (do not), shan't (shall not), mayn't (may not) and won't (will not).

  Michael: canna, dinna, wilna

  Didn't, shouldn't, wouldn't, hadn't, couldn't, mustn't,

  you're, we're, they're

  He's, she's, I'm

  Could've, should've, would've, I've, we've, you've, they've, might've, must've

  I'll, we'll, he'll, she'll

  You'd, I'd, we'd, they'd, that'd, he'd, it'd

  D'you

  "I'm

  According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, won't first appeared at the dawn of the period in the mid-15th century as wynnot and then wonnot, and its modern form in the mid-17th century. Don't was first recorded in the 1630s, and can't first appeared in print in 1706. Ain't also first appeared in 1706 as a contraction only for "am not," although by the early 1800s, it was also used to mean a variety of negatives including "are not," "is not," "have not," and "has not."

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  Chapter Forty-Five

  Spread Eagle Hotel

  There has been an inn on this site for many centuries. Tradition has it that it is the oldest licensed premises in Scotland.

  It is possible that Mary Queen of Scots first lodged in the then inn when she visited Jedburgh in 1566. However, there was a fire and she had to find alternative accommodation. (See Mary Queen of Scots House)

  The present building and the features of its façade date to the 18th Century. Note the double-headed eagle over the entrance. There was stabling behind to accommodate coaches and horses. However, there is evidence of an earlier building within the walls of the building, probably Moscrope's Tower, built to control access t
o the Market Place and one of Jedburgh's six defensive towers

  This was the Town Inn where important meetings and dinners were held, for example when the Circuit Court visited the town. The Judges would march in procession from here to the Court House, accompanied by the provost and magistrates and the traditional "Crailing Guard", a motley group of soldiers, apparently. The judges, clerks and jurymen would be entertained to "a jolly dinner; after which they returned again to the transportations and hangings"*. Once this got out of hand in Jedburgh when, the excitement and indecorum (of the dinner) produced scenes of violence…which it was miraculous did not in due time place the judge at the bar".

  In 1803 William Wordsworth and his sister visited Jedburgh. They could not get rooms in the Spread Eagle because the Circuit Court was in session, and so they lodged with Mrs Nelly Mitchell in Abbey Close. Walter Scott dined with them at the Spread Eagle and accompanied them around the area.

  The inn would have been required to provide stabling and ostler services for the stage coaches that provided a regular service from Edinburgh, Hawick and Kelso to Jedburgh.

  *Ref: Lord Cockburn, CIRCUIT JOURNEYS

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  Chapter Forty-Six

  The Newgate probably occupied the site of the principal entrance to the Abbey precinct. Later the Newgate arch bridged the Kirk Wynd leading to the Parish Church in the Abbey. The arch or pend would have been closed by two pairs of folding gates. Within the arch are two prison cells.

  The spire was only completed in 1791, at the expense of Sir Hew Dalrymple who was standing for election at the time.

  The building, begun in 1756 would have contained a jail or bridewell and courthouse, replacing the Tolbooth which had stood at the top of the Canongate.

  The coat of arms and over the gateway was placed there when a public well which had stood in the market place was demolished. The date does not pertain to the Newgate building.

  The archway provided access for those attending services in the Parish Church. They would make their way by the "kirkstile" way through the churchyard to the north side of the abbey where a porch was built. The Parish Church occupied part of the former abbey from 1560 until 1875.

  Through the arch you can access the Ramparts and see the old Churchyard.

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  Chapter Forty-Seven

  After her succession in 1558, Elizabeth recalled all the base silver coins which were still in circulation and replaced them with coins of a high silver content. The beginnings of the change to a milled coinage occurred from 1561 to 1571. The term 'milled' is used because the first machines were powered by water mills and the mills were used to turn out strips of metal to a consistent thickness, from which the blanks were cut. The coins were then struck on a manual screw press. In gold, the milled coinage consisted of a limited number of half-pounds, value ten shillings, crowns of five shillings, and extremely rare half-crowns of two shillings and sixpence, all beautifully styled and well-struck and circular. The gold milled coinage is found with two mintmarks, a star or a lis.

  Milled coins were unpopular with the hammermen (mint workers) because the machinery was seen as a threat to their jobs. Also against it was the slowness of the early machines. The term 'milled' is also applied to the lines on the edge of the machine-made coins which were introduced to prevent the practice of clipping silver or gold from round the edge although the correct term is 'grained'. Hammered coinage continued with gold denominations consisting of the fine sovereign (99.4% gold content) of thirty shillings, the pound (240d, 20s), ryal (180d) and half-pound (120d). Curiously the series of angels, half-angels and quarter-angels were still in circulation, all with the same values as the half-pound, crown and half-crown. The initial series of silver coins included the crown, half-crown (neither now minted in gold) shilling (12d) (now firmly established as a major denomination), groat (valued at four pence), half-groat (two pence) and penny.

  From 1561 onwards, additional coins were added - a reintroduced sixpence, threepence and two new and short-lived denominations, the three half-pence and three farthings.

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  Chapter Forty-Eight

  GUNS

  The first gun to combine all three components was the matchlock, in the early 1400's. Many early hand cannons were ignited with a "slow match" - a length of slender rope or cord that had been chemically treated so that an end could be ignited and would continue to burn or smolder, much like a 4th of July punk used to shoot fireworks. Obviously it was awkward to hold both gun & slow match while trying to dip the match to the touch hole of the hand cannon.

  The matchlock solved this problem by using an arm called a serpentine on the gun to hold the slow match. By mechanical linkage, a trigger on mounted on the bottom of the lock could be pressed to lower the match to the touch hole, which now included a small pan of fine gun powder that would be ignited first, transmitting the fire through the hole to fire the main charge in the barrel.

  This simple system was followed by a much more complicated one, the wheellock in the early 1500's. It was the first to take advantage of the fact that sparks could be produced by striking flint or other substances against steel. The lock contained a wheel with a serrated edge, attached to a spring which could be wound with a separate key called a spanner, much like early clocks, and held under tension. A hammer like piece called the dogshead held a piece of pyrite rock. To fire a wheellock, the dogshead was lowered onto the edge of the wheel, which was released by a pull of the trigger causing a shower of sparks to fall into the pan igniting the charge. The principle is much the same as a cigarette lighter.

  This was an improvement in reliability over the matchlock, primarily because the shooter did not have to constantly attend to the smoldering slow match to insure that it remained lit. It also avoided the problem of an enemy seeing or game smelling the smoke of the match before the gun was fired. However, it took highly skilled craftsmen to build the clock-like mechanism of the wheellock, making it an extremely expensive piece, primarily available to royalty and the like for hunting. Although wheellocks saw some military use, the matchlock remained the most common military firearm during the wheellock era.

  FLINTLOCKS

  Improvements using flint against steel to provide the igniting spark continued in the second half of the 16th century, with two early examples being the snaphaunce, the first flint lock type gun ca. 1560, and the Miquelet, following a couple decades later.

  The snaphaunce held a piece of flint in the hammer-like cock, with a pan of priming powder mounted on the outside of the barrel over the touchhole as with the matchlock system. When ready to fire, a steel striking plate (the "battery") would be manually swiveled into place above the pan, and the cock pulled back until it was caught by a sear. Pulling the trigger would release the cock to swing rapidly forward striking the battery, and showering sparks into the pan, hopefully firing the gun.

  As with all flint lock type systems, sometimes the priming powder in the pan would ignite, but would fail to transmit the fire to the powder in the barrel resulting in a failure to fire, and giving us a colorful phrase still used today - "a flash in the pan."

  Of course, it was also vital to "keep your powder dry," and accordingly many early firearms of this era had a sliding pan cover to hold the powder in place and give it some protection against the elements. The pan cover would have to be manually swiveled out of the way before firing.

  Around 1580, the Miquelet system improved on and simplified the snaphaunce by combining the battery and pan cover into a single piece, called the frizzen. This L-shaped spring-loaded piece would be pivoted down to cover the pan after it had been primed with powder. When the cock was released by the trigger, it would swing forward striking the frizzen, producing sparks at the same time it pushed the frizzen up and forward to expose the powder in the pan to the igniting sparks.

  In the early 1600's, the basic design of the flintlock, originally known as the French lock, was perfected. The major improvement over the Miquelet c
onsisted of moving the mechanical components for the lock mechanism from their previous position on the outside of the lockplate, where they were exposed to elements and damage, to the interior of the lock.

  Arquebus: a portable long-barrelled gun dating from the 15th century: fired by a wheel-lock or matchlock Also called hackbut, hagbut. An early muzzle-loaded firearm used in the 15th to 17th centuries. An arquebus was originally a gonne with hook, and later a matchlock firearm. Like its successor the musket, it is a smoothbore firearm, but was initially lighter and easier to carry.

  Caliver: The caliver or the culiver was an improved arquebus (i.e.) a light matchlock weapon. One of its main improvements over the arquebus was that it was built to a standard size, which meant that soldiers could load bullets much easier. With the earlier arquebus, no two of them had the same caliber, which meant that soldiers would either have to deform or cut bullets to fit into their barrels, or they would have to cast bullets individually for their weapons. With the caliver, this step was unnecessary as their barrels were built to a standard diameter or caliber. In fact, the name of the weapon, "caliver", owes its name to "caliber", since these weapons were originally called as "arquebuses of caliber", which is to say, "arquebuses of a specific barrel diameter". This was later shortened and corrupted to "caliver".

  Dag: heavy hand-gun

  OTHER WEAPONS

  Halberd: a shafted weapon with an axlike cutting blade, beak, and apical spike, used especially in the 15th and 16th centuries.

  Bill: a long cleaver-cum-pike

  Spear