and demanded who he was: he answered, "I am Henry of Lancaster, Duke of Hereford, whiche ame come hither to do my devoir against Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, as a traitor, untrue to God, the King, his realme, and me." Then incontinently he swore upon the Holy Evangelists that his quarrel was just and true; and thereupon he required to enter the lists." He also further sware, that, "he dealt with no witchcraft, nor arte magiche, whereby he might obtain the victory of his adversarie; nor had about him any herb, or other kind of experiment, with which magitians used to triumph over their enemies." This ceremony being performed, he put up his sword, which before he held naked in his hand, and putting down his visor, making a cross upon his horse, and with his spear in his hand he entered the lists, and descending from his horse, sat down in a chair of green velvet at one end of the lists, and there reposed himself. Soon after the King entered the field in great triumph, attended by all the Peers of the realm, and above ten thousand men in armour, lest any quarrel might arise between the nobles of either party. A king at arms then made open proclamation, prohibiting all men in the name of the King, of the High Constable, and of the Marshal, to approach or touch any part of the lists on pain of death,--except such as were appointed to order and marshal the field. This proclamation ended, and the herald cried, "beholde here, Henry of Lancaster, Duke of Hereford, which is entered into the lists royal to do his devoir against Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, defendant, upon pain to be found false and recreant." Then came the Duke of Norfolk, defendant, to the barrier, completely armed, and likewise richly attired, mounted on a good horse: he also answering who he was, and taking oath as the Duke of Hereford had also done before him, entered the lists; then alighting from his horse, which was covered with crimson velvet, embroidered with lions of silver and mulberry trees, he sat himself down on his chair, which was crimson velvet, trimmed with white and red damaske. "The Lord Marshal viewed their spears, to see that they were of equal length, and delivered the one spear himself to the Duke of Hereford, and sent the other to the Duke of Norfolk by a Knight. Then the herald pro claimed claimed that the traversers and chains of the champions should be removed, and commanded them in the name of the King to mount their horses, and, address themselves to the combat. The Duke of Hereford was soon mounted, and closed his visor, and cast his spear into the rest; and when the trumpets sounded, set forward courageously to meet his enemy; but ere the Duke of Norfolk had well set forward, the King cast down his warder, and the heralds cried, Ho! Ho! And so the combat was prevented by the King's taking the matter into his own consideration and judgment as he should think it." After this the King with the advice of the parliamentary commissioners, pronounced the following sentence, "that the Duke of Hereford should be banished for the term of ten years, and that the Duke of Norfolk should leave the realm for life." Norfolk, for thee remains a heavier doom, Shakespeare, Richard the Second. Upon this Norfolk was committed prisoner to the castle of Windsor, and soon after banished the kingdom; and going to Venice, he there died of the plague, A. D. 1399. In the reign of Henry the Sixth, at the particular request of his son Thomas, his body was brought to England, and buried in a tomb of alabaster, in the Charter House of the Monastery, near Melwood, in the Isle of Axholme, which he had founded. Godwin in his life of Chaucer, justly observes, "that there is a great obscurity in the whole of this story. It is almost impossible to guess at the motives of the contending parties, or to form any tolerable solution respecting the strange proceedings by which Richard thought proper to terminate the affair;" and he thinks it "altogether improbable that any such private conversation, as we find one party ready to lay to the charge of the other, ever took place." The The Duke of Norfolk married Elizabeth, daughter of John le Strange, by whom he had no issue; but by Elizabeth his second wife, sister and co-heir to Thomas Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel, he had two sons, Thomas and John, and also two daughters, Isabel and Margaret; the one married Sir Thomas Berkley, Knight, and the other Sir Robert Howard, Knight. THOMAS DE MOWBRAY was only fourteen years of age on the death of his father, and had no other title than that of Earl Marshal. He also espoused the cause of revolt, and joined Archbishop Scrope, whose brother the King had beheaded, with several others, to dethrone Henry, and place his crown on the young Earl of March. This attempt failed. Mowbray and his confederates were taken prisoners by the Earl of Westmorland, who plighted his faith to them that they should not suffer in their lives; but meeting the King at Pontefract, as he was hastening to York, the King brought back with him the prisoners, "who," says Biondi, "much commiserated and bemoaned, were adjudged to die, and were forthwith beheaded." His wife was Constance, daughter of John Earl of Huntingdon, by whom he had no issue; and therefore his brother, JOHN DE MOWBRAY, in the fourteenth of Henry the Fourth, 1412, had livery of all his lands. He attended Henry the Fifth to the siege of Harfleur, but having caught an epidemic dysentery, he was obliged to return to England before the famous battle of Agincourt. In the first of Henry the Sixth, 1422, he was retained to serve the King, in his foreign wars, with one banneret, four knights, a hundred and fourteen men at arms, and three hundred and sixty archers. In the third of Henry the Sixth, 1424, he was restored to the dignity and title of Duke of Norfolk, and the following year, doing homage, had livery of his lands. This new acquired honour and these possessions he did not long enjoy, dying in the eleventh of Henry the Sixth, and was buried in the Chapter House of the Carthusians, at Melwood, in the Isle of Axholme. He was married to Catharine, the daughter of Ralph Nevil, Earl of Westmorland, by whom he had one son, John, who was seventeen years of age at the death of his father. JOHN DE MOWBRAY coming of age fourteenth of Henry the Sixth, 1435, was called to fill high diplomatic situations, which he discharged in a man ne laws of chivalry, in a single combat between the contending parties, before the King, at Gosford Green, near Coventry. The following account of this transaction, from Hollinshed, may not be unacceptable to the reader. "In the reign of Richard the Second, Henry, Duke of Hereford, and Thos. Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, accused each other of treason, and challenged each other to combat; and having obtained licence of the King, all things necessary were immediately prepared; and on the day appointed the Duke of Aumarle, High Constable of England, and the Duke of Surrey, Marshal, first entered the lists with a great company of men, every one of which bore a tipped staff, to keep the field in order. Then came the Duke of Hereford, the appellant, completely armed, in rich attire, and mounted on a stately white courser; the Constable and Marshal came to the barrier of the lists, and with a great train, and discoursed with him of divers matters, amongst which he told him they were all ready to be undone; and the Duke of Hereford demanded, why? He answered for the fact at Radcot Bridge. The Duke of Hereford said, how can that be? for the King hath shewed us favour, and declared us in parliament to be good and loyal towards him. The Duke of Norfolk answered, notwithstanding that it will be done to us, as it has been done to others before, for he will vacate this record. The Duke of Hereford replied this would be a great wonder, since the King had said it before all the people, that he would afterwards make it be annulled. And further the Duke of Norfolk said, this was a marvellous world, and unsafe, for I know well, said he, that if * my Lord your father, and you had been taken, or killed, when you came to Windsor, after the parliament was up; that the Dukes of Albermarle and Exeter, the Earl of Worcester, and himself, were agreed never to undo any lord with just and reasonable cause: and the malice of this fact was in the Duke of Surrey, with the Earls of Wiltshire and Salisbury, drawing to them the Earl of Gloucester, who had sworn to undo six other lords, that is to say the Duke of Lancaster, Hereford, Albermarle, and Exeter, with the Marquis of Dorset and himself. He also said they proposed to reserve the judgment of Earl Thomas of Lancaster, and hereby we and many others should be disinherited. The Duke of Hereford said, God forbid, for it would be a great wonder if the King should assent to this, for it was with a cheerful countenance that he promised to be a good lord to them and others, and also he knew that he had sworn it by St. Edward; and the Duke of Norfolk answered, he had done the same to him many times, and sworn by the body of God, and that for all this he was never the more to be trusted; and further said to the Duke of Hereford, that the King was about to draw the Earl of March and others to the same agreement and purpose of the said four Lords, to destroy the rest aforesaid. The Duke of Hereford replied if it be so, we can never trust them. The Duke of Norfolk said for certain not: for although they cannot accomplish their design at preseat, yet they will be contriving ten years from this time to destroy us in our houses." This complaint in writing was read before the King. Paul's History, Vol. 1. • Illegible in the record. and demanded who he was: he answered, "I am Henry of Lancaster, Duke of Hereford, whiche ame come hither to do my devoir against Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, as a traitor, untrue to God, the King, his realme, and me." Then incontinently he swore upon the Holy Evangelists that his quarrel was just and true; and thereupon he required to enter the lists. He also further sware, that, "he dealt with no witchcraft, nor arte magiche, whereby he might obtain the victory of his adversarie; nor had about him any herb, or other kind of experiment, with which magitians used to triumph over their enemies." This ceremony being performed, he put up his sword, which before he held naked in his hand, and putting down his visor, making a cross upon his horse, and with his spear in his hand he entered the lists, and descending from his horse, sat down in a chair of green velvet at one end of the lists, and there reposed himself. Soon after the King entered the field in great triumph, attended by all the Peers of the realm, and above ten thousand men in armour, lest any quarrel might arise between the nobles of either party. A king at arms then made open proclamation, prohibiting all men in the name of the King, of the High Constable, and of the Marshal, to approach or touch any part of the lists on pain of death,--except such as were appointed to order and marshal the field. This proclamation ended, and the herald cried, "beholde here, Henry of Lancaster, Duke of Hereford, which is entered into the lists royal to do his devoir against Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, defendant, upon pain to be found false and recreant." Then came the Duke of Norfolk, defendant, to the barrier, completely armed, and likewise richly attired, mounted on a good horse: he also answering who he was, and taking oath as the Duke of Hereford had also done before him, entered the lists; then alighting from his horse, which was covered with crimson velvet, embroidered with lions of silver and mulberry trees, he sat himself down on his chair, which was crimson velvet, trimmed with white and red damaske. "The Lord Marshal viewed their spears, to see that they were of equal length, and delivered the one spear himself to the Duke of Hereford, and sent the other to the Duke of Norfolk by a Knight. Then the herald pro claimed |