Link LinkIt has been related in the foregoing parts of this history, how the king of England had great wars in many distant parts and countries, and that he maintained every where armies and garrisons at a heavy expense: that is to say, in Picardy, Normandy, Gascony, Poitou, Saintonge, Brittany, and in Scotland. You have also heard how passionately he was smitten with the charms of the noble lady, Catherine countess of Salisbury; insomuch that he could not put her out of his mind, for love reminded him of her day and night, and represented her beauties and lively behaviour in such bewitching points of views, that he could think of nothing else, notwithstanding that the earl of Salisbury was one of his most trusty counsellors, and one who in England had most loyally served him. Out of affection for the said lady, and his desire to see her, he ordered a great feast and tournament to be proclaimed, to be holden in London the middle of August. He sent his proclamation into Flanders, Hainault, Brabant, and France, promising passports to all knights and squires, from whatever country they might come, for their arrival and return. He commanded, that all barons, lords, knights and squires, of his own realm, should be there without fail, if they had any love for him: and he expressly ordered the earl of Salisbury to have the lady his wife there, with as many young ladies as he could collect to attend her. The earl very cheerfully complied with the king’s request; for he thought of nothing evil; and the good lady dared not say nay. She came, however, much against her will; for she guessed the reason which made the king so earnest for her attendance, but was afraid to discover it to her husband, imagining, at the same time, by her conduct and conversation to make the king change his opinion.
There were at this feast, which was very noble and magnificent, William earl of Hainault, sir John his uncle, and great numbers of barons and knights of high birth: the dancing and feasting continued for the space of fifteen days. The lord John, eldest son of the viscount1 Beaumont in England, was killed at this tournament. He was a handsome and hardy knight, and bore for arms a shield azure, besprinkled with flower-de-luces or, with a lion or rampant, and a battoon gules upon the shield. The ladies and damsels were most superbly dressed and ornamented, according to their different degrees, except the countess of Salisbury, who came there in as plain attire as possible. She was not willing that the king should give up too much time to admire her; for she had neither wish nor inclination to obey him in any thing evil, that might turn out to her own or her husband’s dishonour. At this feast were Henry, surnamed Wry-neck, earl of Lancaster, sir Henry his son earl of Derby, lord Robert d’Artois earl of Richmond, the earl of Northampton and Gloucester, the earl of Warwick, the earl of Salisbury, the earl of Pembroke, the earl of Hereford, the earl of Arundel, the earl of Cornwall, the earl of Oxford, the earl of Suffolk, the lord Stamford, and many other barons and knights of England. The king, on the departure of these nobles, received letters from different lords in the countries of Gascony, Bayonne, Flanders, and from his great friend Jacob von Artaveld. He also heard from the borders of Scotland, from the lord Roos of Hamlake and lord Percy, and the lord Edward Baliol, who was governor of Berwick, that the Scots kept the truce, which had been agreed to last year between the English and Scots, very indifferently; and that they had issued out proclamations for assembling a large force, but he was uncertain to what part they would direct it.
The garrisons which he kept in Poitou, Saintonge, la Rochelle, and the Bourdolois, wrote to inform him that the French were making great preparations for war; and that as the truce agreed to by the kings of France and England at Arras, after the breaking up of the siege of Tournay, was near expiring, it behoved his majesty to have good advice. He answered every part of their letters.
