Chapter 4

CHAPTER XXII

THE WAR WITH FRANCE (continued)

Calais was the great port of Northern France. It was a strong town and the King besieged it. For eleven months it held out against him. The King was sore displeased that he should tarry so long before its gates, and when the citizens desired to make peace he demanded that six burgesses, bare headed, bare footed, in their shirts, with halters about their necks and with the keys of the castle and town in their hands, should give themselves as a ransom for the inhabitants.

The bell in the market place was sounded and the people assembled. When they heard this "they began to weep and make much sorrow." At last the richest burgess of all the town, called Eustace of Saint Pierre, rose up and said openly, "Sirs, great and small, great mischief it should be to suffer such people as be in this town to die by famine or otherwise, wherefore to save them, I will be the first to put my life in jeopardy."

Then another honest burgess rose and said: "I will keep company with my gossip Eustace," and so the six offered themselves and went and apparelled them as the King desired.

When they were brought into the camp, they begged for mercy, "then all the earls and barons and others that were there wept for pity. The King looked felly (cruelly) on them, for greatly he hated the people of Calais for the great damages and displeasures they had done him on the sea before."

Then he commanded their heads to be stricken off. Every man requested the King for mercy but he would hear no one on their behalf.

"They of Calais have caused many of my men to be slain, wherefore shall they die like-wise."

Then the Queen kneeled down and sore weeping said, "Ah, gentle sir, since I passed the sea in great peril, I have desired nothing of you, therefore now I humbly require you in honour of the Son of the Virgin Mary, and for the love of me, that ye will take mercy on these six burgesses."

The King beheld the Queen and stood still in a study a space and then said: "Ah dame, I would ye had been now in some other place, ye make such request to me that I cannot deny you. Wherefore I give them to you and do your pleasure with them."

"Then the Queen caused them to be brought into her chamber and made their halters to be taken from their necks and caused them to be new clothed and gave them dinner at their leisure and then gave them each some gold and made them to be brought out of the host in safeguard and set at their liberty."

This is the story told by Froissart, who attended on the Queen, and thus did Calais fall into the hands of the English, and over its portals the conquerors inscribed the proud boast,

Then shall the Frenchmen Calais winWhen iron and lead like cork shall swim.

Then shall the Frenchmen Calais win

When iron and lead like cork shall swim.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE BLACK DEATH, AND THE PEASANTS' REVOLT

In those days, the great men of the land were rich and they dressed gaily in silk and fur, gorgeous were their jewels, and their scabbards were decked with beauteous workmanship. From their bridles jangled the merry bells, as they followed their hounds to the hunt.

The court too was magnificent. The King gave bounteous feasts and there were many dishes set before the guests.

"There came in at the first course, before the King's self,

Boars' heads on broad dishes of burnished silver,Flesh of fat harts with noble furmenty,And peacocks and plovers on platters of gold,Herons and swans in chargers of silver,And tarts of Turkey full pleasant to taste.Next hams of wild-boar with brawn beglazed,Barnacle-geese and bitterns in embossed dishes,Venison in pasties, so comely to view,Jellies that glittered and gladdened the eye.Then cranes and curlews craftily roasted,Conies in clear sauce coloured so bright,Pheasants in their feathers on the flashing silver,With gay galantines and dainties galore.There were claret and Crete wine in clear silver fountainsRhenish wine and Rochelle and wine from Mount RoseAll in flagons of fine gold; and on the fair cupboardStood store of gilt goblets glorious of hue,Sixty of one set, with jewels on their sides.

Boars' heads on broad dishes of burnished silver,

Flesh of fat harts with noble furmenty,

And peacocks and plovers on platters of gold,

Herons and swans in chargers of silver,

And tarts of Turkey full pleasant to taste.

Next hams of wild-boar with brawn beglazed,

Barnacle-geese and bitterns in embossed dishes,

Venison in pasties, so comely to view,

Jellies that glittered and gladdened the eye.

Then cranes and curlews craftily roasted,

Conies in clear sauce coloured so bright,

Pheasants in their feathers on the flashing silver,

With gay galantines and dainties galore.

There were claret and Crete wine in clear silver fountains

Rhenish wine and Rochelle and wine from Mount Rose

All in flagons of fine gold; and on the fair cupboard

Stood store of gilt goblets glorious of hue,

Sixty of one set, with jewels on their sides.

When the banquet was over the guests washed their hands in rosewater and partook of wine and spices in another chamber.

But the poor were much oppressed. Their fare was very simple, a loaf of beans and bran, an oaten cake with cheese or curds and cream, and sometimes perhaps parsley and leeks or cherries and apples in their season.

Of the poor ploughman, the poet sang,

His coat of the cloth that is named carry-marry,His hood full of holes, with the hair sticking through them;His clumsy knobbed shoes cobbled over so thickly,Though his toes started out as he trod on the ground,His hose hanging over each side of his hoggers,All plashed in the puddles as he followed the plough;Two miserable mittens made out of old rags,The fingers worn out and the filth clotted on them,He, wading in mud, almost up to his ankles,And before him four oxen, so weary and feeble,One could reckon their ribs, so rueful were they.His wife walked beside him, with a long ox goad,In a clouted coat cut short to the knee,Wrapped in a winnowing sheet to keep out the weather,Her bare feet on the bleak ice bled as she went.At one end of the acre, in a crumb-bowl so small,A little babe lay, lapped up in rags,And twins two years old tumbled beside it,All singing one song that was sorrowful hearing,For they all cried one cry, a sad note of care.

His coat of the cloth that is named carry-marry,

His hood full of holes, with the hair sticking through them;

His clumsy knobbed shoes cobbled over so thickly,

Though his toes started out as he trod on the ground,

His hose hanging over each side of his hoggers,

All plashed in the puddles as he followed the plough;

Two miserable mittens made out of old rags,

The fingers worn out and the filth clotted on them,

He, wading in mud, almost up to his ankles,

And before him four oxen, so weary and feeble,

One could reckon their ribs, so rueful were they.

His wife walked beside him, with a long ox goad,

In a clouted coat cut short to the knee,

Wrapped in a winnowing sheet to keep out the weather,

Her bare feet on the bleak ice bled as she went.

At one end of the acre, in a crumb-bowl so small,

A little babe lay, lapped up in rags,

And twins two years old tumbled beside it,

All singing one song that was sorrowful hearing,

For they all cried one cry, a sad note of care.

A year after the siege of Calais, a great sorrow befell all men, for a little ship coming out of the east brought a terrible plague, called the Black Death. And the wind blew the plague from the south to the north, and as it passed, the towns were left desolate, for the rich escaped into the woods and many of the poor died. In Bristol, "the living were scarce able to bury the dead and the grass grew several inches high in Broad Street and High Street."

When the wind reached the border of Scotland, it changed and blew from the north-west and down the eastern coast of England it sped, slaying thousands by the way. When it was gone, the lords could find but few to gather in the harvest and those that were left demanded high wages. Many landowners turned their fields into pastureland. For one shepherd and his dog could look after many sheep and there were merchants in Calais ready to buy English wool.

In vain did the lords beg the King to forbid the labourer to ask for hire. If a man fled from his lord's land, whereon he was born, he should be branded with the letter F for fugitive, but still the peasants got away and offered themselves for hire in other places and those for whom they laboured were glad to have them.

The peasants had many grievances. The wars with France had cost much money and the taxes were heavy. There were few who gave thought to the labourer and his troubles, for the monks had become idle and rich, and the friars had forgotten their vows and the priests their duties.

Among the people, there was a band of sturdy men, who had learned to read and who took ideas of freedom from the Bible. They preached that the peasants should take up arms against the King and his lords, for they said, "they are clothed in velvet and warm in their furs and their ermine, while we are covered with rags. They have wine and spices and fine bread and we oat cake and straw and water to drink. They have leisure and fine houses, we have pain and labour, the wind and the rain in the fields. Yet it is of us and our toil that these men hold their state," and the people said

When Adam delved and Eve spanWho was then the gentleman?

When Adam delved and Eve span

Who was then the gentleman?

So the peasants planned to march to London to seek the new King, the boy Richard II, who was but fifteen years old, and "armed with clubs, rusty swords and axes, with old bows, reddened by the smoke of the chimney corner and old arrows with only one feather," they came to the city, only to find that the gates were shut.

Then they threatened to burn and slay, and the citizens in their fear said, "Why do we not let these good people enter into the city? They are our fellows and what they do is for us." So the gates of the city were opened and the peasants sat down in the houses to eat and drink and afterwards they burned the dwellings of foreigners and great lords and slew many.

The King was left alone in the Tower, for the courtiers had fled, and desiring to speak with the rebels, he rode out to an open space beyond the city where they were gathered, and there he entered in among them and said to them sweetly, "Ah, ye good people, I am your King. What lack ye? What will ye say?"

Such as understood him answered, "We will that ye make us free for ever, ourselves, our heirs and our lands."

PREPARING THE FEAST

THE FEAST

"Sirs," said the King, "I am well agreed thereto; withdraw you home into your houses and into such villages as ye came from and leave behind you of every village two or three and I shall cause writings to be made and seal them with my seal, the which they shall have with them, containing everything that ye demand." They said, "It is well said, we desire no better," and so they returned to their own homes.

The King could not keep his promise to the peasants, for the lords were stronger than he, yet not long after this time we find the peasants more free and labouring for hire.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE WAR WITH FRANCE (continued)

When Henry V was crowned King, he desired much to revive the glories of Crécy and so he summoned his nobles to war. Then he built a great fleet to carry them to France, cutting down the oak trees in the Forest of Epping for that purpose.

He was much loved by all his soldiers, "for in wrestling, leaping and running, no man could compare with him. In casting of great iron bars and heavy stones, he excelled all men, never shrinking at cold, nor slothful for heat; and when he most laboured, his head commonly uncovered; no more weariness of light armour than a light coat, very valiantly abiding at need both hunger and thirst, so manful of mind as never to seem to quinch at a wound or to smart at the pain."

When he came into the realm of France, he laid siege to the strong city of Harfleur. It was summer time and many of the soldiers fell sick. Though the town was captured, Henry could but turn his back on Paris and march homeward on the old road to Calais, as his great-grandfather Edward III had done in like case.

"The English were brought into some distress in this journey, by reason of their victuals in manner spent and no hope to get more: for the enemies had destroyed all the corn before they came. Rest could they none take, for their enemies with alarms did ever so infest them; daily it rained and nightly it freezed; of fuel there was great scarcity; money enough, but wares for their relief to bestow it on had they none. Yet, in this great necessity, the poor people of the country were not spoiled nor anything taken of them without payment, nor any offence done by Englishmen."

In the French camp, there was much strife and discontent, yet when the news of the English King's distress reached them, and they sent after him their herald to demand ransom, the King answered with scorn. So Mountjoy, King-at-arms, was sent to the King of England to defy him as the enemy of France and to tell him that he should shortly have battle. King Henry advisedly answered, "Mine intent is to do as it pleaseth God. I will not seek your master at this time, but if he or his seek me I will meet them, God willing." When he had thus answered the herald, he gave him a princely reward and licence to depart.

Then the French, coming to the field of Agincourt, and seeing how small an army stood before them, sent the herald once again to seek a ransom. Henry answered that he would never pay such ransom. "When the messenger was come back to the French host, the men of war put on their helmets and caused their trumpets to blow to the battle."

As the English soldiers looked at the great host before them, there were some who sighed for the thousands lying idle in England. Henry, hearing them, answered, "I would not have a single man more. If God give us the victory it will be plain that we owe it to His grace. If not, the fewer we are, the less the loss for England." "What time is it now?" he asked. "The bells are ringing prime [six o'clock], my lord," answered the Bishop. "Now it is good time," said the King. "England prayeth for us, let us be of good cheer. Banners advance!"

Then these Frenchmen came pricking down, as they would have over-ridden all our company. But God and our archers made them soon to stumble, for our archers shot never arrow amiss that did not pierce and bring to ground horse and man. And our King fought like a man, with his own hands. So were the French put to rout, though they indeed had been strong in their pride.

Then the King passed into England and "in this passage the seas were so rough and troublous" that two ships were driven ashore, and the French prisoners said they would rather fight in another battle than cross the seas again. As they came in sight of the shore, the townsmen of Dover came out to meet them, wading waist-deep in the water, so great was their joy at the news. Bonfires were lit and bells were rung and money was freely given to the soldier King.

"The mayor of London and aldermen, apparelled in orient grained scarlet, and four hundred commoners, clad in beautiful mulberry cloth, well-mounted and trimly horsed, with rich collars and great chains met the King on Blackheath, rejoicing at his return, and the clergy of London, with rich crosses, sumptuous copes and massy censors, received him at S. Thomas of Waterways [on the Old Kent Road] with solemn procession."

It was not long before he set out again to win back Normandy, lost by John long ago. He laid siege to its chief city, where there was much suffering, of which the King had pity.

Of the people to tell the truthIt was a sight of mickle ruth;Much of the folk that was thereinThey were but bones and the bare skinWith hollow eyes and face a-peak,They scarce had strength to breathe or speak.

Of the people to tell the truth

It was a sight of mickle ruth;

Much of the folk that was therein

They were but bones and the bare skin

With hollow eyes and face a-peak,

They scarce had strength to breathe or speak.

When the city surrendered, the King, "clothed in black damask, mounted on a black horse, with a squire behind him, bearing a fox-brush on a spear, for a banner, rode to the minster to give thanks for his victory."

Then Henry marched on towards Paris, for "he had such knowledge in ordering and guiding an army with such a gift to encourage his people that the Frenchmen had constant opinion he would never be vanquished in battle." The Dauphin of France was idle and the old French King ill, so it befell that Henry married the French Princess and ruled Northern France.

To the sorrow of all men he died soon after, and his son when he grew up had many troubles; for in those days, a soldier was held more in honour than a poet and a dreamer.

Some years after Henry's death, Joan of Arc appeared to rescue her land from the enemy, for there was no hope either in the Dauphin who should have been its King or among the French lords who had lost their honour.

Joan described how it happened to her in these words, "At the age of thirteen, I had a voice from God to guide me, and the first time I was very frightened; this voice came at the hour of noon in summer time, in my father's garden; it was on a fast day, I heard the voice on the right side where the church is. I saw at the time a great light."

Then the Archangel Michael addressed her desiring that she should "have pity on the fair realm of France." She answered him, "Messire, I am but a poor maiden; I know not how to ride to the wars or to lead men-at-arms." But the voices were ever in her ear.

When her friends desired her not to go, she answered them, "I had far rather rest and spin by my mother's side; for this is no work of my choosing, but I must go and do it, for my Lord wills it." "And who is your Lord?" they asked. "He is God," she said.

When she had come with much danger and trouble to the place where the Dauphin lay, she desired to see him, but those that stood round mocked her.

Coming into the presence, she said, "Gentle Dauphin, my name is Jeanne the Maid. The Heavenly King sends me to tell you that you shall be anointed and crowned in the town of Reims and you shall be lieutenant of the Heavenly King, who is the King of France."

After many weary days, the Dauphin considered her message and he gave to her some of his armed men that she might prove that God was on her side. He bade her go to get back the good city of Orleans, which was in dire need by reason of the great armies of the English encamped round about it.

Then was the might of the maid proved, for no sooner had her standard touched the walls of the city than the town was saved. Soldiers, who had scoffed or stood aside, now joined her. Thus was she able to march through the land in triumph to the city of Reims, where it was the custom to crown the Kings of France, and in the host there marched the Dauphin.

In that city, she crowned the King, and the English fell back at the terror of her name. Then kneeling before the King, she said, "O gentle King, the pleasure of God is done, would it were His pleasure that I might go and keep sheep once more with my sisters and my brothers. They would be rejoiced to see me again."

The King dared not let her go, yet she had many enemies, for the lords of France did not care to think that she had led their armies. To their bitter shame, they made little effort to save her from the English and she was burnt as a witch. From that day, the English gradually lost all France save Calais.

So the victories of Henry V were of no avail and there was much poverty in England and murmuring against the rulers.

CHAPTER XXV

NEW WORLDS

The barons came back from France. They were practised in the art of war and they turned their homes into strong forts and their servants into soldiers. Of these, they found many who were well versed in arms and ready to fight. They gave them food and lodging for their services and liveries to distinguish them from the followers of their neighbours and they no longer fought for the King but each for his own gain.

The squires in the manors and the merchants in the towns stood in awe of these unruly subjects of the realm, but against them there was no remedy, and every man was forced to choose out a lord to protect him.

Of the long wars which these men waged, fighting for the rival princes of York and Lancaster, for the white and the red rose, and of the havoc that they wrought in the land, there are many stories.

Though the barons made war on one another, the citizens held their markets and fairs and worked with skill in their trades. Foreigners desired to buy, and they were anxious for peace with a country that could give them the finest wool. More ships were built to cross the narrow seas, and they were free to come and go, since England watched them from her two eyes, Calais and Dover.

The merchants began to use more of their own good wool and many skilled craftsmen were needed for cloth making. First the wool was sorted and the coarse taken from the fine, then it was dyed, orange, red, green, russet made from madder, or blue from woad, a flower, which grew abundantly in France. The carder came next and the spinster spun it into long threads on her distaff.

The weaver next doth warp and weave the chain,Whilst Puss, his cat, stands mewing for a skein.

The weaver next doth warp and weave the chain,

Whilst Puss, his cat, stands mewing for a skein.

The cloth was cleaned and thickened by the walkers, who trampled it in a trough of water and stretched it upon tenters to dry. Then came the rower who beat it with teazles to find out all the loose fibres and the shearman stood by with shears to cut off the knots and ends when they appeared. Before it was sold, the drawer must mend any holes or bad places in it:

The drawer last that many faults doth hide,(Whom merchant nor the weaver can abide)Yet is he one in most clothes, stops more holesThan there be stairs to the top of S. Paul's.

The drawer last that many faults doth hide,

(Whom merchant nor the weaver can abide)

Yet is he one in most clothes, stops more holes

Than there be stairs to the top of S. Paul's.

A CHRISTIAN OF CONSTANTINOPLE BORROWING MONEY FROM A JEW AND PLEDGING HIS CRUCIFIX

MIÉLOT IN HIS STUDY

A PRINTING PRESS

They worked as a rule from five in the morning till seven at night in summer and from dawn till dusk in winter, with half an hour for breakfast, and an hour and a half for dinner and a sleep on hot days. There was a holiday for every festival of the Church.

Of Jack of Newbury's workshop we read,

Within one room being large and longThere stood two hundred looms full strong;Two hundred men, the truth is so,Wrought in these looms all in a row.By every one a pretty boySate making quils with mickle joy,And in another place hard byAn hundred women merrilyWere carding hard, with joyful cheer,Who singing sate with voices clear.And in a chamber close besideTwo hundred maidens did abide,In petticoats of stammel red,And milk-white kerchers on their head.

Within one room being large and long

There stood two hundred looms full strong;

Two hundred men, the truth is so,

Wrought in these looms all in a row.

By every one a pretty boy

Sate making quils with mickle joy,

And in another place hard by

An hundred women merrily

Were carding hard, with joyful cheer,

Who singing sate with voices clear.

And in a chamber close beside

Two hundred maidens did abide,

In petticoats of stammel red,

And milk-white kerchers on their head.

Those who worked in one trade bound themselves together into a gild, and often lived in one quarter of the city to protect one another; those who desired to become members must serve seven years' apprenticeship. To guard their honour, the masters made a strict rule that no work should be sent to market until it had been inspected and found well done.

If a man fell ill, he received help from the gild. When the feast days came round and all made holiday, the elders of the gild provided a banquet and pastimes, and sometimes they welcomed the players who acted stories from the Bible and old legends. There was dancing and feasting and much merriment.

So the citizens became more important than great barons and soldiers, for they brought trade to the country and riches to the King's Exchequer.

A new world, too, was opening to the people, the world of books. With care the monks had copied down the old stories and histories, but there were few who could procure them to read.

The printing press was brought to England by Caxton. He was an English merchant, trading in the city of Bruges. It was his custom to spend his spare time in reading Latin and French stories. He translated the story of Troy into English, and the Duchess of Burgundy and her courtiers liked it so much that they asked him to write several copies. He says that his pen was so much worn, his hand so weary and his eyes so dim that he thought it worth while to learn the art of printing from those who could teach him.

Then he brought a press to London, and out of his shop he hung a sign "Books bought here good cheap." Only the rich could buy, for books were very dear. He printed the stories of King Arthur and also the Golden Legend, or Lives of the Saints, Reynard the Fox and many another tale. That the poorer folk might also read, he printed a few sheets of poems and fables. Among them was a book of good teachings for children. In this he bade them,

Arise earlyServe God devoutlyThe world busilyGo thy way sadly [seriously]Answer demurelyGo to thy meat appetentlyAnd arise temperately.And to thy soup [suppers] soberlyAnd to thy bed merrilyAnd be there jocundlyAnd sleep soundly.

Arise earlyServe God devoutlyThe world busilyGo thy way sadly [seriously]Answer demurelyGo to thy meat appetentlyAnd arise temperately.

Arise early

Serve God devoutly

The world busily

Go thy way sadly [seriously]

Answer demurely

Go to thy meat appetently

And arise temperately.

And to thy soup [suppers] soberlyAnd to thy bed merrilyAnd be there jocundlyAnd sleep soundly.

And to thy soup [suppers] soberly

And to thy bed merrily

And be there jocundly

And sleep soundly.

It was at this time that scholars were beginning to read the old writings of the Greeks, and there were many other books, too, that they desired to have printed.

Then also men were moved to seek what lay beyond the ocean in the far west. They were in search of a new way to India, for India seemed to them the treasure house of the world. Out of the east came gold and silver and spices and silk, but the way was by mountain and desert and many a dangerous place. Few had ventured far across the uncharted seas that stretched away towards the setting sun, for their ships were small and much at the mercy of the winds. It was necessary, too, to put into shore to get fresh stores of water when rain failed. A sailor wrote of their sufferings from thirst on one of these voyages, "The hail-stones we gathered up and ate more pleasantly than if they had been the sweetest comfits in the world. The rain-drops were so carefully saved, that, as near as we could manage it, not one was lost in all our ship. Some hung up sheets, tied with cords by the four corners and a weight in the middle, that the water might run down thither, and so be received into some vessel set or hung underneath…. Some lapped with their tongues the boards under their feet, the sides, rails and masts of the ship. He who obtained a can of water by these means was spoken of, sued to, and envied as a rich man."

It was with a good compass and stout heart that Columbus and his men set sail to find India, and to their great joy they saw, after many months, "a little stick loaded with dog roses" floating in the sea, a sign that they were near land.

The natives, pointing to the setting sun, told them to seek gold in the great lands that lay beyond. Columbus thought he had found India, but it was America. To these lands adventurers came to seek for treasure and soon to find a new home.

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

1. Find out from the pictures in the Saxon Calendar:

(See Traill and Mann,Social England.)

2. Plan and build a Saxon village (in a sand tray or with clay, etc.).

3. Write down what you think the miller and the goose boy would say in the dialogue.

4. Describe a Saxon Hall. (Read descriptions in Beowulf and Ivanhoe.)

5. Look at some old manuscripts, if you can, and make some illuminated letters.

6. Build a monastery in cardboard, paper or clay.

7. Cut out in paper some figures of Saxons and make a procession on their way to Church to keep a festival.

8. Write the story of Alfred's messenger arriving at the monastery to borrow the chronicle for the King's use.

9. Make a piece of tapestry showing a scene from the history of the Normans.

10. What can you discover about the Normans from the pictures of the Bayeux Tapestry?

11. Find out about Hereward the Wake.

12. Build a castle and defend it.

13. Find out some more stories of S. Francis of Assisi.

14. Find out as many Norman French words in English as you can.

15. Read the tales of Robin Hood.

16. Cut out of paper some figures of soldiers and make a picture by pasting them on a large sheet, showing them landing in England after the victory at Crécy.

17. Find out about a tournament and make the lists. (See Scott'sIvanhoe.)

18. If there are any old buildings where you live, find out when they were built and who used them.

19. Make a subject-index to the book and arrange it in alphabetical order.

20. Make a date chart and illustrate it with pictures.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Social England(illustrated). Vols.I.andII.Ed. Traill and Mann (Cassell).

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.(Everyman's Library.Dent.)

The Chronicles of Froissart.(Globe Edition. Macmillan.)

Grandes Chroniques de France.Foucquet. Bibliothèque Nationale, Berthaud Frères. 5 fr.

Alfred the Great.B. A. Lees. (Heroes of the Nations.Putnam.)

St Anselm.R. W. Church. (Macmillan.)

English Monasteries.A. H. Thompson. (Cambridge Manuals.)

English Monastic Life.F. A. Gasquet. (Antiquary's Books.Methuen.)

The Chronicle of Jocelind of Brakelond.(King's Classics.Chatto and Windus.)

Chivalry.F. W. Cornish. (Fisher Unwin.)

The Making of Ireland and its Undoing, 1200-1600.Mrs J. R. Green. (Macmillan.)

Mediaeval Art.W. R. Lethaby. (Duckworth.)

Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages.J. J. Jusserand. (Fisher Unwin.)

Mediaeval England.M. Bateson. (The Story of the Nations.Fisher Unwin.)

Social Life in England from the Conquest to the Reformation.G. G. Coulton. (Cambridge University Press.)

Bibliography of Mediaeval History, 400-1500.Leaflet 44. Historical Association.

*A Picture Book of British History.Vol. I, to 1485. 190 illustrations. Ed. S. C. Roberts. (Cambridge University Press.)

*Guide to Bayeux Tapestry.Victoria and Albert Museum. Department of Textiles. 6d.

*Oxford Supplementary Histories.(Source books. Henry Frowde and Hodder & Stoughton.)

*Old Stories from British History.York Powell. (Longmans.)

*Heroes of Asgard.Keary. (Everyman's Library.)

*Beowulf.C. Thomson. (Marshall.)

*The little flowers of S. Francis.(Everyman's Library.)

*The Knights of the Round Table.Malory. (Blackie.)

*Stories of Robin Hood.(Told to the ChildrenSeries. Jack.)

*A History of Everyday Things in England.Vol.I.M. and C. H. B. Quennell. (Batsford.)

*Suitable for Children.

DATES

Time Chart

[Scale 1 inch to 500 years]

THE TWELVE MONTHS

In the following pages twelve pictures are reproduced from aBook of Hoursof the 15th century. All except "Feeding pigs in November" were painted by Pol de Limbourg for the Duke of Berri.

Each of them shows a typical occupation of the season and most of them have a famous castle in the background.

A FEAST IN JANUARY

A FEAST IN JANUARYShowing the Duke of Berri seated at table, with a tapestry in the background

A FARM IN FEBRUARY

PLOUGHING AND VINE-LOPPING IN MARCH

PLOUGHING AND VINE-LOPPING IN MARCHIn the background, the castle of Lusignan on the Vienne, the favourite residence of the Duke of Berri

A BETROTHAL IN APRIL

A BETROTHAL IN APRILIn the background, the Castle of Dourdan, belonging to the Duke of Berri

THE FIRST OF MAY

THE FIRST OF MAYIn the background, the Towers of Riom, the capital of the Duchy of Auvergne, belonging to the Duke of Berri

HAYMAKING IN JUNE

HAYMAKING IN JUNEIn the background, the Towers of Paris, showing the Sainte Chapelle, the Conciergerie and the postern gate on the Seine

HARVESTING AND SHEEP-SHEARING IN JULY

HARVESTING AND SHEEP-SHEARING IN JULYIn the background, the Castle of Poitiers, rebuilt by the Duke of Berri

HAWKING AND SWIMMING IN AUGUST

HAWKING AND SWIMMING IN AUGUSTIn the background, the Castle of Étampes, acquired by the Duke of Berri

THE VINTAGE IN SEPTEMBER

THE VINTAGE IN SEPTEMBERIn the background, the Castle of Saumur, in a district noted for its vineyards

SOWING SEEDS IN OCTOBER

SOWING SEEDS IN OCTOBERIn the background, the River Seine and the old LouvreNote the scarecrow with a bow in his hands

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