When Knighthood Was in Flower page 2

After the page had served for eight years, he became a "squire" to some knight whom he attended in the capacity of armour-bearer, messenger, and general "fag." Now he was given a sword after it had been laid on the altar and blessed. Now he could devote himself to a lady-love. Now he was expected to exercise his body and quicken his intelligence by taking part in games of much skill and great daring (another striking aspect of chivalry which survives in England still).

And so at the age of twenty-two or three the esquire was ready for the final stage of his career: he applied to be dubbed a knight. Dubbing meant striking; new knights were struck on the shoulder with a sword-and still are when the British king makes one. Now there was a long and tiring ceremony to be gone through. The young man had to keep watch all night beside his armour and sword in a church. He went to mass and took all the vows of knighthood. Then he was a man.

Thus, there was a certain discipline in chivalry, a certain standard of perfection was held up to be aimed at; also, there was the motive of fear to hinder vows from being too flagrantly broken. If a knight were proved a coward, if any act were brought home to him, he could be degraded from his order. The procedure in these cases was painfully humiliating. The recreant had his spurs hacked off, his sword-belt was cut, his sword was broken over his head. Unless he could recover his reputation by some heroic act of bravery or self-sacrifice, his career was at an end.

When preachers denounced chivalry, as they often did, they laid stress upon the unreality of it, upon the waste of life it caused through foolish, fantastic bravery, upon the artificiality of the world it created for the knightly class. Chivalry taught its devotees that useful work was unbecoming a gentleman, it encouraged them to be sentimentally mawkish about women of their own rank, and to care very little about the hardships others endured.

There was much in its method of training the young which was of value, but those who are inclined to talk poetically of the days "when knighthood was in flower" should recollect that there was a side to it which is recalled by the Order of the Bath. On the eve of their being dubbed knights the esquires were expected, indeed compelled, not only to confess themselves, but to take a bath, so that they might be clean in body and soul both. When George the First wanted to have some stars and ribands which he could give away, after the fashion of the little German court from which he came, he instituted the Order of the Bath, not because those whom he designed to honour were unpleasant at close quarters, but in memory of the ancient rite. This is now one of the largest British Orders. That of the Thistle and that of Saint Patrick are, like the Garter, limited as to numbers. But far more numerous than the Companions, Knights Commanders and Knights Grand Cross of the Bath are the members of these Orders, all quite modern: The Star of India, The Indian Empire, S. Michael and S. George, The British Empire, The Royal Victorian Order.

There are also the Military Knights of Windsor who make a picturesque appearance at royal ceremonies and are given apartments in the precincts of Windsor Castle. S. George's Chapel at Windsor has the banners of the Knights of the Garter hung round it. In Westminster Abbey the chapel known as Henry the Seventh's is given over to the Order of the Bath; from time to time installations of new Knights of the Order are held there with much of the ancient ritual, now meaningless, but impressive and picturesque. The sovereign and many of the leading men of the nation take part in a pageant, attired in the costume of a past age that has been carefully rehearsed: it is witnessed by a crowded congregation of Knights in the Abbey, and by large throngs outside.

A notable recent installation was that held on May 10, 1928, when with brilliant pageantry ten new Knights were officially received in this select Order, in the presence of King George V and Queen Mary. Something of the pomp and colour with which the historic service was invested was seen in the fine spectacle provided by the procession of Knights to the Chapter House at the conclusion of the ceremonial. King George, in the robes of the Sovereign of the Order and attended by youthful train-bearers, led the procession, following the Duke of Connaught the Great Master, and Dr Foxley Norris, the Dean, of the Order.

In addition to those who were installed a large number of Knights Grand Cross and Knights Commanders of the Order were present. A striking re-creation of the past days of knightly pageantry was the remarkable pilgrimage undertaken in the spring of 1926 by the Knights of S. John to Jerusalem and the various strongholds of the medieval Hospitallers in such historic places as Acre, Cyprus, Malta, and Rhodes. It was in that year King George V granted to the organization a new Charter by which it is now known as " The Grand Priory in the British Realm of the Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem."

Nowhere in the world is the sense of the past stronger than it is in England. Nowhere in Europe are there so many links with bygone days. In all other European countries there has been some break which definitely separated modern from medieval ways. One reason why Americans enthusiastically enjoy visiting England is that they receive so many reminders of the time "when knighthood was in flower."