Thursday, October 06, 2011

Douglas Vs. Clifford: 1414 or 1415

…also, the same year, on the 15th of October, the king granted his letters of safe conduct to Sir William Douglas, of Drumlanrig in Scotland, chevalier, (to hold good till 8 November following) to come to the town of Berwick, with six Persons in his retinue, to perform certain feats of arms, with this Sir John Clifford, and six other Englishmen. But they not coming at the said time, the king, 16 December following, renewed his said letters of safe conduct, for them to come to Carlisle, at the request of John de Neville, Warden of the West Marches, to hold good till 15 February following. And then meeting accordingly, this John Lord Clifford, and six other English, encountered as many Scots, viz. himself with the aforesaid Sir William Douglas, Sir William Harrington with Sir David Mynges, Knt. Sir Ralph Greystoke with William Edmundson, Esq; Sir Christopher Curwen, of Workington, with ... . Halyburton, (whom he hurt in the neck) and Sir John Lancaster of Holgell Castle and Ridale, with Sir John St. Leger, Knt.; in. which exercise the English had the prize.

A supplement to the four volumes of The peerage of England: 1750

2 comments:

Hugh Knight said...

Why did the author feel it necessary to add the rank "knight" after certain of the names already designated with the title "Sir"? And why did some he called "Sir" not get the "knight"? Is this to distinguish milites strennui, or perhaps bachelors from bannerets, or is it just sloppy medieval writing?

Will McLean said...

Good questions. I think that it's a 18th century paraphrase of several different medieval sources, since there are no quotation marks, so I wouldn't read too much into that particular quirk.