54093 oak sih8

130

130

ł-igure 112. A XVII wirh a plummet-shaped pommel, from the Thames by London Bridgc, now in the Royal Armouries, c. 1400. OL: 119 cm.

had got particularly aggravated with each other, for nothing seemed to gct done but the odd raid and a good deal of dirty work. King Edward's governor in the English-supported part of Brittany had been lured into ambush and murdered, which inflamed the English garrisons. He was a knight of great charac-ter, Sir Thomas Dagworth, who had become a legend in his life-time. His successor, Sir Walter Bentley, was a hard man with a grudge, and took it out on the Franco-Bretons whenever he could. Things got so nasty betwecn the two sides that the French seneschal of the castle of Josselin, just inside the French-held part of Brittany, sent a flag-of-truce to his nearest English neighbour on the other side of the (ncvcr clearly defined) divid-ing linę. The French castellan, Sir Jean de Beaumanoir of Josselin, then went across to see his opposite number, Sir Richard Bembro, in the English-held castle of Ploermel, twenty miles away. Beaumanoir (the Breton ballad - one of the many - says he had his front teeth knocked out, so he was called Gap-Tooth Beaumanoir) complained to Bembro, who seems to have been a grumpy and undiplomatic warrior, and tempers grew short.

Both these leaders were handicapped because of the truce; so they hit on a plan by which at least one sicie could let off steam and kill each other legitimately. One of them (history doesn't say which) suggested that each side, the garrisons of Josselin and Ploermel, should choose thirty knights and sąuires to meet halfway between the two castles, where a great oak tree grew in a nice fiat field, and fight it out till one side got the better of the other. This pleased everybody, and they drew up sonie rough-and-ready rules. Each man could fight with the weapons of his choice; everyone was to fight on foot, on pain of lasting disgrace; they were to go on fighting, all day if necessary, until one side had positively won; there was to be no ąuarter; and if any specta-tor joined in, or tried to help a disabled combatant, they were instandy to be killed.

They named a trysting-day, March 17th, 1351, the fourth Sunday in Lent, and set about raising their teams. Here Beaumanoir had the advantage, for he could easily raise his thirty French and Breton knights, but Bembro was in morę difficulty because he had only a smali garrison at Ploermel; he raised twenty English knights and sąuires, but then he was stuck. Ele co-opted a mercenary captain of great renown who was by chance with him, a Brabanter named Croąuart (we know of no other name for him); and a German giant - he must have been huge, for all the ballads mention his great size - named Hulbitee, and six morę assorted mercenarv men-at-arms.

So on the appointed day, each little troop went off to the Half-Way Oak, and most of Brittany turned out to watch. One is reminded of a modern jingle, madę popular half-a-century ago by Leslic Sarony, of a very fictional duel: the immortal ballad of ivan Skavinski Skavar.