The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. II.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.
Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Marmilon : or Marmion: the hereditary Champions of England. "They appear to have been a branch of the Tessons. Ralph Tesson, who brought 120 knights of his dependence to the aid of Duke William at the battle of Val des Dunes in 1047, founded c. 1055 the Abbey of Fontenay, near Caen (Gall. Christ, xi. 413). A charter of his was witnessed by William Marmion or Marmilon, probably his brother, c. 1070 (Ibid.), who, with his family possessed part of Fontenay. Robert Marmion, his son, Viscount of Fontenay-le-Tesson, passed into England with the Conqueror, and had extensive grants, his descendants a century later holding 17 fees in England and 5 in Normandy (Lib. Niger: Feoda Norm. Duchesne). The Tessons of Normandy bore Gules a fesse Ermine; the Marmions Vair a fesse Gules."—The Norman People. They were, it is said, the hereditary Champions of Normandy; and after the Conquest, Robert de Marmion held the castle and manor of Tamworth [1] in Warwickshire and Scrivelsby in Lincolnshire by the tenure of performing that office at the King's coronation; being bound "to ride completely armed upon a barbed horse into Westminster Hall, and there to challenge the combat with whomsoever should dare to oppose the King's title to the crown." His seat was at Tamworth Castle, the head of his Warwickshire barony; and with the land-hunger common to the Norman invaders, he sought to enlarge its boundary by appropriating the neighbouring Abbey of Polesworth, and expelling the nuns. But "within the compass of a twelvemonth," writes Dugdale, when his castle was crowded with festive guests, among whom was "his sworn brother," Sir Walter de Somerville of Whichnour, his revelry was rudely interrupted by a visit from the offended saint as he lay on his bed. In this case it was St. Edith, habited as a veiled nun, and holding a crosier in her hand, who, not content with threatening him with eternal perdition, emphasized her words with so sharp a blow on the side from her crosier, that he "cryed out loud;" and "being extremely tormented with the pain of his wound," could find no ease till he had confessed his sin, and restored Polesworth to the nuns. He went in person to crave their pardon, "desiring that himself, and his friend Sir Walter, might be reputed their patrons, and have burial for themselves and their heirs in the Abbey—the Marmions in the chapter-house, the Somervilles in the cloister," Robert his son, unwarned by his example, again meddled with Church property; for, having a bitter feud with the Earl of Chester (who possessed a castle at Coventry), he forcibly entered the Priory there and driving out the monks, proceeded to fortify the place on his own account. In order to defend its approaches, he dug deep ditches in the adjoining fields, which, being cunningly disguised and lightly covered over, were to become pitfalls to the enemy. But it so happened that while riding out to reconnoitre, the Earl's forces then drawing near, he fell into one of his own ditches, broke his thigh, and was killed by a passing soldier. His grandson Philip, who throughout the Barons' War remained the devoted adherent of Henry III., was the last Marmion. Though twice married, he had only four daughters; and of these, not more than two—Mazera de Cromwell, who had the barony of Tamworth, and Joan de Ludlow, who inherited Scrivelsby—left descendants. Mazera's sole daughter married Lord Freville; and Joan's son had also an only child, Margaret de Ludlow, who was the wife of Sir John Dymoke. At the coronation of Richard II. the office of Champion was claimed by the representatives of these two heiresses, Sir Baldwin de Freville, as Lord of the manor of Tamworth, and Sir John Dymoke, as Lord of the manor of Scrivelsby: and the dispute was referred to the Constable and Marshal of England, who adjudged the right to the latter. It was therefore Sir John who appeared in 1377 as the young King's Champion, and from that distant time to our own, there has always been a Dymoke at Scrivelsby to claim the honourable service by which he held his manor, and to ride into Westminster Hall armed cap-a-pie as the challenger. In 1814, Lewis Dymoke further sought to establish his right to the barony of Marmion; but the House of Lords decided that, even if a barony by tenure were admitted, it must have belonged to the elder daughter of the last baron, who was the heiress of Tamworth.
The last appearance of the Champion of England was at the coronation of George IV., when Westminster Hall was fitted up for the grand feudal display of a Royal banquet. At the further end, raised on a dais, stood the King's table, where he sat, between the five Royal Dukes, on a throne facing the great entrance; and on either hand three tables, each of fifty-six covers, extended down the whole length of the hall. On the one side these were reserved for the peers and great officers of State; on the other were placed the Bishops, the Barons of the Cinque Ports—whose privilege it was to bear the canopy of cloth of gold over the King's head, and sit on his right hand at his banquet—the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs of London, the Kings-of-Arms and heralds, and the law officers and Masters in Chancery. The centre space was thus left open for the gorgeous procession of the officers of the Royal Household—by all accounts a curious and striking pageant—who, summoned to their duties by Garter King-of-Arms, were to serve the two courses of meat with all the traditional honours of mediaeval ceremony. As they came in, every man in the hall rose from his seat. They walked in their order of precedence, in fanciful and splendid attire (even one of the lowest officials, the Clerk Comptroller, wore a velvet gown decked with silver lace), marshalled by the three principal officers of State on horseback, and attended by a glittering bevy of pages, squires, and serjeants-at-arms, followed by the twenty Gentlemen Pensioners who bore the covered gold dishes containing the first course. These being duly delivered to the clerks of the kitchen for the King's table, all retreated in the same order, stepping reverently back from the Royal presence; the horsemen, who had halted at the foot of the dais, reining back their chargers "with great precision." Then the King, preparing for the banquet, delivered the sceptre to the Lord of the manor of Worksop, who stood on his right hand, and the orb to the Duke of Devonshire on his left; while behind were ranged the lords with the four Swords of State—three of them unsheathed—that had been borne before him, the Lord Great Chamberlain of England with his white wand of office, and the Duke of Rutland, holding the Sceptre with the Dove. The Cup-bearer next brought a gold ewer and bason, and poured water over the King's hands; the Lord of the manor of Heyden offered the towel; and the dinner began. The Duke of Norfolk, who, as representing his ancestor William de Albini, should have officiated as Chief Butler of England, was not present; but the Lord of the manor of Wymondley, and the Hereditary Master of the Household in Scotland (the Duke of Argyll) each served the King with wine in a gold cup, which they retained as their fee.
When the first course was over, the trumpets sounded three times for the challenge; the passage to the King's table was again cleared by the Knight Marshall; and Henry Dymoke the Champion, accoutred in bright armour, and mounted on a superbly-caparisoned horse, rode into the hall. Before him went his two Trumpeters, bearing his coat of arms on their banners, the Serjeant Trumpeter and two serjeants-at-arms with their maces on their shoulders, and a herald with a paper containing the challenge. Two Esquires, in half-armour, bore his shield and lance; and four pages followed him. At his right hand, on a beautiful white charger, rode the Duke of Wellington, Lord High Constable of England, holding his Constable's staff; at his left, the Marquess of Anglesea, officiating as Lord High Steward, with his white rod, riding a golden dun. Both wore their full peer's robes and coronets; both were attended by a page; and both their horses had, like the Champion's, plumes of feathers nodding on their heads, and were resplendent in the shining trappings that dated from the period—"dont memorie ne court"—of the bygone glories of chivalry.[2] On his entrance, the herald gave out the challenge, proclaiming in a loud voice that "if any person of what degree soever, high or low, shall deny or gainsay" the King's title, "here stands the King's Champion, who saith that he lieth, and is a false traitor, being ready in person to combat with him: and in this quarrel will adventure his life against him, on what day soever he shall be appointed." Thereupon the Champion flung down his gauntlet on the floor of the hall, where, during a brief pause—as if in expectation of its being taken up[3]—it was suffered to lie, till the herald raised it, and returned it to the challenger, crying, "Long live the King!" This ceremonial was again gone through in the centre of the hall, and repeated for the third and last time at the foot of the dais: after which, the Champion, resuming his gauntlet, made a low obeisance to the King, and the King pledged him in a covered gold cup full of wine. The Cup-bearer then brought this cup to the Champion, who, with three more profound "reverences," drank "Long life to His Majesty King George the Fourth": and, reining back his horse, retired, step by step, to the door through which he had entered, accompanied, as before, by the Constable and Lord Steward, and carrying the
gold cup and cover with him as his fee. As soon as he had left the hall, the five Kings of Arms, with their pursuivants, in all "the pomp of heraldry," proclaimed the King's Styles in Latin, French, and English, three several times; first on the steps of the throne, then in the middle of the hall, and finally at the lower end, with the customary cry of "Largesse!" but I can find no intimation of any Largesse having been bestowed upon them. In the Middle Ages, the Champion had license to furnish himself with the best suit of armour, save one, in the King's armoury, and the best steed, save one, in the King's stables; and thus, in addition to the coronation cups, some goodly ancient armour was to be found at Scrivelsby Court. But the whole collection was sold and dispersed on the death of the last Champion, a few years ago.
There was a younger branch of the Marmions that survived till 1355. Robert, the second son of the third Baron of Tamworth, had lands in Lincolnshire, Gloucestershire, and Suffolk granted to him by his father; and was in arms, first again King John, and then against Henry III., holding out with the barons to the very last. Both he and his son married great heiresses: and his grandson John was summoned to parliament in 1294 as Lord Marmion of Wetrington in Lincolnshire. Another John, who fought in the Scottish wars under Edward I., and John's son Robert, succeeded to the barony; but Robert, being childless and "of infirm constitution," made his sister Avise his heir, and married her to John, Lord Grey of Rotherfield, on condition that their children should bear the name of Marmion. They had two sons, who both assumed it; but John, the eldest, died s. p., and Robert, the younger (whose wife was a co-heiress of the St. Quintins), left only one daughter, married to Henry, Lord Fitzhugh.
Leland tells us the following picturesque story of the father of the first Lord Marmion of Wetrington.
"About this tyme there was a great feste made yn Lincolnshire, to which came many Gentlemen and Ladies; and among them a Lady brought a heaulme for a man of were, with a very rich creste of gold, to William Marmion, Knight, with a letter of commandment of her Lady, that he should go into the daungerest place in England, and there to let the heaulme to be seene and knowne as famous. So he went to Norham: whither within four dayes of cumming, cam Philip Moubray, Guardian of Berwicke, having in his band one hundred and forty men of armes, the very flour of men of the Scottish Marches.
"Thomas Gray, Capitayne of Norham, seying this, brought his garison afore the barriers of the castel, behynde whom cam William richly arrayed, as al glittering in gold, and wearing the heaulme as his Lady's present.
"Then sayd Thomas Gray to Marmion, 'Sir Knight, ye be cum hither to fame your heaulme, mount upon your horse, and ryde like a valiant man, to yown even here at hand, and I forsake God, if I rescue not thy body deade or alyve, or I myself will dye for it.'
"Whereupon he took his cursore, and rode among the throng of enemyes; the which layd sore stripes on him, and pulled hym at the last oute of his sadel
to the grounde.
"Then Thomas Gray with all the hole garison lette pryk yn among the Scottes, and so wondid them and their horses, that they were overthrowen, and Marmion sore beten was horsid agayn, and with Gray persewed the Scottes in chase. There were taken fifty horses of price: and the women of Norham brought them to the foote men to follow the chase." Was the Lady in question the same rich Lora de Dovor, who brought him as her dowry the town of Ludington in Northamptonshire?