The Sun.
London, England, 1839-09-07 00:00:00

TOURNAMENTS IN SMITHFIELD.

Smithfield, at this moment the scene of the degene-
rate Bartholomew Fair, was in olden times the theatre
of some well contested tournaments, with all their at-
tendant pomp and chivalry. A brief record of them
may not be uninteresting to those who see Smithfield
in its fallen state. Though tournaments existed pre-
viously to the Norman Conquest in England, yet it was
in the reign of Richard I. that they assumed in this
country anything like an important rank. That monarch
made :hem a source of increasing his revenue, and
obliged those who chose to attend them to take out and
pay for licenses for that purpose. They were held at va-
rious times in various parts of England, but as the general
history is well known we shall only make a selection of
those which took place in Smithfield. Edward the
Third, in 1374, had a grand tournament in Smithfield
for the gratification of his mistress, Alice Piers, whom,
on the occasion, he designated by a title even more
lofty than that with which Lady Seymour lately was
aa
inp
pprocessiony
utwsh he i
dc hit
(e took invested. He called her the Lady of the Sun. In
g's
.
accompanied spidlaee
place
n f
armagnificent
the
Tower,rgceh chariot,
rrisatoh:
tn
of ladies and knights of the highest rank, and the
lists were kept open for seven successive days. In
the reign of Richard the Second, who was a voluptu-
ous Prince, and by no means emulated the fame of his
father, the passion for tournaments still existed. In 1394
he held a great tournament in Smithfield, which
proved fatal to the Earl of Mar, who, with certain
other Lords of Scotia nd came into England to get
worship by force of artns, was overthrown by the Earl
of Nottingham, and
ha ving had two of his ribs broken
by the fall, he died on his return homeward. At those
tournaments the custom of the procession was, that the
ladies, by a chain of silver attached to the knights,
should lead them, encas ed in armour as they were, to
the scene of action. Amid the sound of clarions
and trumpets, they wttre wont to proceed through
the streets of London, the exterior of the houses of which
were richly decorated, until they reached Smithfield,
where the Queen of Et igland and many matrons and
damsels were already serited. Henry
V., according to
Mills, was the last of our chivalric Kings. Though he
revived the fame of Edw•ard 111. and the Black Prince,
yet immediately after 1 tis reign the glories of English
chivalry began to wane , In the reign of Edward IV.,
a joust took place bet• ween the Bastard of Burgundy
(who, with his father, the Duke of Burgundy, had
landed at Billingsgate, a nd was domiciled in the Palace
of the Bishop of Seli: tbury, Fleet-street) and Lord
Scales, the brother of the Queen of Edward. This joust
took place in Smithfield, and was witnessed by the King
and Queen, and all the c :Rivalry of the land. On the
first day the combat was conducted on foot, with sharp
spears, and they parted w ith equal honour. On the next
day they fought on hors eback, with :swords, and the
Bastard's horse having fallen under him, the King
ordered the combat to g_ ease. On the third day the
point of Lord Scales's w :apnn entered the helmet of
the Burgundian, when 0 )4e King suddenly threw down
his warder, and then the Marshal severed them. The
combat was not resumes t, That was the last joust of a
Knightly nature which t ook place in Smithfield. Other
places were selected a a the locality of them. The
Tower, London-bridge, Westminster, and Windsor,
have been reedered, as it were, classic ground,
by the celebration of splendid tournaments.
The magnificent tout nament of the Cloth of
Gold, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, may be
said to have been the dying blaze of chivalry. It
took place in an open pl sin between Guisnes and Ar-
dres, in France, in June, 1520, on the occasion of a
treaty between Francis the t First of France and Henry.
All the arrangements were made under the superintend-
ence of Wolsey, and the a flair surpassed in splendour
anything seen before or si ace. In the reign of Queen
Elizabeth there took place, several pleasing, though less
pompous exhibitions of a similar nature. Greenwich
was the locality in which t the majority of them took
n
place. With Queen Eliza beth's death they may be said
to have died in England ; ; and in the reign of another
maiden Monarch, likely to' prove as long and as pros-
perous a reign, they hay e given symptoms of revival
which, it is to be hoped, w

,
MR. POULETT-1 no msoN.—The following
resolution was agreed to at a m !ding, held on Tuesday, at
the British North American As of Liverpool •--
" At a meeting of the Briti ski North American Asso-
ciation,. held the 3d day (,f September, 1839, pre-
sent, A. Parlane, Eicl• in the. chair, it was re-
solved—That this Association having taken into their
opposed, as they
consideration the appointment of the Right Honourable
Poulett Thomson as Gc vernor-General of the
crests of those possessi•ws ;
Canadas, cannot altogether dis toss from their recollection
tthehe
consider,opinions
o measures whichthehic interests
1 el,
himself to the calm
e hasha
ss so frequently frequentlyo
co!cu'es and Of
this country ; yet this Ass() nation feels satisfied that
the Right Honourable Gei..._ tleman, iu entering upon
tcloiensdidnetireastioofnhoisfltiihgehvoaffirieede.,ili:Ltv
and trusting to his dispassiona to view of the merits of this
great subject. and his increas mg acquaintance with all its
bearings, will become sersibl.,— alive to the extent and value
of the trade of our colonies i n North America, and of the
importance of its cont auwice to this country. That a
copy of this resolution I,e transmitted by the Chairman to
the Right 113 n. Poulett Thomson.
( Signed) At .EXAND,E,rt PAIMANE, Chairman.
THE LATE RAI Ns.— Ihe Portsmouth coach,
on Monday, began its j, )urney in a heavy rain. BrtweNa
Chiehe,ter and Arunde, I the passengers were covered with
dust, and when they ref ched Brighton tho rain was again
pouring down in torrents .—Brighton Gazette.