The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1893-11-03
THE QUEENS CHAMPION.
An Official Whose Duty It L. to
Throw Down a Glove.

by the Dymoke Family Ever Since
the Days Of Richard IL-Scott's
Description of the Challenge.
The death of Francis Dymoke, the
queen of England's champion, which
occurred at .Horncastle recently, has
reminded the world that even in the
midst of the present prosaic and utili-
tartan age one knightly Office. at least,
is in existence, to contradict the asser-
ton OF Edmund Burke that 'sthe age
of chivalry is gone" The late holder
of the Office was a Lincolnshire magis-
trate and an officer in the local militias
the two previous ones were clergymen.
The Office is not. as it has often been
stated, hereditary to the Dymoke fam
ily, but is attached to the lord of the
manor of Scrivelsby, which is held by
the ancient tenure known as grand
sergeantry i. e., where one holds
lands of the sovereign by service which
he has to perform in person. The serv-
ice by which Scrivelsby is held is thus
quoted by the New York World: s"That
the lord thereof shall be the kings
champion"
The championship has no salary at
tached to it, for, though the Dymoke
family hold Scrivelsby on the feudal
tenure of performing this duty. they
have been owners of that manor for
upward of five hundred years, and they
obtained it, not by royal grant or out
of the public purse, but by marriage
with an heiress, the last of the proud
line of Marmion, granddaughter of
Philip de MarmiOn, a name which re-
calls memories of chivalry and of the
poetry of Shakespeare and Sir Walter
Scott. There is no record of the Office
under the Saxon kings, but, according
to the late Sir Bernard Burke, its du-
ties were appended by William l. as an
honor to the old baronial house of
Marmyon, or Marmion. the ancient
owners of the manor of Scrivelsby.
This manor, together with the castle
of Tamworth, had been conferred,
soon after the Norman conquest, on
one Robert de Marmyon, lord of Fon-
tenoy, in Normandy, on condition of
performing the Office of champion at
the kings coronation.
The name of Dymoke is Welsh. The
Dymokes, or Dymocks-for the name
is spelled both ways-claim tradition
al descent from Tudor Trevor, lord of
Hereford and Wilmington, and founder
of the tribe of the Marches. The
chief himself had three sons, the Sec
ond of whom, marrying a daughter of
the prince of North Wales, half CEN
fury before the Norman conquest, be-
came the ancestor of one David APP
Madoc, who, in the Welsh tongue, was
styled colloquially Dali Madoc, the
word Dai being the short form of Da-
vid. His son and heir was David ap
Dai Madoc, or David Dali Madoc, and
by the usual abridgement Dali Madoc
came in the course of time to be pro-
nounced as Daimoc or Damoc, the tran
sition from which to Dimoc or Dymoc,
and again from that to Dimos or Dy-
moke is easy andoobv1ous.
The first, then, of the Dymoke fam
lily who fulfilled his Office as champion
was Sir John Dymoke, knight, who
married Margaret Ludlow in the reign
of Edward Ill, and was present at the
coronation of Richard II. His claim
was disputed by Baldwin de Freville,
the lord of Tamworth castle, but after
deliberation it was found that the
right belonged to the manor of Scriv-
elsby, as the caput baroniae or head
of the barony of the Marmion family;
and, as it appeared that the late King
Edward III. and his son, Edward,
prince of Wales, known as the black
prince, had often been heard to say
that the Office was held by Sir John
Dymoke, the question was settled in
his favor.
The Gentleman's Magazine for 1921
contains picture of the royal
champion, Henry Dymoke, in the act
of riding on his white charger into
Westminster hall, and throwing
down the glove or gauntlet of defiance,
supported on either side by the duke
of Wellington and the marquis of
Anglesey, also on horseback, while
two heralds stand by on foot with
tabards and plumes. The performance
of the champion on this occasion is
thus described by Sir Walter Scott in a
letter to one of his friends:
''The champions duty was per-
formed, as of right, by young Dymoke,
a fine looking youth, but bearing per-
haps a little too much the appear
ance of a maiden knight to be the
challenger of the world in the kings
behalf. He threw down his gauntlet,
however, with becoming manhood, and
showed as much horsemanship as the
crowd of knights and squires around
him would permit to be exhibited. His
armor was in good taste, but his
shield was out of all propriety, being a
round rondache, or Highland target, a
defensive weapon which it would be
impossible to use on horseback, instead
OF being three-cornered or leather
shield, which in the time of the tilt
was suspended round the neck.
Pardon this antiquarian scruple.
which you may believe occurred to few
but myself. On the whole, this striking
part OF the exhibition somewhat dis
appointed me, for I would have had
tne champion less embarrassed by his
assistants and at liberty to put his
morse on the grand pas, and yet the
young lord of Scrivelsby looked and
behaved extremely well.''
Inc last time the ceremony of the
challenge was carried out was at the
coronation OF George w., when
henry Dymole, the deputy of his
latner' q clergyman, threw down the
gauntlet in Westminster hall. This
henry Dymoke, soon after Queen Vic