The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1897-07-05
QUEENS CHAMPION.
An Official Whose Duty It Is to
Throw Down Glove.
A ChivaIric Title Which Has Been Held
by the DymOke Family Ever Since
the Days of Richard II.-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 lzniShtly office, at least,
is in existence, to contradict the asSer-
ton of Edmund Burke that ''the age
of chivalry is gone" The late holder
of the office was a Lincolnshire magis-
trate and an officer in the local militia;
the two previous ones were clergymen.
The Office is not, as it has often been
stated, hereditary to the Dymole fam
lily, but is attached to the lord of the
manor of Scrivclsby, which is held by
the ancient tenure known as grand
sergeantry i c., 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: ''That
the lord thereof shall be the kings
champion"
The championship has no salary at
tached 10 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
IL, 1sOG ny 10y VI OhS
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 1. 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 king s coronation.
The name of Dymoke is Welsh. The
| DymOlzcs, or Dymocks-for the name
| is spelled both wa ys-clain 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 a CEN
tury before the Norman conquest, be-
came the ancestor of one David ap
Madoc who, in the Welsh tongue, was
styled colloquially Dai Madoc, the
word Dai being the short form of Da-
vid. His son and heir was David ap
Dai Madcc, or David I;ai Giadoc, and
by the usual abridgc;ccnt Dai Madoc
came il the eours Of i'm to be pro-
nouncad a. l5a:.aoc or Dal&cc, the tran
sition from which to Dicacc or Dymoc,
and again from that to Dimos or Dy-
molIe is easy a2daobviOus.
The first, then, of the Dymol1e fam
ily who fulfilled his Office as champion
was Sir John Dymol1e. 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 TalnwOrth castle, but after
delibcration it was found that the
right belonged to the manor of Scriv-
elsby. as the caput baroniae or head
of the barony of the Marrnion 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 Johr
: Dymoke, the question was settled IL
} his favor.
The Gentleman's Magazine for 1921
contains a picture of the royal
champion, Henry Dymoke, in the act
of riding on his white charger into
Westminster hall, and throwing
down the glove OF gauntlet of defiance
supported on either side by the duke
of Wellington and the marquis o.
Anglescy. also on horseback, while
two heralds stand By on foot will
l tabard5 and plrnes. The performance
/ of the champion on this occasion i: