One Of The Thirty

One of the Thirty Alex Conradie If you dreamt of knights & dragons as a child, Bodiam castle is the quintessential medieval castle of your mind. Sir Edward Dalyngrigge acquired the great wealth to construct Bodiam castle (1385) as a lieutenant in the infamous Free Companies, who wrote "sorrow on the bosom of the earth" in France during the Hundred Year War. His debt to his old captain, Sir Robert Knollys, is plain in the carved relief of Knollys' coat of arms on the castle's postern tower. Knights in Free Companies ravaged France with ever increasing lawlessness, becoming the torment of the age. Knollys was "the most able & skillful man-at-arms in all the companies", who "grievously harmed France all the days of his life". The terror of his name in 1357-1360 supposedly drove peasants in one region to throw themselves into a river at his approach. His forces pillaged and ransomed villages, violated and abducted women, burnt ripe wheat, killed & tortured, robbed abbeys & monasteries and enslaved men as servants. In South East England, Knollys & Dalyngrigge suppressed the Peasant Revolt of 1381 with undue brutality. Understandably, 14th century peasants felt themselves living in an age of rapine; the difference between brigand & knight scarcely perceptible.

Oddly enough, Anje & I shared the castle with a horde of French primary school children, whose ancestors would surely have wanted Dalyngrigge & Knollys tried as war criminals in the present day. Before judging too harshly; a man is only as civilised as the age into which he is born. In a harsh world, the 10th century tale of St. Gerald of Aurrillac is a harrowing lesson in relativity. St. Gerald's reputation for sanctity stemmed only from his fair & just treatment of his serfs, beating them sparingly, who in return revered him by using his bath water to effect "cures". Like Fra Monreale, other Free Company captains may have felt justified "in carving their way with a sword through a false and miserable world". Yet, the knights of old clung to the image of themselves as Sir Lancelot. Both the English & French king had his own "Round Table" of knights, paying homage to Arthurian chivalric ideals. Edward III of England founded the Order of the Garter and Jean II of France the Order of the Star. During the succession struggle for the duchy of Britanny, the Combat of the Thirty (1351) was chilvary's finest military hour. Thirty knights, squires & other men-at-arms on both the English and French sides agreed to a passage of arms, I assume, to avoid even greater bloodshed. In an act of great bravery, Knollys fought alongside the English champions. With swords, bear-spears, daggers & axes they fought savagely for hours until four on the French side & two on the English side were slain. All were gravely wounded and during a brief respite from the battle, the French leader called for water eliciting the famous reply "Drink thy blood, Beaumanoir, and thy thirst will pass". The English side finally capitulated with nine slain and this chivalrous deed was celebrated in verse, painting and tapestry. Nearing the 15th century, England began to shed the ideals & contradictions of chivalry. Violent, destructive & fallible as man may be; humankind retains a vision of how the world should be. When the gap between ideal and reality becomes too wide, the system invariably breaks down - Excalibur is returned to the lake and the search for truth begins anew.

So it was, with old age upon him, one of the Thirty found himself the benefactor of churches and the founder of almhouses & chantries. Undoubtedly, despite being a product of his time, Knollys (d. 1407) sought redemption for a multitude of sin. In the Arthurian legends, Lancelot's son Galahad fulfils the Grail quest. Hope remains that our children's generation will show us what it is to be noble.