DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14721#0068
antiquities of england.
39
Thirteen of the following illuminations are taken from a ^rious MS. on
vellum,1 containing the history of the latter part of the reign of (that unfortunate
monarch) king Richard the Second, beginning April the 25th, 1399, and ending
upon the delivering up of Isabel, the young queen of England, widow of Richard
the Second, to the commissioners of her father, Charles the Sixth, king of France.
This book was written by Francis de la Marque,2 a French gentleman who
was in the suite of the king during his troubles, and wTas formerly in the library of
the Count de Maine.
As the following explanations of these pictures are but short, I refer the curious
reader to Stowe, in whose Chronicle he will find this latter part of the life and
reign of Richard (beginning with his going to Ireland) word for word taken from
this author: it appears also that Holinshed made use of him ; but neither of them
make the least mention of him.
The Rev. Dr. Percy, in a MS. Note which he has prefixed to the original
book, speaks of the illuminations in the following manner:
" The several illuminations contained in this book are extremely curious and
valuable, not only for the exact display of the dresses, etc. of the time, but for the
finished portraits of so many eminent characters as are preserved in them."
PLATE XX.
The author paying his respects to a Gascoigne knight (undoubtedly the same
whom Holinshed and Stowe name Janico D'Artois3} who, he tells us, requested
1 This MS. is in the Harleian library at the British Museum, and marked 1319.
2 [This is an egregious blunder, which has been corrected by the Rev. W. Webb, in his admirable
description of this most interesting MS. in the 20th Vol. of the Archseologia. The words of the
original are " un gentilhomme Francois de Marque," that is a "French gentleman of mark or note,"
and the name of the author is now known to have been Jehan or John Creton. Vide Archseologia,
Vol. 28, p. 77.—Ed.]
3 [By no means "undoubtedly." Indeed the way in which mention is made of Janico by the
author in the course of his history, proves almost to a certainty that Janico and the Gascon Knight,
Creton's friend and fellow traveller, were two distinct personages. Jenico D'Artois was an Esquire, and
not a Knight. He is so distinguished by Creton himself and by Mr. Webb in his notes to the Metrical
History, who has quoted several documents in which Jenico's name appears. Another mistake of Mr.
Strutt's, has been pointed out by Mr. Webb, namely, the appropriating to Richard II. an accomplishment
belonging to the Earl of Salisbury (Vide page 64 of this volume.) It is the Earl and not the King of
whose genius for poetry Creton is speaking. Bishop Percy fell into the same error and probably helped
to mislead Strutt.—Ed.]
39
Thirteen of the following illuminations are taken from a ^rious MS. on
vellum,1 containing the history of the latter part of the reign of (that unfortunate
monarch) king Richard the Second, beginning April the 25th, 1399, and ending
upon the delivering up of Isabel, the young queen of England, widow of Richard
the Second, to the commissioners of her father, Charles the Sixth, king of France.
This book was written by Francis de la Marque,2 a French gentleman who
was in the suite of the king during his troubles, and wTas formerly in the library of
the Count de Maine.
As the following explanations of these pictures are but short, I refer the curious
reader to Stowe, in whose Chronicle he will find this latter part of the life and
reign of Richard (beginning with his going to Ireland) word for word taken from
this author: it appears also that Holinshed made use of him ; but neither of them
make the least mention of him.
The Rev. Dr. Percy, in a MS. Note which he has prefixed to the original
book, speaks of the illuminations in the following manner:
" The several illuminations contained in this book are extremely curious and
valuable, not only for the exact display of the dresses, etc. of the time, but for the
finished portraits of so many eminent characters as are preserved in them."
PLATE XX.
The author paying his respects to a Gascoigne knight (undoubtedly the same
whom Holinshed and Stowe name Janico D'Artois3} who, he tells us, requested
1 This MS. is in the Harleian library at the British Museum, and marked 1319.
2 [This is an egregious blunder, which has been corrected by the Rev. W. Webb, in his admirable
description of this most interesting MS. in the 20th Vol. of the Archseologia. The words of the
original are " un gentilhomme Francois de Marque," that is a "French gentleman of mark or note,"
and the name of the author is now known to have been Jehan or John Creton. Vide Archseologia,
Vol. 28, p. 77.—Ed.]
3 [By no means "undoubtedly." Indeed the way in which mention is made of Janico by the
author in the course of his history, proves almost to a certainty that Janico and the Gascon Knight,
Creton's friend and fellow traveller, were two distinct personages. Jenico D'Artois was an Esquire, and
not a Knight. He is so distinguished by Creton himself and by Mr. Webb in his notes to the Metrical
History, who has quoted several documents in which Jenico's name appears. Another mistake of Mr.
Strutt's, has been pointed out by Mr. Webb, namely, the appropriating to Richard II. an accomplishment
belonging to the Earl of Salisbury (Vide page 64 of this volume.) It is the Earl and not the King of
whose genius for poetry Creton is speaking. Bishop Percy fell into the same error and probably helped
to mislead Strutt.—Ed.]