The Last Knight Errant: Sir Edward Woodville & the Age of Chivalry Read Online Free Page A

trunks of clothes, combat armour and other essentials. Marching behind, past the rich valley farms with their fields of sugar cane, olive groves and grazing stock, came the 300 men of the company, who probably marched to music from the fife and drum. There would have been three captains and a few squires, among whom were ‘Edward Wyngfielde’, ‘Canteloupe’ and Rupert (the Queen’s household accounts refer to ‘Ruberte, Englishman, who came with the Count of Escalas’), a couple of trumpeters, ten peti-captains,6 100 archers, ‘all dexterous with the long bow and cloth yard arrow’,7 and 200 yeomen ‘of robust frame and prodigious strength, armed cap-a-pie’.
    An infantry company with a pack-train and supply cart would cover around 20 miles a day. The soldiers marched wearing or carrying their steel helmets and dressed in ‘jacks’, which were stuffed leather jerkins that ‘withstood the blows of arrows and swords’, according to Mancini:
    Their bows and arrows are thicker and longer than those used by other nations, just as their bodies are stronger than other peoples for they seem to have hands and arms of iron. The range of their bows is no less than that of our arbalests [crossbows]; there hangs by the side of each a sword no less long than ours but heavy and thick as well.8
    When they arrived in Cordoba they found it full of the bustle of campaign preparation. It had been the capital of Moorish Spain at its most brilliant and even today its architecture reflects the civilized tastes of the period. In the centre of the city is the great sprawling mosque where the cool gloom is filled with serried ranks of marble columns supporting red and white chequered double horseshoe arches. Roman outer walls still encircle an inner ring of towering Moorish walls pierced by occasional horseshoe-headed gates decorated with Islamic patterns. At the west end is the Alcazar, the fortress palace with high crenulated walls, where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella held court and where Edward was received.
    He must have walked in the gardens – which still survive – amongst the orange trees that line the pools, canal and terraces. The 28-year-old was a popular recruit, ‘Young, wealthy, high born and related to the blood royal of England. He was much honoured by the King and Queen and found great favour with the fair dames about the court,’ wrote Washington Irving.
    From here Edward wrote to King João (John) of Portugal apologizing for having had no time to call on him on his way through Lisbon. The King replied generously to the ‘Magnificent and puissant Count, Kinsman and Friend’, accepting his excuses but expecting to see him on his return journey.9 So it seems that Edward had previously made friends with King João, presumably when he had been there with his brother in 1472.
    The current phase of the war had been running for around six years and had been triggered by the Moorish King Abul Hacan, who refused to pay his annual tribute to Spain. He proudly told the Spanish monarchs, ‘The mints of Granada coin no longer gold, but blades for scimitars and the heads of lances.’ Then to demonstrate his defiance he attacked and captured Zahara, a supposedly impregnable frontier town, and took its citizens into slavery. The outraged Spaniards demanded retaliation. A captain of  escaladores  (scalers of fortifications) saw the opportunity for glory and plunder and approached Don Rodrigo Ponce de León, Marquis of Cadiz, with the idea of a freelance operation against Alhama.
    This citadel was deep in Moorish territory, apparently impregnable and an important commercial centre with a tax-collection office as well as the best hot baths in the kingdom, which were particularly popular with the Moorish monarch and his court. Don Rodrigo arrayed 8,000 men and marched for three days, reaching Alhama undetected. They scaled the ramparts, took the surprised fortress and restored the honour of Spain.10 It was the start of a