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A New Order of Chivalry – the ‘Franc Palais’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2013

Translated by
Nigel Bryant
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Summary

There is a strong possibility that Perceforest inspired the founding of the Order of the Garter by Edward III of England and the Company of the Star by John II of France. King Perceforest's Order of the Franc Palais and the building that housed it are described in the following episode. It begins as Perceforest, triumphantly recovered from his long depression following Alexander's death, is about to celebrate with a great feast and tournament.

Supper had been prepared, spread on tables in a garden below the castle walls, for there were so many people that they couldn't be accommodated in the hall.

While they were seated there at the tables, celebrating as no one in the world had ever done for the return of the king and for the health restored to him, they heard the windows of the great hall slam shut all together with an enormous crash. They wondered what it could mean; and a moment later the windows reopened, and they saw a light shining in the hall as bright as if a hundred torches were blazing. The king asked where such a light could be coming from, and why the windows had closed and reopened; and old Nicorant the castellan said:

‘Truly, my lord, I don't know: I've never seen such a thing.’

The king sent him to the hall to investigate, and he came straight back to report a great mystery: ‘the doors are locked fast against me, and I can hear a terrible noise of hammering inside, as if it were full of smiths!’

Type
Chapter
Information
A Perceforest Reader
Selected Episodes from Perceforest: The Prehistory of Arthur's Britain
 , pp. 43 - 51
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2012

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