=Source.=--_The Chronicle of Adam of Usk_, edited by Sir E.
Maunde Thompson, pp. 187, 188. (Royal Society of Literature, 1904.)
On the eve of his coronation, in the Tower of London and in the
presence of Richard late King, King Henry made forty-six new knights,
amongst whom were his three sons, and also the earls of Arundel and
Stafford, and the son and heir of the earl of Warwick; and with them
and other nobles of the land he passed in great state to Westminster.
And when the day of Coronation was come (13th October), all the peers
of the realm, robed finely in red and scarlet and ermine, came with
great joy to the ceremony, my lord of Canterbury ordering all the
service and duties thereof. In the presence were borne four swords,
whereof one was sheathed as a token of the augmentation of military
honour, two were wrapped in red and bound round with golden bands to
represent twofold mercy, and the fourth was naked and without a point,
the emblem of the executioner of justice without rancour. The first
sword the earl of Northumberland carried, the two covered ones the
earls of Somerset and Warwick, and the sword of justice the King's
eldest son, the prince of Wales; and the lord Latimer bore the sceptre,
and the earl of Westmoreland the rod. And this they did as well in the
coronation as at the banquet, always standing around the King. Before
the King received the crown from my lord of Canterbury, I heard him
swear to take heed to rule his people altogether in mercy and in truth.
These were the officers in the Coronation feast: The earl of Arundel
was butler, the earl of Oxford held the ewer, and the lord Grey of
Ruthin spread the cloths.
While the King was in the midst of the banquet, sir Thomas Dymock,
knight, mounted in full armour on his destrier,[1] and having his sword
sheathed in black with a golden hilt, entered the hall, two others,
likewise mounted on chargers, bearing before him a naked sword and a
lance. And he caused proclamation to be made by a herald at the four
sides of the hall that, if any man should say that his liege lord here
present and King of England was not of right crowned King of England,
he was ready to prove the contrary with his body, then and there, or
when and wheresoever it might please the King. And the King said:
"If need be, sir Thomas, I will in mine own person ease thee of this
office."
[1] Destrier = a charger, a war-horse.