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 CHAPTER XVIII

SWORDS OF CEREMONY IN ENGLAND

Before the author proceeds to give some account of such English pre-XVIth century Swords of Ceremony as are extant, he would like to express his deep feeling of obligation to Sir W. H. St. John Hope, to whose erudite work "The Corporation Plate and Insignia of Office of the Cities and Corporate Towns of England and Wales," he is indebted for the descriptions of many of these swords, and, in several cases, for a knowledge of their very existence. With but few of the ceremonial weapons, of which Sir St. John Hope, from his great archaeological knowledge, has furnished so ample a record, is the present writer personally acquainted. The more readily and gratefully then does he make the fullest acknowledgement to Sir St. John Hope for the latter's great kindness in giving him permission to quote so extensively from the pages of what seems likely to be almost the last word on the subject. The actual illustrations of the swords have been, in most cases, generously furnished by those gentlemen who are responsible for their present custody.

It must be remembered that the sword as a symbol of authority found its place in most ceremonies at a very remote period; in England, indeed, it has occupied such a position ever since the coronation of Æthelred in 978. Such a sword in the earlier times was doubtless a weapon made for fighting, like the Battle Abbey sword (see Fig. 639); but as time went on special swords made expressly for the purpose of ceremony superseded the fighting weapons. So it is that many of our cities and corporate towns possess such swords among the insignia of their official possessions.

Originally in England the mayor's right of having a sword and sword-*bearer was very grudgingly conferred, and during the XIVth century only seven mayors received it. In three of these cases, those of Lincoln, York, and Chester, the sword is known to have been a gift of the king himself.