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 A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE The return of the triumphant king and his nobles from their conquests at Crecy and Calais was naturally celebrated after the fashion of that age by jousts, tournaments, and other chivalrous festivities, and in April, 1348, Lichfield was selected as the scene of one of these rejoicings, which were celebrated with great splendour. The prevailing dress for both ladies and gentlemen was a blue cloak with a white hood presented by the king, and the ladies wore various masks or visors. 137 Among those who were thus clothed from the royal wardrobe were Sir Walter Manny, John de L'Isle, Hugh Courtenay, John Grey, Robert de Ferrers, Philip de Spenser, Roger de Beauchamp, Miles de Stapleton, Ralph de Ferrers, and the Earl of Lancaster, while among the lady recipients were the king's daughter Isabella, the ladies Ulster, Juliers, Wake and Segrave, and Darcy. These ladies, with others of high rank, watched the king and seventeen knights joust with the Earl of Lancaster and thirteen knights, and it is not unlikely that here the incident took place which suggested to the chivalrous king the founding of the Order of the Garter. 138 In May, 1 349, the Black Death which had first appeared in England in the preceding year showed itself in Derbyshire, and for the next four months raged with fury throughout the kingdom. At Poictiers in 1356, ' a battle far more hazardous and far better fought than that of Crecy,' 139 Staffordshire was represented by Edward le Despenser, James d'Audley, Sir Richard de Stafford, and Ralph Basset of Drayton, who was as doughty a knight as his ancestor who won fame at Falkirk. Sir James d'Audley and his four squires, two of whom, by name Dutton and Delves, were Staffordshire men, performed prodigies of valour, fighting in front of the army. 140 For the expedition of 1359, which ended in the treaty of Bretigny, Staffordshire contributed forty to the number of mounted archers ' of the best and strongest in their counties, clothed uniformly,' U1 who were now superseding the hobelars, and were like the dragoons of the seventeenth century, rather mounted infantry than regular cavalry. One of the commissioners who drew up the treaty which ended the war was Ralph the great Earl of Stafford, a man renowned in war and peace, who had been created earl by Edward III, and was one of the original Knights of the Garter. He died in 1372. His son Hugh was worthy of him, and equally active in his country's business; in 1376, at the meeting of the Good Parliament, although he belonged to the court party, he was one of the four earls appointed with four bishops arid four barons to confer with the Commons, 142 and was a member of the standing council which the Commons proposed and the king accepted. When John of Gaunt in 1373 was smitten with the 'midsummer madness ' which made him dream of conquering France and Castile he had Tutbury Castle, which had been neglected since the downfall of Thomas of Lancaster, prepared for his children and the ' queen of Castile.' It was one of the numerous castles, more than thirty in number, which this great prince held in England, and had come to him through his marriage with '" Archaeohgia, xxxi, 118. m ReKj. six, 87. 139 Oman, Art of War in Middle Ages, 632. " CoU. (Salt Arch. Soc.), viii, 99. 141 Ibid. 102. I4> Stubbs, Const. Hist. (ed. 4), ii, 449. 236