book iii

. c. 1.) and an hundred writers after him, assert that the authority of the ladies was more extensive in the joust than in the tournament. Mr. Strutt says, that "in the days of chivalry jousts were made in honor of the ladies, who presided as judges paramount over the sports." Now there are many jousts mentioned in Froissart and other chivalric historians that were held only in the presence of knights. But I can find no instance of a tournament being held without ladies. The joust was a martial exercise; but the tournament was connected with all the circumstances of domestic life.

[337] "Et si aimoit, par amour, jeune dame: dont en tous estats son affaire en valoit grandement mieux." Froissart, vol. iii. c. 12. edit. Lyons, 1560.

[338] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 160. 162. 168. Memoires du Mareschal de Boucicaut,