Froissart's Chronicles, Chapter 146—The Surrender of Calais. Chapter 384—Wat Tyler 's
Death at Smithfield
THIS evening's reading is takon from the Chronicle of the famous mediaeval historian: of the Hundred Years War between England : and France. It is from the pages of Froissart that the most vivid, and simultaneously the most accurate, pictures can- be obtained of the period. when Chivalry was a real code regulating normal life, and not merely the background of novels; and war followed an etiquette as strict as that of the modern hunting field. The surrender of Calais to Edward III , with the rescue of the six condemned burghers from execution by the inter. vention of Queen Philippa, is one of the most dramatic scenes in English history. The descrip* tion of Wat Tyler's death at the hands of Walworth, the Lord Mayor of London, which ended the Peasants' Revolt in the reign of Richard II, is another admirable piece of historical writing; An interesting incident of the rising was the burning of Savoy Palace, then the property of the Duke of Lancaster, by the rebels.