Thursday, December 26, 2013

A Splendid Tent with Turrets: 1393

At the Anglo-French negotiations at Leulinghen in 1393:
To avoid the boredom of the wait, spacious pavilions had been erected in the form of a camp on the neighboring plain, whose interiors were decorated with hangings of wool and rich silks which charmed the eyes of the assistants. 
Above all, the tent of the Duke of Burgundy was of extraordinary grandeur, such as our generation had never seen before. The construction was so rich and elegant that it captivated all eyes. One could not fail to admire the exquisite and novel worksmanship. It was a tent (tabernaculum) like a town surrounded by small wooden turrets and crenellated ramparts. At the entrance were two large towers between which a gate was hung like that of a building. From the middle, like from a great hall, ran appartments attached in several places as though by different alleys; enough, they said, to hold three thousand men.
Bellaguet, L., and Amable-Guillaume-Prosper Brugière Barante. 1839. Chronique du religieux de Saint-Denys: contenant le règne de Charles VI, de 1380 à 1422. Paris: L'imprimerie de Crapelet. Vol. 2, p. 76 Translation Will Mclean 2013

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