This sort of gentleman was not quite unknown in England either about the same period, and is well portrayed by Camden: "York was a Londoner, a man of loose and dissolute behaviour and desperately audacious, famous in his time amongst the common bullies and swaggerers as being the first that, to the great admiration of many at his boldness, brought into England the bold and dangerous way of fencing with the rapier in duelling, whereas till that time the English used to fight with long swords and bucklers, striking with the edge, and thought it no part of man either to push [thrust] or strike beneath the girdle."
In the Middle Ages the sword was rightly considered as the most noble of weapons; it was the emblem of justice, of dominion, of estate; and in the literature of the time, especially in the cycles of romances relating to Arthur and the knights of his round table, to Charlemagne and his Paladins, the swords of great warriors, or those reputed of especial excellence, are often extolled, and bear names which became legendary. Such were the Excalibur of Arthur, the Joyeuse of Charlemagne, the Durandel and Flamberge of Roland, the Hauteclere of Oliver, and the Courtain of Ogier le Danois.[1] We are also told who were the smiths who made these celebrated weapons, three brothers, each of whom made three swords. Galans made Joyeuse, Flamberge, Hauteclere; Munificans made Durandel, Courtain, Mussagine; Aurisas made Bâptesme, Garbain, and Florance.[2] A sword preserved in the Castle of Segovia in 1503 was reputed to be the Joyeuse ("una espada que se dice la Giosa del Belcortar"), but there it was attributed not to Charlemagne but to Roland.[3] In 1721 Du Cange saw at Saint Pharon de Meaux a sword supposed to be that of Ogier le Danois. It was also seen by Père Mabillon who had it weighed, and by Père Daniel who measured it. Besides Joyeuse, the armoury at Segovia in 1503 possessed other swords with names, the Colada and Tizona of the Cid, the Lobera of St. Ferdinand, and one called the Bastona. But this practice of naming swords was continued in more recent times. In 1383, in the accounts of Charles VI of France, there is a payment for a sword for the king called Victoire, the pommel garnished with enamelled gold with, on one side, an image of Our Lady, and on the other the arms of France. In 1411 we find the same king possessing "a little sword called Victoire, and on the pommel are a crucifix with Our Lady and St. John on one side, and on the other St. George and his maid" (the princess).[4] Yet another Victoire is found in the royal collection of arms at the Castle of Amboise in 1499, "an arming sword, garnished with white whipcord, and on the pommel is Our Lady on one side and a sun on the other, called l'espée de la Victoire." We can trace this sword again
