INTRODUCTION.
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(21.)
Johann von Schildberger. 1394.
Johann von Schildberger, born in Munich, accompanied the army of King Sigismund of Hungary, in 1394, against the Turks; but in the following year was taken prisoner at the battle of Nicopolis by the Turks, and by order of Bajazet I (or, as he names
1824, vol. ii, p. 167, and is inserted here from its interesting connexion with a portion of our own history:—
“A curious collection of German poems, evidently compiled from these heraldic registers, has recently been discovered in the library of Prince Sinzendorf. The reader will find an account of them and their author, Peter Suchenwirt (who lived at the close of the fourteenth century), in the fourteenth volume of the Vienna Annals of Literature.—Jahrbücher der Literatur, Wien, 1814 [1821]. They are noticed here for their occasional mention of English affairs. The life of Burkhard v. Ellerbach recounts the victory gained by the English at the battle of Cressy; in which this terror of Prussian and Saracen infidels was left for dead on the field, ‘the blood and the grass, the green and the red, being so completely mingled in one mass,’ that no one perceived him.—Friedrich v. Chreuzpeckh served in Scotland, England, and Ireland. In the latter country he joined an army of 60,000 (!) men, about to form the siege of a town called Trachtal (?); but the army broke up without an engagement. On his return from thence to England, the fleet in which he sailed fell in with a Spanish squadron, and destroyed or captured six-and-twenty of the enemy. These events occurred between the years 1332-36.—Albrecht v. Nürnberg followed Edward III into Scotland, and appears to have been engaged in the battle of Halidown-hill. But the ‘errant-knight’ most intimately connected with England was Hans v. Traun. He joined the banner of Edward III at the siege of Calais, during which he was engaged in cutting off some supplies sent by sea for the relief of the besieged. He does ample justice to the valour and heroic resistance of the garrison, who did not surrender till their stock of leather, rope, and similar materials—which had long been
