THE ROYAL HOUSE OF FRANCE - outriders poetry project

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© 2009 Max Wickert
God. Therefore I desire a third of you to remain, and the other two thirds to go with me. Since
time is short, let each man provide himself and return promptly. I assure all of you that at my return
I will give such proper payment as will be merited, for I shall see then what man I should reward.”
The he gave them all leave to go, and in a few days they returned to court with countless followers,
so that thirty-thousand knights were found with Duke Gerard. He took fifteen thousand of these to
accompany him, sent another five thousand with his two sons to Charles to be knighted; and left
ten-thousand to guard his lands. When he had all his lords before him, he called his grandsons,
Lord Clare and Lord Bussy, and dubbed them knights with his own hands, giving them armor and
horses, and endowing them with their lands. To Lord Clare he gave seven cities in Germany in his
possession, as well as nearly a hundred castles, and created him Duke. And he made him swear to
true knighthood, according to the laws of chivalry, to rescue and aid widows and orphans, and ever
to rescue and aid virtuous men, and to spread the Christian faith, and to root out false and evil and
vicious men, and Lord Clare swore to all this. Then he called his brother Bussy, girt on his sword,
and dubbed him knight, and after his brother endowed him in this manner: first he gave his father’s
sword to him, and then four cities (they were Longodania, Gozenisi, Osterena and Navaretta), and
then a gentle bride, whose name was Diazena. (There was later a great quarrel over her between
Bussy and the Duke of Lorraine, whom Bussy slew in Paris, so that Charlemagne’s scepter was
bloodied by the murder.) Gerard bestowed armor and horses upon him. Then he called Rainier and
Arnaut, knighted them, and commanded that Guiscard and Miles should remain with their mother
Ermeline, and that the duchess should take them to Charles, to be knighted and endowed with
domains. To Rainier he gave Lausanne and Auvergne, and to Arnaut he gave Bellandes on the
Rhone. Then, having order his wife to take these other two youngsters, he went on his way with his
fifteen thousand, and reached Tuscany four days after Charles. Then, on the fifth day after Charles’s
arrival in Rome, Gerard passed along the Tuscan shore, not stopping in Rome, and arrived in