honour, which, being
cultivated and embellished by the poets and romance-writers of the
age, ended in chivalry. The virtuous knight fought not only in his
own quarrel, but in that of the innocent, of the helpless, and, above
all, of the fair, whom he supposed to be for ever under the
guardianship of his valiant arm. The uncourteous knight who, from his
castle, exercised robbery on travellers, and committed violence on
virgins, was the object of his perpetual indignation; and he put him
to death, without scruple, or trial, or appeal, whenever he met with
him. The great independence of men made personal honour and fidelity
the chief tie among them; and rendered it the capital virtue of every
true knight, or genuine professor of chivalry. The solemnities of
single combat, as established by law, banished the notion of every
thing unfair or unequal in rencounters; and maintained an appearance
of courtesy between the combatants till the moment of their
engagement. The credulity of the age grafted on this stock the notion
of giants, enchanters, dragons, spells [f], and a thousand wonders,
which still multiplied during the time of the crusades; when men,
returning from so great a distance, used the liberty of imposing every
fiction on their believing audience. These ideas of chivalry infected
the writings, conversation, and behaviour of men, during some ages;
and even after they were, in a great measure, banished by the revival
of learning, they left modern GALLANTRY and the POINT OF HONOUR, which
still maintain their influence, and are the genuine offspring of those
ancient affectations.
[FN [f] In all legal single combats, it was part of the champion's
oath, that he carried not about him any herb, spell, or enchantment,
by which he might procure victory. Dugd. Orig. Jurid. p. 82.]

The concession of the great charter, or rather its full establishment,
(for there was a considerable interval of time between the one and the
other,) gave rise, by degrees, to a new species of government, and
introduced some order and justice into the administration. The
ensuing scenes of our history are therefore somewhat different from
the preceding. Yet the great charter contained no establishment of
new courts, magistrates, or senates, nor abolition of the old. It
introduced no new distribution of the powers of the commonwealth, and
no innovation in the political or public law of the kingdom. It only
guarded, and that merely by verb