8010232 i.
Sir Thomas DYMOKE.16020464. Sir John DYMOKE died in 1381. Sir John
Dymoke was knighted in 1373 and he represented Lincolnshire in the Parliaments
of 1372, 1373, and 1377.
On the coronation of King Richard II, he claimed the right to serve as King's
Champion in right of his wife, who inherited the manor of Scrivelsby, in the
ownership of which, Dymoke claimed, the post was vested. This claim was disputed
by Sir Baldwin de Freville, his wife's cousin, but the matter was eventually
decided in favor of Dymoke.
The office would remain in the family until the coronation of King George IV
in 1821, the last time a King's Champion was used in the ceremony. The function
of the office was to ride into Westminster Hall at the start of the coronation
banquet and challenge three times anyone who dared to doubt the King's right
to the throne, throwing down his gauntlet at each challenge. At the end of the
third challenge, when no one took up the challenge (and no one ever did, needless
to say), the King would drink his health from a gold cup. The cup was then handed
to the Champion, who drank his sovereign's health in return, pocketed the cup,
and then rode out of the hall. (I can only presume he then returned to the hall
on his own two feet and had some dinner.)
In the early days, the office was a very valuable one not only for the gold cup,
for the Champion also received from the royal wardrobe an elaborate suit of armor,
a caparaisoned horse, and twenty yards of red satin. One of the suits of armor
is now in the armor collection at Windsor Castle. He was married to Margaret
DE LUDLOW about 1350.
16020465.
Margaret DE LUDLOW was born in 1325. Children were:
8010232 i.
Sir Thomas DYMOKE.
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