Knights fighting - quietness and peace were not among the most prominent characteristics of those ages, in which, unfetterd by the sage power of judicious and efficient laws, people were taught to seek justice rather by their own strength than by the intermediation of others. At that period, the songs which sounded most musical to the ears of the iron-cased barons were the romances that told of hard blows and doughty adventures, and the pictures most beautiful to their eyes were such as those which are given in this picture. The volume from which they are taken, a fine manuscript of the middle or latter half of the thriteenth century (MS Reg 20 D I) is well fitted for knightly eyes as well as knightly ears; for it contains a large mass of the romantic history, adorned with a profusion of warlike pictures.