The Road to Santiago: Pilgrims of St. James

Martin del Camino I reached the celebrated hospital and bridge of Órbigo, the scene of the ‘Honourable Passage of Arms’, where Suero de Quiñones and his knights for thirty days jousted with all comers. The hospital, which was on the Jacobean road on the west bank of the river, was built by the Knights of St. John, and according to local tradition it stood where are now the houses of calle Alvarez Vega. The bridge over the River Órbigo is a magnificent example of mediaeval architecture and four of the broad pointed arches of the original structure remain and part of the fifth, but some of the other arches were blown up by Sir John Moore as he retreated towards Galicia in 1809.
    It is important to realize that ‘the Passage Honourable’ took place in 1434, a Jacobean Holy Year, and the Leonese knight, Suero de Quiñones, resolved to hold his tourney by the Jacobean road in a field near the bridge, over which thousands of pilgrims would wend their way towards Compostella, and he arranged that the jousts should start on July 10 of that year and continue on thirty successive days. Suero de Quiñones presented his petition to hold the tourney to King John II when the latter was at Medina del Campo, surrounded by his court, and when the King had given his sanction, Don Suero de Quiñones ordered the herald to read out the twenty-two conditions of the chivalrous enterprise, and then handed a letter to the king-of-arms of the King of Castile and León, which he was to read out to all the courts in Christendom. *
    The fifteenth century witnesses the death-agony of chivalry which was rich in dreamlike exploits. In the case of Quiñones these amounted to madness. In the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto and in other earlier works it had been usual for an adventurous knight to station himself at some pass or bridge, compelling all those who passed to acknowledge the superiority of his mistress. Suero de Quiñones, as he declared in his proclamation of the Paso Honroso, had lain for a long time imprisoned by love for a lady, in sign whereof he wore every Thursday an iron fetter around his neck. Such exploits as those of Suero de Quiñones obsessed the mind of Don Quixote and he, too, did penance for love in the Sierra Morena.
    There, beside the Camino francés, where there was a forest, lists were constructed for ‘the Passage Honourable’, one hundred and forty-six paces long, and enclosed by a palissade of the height of a horse. Seven galleries were built around the lists; one at the end near where Suero de Quiñones and his nine companions were to enter; another whence they might view the jousts when they were not taking part. Two more galleries were for the foreign knights when not engaged: two more were set at opposite sides, one for the judges, king-at-arms, heralds, trumpeters, and scriveners, who were given the duty of keeping an exact record of all that took place, and the seventh for famous foreign knights.
    At dawn on July II, 1434, the musicians gathered on the sandy earth of the lists below the bridge, and the first notes of the fanfare were blown by the Chief Trumpeter Dalmao. Straightway the church bells of the Hospital of St. John chimed noisily and out of all the coloured tents pitched in the river bed emerged gaily apparelled knights, who with their ladies and duennas went to Mass, which, according to the instructions of Suero de Quiñones, was said in the church of the Jacobean pilgrims, in this way signifying that his enterprise was linked with the cult of the Apostle. *
    Every day the tilting continued followed by banquets given by each jouster to his rival, and day by day more knights arrived at the bridge of Órbigo and fair ladies, who were asked by the knights-at-arms for their gloves, which knights would offer to redeem. Some days produced exciting incidents. On July 15, Suero de Quiñones was challenged by the Catalan knight adventurer, Mosen Per Davio, who for the occasion put on his double armour, in order to match so expert a tilter as the Captain. But Quiñones, scorning danger and throwing all caution to the winds, donned light armour, and over his coat of mail put on a woman’s white chemise embroidered with wheels of St. Catherine, which as he manoeuvred his prancing, curvetting horse, made him appear, said the chroniclers, like a whirling fleck of foam. Even lightly armed as he was, Suero was more than a match for the Catalan, who floundered about helplessly. Blind with rage at his