Janico Dartasso: Chivalry, Nationality and the Man‐at‐Arms

Abstract

This article considers the case of Janico Dartasso, a Navarrese esquire who pursued a long and generally successful career in the service of the English crown. Rising from the ranks of the men‐at‐arms employed as garrison soldiers, Janico established himself in the favour of both Richard II and Henry IV by his military prowess. Subsequently, he used his access to royal patronage to create an influential position for himself in the lordship of Ireland. His successful cultivation of a chivalric reputation, as a noted tourneyer and crusader, was an important element in his success, easing his access to the centres of cultural influence and political authority. Yet his eventual failure to establish himself permanently in England suggests that the cosmopolitan values of chivalry were increasingly being called into question during this period by a narrow and more exclusive definition of national identity that consigned aliens such as Janico to the margins of political life. His career registers a significant shift in the articulation of chivalric culture from the inclusive international values of the high middle ages to the ‘national chivalries’ of the early modern era.