The White Company · Chapter
How Samkin Aylward Wagered His Featherbed explained
Samkin Aylward, a seasoned English archer fresh from the French wars, arrives at the Pied Merlin inn with six bearers carrying plundered goods.
What happens
Samkin Aylward, a seasoned English archer fresh from the French wars, arrives at the Pied Merlin inn with six bearers carrying plundered goods. He boasts of his exploits and challenges the patrons to join him in France. Hordle John, a former monk of immense strength, takes offense at Aylward's taunts and accepts a wrestling wager: if John wins, he gets Aylward's featherbed; if Aylward wins, John must join the White Company. After a fierce bout, Aylward uses a trick to throw John, winning the wager. John agrees to join the Company, and Aylward reveals he is heading to Christchurch to recruit Sir Nigel Loring.
Themes in this chapter
Camaraderie and Brotherhood
The wrestling match and subsequent agreement to join the White Company highlight the bonds formed between soldiers and the recruitment of new members into a brotherhood of arms.
War and Violence
Aylward's tales of plunder and his scarred appearance underscore the violence of war, while the wrestling match itself is a physical contest reflecting martial prowess.
Social Mobility and Class
Aylward, a common archer, has amassed wealth through plunder and seeks to recruit men for the Company, offering a path to advancement through military service.
Characters to notice
- Samkin Aylward
A seasoned English bowman returning from eight years of war in France, he wagers his featherbed against Hordle John in a wrestling match to recruit him for the White Company.
- Hordle John
A massive former monk with great strength, he accepts Aylward's challenge and wrestles him, ultimately losing but agreeing to join the White Company.
- Alleyne Edricson
Present at the inn, he observes the wrestling match and declines Aylward's invitation to join the Company, stating he is a man of peace with other work.
- Dame Eliza
The landlady of the Pied Merlin, she is kissed by Aylward upon his arrival and serves the company.
Key passages
“I down on my bones, and I kissed the good brown earth, as I kiss thee now, ma belle, for it was eight long years since I had seen it.”
I knelt down and kissed the ground, just as I kiss you now, my beauty, because it had been eight years since I last saw my homeland.
Aylward expresses his deep love for England after returning from war in France.
“I swear by my ten finger-bones that there is not one of them that hath not cost its weight in French blood!”
I swear by my fingers that each of these items was earned through bloodshed in France.
Aylward boasts about the violent origins of his plundered goods.
“If you throw me, it is thine; but, if I throw you, then you are under a vow to take bow and bill and hie with me to France, there to serve in the White Company as long as we be enrolled.”
If you defeat me, the bed is yours; but if I defeat you, you must swear to take up arms and come with me to France to serve in the White Company for as long as we are enlisted.
Aylward proposes the wager that will determine John's fate.