ABSTRACT
In 1575 Monsieur de Champenaye, ambassador in England from the Low Countries assessed his unique qualities in the following terms: 'a man of arms, excellently mounted, richly armed, and indeed the most accomplished cavaliero I have ever seen'. Paramount among chivalric virtues was loyalty and service to one's monarch: a knight's duty to 'maintain and defend his worldly lord'. Many gentlemen of Sir Henry Lee's status and the majority of nobles claimed adherence to chivalric values as the accepted code of conduct among men of honour. Few courtier gentlemen rivalled Lee in the immense gift he bestowed on his Queen: an annual occasion that brought her the public adulation of thousands. The Accession Day tournaments were a massive display of public diplomacy in the Queen's honour. The Elizabethan tournaments may now be seen to be anachronistic, but in the popular imagination of the time they represented something tangible: a code of knightly conduct and an order of chivalry.
