Ralph Basset 3rd Baron Basset Drayton 1335-1390

Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. On Tuesday [3rd November 1355], they arrived at Carcassonne, a beautiful, exceedingly wealthy, and well-built town, larger than London within its walls. Between the bourg [the lower town] and the citadel [the upper city], which was surrounded by a double wall, ran a river beneath a beautiful stone bridge, at the foot of which stood a fine hospital. In the bourg were four convents of the four mendicant orders, whose friars did not flee, even as the burghers and the Poor Clares who also lived there fled into the citadel. The entire army, though well and lavishly accommodated in the bourg, scarcely occupied three quarters of it, so great was its size, and it was abundant in muscat wine and all sorts of provisions, both luxurious and necessary. That day, the battle lines were drawn up in proper order in front of the bourg, and the sons of the Lord of Albret¹ and Lord Basset of Drayton were knighted, the latter immediately taking the field under his own raised banner. Also, Roland Daveys² and several others were elevated to the order of knighthood.

Die Martis advenerunt Carkasonam, villam pulcram, predivitem, et bene edificatam, ampliorem Londoniis infra muros. Inter villam seu burgum et civitatem circumcinctam dupplici muro currebat aqua vocata sub ponte pulcro petrino, ad cuius pedem pulcrum ospitale fuit situatum. In burgo fuerunt quatuor conventus quatuor pauperum religionum, quorum ministri, scilicet fratres, non fugerunt, burgensibus et minorissis que illic eciam habitabant in civitatem fugientibus. In burgo totus exercitus bene et laute ospitatus vix occupavit tres eius quartas, habundans vino muscato et ceteris victualibus tam delicatis quam necessariis. Isto die acies ante burgum fuerunt bene ordinate, et effecti milites filii domini de Libreto et dominus de Basset Dreitone, qui incontinenti cum erecto proprio vexillo militavit. Item, Rolandus Daveys et plures ad ordinem militarem promovebantur.

Note 1. Bernard Ezi, sire d'Albret, took part in this expedition. Ralph [aged 20], lord Basset of Drayton, 1343-1390, was at this time a young man of about twenty.

Note 2. In the Calendar Inquisitions Post Mortem, 2.231, Roland Daveys is found seised of the manor of Lyndon, co. Rutland, in 1361.