favour. It was stated that Edward III and Edward the Black Prince had both admitted that the office went with the manor of Scrivelsby, and not (as Freville asserted) with Tamworth Castle. Freville, who was allowed time to produce documents before a permanent decision was given, did not press his claim owing to ill-health. Dymoke died about April 1381, and Freville on 30 Dec. 1387. Lady Dymoke survived her husband, and at the coronation of Henry IV, 13 Oct. 1399, put her son Thomas forward to claim the office of champion. The son of the last claimant of the Freville family again disputed the championship, but failed to convince the court, and died 4 Oct. 1400, before the matter had been finally discussed. The claim of the Dymokes was not again seriously contested. Sir John's widow died in 1417. Her son Thomas, who performed the duties of champion at the coronations of Henry IV and Henry V, died in 1422, leaving the manor of Scrivelsby to his son Philip (by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard Hebden). Philip acted as champion at Henry VI's coronation, and died in 1455. According to extant directions issued by Henry VI to Philip Dymoke, the champion at the time of the coronation received from the keeper of the royal wardrobe a rich accoutrement, which formed part of the perquisites of the office. From accounts of later coronations we know that this included an elaborate suit of armour and a well-caparisoned horse, together with twenty yards of crimson satin (cf. Notes and Queries, 5th ser. vii. 401). It was the champion's duty to ride on his horse into Westminster Hall at the beginning of the coronation banquet, and three times to formally challenge to combat any person who disputed the sovereign's title. The champion flung his gauntlet down as soon as the herald had announced the challenge. On no occasion was any opposition offered. When the champion took the gauntlet up for the third time, the sovereign drank to him from a golden cup, which was afterwards handed to the champion, who drank to his sovereign and became the owner of the cup. At Henry IV's coronation the champion's proclamation was made at six places in the city of London as well as at Westminster.
Sir Thomas Dymoke (1428?–1471), Sir Philip's heir, took part with the Lancastrians in the wars of the Roses. He had married Margaret, daughter of Richard, lord Wells, and aided Lord Wells's son, Sir Robert, in collecting an army in Lincolnshire in the interest of Henry VI and the Earl of Warwick in March 1470–1. Edward IV summoned Dymoke and Lord Wells to London to explain the conduct of Sir Robert. Fearing the King's anger, they took sanctuary in Westminster, and on receiving the royal pardon promised to induce Sir Robert Wells to disband his army. This they failed to do, and Edward marched to Lincolnshire and defeated Sir Robert's forces at Edgecote, near Stamford (13 March). Sir Robert was beheaded on the battle-field, and his father, Lord Wells, and brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Dymoke, met with the same fate, by gross treachery on the king's part, in London immediately afterwards (Warkworth, Chron., pp. 8, 9; Polydore Vergil, Hist. (Camd. Soc.), pp. 126–7; Bentley, Excerpta Historica, p. 282).
Sir Robert Dymoke (d. 1546), Sir Thomas's son, was restored to all his father's property; was a knight-banneret; acted as sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1484, 1502, and 1509; performed the duties of champion at the coronations of Richard III, Henry VII, and Henry VIII; distinguished himself at the siege of Tournay, and died 13 April 1546, being buried at Haltham, Lincolnshire. His son (by his second wife, Jane Sparrow), Sir Edward, was sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1536, 1547, 1556, and 1557, and acted as champion at the coronations of Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth. Sir Edward married Anne, daughter of Sir George Talboys, and coheiress of her brother Gilbert, lord Talboys of Kyme. His portrait is in the College of Arms. His eldest son, Robert Dymoke (d. 1580), is stated by catholic biographers to have been dragged in a weak state of health before the Bishop of Lincoln and charged with recusancy. He was imprisoned at Lincoln, and is asserted to have died in confinement. He was buried at Scrivelsby in 1580 (Gillow, Bibliogr. Dict. of Catholics; Challoner, Memoirs, i.) Robert's son, Sir Edward (d. 1625), was champion at James I's coronation. His grandson Charles performed the office at Charles I's coronation; after showing himself a staunch royalist, he died at Oxford in 1644, and left 2,000l. to the king. His body was removed to Scrivelsby in 1655. Sir Edward Dymoke (d. 1664), Charles's nephew, was champion at Charles II's coronation, being knighted the day before. Sir Edward's son, Sir Charles, champion to James II, was succeeded by his eldest son, Charles (d. 1703), champion at William and Mary's and at Anne's coronations. Of this champion, who was returned M.P. for Lincolnshire in 1698, 1700, 1701, and 1702, Pryme writes in his ‘Ephemeris Vitæ’ that he ‘holds certain lands by exhibiting on a certain day every year a milk-white bull with black ears to the people, who are to run it down, and then it is cut in pieces and given among the poor. His estate is almost 2,000l. a year, and whoever has it is
