This great naval victory excited unbounded enthusiasm in England. The king
gave a great banquet to the Duke of Bedford and his principal officers,
and by the duke's orders Guy attended. Before they sat down to the table
the duke presented his officers individually to the king. Guy, as the
youngest knight, was the last to be introduced.
"The duke has already spoken to me of the right valiant deeds that you
accomplished, Sir Guy Aylmer," the king said as he bowed before him, "and
that with but a small craft and only sixty men-at-arms and archers you
captured the ship of the French admiral, which he estimates must have
carried at least three hundred men. We hereby raise you to the rank of
knight-banneret, and appoint you to the fief of Penshurst in Hampshire,
now vacant by the death without heirs of the good knight Sir Richard Fulk.
And we add thereto, as our own gift, the two royal manors of Stoneham and
Piverley lying adjacent to it, and we enjoin you to take for your coat-of-
arms a great ship. The fief of Penshurst is a sign of our royal approval
of your bravery at Harfleur, the two manors are the debt we owe you for
your service at Agincourt. We have ordered our chancellor to make out the
deeds, and tomorrow you will receive them from him and take the oaths."
Guy knelt and kissed the hand that the king held out to him, and
acknowledged the royal gift in fitting words. On the following day, after
taking the oaths for his new possessions, he mounted, and the next day
rode into Summerley.
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