Philip was ready to give heed to the prayer.  Whatever the exact sequence of his plans in relation to the court revels, the result was that his own banquet was utilised as a proper occasion for blazoning forth to the world with a flourish of trumpets his august intention of dislodging the invader from the ancient capital of the Eastern empire.

The superintendence of the arrangements for this all-eclipsing fete was entrusted, as La Marche relates,

“to Messire Jehan, Seigneur de Lannoy, Knight of the Golden Fleece, and a skilful ingenious gentleman, and to one Squire Jehan Boudault, a notable and discreet man.  And the duke honoured me so far that he desired me to be consulted.  Several councils were held for the matter to which the chancellor and the first chamberlain were invited.  The latter had just returned from the war in Luxemburg already described.

“These council meetings were very important and very private, and after discussion it was decided what ceremonies and mysteries were to be presented.  The duke desired that I should personate the character of Holy Church of which he wished to make use at this assembly.”

As in many half amateur affairs the preparations took more time than was expected.  At the first date set, all was not in readiness and the performance was postponed until February 17th.  This entailed serious loss upon the provision merchants and they received compensation for the spoiled birds and other perishable edibles.[4]

The gala-day opened with a tournament at which Adolph of Cleves again sported as Knight of the Swan to the applause of the onlookers.  After the jousting, the guests adjourned to the banqueting hall, where fancy had indeed, run riot, to make ready for their admiring eyes and their sagacious palates. Entremets is the term applied to the elaborate set pieces and side-shows provided to entertain the feasters between courses, and these were on an unprecedented scale.

Three tables stood prepared respectively for the duke and his suite, for the Count of Charolais, his cousins, and their comrades, and for the knights and ladies.  The first table was decorated with marvellous constructions, among which was a cruciform church whose mimic clock tower was capacious enough to hold a whole chorus of singers.  The enormous pie in which twenty-eight musicians were discovered when the crust was cut may have been the original of that pasty whose opening revealed four-and-twenty blackbirds in a similar plight.  Wild animals wandered gravely at a machinist’s will through deep forests, but in the midst of the counterfeit brutes there was at least one live lion, for Gilles le Cat[5] received twenty shillings from the duke for the chain and locks he made to hold the savage beast fast “on the day of the said banquet.”

Again there was an anchored ship, manned with a full crew and rigged completely.  “I hardly think,” observes La Marche, “that the greatest ship in the world has a greater number of ropes and sails.”