[Illustration: THE "LADY" BRIDGE, TAMWORTH.]
Robert Marmion, therefore, was the first "King's Champion of England,"
an honour which remained in his family until the death of the eighth
Lord, Philip Marmion, in 1291. This man was one of the leading nobles at
the Court of Henry III, and the stubborn defender of Kenilworth Castle,
acting as King's Champion at the Coronation of Edward I on August 19th,
1274. The duty of the King's Champion on the day of Coronation was to
ride completely armed on a barbed horse into Westminster Hall, and there
to challenge to combat any who should gainsay the king's title. On the
death of Philip de Marmion the Castle of Tamworth passed by marriage to
the Trevilles, Sir Alexander Treville, as owner of the castle,
officiating; as Royal Champion at the Coronation of Edward III in 1327;
but at the Coronation of Richard II, in 1377, the right of the Treville
family to act as champion was disputed by Sir John Dymoke, to whom the
Manor of Scrivelsby had descended by marriage from another relative of
Phillip Marmion. It was decided that the office went with the Manor of
Scrivelsby, and the Dymokes had acted as King's Champion ever since,
their coat of arms bearing in Latin the motto, "I fight for the king.
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