one hour before noon
These with three others made up the required thirty . Great was the grumbling and evil the talk amongst the archers when it was learned that none of them were to be included , but the bow had been forbidden on either side . It is true that many of them were expert fighters both with ax and with sword , but they were unused to carry heavy armor , and a half-armed man would have short shrift in such a hand-to-hand struggle as lay before them . It was two hours after tierce , or one hour before noon , on the fourth Wednesday of Lent in the year of Christ 1351 that the men of Ploermel rode forth from their castle-gate and crossed the bridge of the Due . In front was Bambro ' with his Squire Croquart , the latter on a great roan horse bearing the banner of Ploermel , which was a black rampant lion holding a blue flag upon a field of ermine . Behind him came Robert Knolles and Nigel Loring , with an attendant at their side , who carried the pennon of the black raven . Then rode Sir Thomas Percy with his blue lion flaunting above him , and Sir Hugh Calverly , whose banner bore a silver owl , followed by the massive Belford who carried a huge iron club , weighing sixty pounds , upon his saddlebow , and Sir Thomas Walton the knight of Surrey .