Martial ( Epp . 8.21 ), anticipate , probably on the night before the visit , the prince ’ s arrival ; the poet can ’ t wait for the day to come and calls upon the Morning Star to hasten on the dawn . The chronogram was a form adopted by many poets of this period , and is also a particularly Wykehamical means of recording a date : there are several examples in the Warden ’ s Lodgings , and the most recent , in the Moberly Library , commemorates the completion in 1994 of the improvements made possible by the Eccles bequest .
The Hilt ( another elegiac couplet ) and the Blade ( two hexameters ) then offer the sword to Charles as a gift from Thalia , the Muse of Comedy and Pastoral ; the hope is that Charles can win again for the English ( Anglis ) their territories in France ( regnum ) finally taken from them by Charles VII of France ( 1422 – 1461 ) at the end of the Hundred Years ’ War in 1453 .
The most recent visit of a Prince Charles to Winchester was on 27 th June , 2000 , when the current Prince of Wales was received Ad Portas . On that occasion he was greeted in Latin by the Prefect of Hall , O . R . H . Thomas ( Coll .). His speech began : ‘ Maximo gaudio , Princeps nobilissime , ad portas nostras te hodie salutamus , hominem non solum omnibus artibus penitus deditum , sed etiam humanitate , modestia , benevolentia plane praeditum ’, altogether more eirenic than the offer of a sword with which to defeat the enemy !
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