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There is a story of
Prince Henry, son of William
the
Conqueror,
afterwards Henry I., that is so frequently recorded in the old
chronicles
that it is doubtless authentic.
The following version of the incident
is
taken from Hayward's Life of
William the Conqueror,
published in
1613—
"Towards the end of
his reigne he appointed his
two sonnes
Robert and
Henry, with joynt authoritie, governours of Normandie;
the one to
suppresse either the insolence or levitie of the other. These went
together to visit the French king lying at Constance: where,
entertaining
the time with varietie of disports, Henry played with Louis, then
Daulphine of France, at chesse, and did win of him very much.
"Hereat Louis
beganne to growe warme in words, and
was therein
little
respected by Henry.
The great impatience of the one and the small
forbearance of the other did strike in the end such a heat between them
that Louis threw the chessmen at Henry's face.
"Henry again stroke
Louis with the chessboard,
drew blood with
the blowe,
and had presently slain him upon the place had he not been stayed by
his
brother Robert.
"Hereupon they
presently went to horse, and their
spurres
claimed so good
haste as they recovered Pontoise, albeit they were sharply pursued by
the
French."
Now,
tradition—on this point not
trustworthy—says that the chessboard
broke into the thirteen fragments shown in our illustration. It will be
seen that there are twelve pieces, all different in shape, each
containing five squares, and one little piece of four squares only.
We thus have all
the sixty-four squares of the
chess-board,
and the
puzzle is simply to cut them out and fit them together, so as to make a
perfect board properly chequered.
The pieces may be easily cut out of a
sheet of "squared" paper, and, if mounted on cardboard, they will form
a
source of perpetual amusement in the home.
If you succeed in
constructing the chessboard, but
do not
record the
arrangement, you will find it just as puzzling the next time you feel
disposed to attack it.
Prince Henry
himself, with all his skill and
learning, would
have found
it an amusing pastime.
See answer
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