douzeper

noun

1. (historical, in-plural, rare)One of the legendary “twelve peers” or renowned warriors of Charlemagne, the Emperor of the Romans from 800 to 814.

   “Also kynge Charlemayne kynge of Fraunce / With his dyssypers Rowland and Olyuer / With all the resydue of his alyaunce / That in all armes so noble were / On goddys ennemyes brake many a spere / Causynge them to flee to theyr grete vylony / Hardynes was cause that they had vyctory”

   “[T]hou art one of the Douze peers already, and fate has forestalled our intended promotion. Yet rise up, sweet Sir Oliver Thatchpate, Knight of the honourable order of the Pumpkin—Rise up, in the name of Nonsense, and begone about thine own concerns, in the devil’s name.”

   “Ferumbras, despising Oliver’s youthful appearance, tries to frighten him[…]; asks him to describe Charles [i.e., Charlemagne] and the douzeperes[…]; and enquires his name[…]. Oliver declaring himself to be a poor knight, Ferumbras derides him, and bids him return and send Roland, or another of the douzeperes[…].”

   “Cortine, Corteyne, or Cortayn was the name given to the sword of Ogier, one of the celebrated Douzeperes of Charlemagne.”

   “The knights of the Round Table and the douzepers were closely associated by virtue of the juxtaposition of Arthur and Charlemagne in the Nine Worthies.”

2. (broadly, historical, in-plural, rare)One of the twelve nobles granted feudal territories or episcopal sees by the King of France in return for their fealty (namely the Archbishop-Duke of Rheims; the Bishop-Dukes of Laon and Langres; the Bishop-Counts of Beauvais, Chalons, and Noyon, the Dukes of Normandy, Burgundy, and Aquitaine; and the Counts of Toulouse, Flanders and Champagne).

   “And whan the realme of Frãce was fallen to him [Charles IV of France], he was crowned by the assent of the twelve dowspiers of Fraunce; and thã, bicause they wold nat that the realme of Frãce shulde be long without an heyre male, they aduysed by their counsell, that the kyng shulde be remaryed agayne, and so he was to the doughter of the Emperour Henry of Lucenbourg, […]”

3. (broadly, in-plural, rare)A person considered to be like or in the model of Charlemagne’s peers; someone considered a great hero or paladin.

   “Big looking like a doughty Doucepere, / At laſt he thus, Thou clod of vileſt clay, / I pardon yield, and that with rudenes beare; […]”

   “And tho that beare bowes in their hond / Of the precious laurer ſo notable, / Be ſuch as were I woll ye vnderſtond, / Noble knights of the round table, / And eke the douſeperis honourable, / Which they bare in the ſigne of victory, / It is witnes of their dedes mightily.”

   “In the time of King Arthur this adventure chanced, / Beside the Tarnewathelan, as the books tell; / When to Carlisle had come that victor enhanced, / With dukes and the douzepeers, the doughtiest that dwell, […]”

   ““Mr. Payn, you at least have now been connected with twelveness. In fact, come to think of it, you’re also a douzeper.” / “I’m a what?” Payn gasped. / “Douzeper,” Ellery assured him. “The douzepers were the twelve paladins of Charlemagne. Surely you can’t have forgotten the most famous paladin of them all?[”]”

   “And to him [Alexander the Great] are devoted a surprisingly large number of separate works which describe his life and career, his code of conduct as a ruler, or the adventures of his douzepers: […]”