CHAMPION of the King, an officer whose duty it is at the coronation of the English kings to ride armed cap-a-pie into Westminster Hall, while the king is banqueting there, and by the proclamation of a herald to make a challenge, "that if any man shall deny the king's title to the crown, he is there ready to defend it in single combat;" after which the king drinks to him, and sends him a gilt cup full of wine, which the champion drinks, retaining the cup as his fee. This office at the coronation of Richard II., when Baldwin Ferville exhibited his petition for it, was adjudged from him to his competitor Sir John Dymocke, both claiming descent from Marmion; and it has continued ever since in the family of the Dymockes, who hold the manor of Scrivelsby in Lincolnshire hereditary from the Marmions by grand serjeantry, namely that the lord of the manor shall be the champion of the king. At the coronation of George IV. in 1821, W. Dymocke being in orders, his place was supplied by his eldest son.