You're right, Martin, the story originated in France at the court of I think King Francis I (16th century) who kept a selection of big cats and used to pit them against each other as a court amusement. In the original there was only one officer, who retrieved the fan (not glove), and when he returned he threw it at her nose. Schiller wrote a version. The oldest English ballad I have is mid 18thc, 'The Distress'd lady, or The Trial of true Love', but later broadsides usually used the title The Bold Lieutenant. The full details are on another thread somewhere.