Tournament (medieval)

The earliest known use of the word "tournament" comes from peace legislation by Count Baldwin III of Hainaut for the town of Valenciennes, dated to 1114. It refers to the keepers of the peace in the town leaving it "for the purpose of frequenting javelin sports, tournaments and such like."^{[citation needed]}

A pattern of regular tournament meetings across northern France is evident in sources^[who?] for the life of Charles, Count of Flanders (1119–27). The sources of the 1160s and 1170s portray the event in the developed form it maintained into the 14th century.^{[citation needed]}

During the High Middle Ages

Tournaments centered on the

The standard form of a tournament is evident in sources as early as the 1160s and 1170s, notably The History of William Marshal and the Arthurian romances of Chrétien de Troyes.^{[7][citation needed]} Tournaments might be held at all times of the year except the penitential season of Lent (the forty days preceding the Triduum of Easter). The general custom was to hold them on Mondays and Tuesdays, though any day but Friday and Sunday might be used. The site of the tournament was customarily announced a fortnight before it was to be held. The most famous tournament fields were in northeastern France (including between Ressons-sur-Matz and Gournay-sur-Aronde near Compiègne, in use between the 1160s and 1240s) which attracted hundreds of foreign knights from all over Europe for the 'lonc sejor' (the tournament season).

Knights arrived individually or in companies to stay at one or other of the two settlements designated as their lodgings. The tournament began on a field outside the principal settlement, where stands were erected for spectators. On the day of the tournament one side was formed of those 'within' the principal settlement, and another of those "outside."

Parties hosted by the principal magnates present were held in both settlements, and preliminary jousts (called the vespers or premières commençailles) offered knights an individual showcase for their talents. On the day of the event, the tournament was opened by a review (regars) in which both sides paraded and called out their war cries. There was then a further opportunity for individual jousting carried out between the rencs, the two lines of knights. The opportunity for jousting at this point was customarily offered to the new, young knights who were present.

At some time in mid-morning the knights would line up for the charge (estor). At the signal which was usually a bugle or herald's cry, the two knights would ride at each other and meet with levelled lances. Those remaining on horseback would turn quickly (the action which gave the tournament its name) and single out knights to attack. There is evidence that squires were present at the lists (the staked and embanked line in front of the stands) to offer their masters up to three replacement lances. The mêlée would tend then to degenerate into running battles between parties of knights seeking to take ransoms, and would spread over several square miles between the two settlements which defined the tournament area. Most tournaments continued until both sides were exhausted, or until the light faded. A few ended earlier, if one side broke in the charge, panicked and ran for its home base looking to get behind its lists and the shelter of the armed infantry which protected them. Following the tournament the patron of the day would offer lavish banquets and entertainment. Prizes were offered to the best knight on either side and awarded during the meals.^{[8][page needed]}

Melee

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Melee (/ˈmeɪleɪ/ or /ˈmeleɪ/, French: mêlée [mɛle]; in English frequently spelled as mêlée, melée, or simply melee) is a term for a type of mock combat in medieval tournaments.^[11][12][13] The "mêlée" was the "mass tournament" where two teams, either on foot or horse, clashed in formation. The aim was to smash into the enemy in massed formation, with the aim of throwing them back or breaking their ranks. Following a successful maneuver of this kind, the rank would attempt to turn around without breaking formation (widerkere or tornei); this action was so central that it would become eponymous of the entire tradition of the tourney or tournament by the mid-12th century.^{[citation needed]} Weapons were often blunted before fights in order to prevent serious injury.

The Middle High German term for this type of contest was buhurt (adopted in French as bouhourt); some sources may also make a distinction between mêlée or mass tournament and buhurt, as the latter could refer to a wider class of equestrian games not necessarily confined to the formal tournament reserved to nobility.^{[clarification needed]}

The Old French meslee "brawl, confused fight; mixture, blend" (12th century)^[14] is the feminine past participle of the verb mesler "to mix" (ultimately from Vulgar Latin misculāta "mixed", from Latin miscēre "to mix"; compare mélange; meddle, medley). The modern French form mêlée was borrowed into English in the 17th century and is not the historical term used for tournament mock battles.^{[clarification needed]} The term buhurt may be related to

bihurdan "to fence; encompass with a fence or paling").

Tournaments often contained a mêlée consisting of knights fighting one another on foot or mounted, either divided into two sides or fighting as a free-for-all. The object was to capture opposing knights so that they could be ransomed, and this could be a very profitable business for such skilled knights as William Marshal.

The mêlée or buhurt was the main form of the tournament in its early phase during the 12th and 13th centuries. The

joust

, while in existence since at least the 12th century as part of tournaments, did not play the central role it would acquire later by the late 15th century.

Jousting

Main article: Jousting

As has been said, jousting formed part of the tournament event from as early a time as it can be observed. It was an evening prelude to the big day, and was also a preliminary to the grand charge on the day itself. In the 12th century, jousting was occasionally banned in tournaments. The reasons given are that it distracted knights from the main event, and allowed a form of cheating. Count Philip of Flanders made a practice in the 1160s of turning up armed with his retinue to the preliminary jousts, and then declining to join the mêlée until the knights were exhausted and ransoms could be swept up.

But jousting had its own devoted constituency by the early 13th century, and in the 1220s it began to have its own exclusive events outside the tournament. The biographer of

John d'Ibelin, lord of Beirut. Round Tables were a 13th-century enthusiasm and can be reconstructed to have been an elimination jousting event. They were held for knights and squires alike. Other forms of jousting also arose during the century, and by the 14th century the joust was poised to take over the vacancy in aristocratic

amusement caused by the decline of the tournament.

Popularity

The first English mention of tourneying is in a charter of

Iberia. There is evidence that 3000 knights attended the tournament at Lagny-sur-Marne in November 1179 promoted by Louis VII in honour of his son's coronation. The state tournaments at Senlis and Compiègne held by Philip III in 1279 can be calculated to have been even larger events.^{[citation needed}

]

Aristocratic enthusiasm for the tournament meant that it had travelled outside its northern French heartland before the 1120s. The first evidence for it in England and the Rhineland is found in the 1120s. References in the Marshal biography indicate that in the 1160s tournaments were being held in central France and Great Britain. The contemporary works of

Lauterberg indicates that by 1175 the enthusiasm had reached the borders of Poland

.

Despite this huge interest and wide distribution, royal and ecclesiastical authority was deployed to prohibit the event. In 1130,

Stephen

(1135–1154). He did not prohibit tournaments in his continental domains, and indeed three of his sons were avid pursuers of the sport.

Tournaments were allowed in England once again after 1192, when

King John and his son, Henry III, introduced fitful and capricious prohibitions which much annoyed the aristocracy and eroded the popularity of the events. In France, Louis IX

prohibited tourneying within his domains in 1260, and his successors for the most part maintained the ban.

Equipment

It is a debated issue as to what extent specialized arms and armor were used in mêlée tournaments, and to what extent the military equipment of knights and their

horses in the 12th and 13th centuries was devised to meet the perils and demands of tournaments, rather than warfare. It is, however, clear from the sources that the weapons used in tournaments were initially the same as those used in war. It is not by any means certain that swords were blunted for most of the history of the tournament. This must have changed by the mid 13th century, at least in jousting encounters. There is a passing reference to a special spear for use in jousting in the Prose Lancelot (c. 1220).^{[citation needed]} In the 1252 jousting at Walden, the lances used had sokets, curved ring-like punches instead of points. Edward I of England's Statute of Arms of 1292 says that blunted knives and swords should be used in tournaments.^[17]

Late Middle and Early Modern Ages

Further information:

King René's Tournament Book, Bem cavalgar, Thurnierbuch, and Freydal

King René's Tournament Book

.

The tournament had a resurgence of popularity in

Edward III (1327–77), yet nonetheless the tournament died out in the latter's reign. Edward III encouraged the move towards pageantry and a predominance of jousting in his sponsored events. In one of the last true tournaments held in England in 1342 at Dunstable

, the mêlée was postponed so long by jousting that the sun was sinking by the time the lines charged.

A tournament was held in Norwich in 1350 which was attended by Edward, commonly known as the Black Prince. The tournament was held at the expense of the citizens of Norwich and cost £37.4s.6d.;^[18] approximately 5 years wages for a skilled craftsman. The tournament survived little longer in France or Burgundy. The last known to be held was at Bruges in 1379. That same year the citizens of Ghent rioted when the count of Flanders announced a tournament to be held at their city. The cause of their discontent was the associated expense for them.

By using costumes, drama, and symbolism tournaments became a form of art, which raised the expenses for these events considerably. They had political purposes, to impress the populace and guests with their opulence, as well as the courage of the participants. Loyalty to a lord or lady was expressed through clothes and increasingly elaborate enactments. Tournaments also served cultural purposes. As the ideals of

Courtly Love

became more influential, women played a more important role in the events. They were often held in honor of a lady and they participated in the playacting and symbolism.

livery badges with the White Hart at a tournament at Smithfield.^[21]

Mythology and storytelling were popular aspects of tournaments. An example of this is the tournament in 1468 that was organized by Charles the Bold to celebrate his marriage with Margaret of York. The tournament was supposedly at the bidding of the 'Lady of the Hidden Ile'. A golden tree had been erected with all the coats of arms of the participating knights. They were dressed like famous figures from legend and history, while their squires were dressed as harlequins. A notable example of an elaborate costume was that of Anthony of Luxembourg. Chained in a black castle he entered the lists. He could only be freed with a golden key and approval of the attending ladies.^[22]

The decline of the true tournament, as opposed to the joust, was not a straightforward process. Although the word continued to be used for jousts until the 16th century forced by the prominent place that tourneying occupied in popular Arthurian romance literature.

See also

• Pas d'Armes
• Horses in the Middle Ages
• Knight
• Melee
• Historical medieval battles
• Mock combat
• Hastilude
• Battle of the Nations

Notes