The truth about jousts

Going to Renaissance Fairs is fun. One of my favorite parts is attending the reenactments of medieval history. I love seeing folks fight in period dress, especially tournament-style jousting. Granted, what we as modern folk, observe at fairs today is only a simulation of the ancient event. Back in the day, only men competed in the mounted joust (it was considered war games). Liability prevents most venues from putting on a melee.  Does that mean today’s games are ‘fake’? Absolutely not! Participants can be injured. Legitimate organizations require verifiable training of their members before they are allowed to strap on the armor and mount a horse in front of the cheering crowds.  Multiple attempts have been made to turn jousting into a sport that anyone can enter in many countries. Alas, the cost of the events for both the producer and the athletes, have resulted in a failure of any single authorizing agency to maintain a steady season.

 

How does today’s sport compare to the violent competition of the past?

 

Single combat between two opponents has existed as long as men held grudges. When the horse became an integral   of warfare, the mounted warrior jumped to the head of the fighting class. Men facing off against each other one-on-one were nothing new. Lords needed a method to test the skills of their men and horses. The only way to find weaknesses was to have knights fight in ‘war games’.

 

This was a problem. First, no one really wanted to divulge the kinks of their men-at-arms, much less their knights. Destriers, or warhorses, were expensive. Was the risk of a horse breaking a leg worth it? The Church frowned on frivolous displays. One method enacted by the Church to contain and control knights was by a law enacted between 990 and 1048 called the ‘Peace of God and the Truth of God.’ The act was designed to protect non-combatants (Peace of God) and prevent hostilities at designated times (Truce of God). Penalties included excommunication. The Powers That Be eventually added merchants to those under the edict. One of the Peace days was Sunday, and soon Easter was included. The clergy banned plundering from Thursday through Sundays. Such was the power of the Church.

 

Tournaments as we know them gained ground in the mid-eleventh century. One record has an Angevin knight, Geoffrey de Preuilly, claiming to be the originator of the jousting tourney. The events gained popularity in France and Normandy, spreading out from there although the English Kings discouraged the practice.  Unhappy with the injuries and deaths, Pope Innocent II condemned the sport during second Council of Clermont in 1130 in a speech  saying...”those detestable markets and fairs, vulgarly called tournaments, at which knights are wont to assemble, in order to display their strength and their rash boldness...” The Pope also decreed anyone slain at the tournaments be denied Christian burial.

 

Dude, that was harsh.

 

Notices of the events were put up two-three weeks in advance. The actual area wasn’t contained in an arena, but might be over an extended area including the countryside and local villages. Combatants were separated into teams. Some tournaments were even between two villages. There was little difference between the war games of the tournament and an actual battle. Any rules were agreed upon in advance, although just about anything was allowed. In most cases, only roped-off areas were considered safe zones. No one was spared, as illustrated at the tournament of Chalons in 1273 when the Count of Chalons managed to take a hold of Edward I of England by the neck in an attempt to unhorse him. Eddie wasn’t happy with the maneuver, considering it a breach of etiquette. In a matter of moments, both sides were brawling in a real fight that ended up with casualties involving spectators and participants.

 

England’s Richard I was fed up with the bodies piling up. His father, Henry II had banned tournaments but Richard knew the French were better prepared for war then the English. It might have helped that William Marshall was English and had made a name for himself on the main land tourney circuit. The Lion-Hearted King understood that war games helped to hone skills. Richard came up rules, a court of control, and sanctioned tournaments in certain areas of the country. A fee structure was set up depending upon one’s rank: 20 marks for an earl, 10 for a baron, 4 for a landed knight, and 2 marks for a knight without an estate. The court of control was formed under the leadership of the earls of Warenne, Gloucester, and Salisbury. King Edward I limited the number of retainers a participant could bring and enforced the use of blunted weapons. He also decreed that the footmen and grooms weren’t allowed to carry offensive weapons and that only squires carving for their principals could attend the banquets.

 

This cut down on the number of armed men running around starting trouble but it didn’t reduce the risk of men dying during the actual tourney. Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex died in 1216, Florence Count of Holland died in 1223 (his son died in 1234) and his brother in 1238. Robert of Clermont, brother of Phillip III of France, sustained a severe head injury in 1279. In 1241, historians recorded over 80 knights killed at one tournament in Neuss. Men sometimes attended the games in lieu of actual service. King Edward I had to impose a ban on tournaments during the years when he was campaigning against the Welsh and the Scots after his knights used lulls in the fighting to sneak off to participate in nearby games.

 

In later years, the rules became more refined. Renowned knights Raymond Lull and Geoffroi de Charny wrote books about chivalry and the art of the tournament.

Today's contests are staged. Men and women compete wearing armor and safety gear. There are no battles to the death or melees. Yes, folks get hurt and the hits are real but still, wars aren't started over a grudge.

 

To learn more, see:

 

Chivalry

By Maurice Keen

1984 Yale University Press

ISBN #0-300-03150-5

A Chronicle History of Knights

By Andrea Hopkins

2004 Barnes & Noble Books

ISBN # 07607-5807-7

 

 

Stay safe out there!