Beauty of chivalric sports.
Superiority to those of Greece and Rome.
All our most delightful imaginings of chivalry are associated with the tournament. We see in fancy’s mirror the gay and graceful knight displaying on his plumed steed the nobleness of his bearing, and the lady of his affections smiling upon his gallant skill, while the admiring people in rude and hearty joy shout their loud acclaims. Those who were illustrious for ancestral or newly acquired renown met in the listed plain. The fierceness of war was mellowed into elegance, and even feudalism abated something of its sternness, when called on to perform tendance on the ladies and damsels who graced the scene. Baronial pomp, knightly gallantry, woman’s beauty, gay caparisons, rich attire, and feudal pageantry, throng the mind in wild and splendid confusion, when we hear the herald’s trumpet-clang summoning the knights to achievement. It was in the tournament especially that the chivalric nations of Europe asserted their superior claims to gracefulness and humanity; for though the Greeks might vaunt their Olympic games, yet in them woman’s favour did not bestow the garland, and though matrons mingled with senators in the Coliseum, and a virgin gave the signal for the commencement of the sports, yet the tortures and death of their fellow-creatures constituted the amusement.
Origin of tournaments.
Our ancestors were so proud of the Trojan descent which their historians deduced for them, that they even regarded the games which Æneas celebrated to the honour of his dead father, Anchises, as the origin of their own knightly joust and tournament. But in those games there was no encounter of two lances as in the joust, and no courteous battle between two parties of warriors, as was the case in the tournament. This learned enthusiasm was needless and absurd; for the knights might have discovered in the nature and tendency of circumstances, and in the practice of their known and immediate forefathers, sufficient matter of originality. The Romans were wont to exercise themselves in mock combats, and so were the Goths[278]; but it would be difficult to prove any chain of connection between these people. War was an art in the middle ages, and a long and painful education preceded the practice of it. It was the delight as well as the occupation of the world; for fame[279], fortune, and woman’s love[280], could only be obtained by gallant bearing. Hence we find that thoughts of war were not abandoned in times of peace, and that some softened images of battle formed the grace of festive solemnities.
Reasons for holding them.
Practice in arms.
Courtesy.
The martial spirit of the world was nourished by such customs, for kings were always eager to hold tourneys for the better training up of soldiers in feats of arms.[281] It was the beneficial nature of tournaments to shed the amenities and courtesies of peace over the horrid front of war. Thus there were rules for conducting these images of battle which no knight could violate without forfeiting his title to chivalry. The display of address, with as little danger as possible to life and limb, was the chief character of these encounters, and skill, therefore, in real war, became more esteemed than brute violence. To profit by the mischance of an adversary would, in the tournament, have been considered unknightly; and it followed that even in the most deadly encounters of nations no cavalier would avail himself of any accident happening to his foe.
By whom they were held.
Military exercises, when performed by two parties of cavaliers with hurtless weapons, were called tournaments. If the occasion were high and solemn, heralds repaired to different courts, announcing their sovereign’s purpose of holding martial exercises at a particular time, and inviting all those who valued their knighthood, and respected dames and maidens, to repair to the appointed city, and prove their chivalry.[282]
In Germany matters were somewhat different, and should be stated. Except in Saxony (which had its own tournaments), the Germans who were entitled to appear in the tourneying lists were divided into four companies; namely, that of the Rhine—of Bavaria—of Swabia—and of Franconia. The assembled cavaliers were called the chivalry of the four countries. Each country by rotation held the tournament, and chose its leader or judge of the sports, who appointed three ladies to give the arms to the knights, and three others to distribute the prizes. It was usual for one of the ladies to be a wife, another a widow, and the third a maiden.[283]
Qualifications for tourneying.