PART VII.
THE TOURNAMENT.
The word is derived from the French “tournoyer,” to wheel round, and the name in old French was “tournoiement.” Tournaments were first instituted as training schools for the practice of arms, and were later tempered by the rules of chivalry. Jousts or justs of peace (hastiludia pacifica) were single combats, or a succession of such, for a prize or trial of skill; while the tourney was troop against troop. The term “passage of arms” is often used somewhat generally; but, strictly interpreted, it was a combat where several knights on each side were engaged, some fighting on foot, others on horseback. The sword was often blunt and pointless, being of whalebone covered with leather and silvered over. When actual swords were used no thrusting was permitted, but striking only. The length of the lance proper was usually about fourteen feet, the shaft being of ash; but there were several varieties of the weapon for the different “courses”; and in very early times, like the lance for battle, it was both thinner and shorter. An ordinance of the thirteenth century provides that the lance should be blunted, but this having been systematically evaded, another ordinance of the century following required the lance-head to be in the form of a coronal; and this law was for a time strictly enforced. There are examples in the Tower of London, and specimens exist in most museums abroad, notably at Dresden. The courses to be run were generally three in number. “Joustes à outrance” were to the death. Tournaments had their birth in Germany, in which country warlike games, probably inherited from the Romans, prevailed as early as the ninth century; indeed, there was an important “passage of arms” at Strasburg in the year 842.[20] They continued very popular after the breaking up of the Franco-Germanic empire, and formed the pastime of the higher class up to the Thirty Years’ War. These early warlike games, in spite of all precautions, were often attended with great loss of life, and as many as sixty combatants have been put hors de combat at one “passage of arms.” They were always popular in France, and held there on a large scale; indeed, it is claimed that the “tournoiement,” properly so called, had its birth in that country, where it is said to have been instituted by Geoffrey de Preuilli, who died in 1066; and these warlike games were very much in vogue during the reign of Philip Augustus. The armour and weapons for the tournament at this time were the same as those used for battle, and continued so until after the reign of Edward III.; but the lighter form of lance was common in France long after it had been discarded in the other countries mentioned, and the French shaft was made of sycamore or fir. It was not before the beginning of the twelfth century that jousting or fighting with lance in rest became common; in fact, until then the lances in use were unsuitable for that purpose. Much information regarding the armament of combatants, the usages to be observed, and the regulations as to heralds, pursuivants-at-arms, esquires, and varlets, besides many interesting details, is contained in the Statutum Armorum ad Torniamenta, written towards the end of the thirteenth century. New and more stringent rules had become necessary, because of the frequency of the “joust of peace” degenerating into one “à outrance.” This evil had become so great that the Pope forbade the games in England, and King Edward III. repeatedly issued fiats against them, and so also did his successor; still the Crown frequently issued licences for tournaments being held. An excellent description of the arms and armour employed at a later age may be found in the Tourney Book of King René d’Anjou (Tournois du Roi René), illuminated by himself, with a most minute statement of the rules, ceremonial, and courses; and in it is a graphic account of the combat between the Dukes of Brittany and Bourbon. A miniature in this book exhibits a knight entering the lists with great ceremony. The first regular tournament in England occurs in the reign of Stephen, and another was held very early in that of Henry II., but its consequences were of such a nature as to induce that monarch, at the pressing instance of the priesthood, to forbid these games. So great, however, was their popularity that they continued to be held in spite of the king’s fiat, though it was not before the reign of his heroic son that they became common, and were then kept in strict bounds by royal ordinances. Henry III. charges his subjects that “they offend not by tourneying,” and, as already mentioned, even as late as 1299 edicts were issued against the games. There were only five authorised centres for lists in England, and four of these were south of the Trent. Tournaments in the northern counties required a special licence. Earls competing were obliged to pay twenty marks to the king, barons ten marks, and knight-bannerets and bachelors two to four marks, according to estate. The plan of the earliest lists was circular with palisades, but the form was afterwards changed to square rather longer than broad, and the latest were often made oblong. They varied very much in size, and were ornamented with tapestry and heraldic devices. Permanent lists were often enclosed by a ditch or moat. Roofed-in wooden erections, sometimes with sloping galleries for the spectators, were usually placed at the sides of the lists, and were often highly decorated. The marshals of the lists, heralds and pursuivants-at-arms, were stationed within the enclosure to take note of the various incidents taking place among the combatants, and it was the duty of the first-named to see that the rules of chivalry were strictly observed. Varlets were in attendance to assist the esquires in looking after their masters, especially when unhorsed. Trumpets announced the entry of each competitor, who was followed by his esquires into the lists. Each knight usually bore on his person some token from his lady-love, which was disposed on his helmet, lance, or shield. A prize was bestowed after a tournament, and presented with great pomp and ceremony. The arms and armament of the vanquished fell as spoil to the victors, unless ransomed by a payment in money. This was, however, only the case in jousts of courtesy, not in combats “à outrance.”
During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries an immense amount of artistic skill was freely lavished on armour for the lists, as well as on that for purposes of parade. It was common to hold a “passage of arms” for three days; two of them for contending on horseback, and the third on foot. Lances were used on the first day, swords and maces on the second, and pole-axes on the third. Those open to all comers were termed “joutes plenières.” Pluvinel, who wrote at the close of the reign of James I., says: “There ought to be at each end of the lists a little scaffold, the height of the stirrup, on which two or three persons can stand, viz., the knight, the armourer to arm him and his assistant, and hence he mounts his steed.” Froissart, writing towards the end of the fourteenth century, gives a graphic account of the tournament in his day. Judicial combats were common throughout the century, and usually took place within the nearest lists. Trial “by ordeal,” or the judgment of God, was a strange outcome of the Christian faith as practised during the “dark ages” of our era. It implied, of course, a strictly personal God, who specially interested himself in the doings of every one, and a simple, child-like faith that the Omnipotent would order victory to the just cause and protect the innocent from injustice. The “ordeal” was by fire, hot iron, boiling water, and by the sword. It was suppressed towards the end of the twelfth century, and was followed by that of single combat, “God shewing the right.” This method was in full accord with the chivalrous spirit of the times. Old persons, women, and minors were represented by “champion.” The combat might continue from noon to sundown, and if it lasted as long the innocence of the accused was established and proclaimed. This form of combat was only applied in the cases of crimes punishable with death, and only when merely circumstantial evidence was available. A figure of a judicial combat occurs in the Conquêtes de Charlemagne, a manuscript of the fifteenth century in the National Library at Paris. The combatants wore chain-mail, with genouillières and coudières, the period represented being late thirteenth or early fourteenth century. An angel superintends the duel.[21]
The custom of “judicial combats” fell into disuse in the fifteenth century.——We must confess to a lively partiality for the history of Sir Walter Scott, in spite of his facile imagination and palpable inaccuracies, and think the graphic picture of “The Gentle and Joyous Passage of Arms” at Ashby-de-la-Zouche, with “La Royne de la Beauté et des Amours,” gives as delightful an account of a tournament in the times of Richard Cœur-de-Lion as need be wished for. The gallant knights are distinguished by their belts and gilded spurs.
“The knights are dust
And their good swords are rust,
Their souls are with the saints, we trust.”
In the specification for arms and armour for the tournament of Windsor Park (1278) we see of what each suit consisted, viz., “one coat of fence, one surcoat, one pair of ailettes, two crests (one for the horse), one shield (heraldically ensigned), one helm of leather (gilded or silvered), and one sword made of whalebone.” The cost of each armament varied in price from about ten to thirty shillings. The shields were of wood, costing fivepence each. The total cost of the combined thirty-eight armaments was about £80. Chaucer refers to tournaments in the following lines:—
“The heralds left their pricking up and down,
Now ringen trumpets loud and clarion.
There is no more to say, but east and west,
In go the speares sadly in the rest,
In goth the sharp spur into the side,
There see men who can just, and who can ride;
There shiver shaftes upon shieldes thick,
He feeleth through the heart-spone the prick;
Up springen speares, twenty feet in height,
Out go the swordes to the silver bright,
The helms they to-hewn and to-shred:
Out burst the blood with stern streames red.”
The leading “courses” of the tourney are fully described later in the paragraph devoted to German methods, which, though there were many more varieties, were practically those of England, where there was also the round-table game, etc. Matthew Paris mentions a “round table game” held at the Abbey of Wallenden in 1252; and Earl Roger de Mortimer held one at his castle of Kenilworth in 1280, and Edward III. another at Windsor in 1344. This form of tournament seems to have been very popular in England during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; but there is no clear definition of its peculiarities given by any of the few chroniclers who mention the subject. The idea of the knights sitting round the table seems to have been an assertion of the principle of equality so as to avoid questions of precedence—one full of difficulty in all ages.
Tilting was practised during the fourteenth century very much as in the century following. A joust of about 1330 is figured on “The Codex Balduin Treverenses,”—the horses bear housings, and the knights mantles. The armament for jousting and battle began in this century to show some difference from that of earlier times. The games continued in unabated vigour throughout the middle ages and the “renaissance,” and until the general use of firearms rendered such exercises no longer of much practical value.
The necessary limits of this work will not admit of any detailed description of the many and curious rules, usages, and limitations which were absolutely necessary for carrying on these dangerous games without great and unnecessary bloodshed and the loss of many valuable lives, but much can be seen in a set of regulations prevailing under Henry VIII. in the tournament roll preserved in the Heralds’ College. Students of the subject will do well to read an able paper in the Archæological Journal, vol. lv., No. 219, entitled “Tilting in Tudor Times,” written by Viscount Dillon in 1898; and a most excellent and comprehensive account of the German “turnier,” and weapons used, exists in Herr Wendelin Boeheim’s work, Handbuch der Waffenkunde. This is a veritable text-book.