Tournaments and tilting generally were, however, rendered less dangerous than might have been expected by the addition of reinforcing armour, which pieces were screwed on over the more vulnerable places, on armour made for ordinary fighting purposes, and for some courses of the tournament, mainly on the left side, which received most of the blows; indeed, these extra pieces constituted a double defence of iron for the head, chest, and left shoulder. This was obviously rendered necessary when one considers the terrible impact of the lance in full career with the breastplate or helmet. These extra tilting pieces made their appearance in the reign of Edward IV., but they were known in Germany several decades earlier. It was early when suits of armour were made differently for battle and for tournaments, as William Lord Bergavenny bequeathed to his son “the best sword and harness for justs of peace and that which belong to war.”
Late in the fifteenth century there were complete tilting harnesses of such immense weight that a knight once unhorsed lay on the ground absolutely helpless, and often could not rise without the assistance of his varlets. His movements when on horseback were very restricted. These suits were of such resisting power as to give practical immunity to the wearers so far as wounds were concerned, but they were far too heavy to be used in the mêlée. A tilting harness with the Nuremberg mark, in the splendid collection at that city, is of immense weight and strength, and the example is specially valuable, as the date 1498 is inscribed on the cuirass. The knight could barely move in the saddle, and was able only to guide his horse and aim his lance. Armour made specially for the tilt-yard will be described later in these pages, and illustrations given.
There is an account of a tournament held in the reign of Henry VIII., in a tournament roll preserved in the Heralds’ College. The challenged (Les Venantz) were nine in number. The armour worn was of the heavy tilting class, with lamboys; and the horses were fully barbed, with housings. It would appear from the barrier between which the knights ride that this was the “Italian course,” known in Germany as the “Welsche Gestech.” This barrier was first of cloth hung on a rope, but afterwards of wood; and then the great knee-guard came into use to protect the knee from being crushed against the barrier, the height of which was usually about five, or even six feet. The meeting between Henry and Francis on the Field of the Cloth of Gold, in 1520, was the occasion of at least one tournament. The king himself was one of the challengers. One of the drawings shows him as breaking a lance with his opponent. It is certainly desirable at this point to give somewhat full particulars of the leading modes of jousting as practised in Germany at the end of the fifteenth, and during the sixteenth century, as it was here where these games were most frequently practised, and the German archives fortunately yield us very full particulars, which throw much light on the subject generally.
The Emperor Maximilian and our Henry VIII. were great patrons of the tournament, often taking part in it, and so were all the German princes of the sixteenth century. We find very full particulars of Maximilian tournaments, as held during the emperor’s reign, in the Turnierbuch des Kaisers Maximilian I., a synopsis of which has been written by Quirin von Leitner. This “Triumph of Maximilian,” dictated by the emperor in 1512, affords much information on this subject; and in it many of the forms of tourney are represented, with the various weapons and armour used in the different courses. The Turnierbuch of the Emperor Maximilian I. would have been both incomplete and inconclusive without the masterly drawings by Hans Burgkmair, painter and engraver, of Augsburg. This artist seems to have been closely associated with the great master Lorenz Kolman, surnamed “Helmschmied,” and doubtless did designing and engraving work for him. Courses of rather a later period are described in Hans Schwenkh’s Wappenmeistersbuch, written in Munich in 1554; besides which there are several “tournament books” of the German courts giving not only general descriptions of the games, with the rules and regulations practised, but also full accounts of particular encounters concerning which we have the harnesses fought in standing before us for reference to-day. There are also many original prints preserved giving particular examples of these games. Furthermore, Dr. Cornelius Gurlitt has given an excellent resumé of tournaments from the middle of the sixteenth century up to the Thirty Years’ War, derived greatly from the archives at Dresden. Herr Wendelin Boeheim, the curator of the imperial collection of Vienna, gives many details in his great work, Handbuch der Waffenkunde. The author has had the advantage of many personal hints concerning the German forms of tournament from Max von Ehrenthal, the accomplished curator of the Dresden collection, and he owes much information and several of the illustrations given under this heading to this gentleman’s kindness and liberality. Dr. von Ubisch, the director of the collection at the Zeughaus, Berlin, has also assisted him greatly, especially concerning ordinary fighting suits and other matters.
Tournaments of the sixteenth century were mostly for diversion and practice, and it was very rarely that any great injury was sustained. It will be seen from the descriptions here given that it was mainly a question of concussion, in the splintering of lances, or being rolled on the ground, the hardness of which was greatly modified by a liberal covering of tanning refuse. The stunning effects from the strokes of the sword and mace, as felt on the inside of the thick defences used, must have been very trying, and one fails to understand how so comparatively little damage to life and limb was experienced in the riders being hurled from their steeds, encased in their heavy panoply of more than two hundred pounds in weight; and what makes this the more extraordinary is that the rider was helped on to his horse again after a fall and ran again, and this sometimes happened several times: but judging from the records preserved, and there are many, the casualties in the tilt-yard of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were little, if at all more numerous and serious than those in the hunting or football fields of to-day; or in the duels that were common so recently at German universities; or for the matter of that in the accidents arising from the use of the cycle. This comparative immunity from serious injury in the tilt-yard was partly accounted for by the assistance rendered by the varlets in helping the horse to keep his feet, and the rider his seat after impact, and also in assisting in breaking the fall of the rider.
SHARFRENNEN.
This form is characterised by heavy lances “sharp,” as the name for the course implies. The main object was “unhorsing,” and the saddle was unprovided with front and rear supports; it was, in fact, quite unlike the ordinary war-horse saddle—indeed, more resembling the English saddle of to-day. The object of this was that there should be nothing to impede the rider’s fall. The lances used in this course were not expected to break or splinter, though they did so sometimes. On the moment of impact each combatant dropped his lance to avoid injury to the arm from splintering, and this was the case in the other courses also. The consequence of a true impact was, as a rule, that at least one rider was unhorsed; but sometimes both riders fell, and occasionally both horses as well, so that all four combatants, for the horses may be said to have fought also, bit the dust. In cases where a rider was able to keep his saddle for a moment after impact and swaying in the endeavour to retain his seat, his varlets rushed forward to support him. Sometimes in case of lances slightly deflecting, or missing altogether, one and even both horses have been known to fall forward. There was a “rennen” between the Emperor Maximilian and Duke John of Saxony at Innsbruck in 1498.
The tournaments held at the imperial and princely courts were strictly games, the hosts often personally challenging their guests to a trial of skill. Much depended naturally on the training of the horses, which were sometimes ridden blindfold. The legs and feet of the competitors were without armour, except the “diechlinge,” so that the rider could sit firmly supported on the saddle. The “diechlinge” served as a protection for the thigh and knee. Such a defence was necessary, owing to the risk of these limbs of the combatants colliding. In the Dresden Museum, in the “Turnierwaffen-Saal,” an interesting and very realistic representation of a German “Sharfrennen” may be seen, the combatants facing each other, fully armed, with lances in rest. The defences are double throughout, each harness weighing about two hundred pounds. The period is 1550–53, and most of the riders in the “Saal” have sat their horses since the year 1591. The body-armour is engraved and fluted, and the helmet is the sallad. The breastplate of the harness nearest the entrance to the hall bears the monogram of the armour-smith Sigmund Rockenberger of Wittenberg, the other was made by Hans Rosenberger of Dresden. The grand-guard, volant-piece, and left shoulder-guard are of wood, strengthened with plate, and covered with leather. A curved plain shield is screwed on over the left shoulder, while an enormous vamplate, or shield with a bouche, guards the right, and through this the butt end of the lance rests.
The armour itself is of the heavy tilting kind, over which is a dress of stuff with bases, a sort of petticoat like the civil dress of the day. Stockings and slippers are worn, and there is no defence of plate over them excepting at the knee, over which is the great “diechlinge” already mentioned. The woollen stockings and slippers in these instances are restorations; but there is an actual tilting shoe of the period in one of the museum cases at Dresden. Spurs with long necks are used. The horses are barded and fully housed. Housings reaching nearly to the ground are usually highly and fancifully decorated, bearing the “arms” or “cognizance” of the rider, and are often ornamented with the figures of birds or animals. In the Royal Library at Dresden is a representation on parchment of a “Sharfrennen” between Kurfürst August of Saxony and Johann von Ratzenberg, and afterwards with Hans von Schönfeld, in 1545, at Minden. It was drawn by Heinrich Goding, the court painter in 1584. This combat was termed a “Gedritts,” signifying that the victor, in order to gain the prize, had after the first encounter still to dispose of a second antagonist—three were thus engaged, and hence the term. A copy of this interesting record follows in [Fig. 4]. An example of the armour worn in this course is given in [Fig. 5]. It was made for Kurfürst August, by Sigmund Rockenberger of Wittenberg in 1554. The form is graceful, and the ornamentation of a chaste character. The details are clearly marked, such as the screw for the volant-piece; the sharp-pointed, spearhead-like projection standing forward from the centre of the breastplate, a fashion that only endured for a few decades; the ponderous lance-rest, and heavy abdominal extra plate,—all being characteristic of a suit used for “rennen.” The elegant sallad differs materially from the earlier form, and is very shapely. Only persons of noble birth or those subsequently granted “arms” were permitted to take part in “rennen.”