Probably written by Sir Gilbert Dethick, Garter King of Arms.
Judicial Combats are also properly classed under the general heading of the Tournament, and these duels, on foot and on horseback, were fought greatly subject to its rules and regulations. An account of this singular institution follows after the tournament proper.
[CHAPTER II]
Jousts of Peace, Hastiludia pacifica, were those of sport, military exercises and courtesy; while Jousts of War, Joûtes à Outrance, or as Froissart calls them “Justes Mortelles et à Champ,” were combats to the death, though subjected to the intervention of the umpire at any stage, by the casting of his bâton, by which a serious wounding or death was often prevented. The term “à outrance,” however, was used not infrequently in Chapitres d’Armes or articles of combat where no fatal ending was in contemplation; they were encounters of courtesy in fact, though contests in which battle-axes, sharp swords and pointed lances were employed.
The chroniclers of the joust and tournament of the earlier centuries exhibit a lack of technical knowledge, and the terms they employ are often mixed and conflicting; and, indeed, this confusion continues throughout later centuries also, to an extent making any exact definition of terms extremely difficult.
Whatever information we possess regarding tournaments of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries is greatly derived from the Mediæval Latin chronicles of the Anglo-Norman monks; but the material they furnish requires to be used with discretion, owing to the frequent unhappy blending of fact and legend, a lack of professional knowledge, and a way of reporting things of half a century or more ago in harmony with the environment of the time of writing. Among the chroniclers of the tournament of the period we are immediately dealing with, are William of Malmesbury, whose History of the Kings of England finishes at the year 1142; Wace, who wrote the Roman de Rou, on Rollo and the succeeding Dukes of Normandy, in 1160; William of Newbury, 1197; Roger of Hoveden, 1201.[21] William Fitzstephen was an eye-witness of the events he relates; the prolific and illuminating Matthew Paris, 1259; Robert of Gloucester, who died in 1290; and Matthew of Westminster, 1307.
Much information concerning the body-armour of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries has been derived from seals, and particularly from those of the kings of England; also from illuminations in chronicles, representations on tapestry and carvings in ivory. Military effigies and brasses have also proved of immense value, for they enable us to fill in many of the gaps left in the recitals of chroniclers, and afford precise information as to the knightly equipment for battle, as far as least as the presence of the surcoat will permit. We have, indeed, been favoured among the nations in the preservation of so many of these monuments. There are but few brasses of the thirteenth century existing, though effigies are very numerous. Sad it is that so many of these priceless memorials have been lost or thoughtlessly mutilated; but their very important bearing upon history was but faintly recognised much before the nineteenth century began. Many of them had been thrown on the rubbish heap to make way for some trivial and often mischievous alteration, or lost when some of our finest churches were spoilt by what is so often miscalled restoration; and many even of the effigies left to us have been exposed to a process of tinkering by thoughtless hands. Not a detail is missing on many of those monuments that remain, and even colours are indicated.
William of Newbury states that tournaments first appear in England in the troubled reign of King Stephen, 1135-1154; and that they were introduced from France by the Norman nobles is clear from the expressions employed by Matthew Paris concerning them, viz.: “Conflictus Gallicus” and “batailles francaises.” Lombarde[22] states that “the kings of this realm before King Stephen, would not suffer it to be frequented within their land; so that, such as for exercise in that feate in armes, were driven to passe over the seas, and to performe in some different place in a foreigne countrie: but afterwards King Stephen in his time allowed it.”[23] It was the Norman knights who introduced the employment and couching of the lance in England. Of that age we have the remarkable description of the martial sports of London by William Fitzstephen. He tells us ‘that every Sunday in Lent, immediately after dinner it was customary for great crowds of Londoners, mounted on war-horses, well trained to perform the necessary turnings and evolutions, to ride into the fields in distinct bands, armed “hastilibus ferro dempto,” with shields and headless lances; where they exhibited representations of battle, and went through a variety of warlike exercises: at the same time many of the young noblemen who had not received the honour of knighthood, came from the King’s court, and from the houses of the great barons, to make a trial of their skill in arms; the hope of victory animating their minds. The youth being divided into opposite companies, encountered one another; in one place they fled, and others pursued, without being able to overtake them; in another place one of the bands overtook and over-turned the other.’