Robert of Gloucester, in his Chronicle in verse, which ends shortly before the accession of King Edward I, writes concerning William Rufus:—
“Stalwarde he was ＆ hardy ＆ god knyght, thorn al thyng In batayle ＆ in ‘tornemnes’ er than he were Kyng.”[24]
but this of course has not the value of contemporary history.
The knight-errant of the twelfth century and even later often spent the evening of his days as an anchorite, undergoing many self-imposed penances, fastings and flagellations in expiation of many acts of violence and even oppression of his active career.
The tournaments of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were characterized by all the romantic fire of knight-errantry, though they were often rough and disorderly, and not infrequently degenerated into real battles or free fights, in which many of the combatants were seriously injured or killed. At the meeting held at Neuss, near Cologne, in 1240, sixty of the combatants are stated to have been killed. In England an Earl of Salisbury died from his hurts; his grandson, Sir William Montague, was killed when jousting with his own father; and many prominent knights and nobles were so injured in the tourney that they never regained their health. Tournaments generally tended to become milder as rules, regulations and limitations were enacted for their government; but it was not before the reign of King Edward I that they were brought under any regular disciplined system of control.
After the reign of King Stephen these martial exercises often came under the ban of both church and state, the former even going to the length of excommunication and the refusal of Christian burial to the fallen. Pope Gregory issued a bull against them in 1228, and there were other bulls.[25] King Henry II discouraged them and issued edicts against them; and we are told by William of Newbury that many young cavaliers travelled from England to enjoy their favourite pastime in other lands, especially France. Tournaments were revived in England, says Jocelin of Brakelond,[26] after the return of the heroic Richard from the Holy Land, who granted licences for holding them; and from this time forward unlicensed tourneying was treated as an offence against the crown. Roger de Hoveden writes in Annals, under the year 1194 (in translation):—“King Richard ordered tournaments to be held in England, which he confirmed by charter; but that all wishing to tourney should pay for the privilege according to rank—viz., an earl, 20 marks of silver; a baron, 10 marks; a knight, holding land, 4 marks; and any who were landless, 2 marks; and no knight was permitted to enter any lists without first having paid his fee.” The charter of this grant was delivered into the custody of William, Earl of Salisbury; and Hubert Fitz-Walter, the king’s chief-justice, appointed his brother, Theobald Fitz-Walter, to be collector.
Hoc ett Breve, Dni Regis Ricardi I. missum Dno Cantuariensi, de concessione Torneamentorum in Anglia.
Heac est forma Pacis fervandae a Torneatoribus (Harl. MS. 237).[27]
Tournaments became controlled by royal ordinances, and any infraction of the rules laid down was punishable with the forfeiture of horse and armour, imprisonment and other penalties; though at times the regulations would seem to have been very loosely interpreted or entirely disregarded. This assumption of control by the state had been brought about by various causes quite apart from the frequently disorderly nature of the meetings, and the large number of casualties involved; though these were the ostensible reasons often given for the interdiction of all unauthorized gatherings of the kind. Much, however, depended on the character and temperament of the reigning monarch, and the condition of order or otherwise prevailing in the country at the time. At tournaments, whether held by royal licence or not, the combatants were divided into two camps or parties; and they gathered together large concourses of spectators, who were too apt to become strong and eager partisans, as we see at the football games of to-day; the unpopular side being sometimes assailed with volleys of stones, some discharged from slings. These meetings were thus frequently looked upon with disfavour by the powers that be, and were either entirely prohibited, or licences were refused in troublous times; for the assemblage of so many influential knights and powerful barons with their feudatories, coming from all parts of the kingdom, constituted a danger to the state in affording opportunities for cabals, sedition and other disorders, and, indeed, tumults frequently occurred. Tournaments were very popular in France during the reign of Philip Augustus; and Père Daniel relates an incident of that reign affording a striking example of the large gatherings that assembled. An unexpected attack having been made on the town of Alençon, the king was enabled to enrol a sufficient force at a tournament being held in the neighbourhood at the time to repel it. Jousting was not much practised in France at that time or during the thirteenth century, the cavaliers of that country preferring the mêlée.
In the year 1196 King Philip Augustus “sent vnto King Richard, requiring him to appoint fiue champions, and he would appoint other fiue for his part, which might fight in listes, for triall of all matters in controusee betwixt them, so to avoid the shedding of more guiltlesse bloud. King Richard accepted the offer, with the proviso that either King might be of the number, that is the French King one of the fiue vpon the French part; and King Richard one of the fiue vpon the English part. But this condition would not be granted.”[28]