In the year 1250 “was a great tornie and iusts holden at Brackley, when the earle of Gloucester (contrarie to his accustomed manner) fauoured the part of the strangers, whereby they prevailed. In so much that William de Valance handled one Sir William de Odingesselles verie roughlie, the same Sir William being a right worthy knight.”[29]
In 1251 King Henry III forbad the holding of a round table[30] and many examples of such prohibitions are given in Foedera. Yet, meetings of the kind were often held in England in spite of them, for the young cavaliers, imbued with the chivalrous spirit of the age, declined being balked of their favourite pastime and were willing to run some risks for its gratification. In the reign of Henry III the king admonishes his subjects “to offend not by tourneying,” and, “by the advice of parliament enacted, that all who (without leave) should keep a tournament, should forfeit their estates, and their children to be disinherited.”[31] As late as the reign of King Edward II an edict was issued against the practice, the ordinance running “Turneare, burdeare, justas facere, aventuras quaerere.”[32] Prohibitions against tournaments were issued in the years 1220, 1234, 1255 and 1299. In normal times, however, they were often encouraged by the crown, and were presided over, and even taken part in, by kings and princes. Matthew of Westminster states that it was customary for newly made knights to pass over to the Continent to show their mettle by feats of arms; and that King Henry III knighted eighty gentlemen on one occasion, who all went abroad, accompanied by Prince Edward, to take part in tournaments.
In the early days of tournaments there were only five authorized lists (champs clos) in England, and they were all south of the Trent. At a later period these enclosures were usually placed in the neighbourhood of a large town where there was a hall spacious enough for the banquet and the dance; the size of the lists being regulated by the number of cavaliers expected to take part. Those of the twelfth century were open at the sides, a barrier standing at each end; later they were made quadrangular in shape, longer than broad by one-fourth. They were enclosed by a double row of palisading, high enough to make it impossible for a horse to leap over; the space between the rows affording a place of refuge for the varlets (ephebi) and attendants. The rôle of the varlets was to rush in and steady their masters in the saddle, when swaying after their careers; and, when unhorsed, to extricate and drag them, as opportunity offered, out of the press or from among the horse’s hoofs in the mêlée; for they were unable to help themselves in their heavy armour. This duty was both difficult and dangerous, but they had to manage as best they could. Openings were left at either end of the lists for entrance and exit, and movable barriers were provided for closing them when required. A thick covering of sand was strewn on the ground, or it was well mulched with tanning refuse so as to provide a soft bed for breaking the force of the fall of a cavalier when unseated. The lists were gaily decorated with tapestry, bunting and heraldic devices; a tribune for the umpire or judge, and benches for the spectators, were provided; as well as special galleries for the ladies, which were often adorned with gold and silver embroideries. Two pavilions were pitched for the use of the leaders, which were removed before the commencement of the tourney. The scene presented by a tournament must have been brilliant in the extreme; and the element of danger involved would add greatly to the interest and excitement of the spectators. Permanent lists were often surrounded by a ditch or moat. The marshals of the lists, kings of arms, heralds and pursuivants-at-arms were stationed within the enclosure to note the various incidents taking place among the combatants; and it was the duty of the first-named to see that the rules of chivalry and general regulations were strictly observed. Trumpets announced the entry of each competitor, who was followed into the lists by his esquires; and flourishes of music were heard at intervals to animate the combatants, and to mark special feats of gallantry. Each knight usually bore on his person some token of his lady-love, which was disposed on his helmet, lance or shield. The armour and horses of the vanquished fell as spoil to the victors, unless ransomed by payment in money; this, however, was the case only in contests of courtesy. The jousting at a tournament usually ended with “le coup ou la lance des Dames,” a homage to the fair sex joyfully rendered.
We have seen that blunted lances were in use in 1252, but we have not found any record of the coronal, a lance-head formed like a flattened crown (whence the name), before very early in the fourteenth century, when it appears on a picture in a MS. in the British Museum.[33] Cavaliers frequently successful in the tourney enriched themselves by the forfeiture of the horses and armour of the vanquished.
The routine of an early tournament is described in Codex 69 of the Harleian MS.[34] It is first proclaimed over a wide area; and on assemblage the cavaliers, mounted on horseback, are divided into two parties or squadrons, the challengers and the challenged. Each troop usually varied in number from twelve to twenty, and was headed by its own leader; the weapons were pointless swords with rebated edges. The two bodies then take up positions at opposite ends of the lists; the onset is sounded, “Lasseir les aler,” and they engage in combat until the signal is given to cease fighting. Various perquisites fall to the superintending Norroy King at Arms, and he and the heralds are paid their expenses and six crowns of “nail money” for affixing the cote-armour of the two leaders in front of their pavilions. An illustration on a MS. of the thirteenth century in the royal library[35] is reproduced in Sports and Pastimes. It pictures the entry on horseback of the two baron-leaders into the lists, wearing chain-mail and pointed bascinets, and with their horses trapped; they bear no weapons. The King of Arms, in civil dress, is standing between them holding their banners, one in each hand. Trumpeters are seen in the background.
The presence of ladies graced the tournament, and they were treated with great deference; the names and deeds of the successful champions were submitted to them, and it was they who awarded and presented the prizes. The days of combat usually closed with the banquet and the dance. The tourney from the first was confined to men of noble birth, though this rule was not so strictly enforced in England as in Germany and France, where all not of the privileged class were strictly excluded.
The first mention we have found of prizes at tournaments is in 1279, when, at the Round Table held at Kenilworth in that year, the prize (a golden lion) was awarded to Sir Roger Mortimer; but they do not seem to have become general until much later.
Henry III, on his marriage with Eleanor of Provence, in 1236, held a tournament for eight successive days; and according to Matthew Paris, there was one at Northampton in 1247, another at Nebridge in 1248.
The tournaments held during the reign of Richard I were frequently interdicted by the Church owing to the brutal character of many of them; and Jocelin of Brackelond tells the story of a number of knights who held one between Thetford and Bury St. Edmunds, in spite of the fiat of the abbot. Another took place soon after, which had also been prohibited; and all who had taken part in it were excommunicated. Matthew Paris describes a tournament held at Rochester in 1251, at which foreigners contended with English knights. There was great bitterness at the time between some of the nationalities owing to very rough treatment that had been experienced by some English knights abroad; and all rules and regulations were thrown to the winds at Rochester, the proceedings degenerating there into a free fight. The English set upon the foreigners with staves, beating them severely, and chased them into the town, to which they fled for refuge. Another instance of this kind may be cited in an account given by Matthew of Westminster of a case in 1253, when the Earl of Gloucester and a companion took part in a tournament abroad, at which they were so roughly handled as to require fomentations and baths before they were in a condition to return to England. Trivet relates a further striking example in a case, lawless and brutal in its character, which received the name in history “La petite Bataille de Chalòns.” Edward I, King of England, was travelling through France in the year 1274 on his way home from the Holy Land to take possession of the crown, when he was invited by the Count de Chalôns to take part in a tournament to be held in the open, near the town of Chalôns, with a certain number of his followers. At an early stage of the contest the Count, a knight of unusual strength, forcing his way through the mêlée attacked the King with great vigour and impetuosity; and casting away his weapons threw his arms around King Edward’s neck, hoping to unhorse him. The King, however, being a tall and powerful man kept his saddle, and at the moment of the greatest pressure cut fiercely at his adversary, dragged him from his horse and threw him heavily to the ground. The exasperation of the French cavaliers on seeing their leader fall was very great, and for a time a real battle ensued, in which the outside followers of both sides took an active part, the English using their terrible bows: but some degree of order having been at length restored the count surrendered to the King and acknowledged him to be the victor. After this tournament laying hands on an opponent was strictly forbidden. Thomas of Walsingham also gives a spirited account of this meeting, which runs on similar lines.[36]
At Whitsuntide in the year 1256 great jousting was held at Blei, when the Lord Edward, afterwards King Edward I, “first began to shew proofs of his chiualrie.” In one of these encounters “William de Longspee was so brused that he could never after recover his former strength.”[37]