“Niemand weisz mein Sinn Ob ich ein Fuchs od Hase bin.”[179]
The humorous devices painted were sometimes groups of owls, hares, mice or foxes. Trappers were usually armoried.
The contract price for a complete harness for the tiltyard in the second half of the sixteenth century was usually from 100 to 200 thalers (£20 to £40), rather a wide margin; though anything extra special in the way of enrichment would often cost much more. August Kurfürst of Saxony ordered from Peffenhaüser of Augsburg in 1582 a “Stechkürass fur die Pallier[180] mit allen Doppelstücken, und alle Stücke zum Freirennen und Fussturnier 200 Thalers,” i.e. a harness for jousting at the tilt with the reinforcing pieces thereto appertaining, together with the additional pieces for Freirennen and Fussturnier. A more ordinary suit “ein anderer, schlichter, gemeiner Kürass” is offered at 100 thalers. Four thalers “Tringeld” for each suit was usually added. A Feldkürass (a hoasting harness) was cheaper, say 60 to 80 thalers according to quality. Prices had advanced since the beginning of the century. In 1511, September 16, “Conrad Seusenhofer receives for two suits of armour for his Imperial Majesty and one for the English Embassy 211 florins.”[181]
1512. Sept 13. “Payments made by Thomas Wuley on the King’s behalf to a certain merchant of Florence for 2000 complete harnesses called Almayne rivets according to pattern in the hands of John Douncy, accounting alway a salet, a gorget, a breastplate, a back-plate and a pair of splints for every complete harness at 16s a set.”[182] Such last-named suits were for the soldiery and without armour for the arms and legs.
Hans Schwenkh’s Wappenmeisterbuch, the tourney-book of Duke William IV of Bavaria, in the Royal Library at Munich, commences in 1510. It was compiled by Frederich von Schlichtegroll in 1807, it exhibits eight separate forms of the tourney, and covers the jousting of the duke in the first quarter of the sixteenth century together with later examples. The illustrations are faithfully reproduced on stone by the brothers Theobald and Clemens Senefeder, with an explanatory text by Schlichtegroll.
The tourney-book of Duke Henry of Braunschweig-Lüneburg is at Berlin; that of the Pole Zuganoviez Stanislaus of the year 1574 in the Dresden Historical Museum.
Several forms of jousting, combats on foot and the tourney prevailing in the fifteenth century have been lightly touched upon, and a more detailed statement of the leading courses now follows, together with an account of their more important variants.
The main courses of the jousts are:—
1. Courses run in the lists with lances rebated or tipped with coronals, without a tilt or barrier between the jousters; the chief object in view being the splintering of lances and unhorsing.
2. Courses of courtesy run in the lists with sharp lances, also without a tilt; the main desideratum being unhorsing.