The frontispiece of this work is taken from the tourney-book of the Kurfürst Johann Friedrich (des Groszüthigen), Plate 81. It depicts the Kurfürst running in Gestech at the moment when his adversary is being hurled from his saddle. The victor’s body-armour, vamplate, the chamfron of his horse and the coronal of his mighty lance are all painted the colour of steel. His crest, enriched by a crown at its base, is the Saxon emblem or badge (Kleinod), it is painted in a tawny colour with black stripes. The hose are striped in colours, green, pink, white and black; the shoes are of black felt. The trapper, reaching down to the horse’s houges, is banded in white, blue and two shades of red, and is sprinkled with the ciphers “XS” in gold and silver. It bears, twice repeated, the arms of Meiszen, Thuringen, Pfalz-Sachsen and Landsberg with the crested helm and shield of Saxony. The horses wear necklets of bells (Shellenkette). The trapper of the opposing champion is banded in shades of yellow and red sprinkled with foliations; his crest a pair of silver horns with a coronet encircling the base and silver laterals of linden twigs and leaves. The details of the armour are very clear and the picture a good representative of its class.
Das Gestech im Beinharnisch is a course run with leg-armour, as its name implies. The object is unhorsing and the splintering of lances. The Kuriss saddle was employed. The presence of leg-armour rendered unhorsing much easier of accomplishment than without it, for the belly of the horse could not be so well gripped.
The joust of courtesy with pointed lances, as differentiated from Froissart’s justes mortelles, was, as we have seen, much practised throughout the fifteenth century; and it continued being run in Germany until soon after the middle of the sixteenth, when it became practically displaced by the joust at the tilt. This course was known in Germany as Scharfrennen or Schweifrennen, in France as La Course à la queue; it is illustrated six times in Freydal and many times in the Saxon tourney-books.
The main desideratum of the course was unhorsing, and the form of the saddle had been designed with that object specially in view, though the splintering of lances also counted in the score, in fact, the jouster who sat his horse the longest against the greatest number of splintered lances, or without being unhelmed, was declared the victor. The objective of the lance in this course was either the beaver of an opponent or his jousting-shield on the left side. The first-named mark was more difficult to hit than the other and the lance more liable to glance off, but when fairly struck it proved irresistible. As a rule the effect of impact was that the rider reeled in his saddle as he tried to maintain his seat, though usually one or other of the jousters was unhorsed, and, indeed, sometimes both fell, unless supported at the critical moment by the varlets. The lance was held with the point inclining slightly upwards, and, as in the other courses, the jouster promptly withdrew his hand and arm from the shaft immediately after impact, holding his arm upright, and the broken lance fell to the ground. It was the omission to do this which caused the accident resulting in the death of Henri II of France. The lance was a long, thin, rounded straight pole of soft wood, lighter than was used in Stechen, and was about 373 centimetres long with a largest diameter of about 7 cm., as against 9 cm. in the one for Gestech. The vamplate is in the form of a truncated cone. Rennen (Scharfrennen) was an even hardier course than Stechen, and demanded a still more careful training in man and horse and a surer seat.
The salient features of this form of joust are as follows:—The saddle employed in all its varieties was smaller and lighter than that used in the other courses, the weight being only a little over four kilos.; it had a low pommel and no cantle, and was shaped, in fact, much like the British saddle of to-day. Jousting-cuisses (Dülgen or Dilgen, weighing 12 kilos.) hung from it and protected the lower limbs of the jouster, which were unarmoured. The armour was lighter than that used in Stechen, though somewhat similar in form, and the back-plate was shorter. The helmet was a jousting-salade (Rennhut) forged in one piece, without any movable visor, but with a separate beaver reaching well over the top of the cuirass, to which it was screwed, back and front. It was well lined, and a cap of leather or silk was worn. The parts of the salade extending over the temples of the wearer were strengthened by extra plates (Stirnplätter); and there was a thick reinforcing plate (Magenblech) over the abdomen, and to it the heavy taces and tassets were riveted. The horse was barded as in Stechen, a cushion or mattress protected the breast, and the animal was covered with the trapper. As in Stechen the cuirass was flattened on the right side, and to it the lance-rest (Rüsthaken) and queue (Rasthaken) were screwed. The queue was smaller than that on the harness for Stechen, the lance used in Rennen being lighter. There were no motons over the armpits, these weak places being well protected by the vamplate, which was larger and differently formed from that employed in Stechen. The shape was that of a truncated cone. The large concave shield of wood, covered with leather and plated with iron, was 6 to 8 cm. in breadth, it was screwed on to the beaver, and an armlet encircled the right lower arm.
PLATE V
HARNESS FOR SCHARFRENNEN.
AT DRESDEN.
Suits for both Rennen and Stechen were made so that they could be worn by a man of anything like a medium size; they were costly, and were frequently lent out by princes and the great nobles to their poorer brethren who lacked this equipment. A beautiful harness for Scharfrennen, made for the Kurfürst August of Saxony (1553-1586), by Sigmund Rockenburger, of Wittenberg, in 1554, is in the Dresden Museum. The form of the harness is graceful, and it is richly and tastefully etched with human figures, a double-headed eagle and foliations; in the centre of the breastplate is a spear-like projection—a fashion which did not last very long. The back-plate is unusually short and so is the garde-rein (Schwänzel). This harness is illustrated on [Plate V]. The weight is about forty kilos. The spurs have long shanks and are of both the rowel and prick kinds.
The store of armours for the tournament kept by the Saxon Kurfürsts at Dresden greatly accounts for the number of historic suits preserved there.