In the tourney proper, or mêlée, field-harness with Kuriss saddles were usually employed. Lances are splintered, and the combat continued with swords.
One of the fifteenth century forms was the Feldturnier, or field course, a combat of groups on horseback. Ordinary field-harness, with or without reinforcing pieces, was usually worn. This form of contest is illustrated in the tourney-book of Duke William IV of Bavaria, showing that each cavalier was always provided with two swords. In what respects it differed from the ordinary mêlée is not apparent. Both swords and lances were employed.
The joust at the tilt has been already referred to more than once, and some account given of its leading features. There is reason to believe that it was practised as early as the first quarter of the fifteenth century, and we have mentioned cases of a toile having been employed at Arras in Burgundy in the year 1430, with some rather later instances. Viscount Dillon, in his paper “Tilting in Tudor Times,” published in the Archæological Journal of the year 1898,[187] gives an extract from the Chronicles of St. Remy to the effect that the toile or tilt probably originated in Portugal. As already stated, the salient feature of this form is that it was run with a barrier between the jousters, along which they rode in opposite directions, their left sides towards it, until impact was effected. The first barrier was a toile, a rope hung with cloth extending along the length of the lists; but as this did not prevent the horses from bumping against one another a tilt of planks, usually about six feet high, was devised, which effectually kept them apart, and collisions were avoided, thus rendering the sport much less dangerous. The use of the tilt made impact more uncertain than when running “at the large,” and there was usually a considerable proportion of non-attaints. The main object of this course was the splintering of lances, though unhorsing was also in contemplation and not unfrequently took place. Unseating was, however, rendered difficult by the form of the saddle employed, the so-called Kuriss saddle, which had a cantle behind and a high pommel in front, thus making it much easier for a rider to keep his seat. The usual weight of this form of saddle was a little over 9 kilos. Jousting at the tilt soon greatly supplanted the earlier form in France, Italy and England; but it took no root in Germany before the sixteenth century, at the commencement of which it is stated to have been introduced into that country and Austria from Italy. The name “Welsch Gestech” (Italian Joust), given it in the Fatherland, tends greatly to confirm this; and, indeed, it was just at this time that Maximilian was introducing a new style of armour from Italy into his dominions. Though frequently practised in Germany during the first half of the sixteenth century, the joust at the tilt by no means displaced running “at the large” there. Several plates in Freydal furnish illustrations.
PLATE VI
MAXIMILIAN II ARMED FOR SCHARFRENNEN.
AT PARIS.
[Plate VIII (2)] depicts a joust at the tilt, run at Augsburg in 1510, between Duke William IV of Bavaria and the Pfalzgraf Friedrich of the Rhine. The illustration is reproduced from a picture in Hans Schwenkh’s Wappenmeisterbuch, the tourney-book of the duke, who is seen jousting; it is a work which has already been referred to in these pages. The tilt itself, of three broad planks, is of massive construction. The harness worn in the earlier form was the Stechzeug, the kind that was used in the German Gestech, with no leg-armour, a style which has been already described and illustrated on [Plate IX (1)]. The cuirass employed is flattened on the lance side, and there is a Rasthaken or queue as well as a lance-rest. Bases are worn by the riders, and a crest of plumes. The trapper of the duke’s horse, dark in colour, is shot with painted rays over the body, and a picture of the Sun in Splendour encircles the horse’s tail, which is further decorated with plumes. A collar of grelots is around the neck of the animal; the head is adorned with plumes, and the chamfron embellished with a picture of the sun. The lances with coronals are well shown; the former are long poles narrowing gently towards the heads, and the latter are in three short prongs.
[Plate XI (1)] pictures two fine suits at Paris for jousting at the tilt, one of them with the manifer or mainfere, the passe-guard and poldermiton in their places.
[Plate X (1)] illustrates a German harness, at Dresden, for this form of joust. It dates about 1580. There are three armours for jousting at the tilt in the Wallace Collection of Arms and Armour at London, Catalogue Numbers 484, 495 and 505. The first of these is a harness for Realgestech, as shown by the cross-ribbed shield, a device for affording a grip for the coronal of the lance on impact in order to prevent it from glancing off—another departure in the direction of greater safety for the jouster. This course was a late variety of the joust at the tilt.
No. 505, illustrated on [Plate IX (2)] is perhaps somewhat earlier in date than the other two suits, for in the right side of the “volante-piece” is a little square door or window, for enabling the wearer to converse freely when open. This aperture is about three inches square in size and freely perforated so as to admit air to the wearer when closed. It is shut, of course, when the jouster is ready for his career. In other respects the three suits are very much alike; and the “peaescod-bellied” breastplates of all of them tend to fix their date within narrow limits. The shields of Nos. 495 and 505 are practically the same in form and size. They fit round the front of the left side of the neck and cover the left shoulder and breast, running nearly straight down to the middle of the breastplate. The grand-guards are screwed to the upper parts of the breastplate and the shields are attached to them in like manner. The other reinforcing pieces are either present with the suits, or the armour is holed for them.