Royal jousts were run on the thirty-first year of the reign, in celebration of the king’s marriage with Anne of Clѐves.
Lacroix, in Military and Religious Life in the Middle Ages, pictures the degradation of a knight convicted of dishonourable conduct, copied from a wood-cut bearing the initials “J. A.” (Jost Amman). The culprit is exposed on a scaffold, clad only in his shirt, his armour is broken in pieces before him and thrown at his feet, and his spurs are cast upon a dunghill. His shield is dragged by a cart-horse through the mire, and the tail of his destrier cut off. A herald-at-arms cries three times, “Who is there?” and each time the name of the knight is given. The herald then cries, “No, it is not so; I see no knight, but only a false coward.” The culprit is borne on a litter into a church, where the burial service is read over him, and the world of chivalry knows him no more.
There is no record of any royal jousts on the accession of Edward VI to the throne, and such pastimes would seem to have been greatly in abeyance during that short reign.
The same would seem to have been the case during the reign of Queen Mary; but there were fights at barriers in 1554, when Philip II arrived in England. The challengers, against all comers, were Don Fredericke de Toledo, the Lord Strange, Don Ferdinando de Toledo, Don Francisco de Mendoça, and Garsulace de la Vega.
The prizes were as follows, viz.:—
“1. He who cometh forth most gallantly, though without superfluities, shall have a rich brooch.
2. The best stroke with the pike shall have a ring with a ruby.
3. The best stroke with the sword shall have a ring with a diamond.
4. He that fighteth most valiantly shall have a ring with a diamond.
5. The prize of all together in rank at the foyle was a ring of gold with a rich diamond.