[CHAPTER I]
It is impossible to trace the beginnings of these martial exercises, mention of which first appears in history in chronicles of the eleventh century; but they doubtless grew out of earlier forms of the rough games and sports engaged in by the noble youth of the period as practice for actual warfare.
Du Cange in his Glossarium, under the heading “Torneamentum,” cites Roger de Hoveden, who defines tournaments as being military exercises carried out in a spirit of comradeship, being practice for war and a display of personal prowess.[3] Their chief distinction from other exercises of a kindred nature lies in the fact that they were actual contests on horseback, carried out within certain limitations, of many cavaliers who divided themselves into contending troops or parties, which fought against each other like opposing armies.
Mention of rules for observance in the conducting of these martial games is made by more than one chronicler of the period as having been framed in the year 1066, by a French Seigneur, Geoffroi de Preuilli of Anjou, and it is stated that he had invented them and even been killed in one of them;[4] and the very names “tourneamentum” and “tournoi” would imply a French origin. These designations would seem to have been derived from “tournier,” to wheel round; though Claude Fauchet, writing in the last quarter of the sixteenth century,[5] expresses the opinion that the word “tournoi” came about from the cavaliers running par tour, that is by turns at the quintain: “fut premièrement appellé Tournoy pource que les Cheualiers ŷ coururent par tour; rompans premièrement leur bois et lances contre vne Quintaine....”
Military games of a similar nature are often stated to have been practised in Germany earlier than this, and Favine in Theatre of Honour and Knighthood[6] prints a list of rules and ordinances for observance at a “tournament” to be held at Magdeburg, as having been issued by the Emperor of Germany Henry I, surnamed the Fowler, 876-936, a century and a half earlier than the date of the promulgation of the rules of Pruilli. The German text, however, bears the impress of a later period than early in the tenth century, and this view is expressed by Claude Fauchet, who gives the rules, which are curious enough for insertion here; and he mentions the authority from which Favine drew his statement.[7]
“Sebastien Munster au troisiesme liure de sa Geografie, certifie que Henry premier de ce nom viuant enuiron l’an VCCCCXXXVI fit publier vn Tournoy, pour tenir en la ville de Magdebourg qui est en Saxe, lequel fut le premier, ＆ tenu l’an VCCCCXXXVIII. Le mesme Munster recite douze articles de loix de Tournoy:—
1. Qui fera quelque chose contre la Foy.
2. Qui aura fait quelque chose contre le sacré Empire, et la Cesarce Majesté.
3. Qui aura trahy son Seigneur, ou sans cause iceluy delaisse fuyant en vne bataille: tué, ou meurdry ces compagnons.
4. Qui aura outragé fille, ou femme, de fait ou de parolles.