Tournament (medieval)

This article is about the tournaments of the Middle Ages. For the general article on tournaments, see tournament. See also jousting.

Popularity

By the 12th century the tournament had grown so popular in England that King Henry II found it necessary to forbid the sport which gathered in one place so many barons and knights in arms. In that age we have the famous description by William FitzStephen of the martial games of the Londoners in Smithfield. He tells how on Sundays in Lent a noble train of young men would take the field well mounted, rushing out of the city with spear and shield to ape the feats of war. Divided into parties, one body would retreat, while another pursued striving to unhorse them. The younger lads, he says, bore javelins disarmed of their steel, by which we may know that the weapon of the elders was the headed lance. William of Newbury tells us how the young knights, balked of their favourite sport by the royal mandate, would pass over sea to win glory in foreign lists. Richard I relaxed his father's order, granting licences for tournaments, and Jocelin of Brakelond has a long story of the great company of cavaliers who held a tournament between Thetford and Bury St Edmunds in defiance of the abbot. From that time onward unlicensed tourneying was treated as an offence against the Crown, which exacted heavy fees from all taking part in them even when a licence had been obtained. Often the licence was withheld, as in 1255, when the king's son's grave peril in Gascony is alleged as a reason for forbidding a meeting. In 1299 life and limb were declared to be forfeit in the case of those who should arrange a tourney without the royal licence, and offenders were to be seized with horse and harness. As the tournament became an occasion for pageantry and feasting, new reason was given for restraint: a simple knight might beggar himself over a sport which risked costly horses and carried him far afield.

Related Topics:
12th century - Henry II - Baron - Knight - Lent - Noble - Spear - Shield - Javelin - Richard I - Cavalier - Thetford - Bury St Edmunds - The Crown - 1255 - Gascony - 1299

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