The Medieval Tournament as Spectacle

Fresh insights into the development of the tournament as an opportunity for social display.

Fresh insights into the development of the tournament as an opportunity for social display.

The period from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century witnessed a rapid development of the tournament. Alongside the original tourney - a mass battle fought between opposing armies of knights with minimal and rudimentary regulation - new forms of chivalric military contests emerged, in which entertainment featured alongside the necessity of practice for war. The joust featured individual combats, with increasingly elaborate rules and variations in form and accompanying pageantry, while the passage of arms placed tournaments within theatrical and allegorical formats.
This volume brings together the latest research on the late medieval tournament, demonstrating how such events, particularly at the courts of France, Burgundy, England and the German principalities, were increasingly integrated in wider festivities, ceremonies and diplomatic negotiations. Published in association with the Royal Armouries, it will appeal to all those interested in chivalric culture and medieval warfare.

Contributors: Natalie Anderson, Cathy Blunk, Rosalind Brown-Grant, Ralph Moffat, Alan V. Murray, James Titterton, Iason-Eleftherios Tzouriades, Marina V. Viallon, Karen Watts.

Preface and Acknowledgements - Martyn Lawrence
Introduction: From Mass Combat to Field of Cloth of Gold - Alan V Murray
Now Form Up Close Together! Tactics and Ethos of the Tourney in Early German Sources (Twelfth to Thirteenth Centuries) - Alan V Murray
Por pris et por enor: Ideas of Honour as Reflected in the Medieval Tournament - James Titterton
Richard II of England and the Smithfield Tournament of October 1390: An Instrument to Establish Royal Authority - James Beswick
Alle myn harneys for the justes: Documents as a Source for Medieval Jousting Armour - Ralph Moffat
The Tournament Saddle - Marina V. Viallon
Between Sport and Theatre: How Spectacular was thePas d'armes? - Cathy Blunk
Art Imitating Life Imitating Art? Representations of thePas d'armes in Burgundian Prose Romance: The Case ofJehan d'Avennes - Rosalind Brown-Grant
The Foot Combat as Tournament Event: Equipment, Space and Forms - Iason-Eleftherios Tzouriadis
Power and Pageantry: The Tournament at the Court of Maximilian I - Natalie Anderson
The Field of Cloth of Gold: Arms, Armour and the Sporting Prowess of King Henry VIII and King Francis I - Karen Watts