Tournaments

The Medieval and Renaissance tournament, was a mock battle that had several styles and purposes. The word comes from an English word meaning "to turn," and developed into several different versions in Europe such as tourney and tournoi. Roger of Hoveden described the torneamentum as "military exercises carried out, not in the knight's spirit of hostility, but solely for practice and the display of prowess."

They were training exercises as well as ways to show off, and there were several different styles of event set up for the participants, and not all pitted fighters against each other. For example:

The Quintain was a simple test of accuracy. The word comes from quintana, Latin for the lane in a military camp that divided the fifth and sixth tactical units of a Roman army. This lane was used for practice. It was a lance game, and the knight would ride down the lane, aiming for an object, which could be a shield or a ring through which he would insert his lance point at speed. 12th century London also used boats!

The Tupinaire was a dual between two knights, fought until one of the knights received three solid blows from his opponent. In such a case, judges on the field would have to determine whether a blow was glancing or solid enough to do damage. Real damage was avoided, if possible.

A more intense game was the Pas d'armes, or passage of arms. This was a later medieval development in which one knight (or more) would "hold" a bridge or gate and defend it against all comers. The Pas d'armes was also a serious strategy and used to refer to knights outside of entertainment purposes taking up the protection of a spot and vowing to fight anyone who wished to in order to show their prowess and honor or to settle some wager. A famous 15th century Pas d'armes was chronicled by a local and lasted a month, where the men vowed to break 300 lances; after 166 individual fights, they were too hurt to go on, and declared their vow complete.

The Mêlée is one that everyone's heard before. Groups of fighters would clash until one side had withdrawn from the field.

The type of tournament that has become the centerpiece of Renaissance Fairs in the modern age is the Joust. The Joust actually evolved beyond the tourney, in the sense that a tournament could range over a large area, and the joust was two men on horseback in a relatively confined space, the lists. Also, the joust specifically used the lance. The joust also has some very specific rules, which we can talk about tomorrow.