The Joust

The Joust was a specific kind of tournament, and was one of the few types of military contests that had to be on horseback and involved only two combatants at a time. This one-on-one duel involved two men, each mounted, riding at each other with lances, attempting to unseat the other or break their lance. In some cases, a wooden barrier was placed the length of the lists to prevent the horses from colliding.

In the 12th century, jousting was sometimes not allowed because it distracted from the excitement of the other events, especially the mêlée, but Edward II of England in 1309 banned all forms of tournament except the joust. For him, it was more exciting to watch than the Pas d'armes or Tupinaire or Quintain, easier to see than the Mêlée because the men were higher off the ground and there were only two, a bit safer because there was a specific goal.

Some people spoke out against any form of tournament. Pope Innocent II at Clermont forbade Christian burial for anyone killed in a tournament. He was all for warfare against the heathen, but did not want Christians endangering each other's lives. And tournaments could be dangerous; just a few posts back we learned of someone dying because of a tournament. Henry II imposed a ban on tournaments because knights traveling from far and wide to join one were indulging in harassment of the population along the way. His son Richard, however, loved fighting, and established six locations where they were permitted to hold tourneys (and established a fee structure—payable to the Crown—for those who wanted to hold them and participate).

Richard's brother, John, and John's son, Henry III, made jousting more difficult with restrictions that encouraged safety but limited the excitement. Some of the rules that developed over time were necessary, to help figure out who won. After a day of pairs of knights going against each other, the winners could be declared as follows:

1st place: unhorsing the opponent; extra if the horse falls down.
2nd place: breaking lances
3rd place: most striking of the opponent's visor (this was particularly dangerous, but got you points)
4th place: breaking the most spears

There were also rules that could disqualify you:

Striking a horse
Striking a man's back from behind him

You could also be penalized for breaking your spear on the opponent's saddle (a forbidden target).

Some of the last tournaments and jousts took place during the reign of Henry VIII, who used elaborate ones to celebrate momentous events, such as the birth of a son.

Next time, I want to talk about Pope Innocent II and his Second Lateran Council that forbade jousts and tournaments.

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.