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The development of medieval tournaments: From mass combat to sport and spectacle, 1050-1550
Speaker: Alan V. Murray, Professor of Medieval European History, University of Leeds
Tournaments originated as training for mass mounted combat, but over time developed numerous forms which featured individual prowess, theatre and spectacle. Join Dr Alan Murray to survey the diversity of tournament forms as well as the weapons, armour and staging used in them.
Modern films depict jousts between individual knights as the normal form of tournaments. In fact tournaments originated as mass combats involving hundreds of knights on each side. Jousting tournaments never had fixed rules like modern sports. Rules were arranged and agreed for each separate occasion. For centuries monarchs like the kings of England kept tournaments tightly regulated and restricted because they feared the potential for civil disorder by large numbers of armed men gathering at the venues. By the later Middle Ages, tournaments often involved not only combat, but theatrical performances involving giants, dwarves, wild men and bears.
The original form of tournament was a mass combat involving hundreds of knights fighting on horseback, which developed in the period 1050-1100 in northern France as a form of training for war. This exercise (known as a tourney) rapidly spread throughout Western Christendom. From 1200 the popularity of individual combat, influenced by Arthurian literature, led to the institution of jousting as a separate kind of event. These forms, known as Round Tables and Pas d’Armes, combined combat with elements of pageantry and theatre, while innovations in the construction of armour permitted the growth of events involving foot combat with a variety of weapons. By the later Middle Ages the newer tournament forms had developed into a kind of sporting event with scoring and prizes, and an emphasis on spectacle. This lecture will survey the development of the different tournament forms, the equipment used in them, and the changing ethos of those who participated in them. It will conclude with a detailed examination of armours and other equipment on display in the tournament gallery of the Royal Armouries.
The lecture will be delivered in person in the War Cinema at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds and live-streamed online.
Please pre-book. You will receive a link to the live online presentation in your booking confirmation.
This is a free lecture, please consider making a donation when booking. As a charity, your support helps us keep the national collection of arms & armour free and accessible for everyone to enjoy, no matter their circumstances. The amount can be changed or removed if you wish.