Medieval Life: the Tournament

What the Super Bowl, the BCS game, March Mardness, the NBA Playoffs, the World Cup and the Stanley Cup are to modern audiences, tournaments were in the Middle Ages.  Though only knights got to participate, even the lowest orders of society got to watch, albeit from a distance.  There was color, spectacle, pageantry, prize money, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. 

A tournament, from the French word for "to turn" consisted of two primary events, the melee and the joust.  Though jousting, where two knight rode toward each other on horseback with lances and tried to unseat each other from their horses, is the best-known, it wasn't the main event.  A medieval tournament started with an announcement that a great lord was willing to sponsor one to take place.  While tournaments could mark special occasions, such as the birth of an heir, a marriage, or a coronation, they could take place for any reason, at almost any time of year.  The only forbidden times were Lent, and Fridays or Sundays.  Knights expecting to compete in the tournament gathered from as far as they could travel to be there.  While great champions might have their own quarters or tents and display their own standards, men usually grouped into open air settlements according to whom they would represent in the melee.  The inside or home settlement versus the outside, visiting knights.  In the days leading up to the tournament there would be banquets and other festivities.  Jousts might take place between individual knights, but that was the prelude to the big show.

The big event was the melee.  Essentially, this was a mock battle, with teams of opposing knights, sometimes up to several dozen men on each side.  The contest would then devolve into individual contests between the top contenders.  Although it wasn't intended to be lethal, the combination of men, weapons and horses was dangerous enough.  People got killed or seriously injured, or even stuck in their armor.  Though chain armor was the norm, rather than the plate armor of later centuries, it was possible to take a knock on the helmet and dent it so badly that a smith had to be called to get the armor off one's head.  William Marshal had that humiliating experience.  The object of the melee was to capture an opposing knight for ransom.   Knights who were defeated and captured could pay up.  Or, they could forfeit their armor, weapons and horses, which the winner could then keep or sell for money to fund himself for more tourneys.  Men could become known for their prowess in tournaments, much like modern athletes.  And, like modern athletes, proceeds from captures or even prizes and prize money offered at tournaments could make a man quite wealthy, William Marshal again.  Some kings were just as ready to enter the lists as the knights, Richard I being the usual suspect.

Just as people do today with modern sports, medieval people took these events seriously.  Knights trained and practiced for tournaments, some of which were invitation-only, so gaining renown in other tournaments was crucial.  There were books about tournament tactics and etiquette.  Songs and poems were written about them, and people talked about famous tournaments and famous contenders for years.  But what about ladies' favors, knights entering the competition incognito and all that?  Kings or royals might fight under an assumed name, to avoid special treatment good or bad, but that was rare.  Ladies were desired spectators at tournaments, but only as the Medieval era progressed did they take on the role of presiding over tournaments, issuing prizes and giving favors to special knights to be their champion.  That, like plate armor, comes in at a later period.