![]() In this form, as scarcely more than unregulated brawls, the tournament was often banned by church and king alike – in no small part due to the tendency for any tournament to result in injury and death. (Captured prisoners would typically be subject to ransom, just as they would be during times of war.) Later, “safe areas” would be introduced as a place for recuperation and socialization during the competition. Instead, it was applied to the melee: A rough and tumble affair, scarcely removed from actual combat except that its goal was to capture instead of kill. The oldest occurrence of the word “tournament”, however, was not applied to the formal affair of jousting we associate with the term today. And these practices would eventually become the tournament as we recognize it today. These tactics, in turn, led to the need for group training. As a result, the couched lance led to the rise of new mounted formation tactics. Perhaps the most important line that can be drawn between the older forms and what would later become known as a tournament was the development of the couched lance as a weapon of war: Mounted knights charging down upon their foes with this braced weapon could wreak havoc previously unimaginable to the medieval mind… but only if they could execute and recover from charges as a coordinated group. In short, the tournament evolved out of a variety of primitive arms-training exercises and exhibitions. The truth, however, is that pointing to the “first tournament” probably has more to do with drawing a line than finding an innovator. Most of these accounts are the result of medieval scholars attempting to fill in a history they did not know. Perhaps the most believable account ascribes the first tournament to Geoffroi de Purelli (who did, in fact, author the earliest surviving set of tournament guidelines). Still another tale leads us to King Arthur’s court. German chroniclers claimed that it was Henry the Fowler, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 918 to 936 AD, who was the first sponsor of the tournament. As backdrops for adventure – or as an adventure in themselves – you can bring all the excitement of the tournament to your gaming table.Ī number semi-legendary accounts exist of the first tournament: Some say that it was held in the fabled Coliseum before the Emperors of Rome. Tournaments were political and social events of great importance – and, at times, their stakes were literally matters of life and death.Ĭonsidering that tournaments now stand in the public consciousness as one of the most vivid images of medieval life – immortalized in tales from King Arthur to Ivanhoe to A Knight’s Tale – it should come as no surprise that they can play a role in your D&D campaigns. ![]() The ideals of the tournament were the ideals of chivalry, and the skills of the tournament were the same skills demanded of the knighthood which stood at the center of the feudal order. Pomp and pageantry.īut tournaments were more than mere crowd-pleasers: They were central events in the lives of the aristocracy. In contrast to the reality around them, tournaments presented a self-contained world of excitement: A dangerous and skillful sport. So it is of little surprise that tournaments – and the festivals which accompanied them – were the most popular of affairs: Events which were anticipated by every level of society, and which drew their audiences from miles away. Rich colors and large musical performances were luxuries enjoyed by the elite few. Music beyond folk performance was a rare and precious entertainment. It was a life of eternal toil and struggle. ![]() To understand the tournament, you must first understand the medieval world which gave it birth: It was a place of brown, gray, and limited colors. The joust and its ideals belong to the glories of the past, to the pages of medieval manuscripts, and above all to the imagination, which alone can recreate these extraordinary festivals. Today we can watch tournaments staged by skilled stuntmen, but the heart of the sport is missing, the intense competition for personal glory: They can never recapture the real enthusiasm of the medieval original, the excitement of spectacle in a world where colour and pageantry were a rarity, the genuine danger of the fighting.
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