The Medieval Tournament as Spectacle: Tourneys, Jousts and Pas d’Armes, 1100–1600 ed. by Alan V. Murray and Karen Watts

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Medieval Tournament as Spectacle: Tourneys, Jousts and Pas d’Armes, 1100–1600 ed. by Alan V. Murray and Karen Watts Jo Conde de Lindquist alan v. murray and karen watts, eds., The Medieval Tournament as Spectacle: Tourneys, Jousts and Pas d’Armes, 1100–1600. Woodbridge, U.K.: The Boydell Press, 2020. Pp. 265. isbn: 978–1–78327–542–7. $99. Alan Murray and Karen Watts present an edition of scholarly articles about tournaments in the Middle Ages. The content focuses on tournaments, weapons, armors, and physical layouts of the fields. In the introduction, bibliography, and analysis on the tactics and ethos of German tournaments, Murray, using literary works, concentrates on German tournaments in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Early on, two teams of knights fought in fields to avoid killing or injuring each other without armor and with blunt lances. The objective was to train knights for warfare while earning money, prizes, and fame. Tournaments later included themes such as ‘Arthurian-themed Round Tables and the pas d’armes, which showcased the prowess of individuals through jousting and offered a greater level of entertainment for spectators’ (pp. 42–43). Tournaments offered jousts, melees, and hand-to-hand combat where participants, promoters, and spectators profited from the spectacle. James Titterton proves that a knight’s goal was to distinguish himself above others, gain honorable recognition, have the right to bear arms, and obtain a hereditary coat of arms. Besides martial skills, a knight also needed manners, refinement, modesty, courtesy, and largesse. The knight, as member of a social group, a region, a kingdom, or a national team, could compete for a particular lady. Titterton shows that noblemen like William Marshal, Ulrich von Liechtenstein, Boucicaut, or King Francis I valued their honor above material gain. James Beswick reports that the much-despised Richard II used the patronage of the Smithfield tournament (1390) as a political weapon just like Edward I and Edward III used the tournaments to expand their political hold and solidified their power with the creation of the Order of the Garter (1349). Beswick believes that Richard II used the Smithfield tournament to show ‘domestic and international audiences a [End Page 110] spectacle that demonstrated the power and wealth of England’ (p. 67). Richard’s goal was to show unity in the aftermath of the Peasant Revolt of 1381 and the Wonderful Parliament incident of 1386. Scholarly consensus is that Richard was eager for peace, but Beswick believes that Richard showcased his magnificence and used the white hart device as symbol of loyalty to the king. Ralph Moffat relies on wills, inventories, household payments, and literary texts to present the evolutionary overview of the knight’s armor, weapons, and saddle. He relies on the documents of five prominent members of the court, the Duke of Lancaster, Henry, the chronicler Jean le Bel, the Earl of Salisbury, William Montague, the Dominican friar, John Bromyard, and the bishop of Burgos, Alonso. Moffat also hopes that the appearance of more documents will expand this field of study. To avoid fatal injuries, the lance was modified with the coronel, the grapper, and the vamplate to protect the knight against the opponent’s strikes. The armorers soon added the manifer and polder-mitton to safeguard the arm. The helm was modified according to the type of venue.Marina Viallon addresses the differences between the war saddle, the first tournament saddles, the high saddle, and the low saddles. In early tournaments knights used war saddles. When using a lance, the quick maneuverability of the war saddle endangered the rider and the horse. The war saddle was redesigned with a winged cantle to secure the knight’s hips, provide balance, keep the knight on the horse, and protect vital organs. In Germany, the high saddle appeared in 1360. The knight rode in a standing style, which means that the rider was standing on the stirrups, showing off his physique. This was a cumbersome situation because the knight could not mount the horse without help, and squires had to finish arming the knight while seated on the horse. It became obsolete by 1500. German low saddles, on the other hand, appeared in the mid-fifteenth...