| War games, perhaps, took place everywhere and always. However, the jousting tournaments are not all the same. They appeared around 1125 between the Loire and Scheldt as a new social phenomenon of its time, involving fast in its orbit. In the 1179 year, an event in Lani, arranged for the coronation of Philip Augustus, assembles fourteen dukes and counts. The pressing social problems of the century and environment arise before the emergence and spread of the tournaments.
Most of the tournament fighters are chivalry "youths" (Latin iuvenes, unlike viri, "adults"). In the language of the epoch, thus the unmarried men were called, who did not start their own home. The medieval principle of primogeniture (seniority) gave the lion's share of the generic inheritance to the eldest son. Younger brothers were to take care of themselves independently. Being dreamers of social elevation, they are forced to a wandering life in search of the fame and haul, being acquired in the war, and more so - in the tournaments.
If the "youth" poses as the most aggressive and less-manageable social element of the time, then the tournaments converting the military aggression of the Knights, who are leading a wretched life without any present cause into game shapes, arise as a tool for the relative appeasement of the "youth." It is not by a chance that the tournaments evolved in those lands, where the prince’s bridle became the most noticeable by the 12th century. According to Galberta of Bruges, Flanders Count Karl King in the 20's of the 12th century, and by Giese-lebert Monssky, the young Count of Hainaut Baudouin V in the 70's, stopping the private wars with unprecedented firmness, personally lead the nobility of their regions to the tournaments.
By the number of participants, nature and space of the battle, tournaments of this time mostly resemble serious battles. The tournament field lacks precise boundaries. Barriers separate the only places where you can catch your breath and strengthen your energy. Rugged terrain with natural barriers and shelters are suitable for devising ambushes and traps - the presence of spectators evidently not yet foreseen.
As in the war, the protagonists are the knights. Similar to the real battles, the tournaments are a time, place and form of the collision of the nobility of different areas. Led by their prince or without him, the countrymen ("the French", "Breton", "Champagnes") are then clustered into two teams, the forces are not necessarily equal, every team has a captain, the common colors and military cry. The "Normans" usually combined with the "British" against the "French", whose natural allies were the knights of Champagne and Burgundy.
The knights fight in the cavalry units of 10-30 people, which is dense enough that a "tossed glove could not fall to the ground." This is the guarantee of invulnerability to the enemy. Those, who yearned for fame and haul, were ready to defy the need to wisely protect the rescued system. The task itself is to dispel the enemy force, followed by a real hunt for the richly equipped opponents. Many come to the tournaments mainly for the sake of this. The winner takes possession of the horse and the arms of his captive, who is released on a bail or surety ransom.
Although serious injuries and deaths are rather inadvertent, in particularly bloody tournaments dozens of participants get killed, and according to a German chronicle - more than 80 participants were killed at a German tournament in 1239. However, the chivalrous morality forces to spare a noble enemy in war also, thus a major battle can cost the lives of a few knights. According to Ordericus Vitalis, three knights were killed in the battle of French king Louis VI with English king Henry Beauclerc at Bremull in 1119.
Battles of this scale were not there in France the whole century, up to the Buvin (the year 1214). Another matter were the tournaments. If we believe the narrative of William Marshall, renowned tournament combatant of the end of 12th century, who captured five hundred knights, tournaments are held during this period almost every two weeks, and as opposed to the war they did not stop even in the winter. Tournaments are for passion and necessary military exercise.
Among the circumstances of a tournament - a new and difficult practice of fencing with spears emerged, urging the knight's ability to control the horse by releasing the reins, the word "tournament" (Latin torneamentum, Art, French. Tornoi) comes from the verb meaning "to turn the horse."
The war itself is entertainment as well as a profitable business for the knighthood and is perceived as a direct and honest encounter set in the equal adversaries in accordance with predefined rules: the tournaments easily fit into this system of representations of military activity, and subsequently affect the image of war and battle.
Thousands of knights converge to the major tournaments, not counting their squires, foot soldiers (the role and size are not yet defined and not limited to, as later), servants, and the crowd of traders, moneylenders, blacksmiths, profiteers, corrupt girls, hangers-on, "all, those who earn or steal money. " "Fairs" - the name comes to mind of the contemporaries before the tournament became known as tournaments. The tournaments emerge as a new form of multi-faceted, economic and cultural exchange. |
This Friday we continue our freaking experiment with provided source images.
