Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Date: Wed,  9 Sep 1992 09:52:29 -0400 
From: David Schroeder <ds4p+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Tournaments

Greetings good gentles --

Between bouts of cuddling my new daughter while at the keyboard
(her left foot has a tendency to hit the zero on my numeric keypad,
and even at the tender age of 3 days she seems to find the shifting
black and white patterns on my Mac's screen fascinating) I had a 
chance to do some reading on tournament practices in England.

I found a few interesting bits of information to share:

The Pelican History of England v.3 -- English Society in the 
Early Middle Ages (1066 - 1307) by Doris Mary Stenton c.1951,
says that:

"The five places Richard I licensed [for tournaments] were
 all stretches of open rolling country either on or near a
 great main road."

Richard was using tourney fees as a fund-raiser, and the sense
of the book's discussion is that these contests took place over
quite a wide area -- not like jousting, but really 'mock war.'
This supports the idea that tournaments in England were _not_
spectator sports (save, I imagine for the poor folk who had to
get out of the combattants' way!).

On the other hand, there is a reference to calling these
tournaments 'fairs.'  I don't have enough data to say if
'fairs' implied large numbers of people from more than
just the nobility, but:

"Successive popes forbade 'the detestable fairs which
 the vulgar call tournaments'"  [pg. 79]

In volume 2 of Marc Bloch's _Feudal Society_, (published in 1961
in English and written during the 1930's) the author makes a point
of connecting tournaments with pre-Christian 'games' of various
sorts (which helps explain the Church's unhappiness with the
contests).  Here follows a passage from Bloch:

"Then there were the tournaments.  In the Middle Ages the tournament
 was generally thought to be of relatively recent origin, and the
 name of its supposed inventor was even mentioned--a certain
 Geoffrey de Preuilly, said to have died in 1066.  In reality the
 practice of these make-believe combats undoubtedly dates back to
 remotest times: witness the 'pagan games', sometimes fatal, 
 mentioned in 895 by the council of Tribur.  The custom was
 continued, among the people, at certain feasts--Christianized
 rather than Christian--as for example those other 'pagan games'
 (the recurrence of the word is significant) in 1077, during
 which the son of a cobbler of Vendo^me, who was taking part 
 in them with other young men people, was mortally wounded."

This suggests the non-nobles had their _own_ 'games' to amuse
them on the holidays when the nobles were at tournaments.

Bloch further discusses tournaments, mentioning often the
tendency for things to get too rough and end up with deaths.
"For the same reason [people getting killed] -- and also
on account of their connection with the revels at popular 
feasts, which savoured of 'paganism' -- the Church rigorously
forbade them, going to the length of refusing burial in
consecrated ground to the knight who had met his death
in this way, even if he had repented."

Were these revels just the province of the nobility, or did they
include other classes of society?  It should be fun finding out more.

- - - - - -

In answer to an earlier question about fighting vs. non-fighting
nobility, the following passage proves informative:

"But already by the early years of Henry III's reign many holders
of one or two knights' fees must have felt that there was little 
to be gained from learning the art of war.  It was cheaper and
safer to pay scutage and stay at home.   Men who thought along
these lines inevitably went on to wonder whether there was much 
to be gained by undergoing the ceremony of becoming a knight.
The necessity of procuring armour and a horse suitable for
the occasion, the cost of the entertainments expected by
kinsfolk, men, and friends made knighthood appear a
luxury readily foregone."  [pg.88]

Take care, good gentles...

Oh--an even "earlier" ancestor of the Victorian's "Romance of Chivalry"
tradition seems to be the "Round Table" tournaments that were less
bloody than usual tourneys.  Says Matthew Paris in 1252 (from Stenton)
'not in that sport vulgarly called the tournament buth rather in that
game of chivalry called the Round Table' knights gathered to test
their skills.  The knights who attended a Round Table engaged in
individual joustings with blunt weapons and light armor rather
than the confused general engagements of the formal tournament.
They feasted at tables set up around the walls of the hall,
leaving the centre and open space for minstrels and the 
servers of the feast. [pg.86]  They were inspired in
this "re-creation" by Geoffrey of Monmouth's tales
of the glories of King Arthur and _his_ tourneys.

My best -- and '000000' from little Elizabeth Kori -- Bertram

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Bertram of Bearington                                      Dave Schroeder
Debatable Lands/AEthelmearc/East               Carnegie Mellon University
INTERNET: ds4p@andrew.cmu.edu                         412/731-3230 (Home)
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