From: mittle@watson.ibm.com (Josh Mittleman)
Subject: Re-creating Period Tournaments
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 92 21:34:19 GMT
Organization: IBM T. J. Watson Research

Greetings from Arval!

In this article, I'd like to discuss one way to re-create 12th century
tournaments.  In this discussion, I draw heavily on the experience of Lord
Galleron de Cressy and on his article "Running a Medieval Tournament"
(Tournaments Illuminated #98, Spring AS XXVI).  I recommend this article as
a starting point for anyone interested in re-creating medieval tournaments
in the SCA.  It contains a brief discussion of the general history of the
tournament, descriptions of three kinds of re-creations, and a short but
useful bibliography.

In the 12th century, the tournament was a fairly simple affair: Knights,
squires, and men-at-arms (sometimes including archers!) gathered at the
tournament site on the specified date, divided themselves into two teams,
and had at it.  Combat ranged over a large area.  Neutral areas, or
"retreats", were marked off, within which no fighting could take place.
Combattants could take rest or refreshment in the retreats, and spectators
and heralds could observe the tournament.  The immediate goal of the
combattant was to take prisoners and return them safely to the retreat for
ransom.  

  When a winner was chosen it was by the consensus of the knights and
  heralds.  This was, with variations, the only way of choosing a winner up
  through the end of the 15th century.  The heralds, judges, principal
  nobles, participants, and ladies, or some combination of the above, would
  simply get together and decide who they thought had fought best that day.
  Besides authenticity, this method has several advantages for our
  tourneys.  There is much less incentive for ignoring blows, and since a
  fighter is no longer tied to a rigid elimination tree there is much more
  flexibility in running the tourney and much less paperwork for the list
  mistress.  [Galleron de Cressy, op cit, p.26]

Re-creations of this style of tournament are frequently called "ransom
tourneys".  I have run and helped run one version of the ransom tourney; I
will describe my experience in some detail, with some comments on possible
variations. 

The tournament was held in a large, open field with a few trees.  It could
as easily be held on a broken field, in a woods with plenty of paths and
clearings, or on any other reasonable ground.  At one end, a retreat was
roped off with two well-separated gates into the field.   Within the
retreat was the list table, with water & chirurgeons nearby.  Spectators
watched from behind the rope marking the near end of the field.  On the
list table was a large checker-board; each fighter wrote his name on a
square of the board before entering the tournament.

At the beginning of the day, the fighters were divided into two teams, a
feature common to many types of period tournament.  In England and France,
the division was commonly geographic: The knights of north England faced
the knights of south England, or the knights of France faced the knights of
Brabant and Hainault.  These traditional alliances were firm enough that
when a party decided to change sides, there could be serious repercussions.
This feature maps nicely into our tournaments.  Fighters can be divided up
by some geographical means, by household and branch affiliation, or can
simply be allowed to divide up as they see fit.  Creating two teams adds a
level of strategy to the tournament, no matter how it is run, and replaces
individual competition with group competition.  I have found that this
change tends to de-emphasize winning individual bouts in favor of
cooperation and clean fighting.  In this case, the fighters were allowed to
divide themselves up as they saw fit.

Each fighters was given a set number of coins which were kept on his
checkboard square.  These coins were used for the ransoms, which were
pre-determined by the rank of the fighter: so much for a normal fighter,
more for a member of the kingdom fighting order, more for knight, a count,
or duke.  The field was open for several hours, during which time the
fighters were free to enter the field when they wished, fight it whatever
combinations they wished, and take rests as they wished.  This allowed the
fighters to mix single combat and melee, as they saw fit.  Each team
entered the field through its own gate.  Any fighter defeated was held to
be subdued, rather than killed.  Once subdued a fighter had to follow his
captor or to stand in place while his captor was not leading him.  If the
captor reached his gate with his prisoner, then he earned the ransom.  On
the other hand, a prisoner could be rescued by his own team or be stolen by
other members of the captor's team.  Several fighters might work together
to capture prisoners and deliver them to the gate safely.

Once a captive was returned to the retreat, his ransom was delivered to his
captors and split among them.  Fighters were free to re-enter the field as
soon as the ransoms had been paid.  A fighter who ran out of coin for
ransom was allowed to purchase more from the list officers (to the benefit
of some worthy charity).  At the end of the day, a table filled with prizes
was brought forth.  The fighter who had compiled the most coin was allowed
first pick of a gift for his lady/her lord.  The other fighters chose gifts
in order of the size of their hordes.

This style of tournament has several advantages.  It allows the fighters to
get all the fighting they want, in whatever form and combination they want,
with no regimentation.  The need to cooperate to capture prisoners, deliver
them safely to the retreat, and rescue fallen comrades adds a strategic
element with makes the tournament more interesting for fighters and
spectators.  The fighters might choose to begin with a melee, or with a
series of individual jousts, in order to please the crowd.  for the group
hosting the tournament, it is trivial to run: You need a couple heralds, a
few marshals, and two or three people to run the ransom table.  Spectators
can participate as judges if you choose to award a prize to the best
fighter of the day.

The most significant drawback to this tournament is that it needs a fairly
large turn-out to work effectively.  The first time I saw it done, there
were about 24 fighters; that was fine at the beginning, but once they
started to take rests, things quickly slowed down.  I think this tournament
would work much better with teams of 25 or 30; I'd love to try to run it
for 100 or 200 fighters!  (Anybody got a free afternoon at Pennsic? :)

There are lots of possible variations.  Instead of the system of coin for
ransoms, fighters can be asked to bring their own ransoms; the ransoms
themselves thereby become the prizes.  Local merchants can thrive on the
ransom trade.  If you take that route, it is important to provide some
generic ransom for people who forget to bring anything or who never get the
word.  Note that ransoms need not be money or goods; they can be services,
works of arts, or anything else that appeals to the fighters and their
consorts.  I have seen ransom tournaments where a count is kept of how many
kills a fighter has accumulated; I don't think that is a great idea, but it
is a possible variation.  If your kingdom allows missile weapons, those
could be added, though light fighters (corresponding to men-at-arms) would
not be worth any ransom, and should therefore be killed and,if you wish,
resurrected.

The retreat can become the center of the event: Leave it open at one side,
or make it large enough and you can have dancing, music, entertainment,
classes and refreshments at the retreat.  The fighters can join the
socializing between forays onto the field, and arrange jousts and melees to
please the crowd.  Heralds can proclaim the deeds of the fighters and
identify them to the spectators.

In my next article, I will describe another re-creation of a 12th century
tournament.

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Arval Benicoeur                                       mittle@watson.ibm.com