Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-12-26
CHRISTMAS REvFLRY.
How Princes and People Cavorted in Ye
Olden Tyme.

x.
Then opened wide the baron's hall
To vasSal tenant, serf and all
Power laid his rod Of rule asde, H1
And Ceremony dofcd his pride.
Scott.
The military games, which formed an
integral part or our old English Christ
mas, were brought in by King Stephen,
as Viewer tells us. Desiring to strengthen
his family titles to the crown, by gaining
the good will of the people, he chose the
Christmas for his coronation, according
TO old English custom, a custom which
Stephens greatest William
the COnqueror and Canute-had both re-
speeted from similar motives OF policy
But the gallant Knight Of Blois kept his
coronation Christmas with additional
pOmp and splendor. The Christmas
games, jousts and tournaments which he
thus inaugurated formed an era in
the social life of England. They
must have proved an immense
success, for the practice soon became
general, UNTIL in fact, these military
games formed the drill-exercise of the ma
ton. We see in this the rdiSOn d'etye whv
Christmas hospitality and Christmas
revelry were so diligently kept up in the
castle halls of medieval England. The
tournament was military combat for
amusement, in which several persons
took part, and was OF three kinds, fitting
at the quintains and running at the ring
being included in it. The players in the
tournament were divided into parties.
The joust was a single combat, and was
sometimes practiced Independently when
there was no tournament. Sometimes the
players were on horseback and sometimes
on foot, according to circumstances.
From these knightly games the sons of
the yeoman and the churl were ignom-
inously excluded. But ''the barriers" and
the quintains were open to all.
The combatants in the barriers we're
armed with their battle-aX, the weapon
of the SaXons, the brOwn-bill of the mid
die ages.
The quintain was an exercise of skill,
with spear and lance, and was sometimes
played with a staff only. While the i'm
portance of the leading barons depended
upon the number and courage Ofthe men
upon their check-rOl, on Christmas-eve
they were as busy with their prepara-
tons in the tilt-yard and the ring as in
kitchen and buttery. Between the tour
naments which Stephen introduced as
Christmas games and the gorgeous dis
play on the field of the cloth Of gold there
must have been as much differ
ence as there is now between a cricket
match on the village green and the grant
day when Harrow and Elton meet at
Lords. The Christmas tournaments
which took place IN every castle yard I'M
der the Plantagenets, could not vie with
the princely pageantry with which the
world is usually associated, and soon lost
their exclusively Christmas character.
The games for the yeOmanry, in which all
classes Joined, retained it for longer pc
TiOd, and as the value of English bills
and bows was realized the Importance Of
butts and barriers increased also.
For nearly two hundred years these
games were disgraced by the brutal ardor
OF the cOmbatants. Although meaning
nothing in hate but all in honor, they
fought with weapons sharpened tor the
battle. The trampled grass in the listed
mead and the gravel of the tjlt-yard too
often proved the deathhed Of some hot
blooded and incautiOus boy. To quote
from Viewer once again we fird: ''They
were practiced in many places in England
In such an outrageous manner and with
such slaughter of gentlemen, that, to sup
press such a heathenisD dispOrt, it was
decreed by Parliament that whatsoever
therein was slain should want Christian
burial and their heirs be disinherited."
The number of blows was regu-
lated, and other rules devised
to prevent blOodshed. The breast
ants with their battle-aXes was no doubt
intended TO break the force of the deadly
blows with which they menaced each
other. Blunted weapons were at last in
trOduced. But all attempts to put these
games out of fashion failed utterly. They
only died away with the decay of the
military tenure of the feudal system.
During the wars OF the roses these exer-
cises were practiced so continually that
aftl,ra afEifr lHf
and new games were introduced.
Many and bitter were the complaints
which marked the change in the popular
taste, until Edward Nv. published the fol-
lowing ordinance:
by the laws Of this land no man snail
play at unlawful games, such as colts
QuOltsl, football, and the like games, but
that every able-bOdied man shall daily
practice archery, because the defense of
the kin gdom depends on archers. Yet,
Notwithstanding these laws, many evil
disposed persons of all ranks play at these
and other newly invented games"
With the union of the red and white
roses the national taste found freer devel-
opment. Under the Tudors our old Eng
lish Christmas reached its zenith. Its
open-handed hospitality was unbounded.
The Vexati0us restrictions on the national
games were relaxed for the Christmas
holidays. Henry WIS herald records
NOW on new years day, at night, there
was a goodly disgusting, and that all this
Christmas there were many and divers
plays" But It is in the early years of his
sons reign that we find Christmas Of old
England in its merriest mood.
The military games OF stephen were
rendered popular once more by princely
example. When the young king dis
tinguished himself with the battle-aX,
lighting at the barriers became part OF
The education OF the young noblemau.
In She gorgeous pageantry thus asso-
ciated with these military exercises we
md the dawn OF scenic and dramatic
representation. Henry Will, whom we
remember chiefly by his domestic atroei-
ties was most careful 10 avoid the dan
GERS these sports entailed, and frequently
closed the amusements Of the day IN
haste as II signs OF violence appeared
among the cOmbatants. The quintain
WAS played with lances without heads,
and we find in Tudor days a bag Of sand
attached 10 the broad end instead Of a
snleld, The Quintain resembled the vane
OF some gigantic weather cock
fastened on a pivot 70 an upright
post. 10 the broad end a shield was
firmly nailed, which the player was TO
strike with HIS lance; but il unwarily be
missed his aim. and struck the point Of
The quintaiu, il swung round with such