A tournament, or tourney (from Old French torneiement, tornei), was a chivalrous competition or mock fight that was common in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (12th to 16th centuries). It is a type of hastilude.
Tournaments included mêlée, hand-to-hand combat, contests of strength or accuracy, and sometimes jousts. Some considered the tournaments to be frivolous pursuits of celebrity, and even a potential threat to public order; but the shows were popular and often put on in honor of coronations, marriages, births, recent conquests or peace treatises, or to welcome ambassadors, lords, or others considered to be of great importance. Other times tournaments were held for no particular reason or simply for entertainment.
Etymology
The word tournament evolved from the Middle English tornement which entered the English lexicon from the Old French torneiement around the 12th century. That noun and its associated verb, tornoier, ultimately derive from the Latin ("to turn") which also gave rise to the Italian , the modern French , and modern English's tourney. Tournament and its derivates had been adopted in English (via Anglo-Norman) by the 14th century.
The Old French tornoier originally meant "to joust and tilt", but came to refer to the knightly tournament more generally while joster, meaning "approach, meet" (also adopted before the 14th century) came to refer to jousting specifically.
By the end of the 12th century, and Latinized had become the generic term for all kinds of knightly hastiludes or martial displays. Roger of Hoveden writing in the late 12th century defines as "military exercises carried out, not in the knight's spirit of hostility (), but solely for practice and the display of prowess ()."cited after Du Cange (Glossarium, 1678, s.v. 'Tourneamentum'
Origins Medieval equestrian warfare and equestrian practices originate in Ancient Rome, just as the notion of chivalry goes back to the rank of equites in Roman times. There may be an element of continuity connecting the medieval tournament to the hippika gymnasia of the Roman cavalry, but with the sparsity of written records during the 5th to 8th centuries this is difficult to establish. It is known that such cavalry games were central to military training in the Carolingian Empire, with records of Louis and Charles' military games at Worms in 843. At this event which was recorded by Nithard, the initial chasing and fleeing was followed by a general mêlée of all combatants. In the Middle Ages (around the 11th–15th centuries), knights trained for war by fighting in tournaments. One popular event was the melee, where many knights fought each other at the same time using swords, maces, and shields while wearing full armour. Unlike jousting, which was one-on-one with lances on horses, melee involved teams or groups fighting together in an open arena.
Documentation of equestrian practice during the 9th to 10th centuries is sparse, but it is clear that the tournament was a development of the High Middle Ages. It is recognized by several medieval historical sources: a chronicler of Tours in the late 12th century attributes the "invention" of the knightly tournament to Angevin Baron Geoffroi de Preulli. In 16th-century German historiography, the setting down of the first tournament laws is attributed to Henry the Fowler; this tradition is cited by Georg Rüxner in his Thurnierbuch as well as by Paulus Hector Mair in his De Arte Athletica.Disem Eerliebenden gebreuch des ritterspils hat Heinricus des namens der erst, Römisch Kaiser, auff das er nicht gar verfiele, [...] und das hochloblich ritterspil den turnier aufgerichtet, unnd denselben anno .938. mit rat seiner fürsten und herren, [...] mitt zwelff loblichen eerlichen und Christlichen Articulen gezieret. Dergestalt, das niemandt von dem Adel, Fürsten oder Grafen, das ritterspil den turnier hat gebrauchen dürffen, der wider bemelte zwelff artickel gehandlet hat. ("So that this honourable custom of knightly sport should not be lost, Henry, the first of this name, Roman Emperor, did establish the noble knightly sport of the tournament, and in the year 938 aided by the counsel of his lords and noblemen, did adorn it with twelve honourable and Christian articles, in such a manner that nobody from among the noblemen, dukes or counts, who had acted against any of the twelve articles, might participate in the knightly game of tournament.") Mair, preface
The earliest known use of the word "tournament" comes from peace legislation by Count Baldwin III of Hainaut for the town of Valenciennes, dated to 1114. It refers to the keepers of the peace in the town leaving it "for the purpose of frequenting javelin sports, tournaments and such like." A pattern of regular tournament meetings across northern France is evident in sources for the life of Charles, Count of Flanders. The sources of the 1160s and 1170s portray the event in the developed form it maintained into the 14th century.
High Middle Ages Tournaments centered on the mêlée, a general fight where the knights were divided into two sides and charged at each other, fighting with blunted weapons. Jousting, a single combat of two knights riding at each other, was a component of the tournament but was not its main feature.
The standard form of a tournament is evident in sources as early as the 1160s and 1170s, notably History of William Marshal and the Arthurian romances of Chrétien de Troyes. Tournaments might be held at all times of the year except the penitential season of Lent (the 40 days preceding Easter). The general custom was to hold them on Mondays and Tuesdays, though any day but Friday and Sunday might be used. The site of the tournament was customarily announced a fortnight before it was to be held. The most famous tournament fields were in northeastern France (including between Ressons-sur-Matz and Gournay-sur-Aronde near Compiègne, in use between the 1160s and 1240s) which attracted hundreds of foreign knights from all over Europe for the 'lonc sejor' (the tournament season).
Knights arrived individually or in companies to stay at one or other of the two settlements designated as their lodgings. The tournament began on a field outside the principal settlement, where stands were erected for spectators. On the day of the tournament one side was formed of those within the principal settlement, and another of those outside.
Parties hosted by the principal magnates present were held in both settlements, and preliminary jousts (called the vespers or premières commençailles) offered knights an individual showcase for their talents. On the day of the event, the tournament was opened by a review () in which both sides paraded and called out their war cries. There was then a further opportunity for individual jousting carried out between the , the two lines of knights. The opportunity for jousting at this point was customarily offered to the new, young knights who were present.
At some time in mid-morning the knights would line up for the charge (estor). At the signal which was usually a bugle or herald's cry, the two knights would ride at each other and meet with levelled lances. Those remaining on horseback would turn quickly (the action which gave the tournament its name) and single out knights to attack. There is evidence that squires were present at the lists (the staked and embanked line in front of the stands) to offer their masters up to three replacement lances. The mêlée would tend to degenerate into running battles between parties of knights seeking to take ransoms and would spread over several square miles between the two settlements which defined the tournament area. Most tournaments continued until both sides were exhausted or until the light faded. A few ended earlier, if one side broke in the charge, panicked and ran for its home base looking to get behind its lists and the shelter of the armed infantry which protected them. Following the tournament the patron of the day would offer lavish banquets and entertainment. Prizes were offered to the best knight on either side and awarded during the meals.For the reconstruction, see .
Melee
Melee ( or /ˈmeleɪ/, French: mêlée ; in English frequently spelled as mêlée, melée, or simply melee) is a term for a type of mock combat in medieval tournaments. The "mêlée" was the "mass tournament" where two teams, either on foot or horse, clashed in formation. The aim was to smash into the enemy in massed formation, with the aim of throwing them back or breaking their ranks. Following a successful maneuver of this kind, the rank would attempt to turn around without breaking formation ( or ); this action was so central that it would become eponymous of the entire tradition of the tourney or tournament by the mid-12th century. Weapons were often blunted before fights in order to prevent serious injury.
The Middle High German term for this type of contest was (adopted in French as ); some sources may also make a distinction between mêlée or mass tournament and , as the latter could refer to a wider class of equestrian games not necessarily confined to the formal tournament reserved to nobility.
The Old French meslee "brawl, confused fight; mixture, blend" (12th century) is the feminine past participle of the verb mesler "to mix" (ultimately from Vulgar Latin misculāta "mixed", from Latin miscēre "to mix"; compare mélange; meddle, medley). The modern French form mêlée was borrowed into English in the 17th century and is not the historical term used for tournament mock battles. The term buhurt may be related to hurter "to push, collide with" (cognate with English to hurt) or alternatively from a Frankish bihurdan "to fence; encompass with a fence or paling").
Tournaments often contained a mêlée consisting of knights fighting one another on foot or mounted, either divided into two sides or fighting as a free-for-all. The object was to capture opposing knights so that they could be ransomed, and this could be a very profitable business for such skilled knights as William Marshal.
The mêlée or buhurt was the main form of the tournament in its early phase during the 12th and 13th centuries. The joust, while in existence since at least the 12th century as part of tournaments, did not play the central role it would acquire later by the late 15th century.
Jousting
Jousting formed part of the tournament event from as early a time as it can be observed. It was an evening prelude to the big day and was also a preliminary to the melee. In the 12th century, jousting was occasionally banned in tournaments. The reasons given are that it distracted knights from the main event and allowed a form of cheating. Count Philip of Flanders made a practice in the 1160s of turning up armed with his retinue to the preliminary jousts and then declining to join the mêlée until the knights were exhausted and ransoms could be swept up.
Jousting had its own devoted constituency by the early 13th century, and in the 1220s it began to have its own exclusive events outside the tournament. The biographer of William Marshal observed c.1224 that in his day noblemen were more interested in jousting than tourneying. In 1223, we have the first mention of an exclusively jousting event, the Round Table held in Cyprus by John d'Ibelin, lord of Beirut. Round Tables were a 13th-century enthusiasm and can be reconstructed to have been an elimination jousting event. They were held for knights and squires alike. Other forms of jousting also arose during the century, and by the 14th century the joust was poised to take over the vacancy in aristocratic amusement caused by the decline of the tournament.
Popularity