Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

KNIGHT
The melee tournament
was far closer to real battle
than the one-to-one joust.
This mid-14th-century
image fails to show that
such engagements could
be fought over many
miles. (© British Library)
THE TOURNAMENT
Such games had their formal equivalent, of course, in the tournament, and the
tournament of the 12th and 13th centuries was indeed an excellent training ground for
war. Its origins can be seen in the behourd and the similar wargames that we have
already seen Carolingian horsemen performing at Worms in 842. As always, it is
tempting to find a classical root for these sports. Roman cavalry units would conduct
hippika fjymnihMa or militariludi (literally 'military games') often in elaborate armour,
during which they would perform the evolutions and manoeuvres they would use on
the field. The remains of an inscription from Lambaesis in north Africa records the
speech made by the Emperor Hadrian following the military exercises of the garrison
there. His comments concentrate on the tightness of the formation and the skill with
which they handle their weapons, saying of one unit that they performed a manoeuvre
that 'has the appearance of real warfare '. What he had witnessed was still very much
a display of skill at arms; there is something of the theatre about such classical games.
In the full hippika gymnasia the cavalrymen would dress in finely decorated armour
with masks in the form of Greeks or Amazons.
However, the classical games lacked the competitive edge of the medieval events,
which could quickly turn nasty. Richard the Lionheart's Sicilian behourd did just that.
When William des Barres tore Richard's cap the king went into a fury and would have
beaten the man severely if he had not been so skilled as to avoid the king's blows.
The tournament of this earlier period was equally aggressive. The nrile'e was the main
event and the one-to-one joust was a mere sideshow. It was a battle in all but intent,
fought en nuutde over open large expanses of open terrain, generally between two towns.
The tournament held in 1178 on land between the northern French towns of Anet and
Sorel covered 1,400 acres along the south bank of the river Eure. The tourneyers used