Description
Book SynopsisFresh insights into the development of the tournament as an opportunity for social display. The period from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century witnessed a rapid development of the tournament. Alongside the original tourney - a mass battle fought between opposing armies of knights with minimal and rudimentary regulation - new forms of chivalric military contests emerged, in which entertainment featured alongside the necessity of practice for war. The joust featured individual combats, with increasingly elaborate rules and variations in form and accompanying pageantry, while the passage of arms placed tournaments within theatrical and allegorical formats. This volume brings together the latest research on the late medieval tournament, demonstrating how such events, particularly at the courts of France, Burgundy, England and the German principalities, were increasingly integrated in wider festivities, ceremonies and diplomatic negotiations. Published in association with the Royal Armouries, it will appeal to all those interested in chivalric culture and medieval warfare.
Trade Reviewhighly informative and clearly written by major experts in the field. * THE RICARDIAN *
The compendium does an excellent job bringing in the casual reader to the intricacies of the study of tourneys, while also broadening the knowledge of those more invested in such research. Readers come away from the book with an imagination's worth of images and stories, both historical and literary. On top of everything else, it really is a fun read. * DE RE MILITARI *
Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgements - Martyn Lawrence Introduction: From Mass Combat to Field of Cloth of Gold - Alan V Murray Now Form Up Close Together! Tactics and Ethos of the Tourney in Early German Sources (Twelfth to Thirteenth Centuries) - Alan V Murray Por pris et por enor: Ideas of Honour as Reflected in the Medieval Tournament - James Titterton Richard II of England and the Smithfield Tournament of October 1390: An Instrument to Establish Royal Authority - James Beswick Alle myn harneys for the justes: Documents as a Source for Medieval Jousting Armour - Ralph Moffat The Tournament Saddle - Marina V. Viallon Between Sport and Theatre: How Spectacular was the Pas d'armes? - Cathy Blunk Art Imitating Life Imitating Art? Representations of the Pas d'armes in Burgundian Prose Romance: The Case of Jehan d'Avennes - Rosalind Brown-Grant The Foot Combat as Tournament Event: Equipment, Space and Forms - Iason-Eleftherios Tzouriadis Power and Pageantry: The Tournament at the Court of Maximilian I - Natalie Anderson The Field of Cloth of Gold: Arms, Armour and the Sporting Prowess of King Henry VIII and King Francis I - Karen Watts
