Knights of the long knives

The mock battles that kept men at arms amused during a siege or quiet period morphed into extravagant festivals with often deadly outcomes

- ROGER FIELD

JOUSTS, tourneys (from the French ‘to turn’), tournaments… call them what you will, they have been around in some shape or form ever since men decided that the best way to maintain and improve their fighting skills, before push came to blood-sodden slash and stab in battle, was to practise on one another. It was a basic part of a warrior’s daily training, which probably explains why it is rarely, if ever, referred to by the ancient chroniclers. Why would they? This was what soldiers did. Sword edges would have been blunted, metal heads removed from spears and some weapons made of wood. The idea was to best your opponent, not kill or maim him.

The earliest reference to mounted knights – never ordinary men at arms – engaging in mock battles is a siege in Italy in 1062 when Norman knights, twiddling their thumbs in the squalor of the siege lines, decided to mount up and fight each other, both as a form of entertainment and to maintain their skills as they awaited the castle’s surrender. There’s an inherent problem here, as anyone who has played rugby or stood beside a chum in the shooting line knows. Tackle too hard or poach their birds and your chums (at least my chums) will do the same back to you. With interest.

However, in those far-off times, this excess of testosterone combined with immense strength, fitness, weapons-handling skills and an often super-violent mindset. It manifested itself in putting a load more ‘eckythump’ into your next blow or spurring your horse that bit harder as you hit them with a lance. When you find yourself up against a rival, you are going to hit them even harder. And they you. These early ‘free flow’ tourneys (known as melees) were a recipe for mayhem and doubtless, on occasion, murder.