Medieval tournaments – Jousting Knights

Medieval Tournaments

A style of staged combat in the Middle Ages is typically referred to as a tournament, or tourney. Roger of Hoveden gave the most definitive description of tournaments, as a way to carry out military exercises in order to sharpen one’s game and show off their skills to one another, instead of as a hostile act; it is practiced throughout the history of war. However, before the 11th century, Europe did not know the properly dictated style of tournament. A French baron called Geoffroi de Preulli seemingly invented tournaments – according to his peers’ testimonials – in 1066; multiple sources have his rather gruesome killing on record. Read the rest of this entry »