What+happened+at+tournaments?

= = Tournaments were a set of mock battles that were held for the knights so that they could practise their fighting and gain strength. At a tournament there would be an audience usually made up of ‘fair damsels’. There were many rules that had to be followed and in case of any dishonesty there were judges who would watch and judge. Even though many precautions were taken to prevent injury many knights would still get injured badly and some even died.

There were two types of tournaments that were held. The first was //the joust//, which was an individual event and //the melee//, which was a team event. In a joust two people would ride horses and carry long blunted poles called lances and shields. They would gallop towards each other and try to knock each other off the horses.

There were also two types of jousting that would take place. One was where one knight would send out a proclamation to other knights saying that he would take on any jousting competitors at a certain time and place. The other was where many elimination jousting rounds were held over many days and by the end a single winner would be found.

In a melee teams of knights would either fight on foot or on horseback. The teams would have no tactics and would not work together as an organized team. Each person would care only for themselves. The word melee comes from a French word which means to mix. In a melee everyone would just be fighting anyone on the other team and would often become tangled in a group. = =

Back to Main Page