A fearless warrior on the battlefield and a gallant cavalier at court, a knight clad in armor, without a doubt, is the central figure and symbol of medieval Europe.
The upbringing of future knights was somewhat reminiscent of Spartan. According to the customs of those years, up to 7 years old, the offspring of noble families were brought up by their mother, from 7 to 12 years old - by their father. And after 12 years, the fathers usually sent them to the court of their lords, where they initially performed the role of a page (in some countries they were called jacks or damoisos).
Alexandre Cabanel, Paige
The next step on the way to the knighthood was the service of the ecuillet, that is, the squire. Ecuyer was usually in charge of the lord's stable and already had the right to carry a sword. At the age of 21, the young man was knighted. The title of a knight imposed on a person certain obligations, failure to fulfill which sometimes led to demotion. In the XII century, this rite consisted of chopping off the spurs at the heels. In the future, he took on more theatrical and pretentious forms.
So, assuming the title of knight, the young man, in addition to serving the lord, undertook to obey the unwritten code of honor, observing loyalty to two cults. The first and most important of them was the "cult of the 9 fearless", which included 3 pagans (Hector, Caesar, Alexander the Great), 3 Jews (Joshua, David, Judas Maccabee) and 3 Christians (King Arthur, Charlemagne, Gottfried of Bouillon)).
Godefroy de Bouillon, one of the "9 fearless"
Imitation of them was the first duty of every knight. But in our time, the courtly cult of the Beautiful Lady, which was born in Aquitaine and Poitou, sung in knightly novels, is much better known. On this path, the knight went through several stages, the first of which was the stage of the "timid knight" - who had not yet told about his feelings to the lady he had chosen. Having opened to the lady of the heart, the knight received the status of a "supplicant", and being admitted to serve her, he became "heard."
Walter Crane, La Belle Dame sans Merc, 1865
After a lady gave the knight a kiss, a ring and a symbol (belt, scarf, veil or shawl, which he fastened on a helmet, shield or spear), he became her vassal. Closely associated with the cult of the beautiful lady is the movement of troubadours (itinerant poets and composers) and minstrels (singers performing troubadour songs), who often traveled together as a knight and squire.
Gustavo Simoni, The Minstrels Story
The relationship between the knight and his lady of the heart (who, moreover, was often a married woman), as a rule, remained platonic. "I do not think that Love can be divided, for if it is divided, its name should be changed," the knight and troubadour Arnaut de Mareille commented on this situation.
Just call - and I will give you help
Out of compassion for your tears!
No payment is needed - no caresses, no speeches, Even the nights you promised.
Lyrics by Peyre de Barjac.)
However, let's not idealize the "singers of love". I suspect that both the troubadours themselves, and their listeners, liked completely different songs much more. For example, Bertrand de Born's famous serventa:
Love to see me the people
Starving, naked
Suffering, not warmed up!
So that the villans do not get fat, To endure hardships
It is necessary from year to year
Keep them in a black body for a century …
Let the peasant with the huckster
In winter they are like nude.
Friends, let's forget the pity
So that the rabble does not multiply!
Now we have the following law:
Scourge beat the men!
Scourge the creditors!
Kill them bastards!
You will not heed their pleas!
Drown them, throw them into the ditches.
Forever the damned pigs
Put them in the casemates!
Their atrocities and boasting
It's time for us to stop!
Death to the peasants and hucksters!
Death to the townspeople!"
Bertrand de Born, who in one of his poems called Richard the Lionheart "my Knight Yes and No"
A real anthem of class arrogance, impenetrable stupidity and confidence in complete impunity. One can imagine how the representatives of the Third Estate "liked" such songs. The descendants of knights and troubadours will have to pay for them in their own blood.
But we seem to be distracted, let's return to Aquitaine and Northern Italy, where in the XII-XIV centuries the so-called "courts of love" were practiced, at which noble ladies passed verdicts on matters of heart. One of these "courts" was presided over by the famous lover of Petrarch - Laura.
Laura
For the poor and ignorant knights, serving the battle cult and the cult of the Beautiful Lady equally opened the way, following which one could become in public opinion on the same level with sovereign dukes and princes. The dukes of Aquitaine and the counts of Poitou rose from the throne to meet the "king of poets" - the troubadour Bertrand de Ventadorn, a commoner, the son of either a baker or a stoker.
Bertrand de Ventadorn
And Guillaume le Marechal, thanks to victories in knightly tournaments, not only became rich and famous, but even became at first the educator of the young king Henry III, and then - the regent of England (1216-1219).
You probably noticed a certain contradiction: after all, the fighting and courtly cults, it would seem, were supposed to lead the knight along two different roads. This contradiction was resolved by organizing knightly tournaments, about which the poets wrote, and the victories at which the knights dedicated to their ladies. History has preserved for us the name of the person who initiated these competitions. According to the Chronicle of Saint Martin of Tours (written by Peano Gatineau), it was Geoffroy de Prey, who died in 1066 - alas, not in war and not on the field of honor, but from the executioner's sword. Serving military and courtly cults did not save the knight from the temptation to join one of the many conspiracies of that time.
In the first tournaments, the knights did not enter into confrontation with each other. It all started with quintana - equestrian exercises with weapons, during which it was necessary to hit a dummy with a spear or sword. A description of the quintana is given, for example, in the stories about the first crusade (1096-1099). Moreover, it is reported that the dummy in this case was equipped with a lever that actuated his hand, which beat the knight who inflicted an inaccurate blow in the back. Then the de bug came to replace the quintana, according to the conditions of which it was required to hit the hanging ring with a spear at a gallop. Later, “contact” varieties of spear martial arts competitions appeared and became very popular. These were rennzoig, in which it was necessary to deliver an accurate blow to the armor or helmet of the enemy, and shtekhzoig - a very dangerous type of martial arts, where to win it was required to knock the opponent out of the saddle. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, with the development of firearms, tournaments degenerated into equestrian ballet. Fans of historical novels have probably read about the carousel, an equestrian ballet performed according to a specific scenario.
However, let's not get ahead of ourselves and tell about tournaments exactly what seems the most interesting to the absolute majority of our contemporaries. Oddly enough, at first the knights in tournaments fought not one by one, but in battle groups - such competitions were called mele. Injuries in battles with real military weapons were unusually high, it is not surprising that by 1216 the Beurds gave way to the shoals, whose participants were armed with wooden swords and blunt spears, and tanned leather jackets played the role of heavy armor. But since the fight with the use of such "frivolous" weapons was, as it were, not quite real, in the XIV-XV centuries.the beurd turned into a match between squires and newly initiated knights on the eve of the main event. And at the end of the 14th century, tournament fighters acquired special weapons. Simultaneously with the beurds, the audience got the opportunity to watch the pair duels - joystroi. And only then it came to individual fights.
Knightly tournament, reconstruction
But the real decoration of the tournaments was not the above-mentioned types of duels, but Pa d'Arm - an armed passage. These were costume games-competitions, proceeding according to a certain scenario and extremely reminiscent of the role-playing games of modern Tolkienists.
The action was based on mythological plots, legends of the knightly epic about Charlemagne and King Arthur. At the tournament at the Well of Tears in the vicinity of Chalon in 1449-1550. the defender of the Lady of the Source Jacques de Lalen fought 11 opponents and won all the fights. The knights who lost the battle on spears, at his will, sent their spear to his overlord. Opponents who lost a duel with swords were to present an emerald to the most beautiful lady in the kingdom. And those who were unlucky in a duel with axes, put on a gold bracelet with the image of a castle (a symbol of shackles), which could only be removed from them by a lady who wanted and knew how to do it. In 1362 in London, a lot of talk was caused by a tournament in which 7 knights, dressed in costumes of 7 deadly sins, defended the lists. And in 1235 the participants of the Round Table Tournament in Esden finished their game to the point that they set out on a crusade straight from the tournament.
The interest in tournaments turned out to be so great that in order to participate in the tournament, the nobles sometimes forgot about the military duty and the duties assigned to them. So, in 1140, Ranulf, Count of Flanders, managed to capture Lincoln Castle only because the knights who defended it went to a tournament in a neighboring city without permission. In the XIII-XIV centuries, tournaments became so popular that in many European cities they began to be held between wealthy citizens. Moreover, the equipment of wealthy merchants not only did not yield, but often even surpassed the equipment of aristocrats. The knights, for the organization of tournaments, began to organize unions and societies (Germany in 1270, Portugal in 1330, etc.). The collected fees were used to hold tournaments and buy equipment. In 1485, there were already 14 competing tournament fraternities in Germany. In England, the undisputed champion was a team of experienced knights, created by the already mentioned Guillaume le Marechal, which literally terrorized other participants in the tournaments. During only one of these tours, she captured 103 knights. Marechal himself got it. Once, having won the next tournament, he disappeared somewhere just before the awards ceremony. The hero was found in a smithy, the owner of which was trying to remove a crumpled helmet from him.
As for the spectators, their behavior often resembled the antics of modern football fans, which was greatly aided by the lack of strict rules for determining the winners, which appeared only in the 13th century. Disagreement with the decision of the arbitrators sometimes led to serious unrest and riots. In order to prevent such incidents, the organizers of the tournaments and the city authorities entered into special agreements. An example was set in 1141 by the Comte de Eco and the municipality of the city of Valencia, who concluded an agreement on the responsibility of those responsible for the riots organized to challenge the results of the tournaments. In the same place where the authorities relied on "maybe", incidents like the "Boston Fair" often happened, when in 1288 drunken squires, dissatisfied with the refereeing, burned half of the English city of Boston. The real battle took place in 1272 at the tournament in Chalon, when the Duke of Burgundy grabbed King Edward I of England by the neck and began to strangle, which was perceived as a violation of the rules.
Edward 1, King of England
The English knights rushed to the aid of their lord, the Burgundian nobles also did not stand aside, and then the foot soldiers joined the battle, who very effectively used crossbows. There were other sad incidents at tournaments. So, in 1315 in Basel during a tournament one of the stands collapsed, many of the noble ladies standing on it were injured and wounded.
The real breakthrough in the organization of tournaments took place in 1339 in Bologna, where the scoring system first appeared. By the 15th century, such a system of evaluating results had become generally accepted. The points were counted on broken spears, which were specially made from fragile and brittle types of wood - spruce and aspen. One spear was awarded to a knight who broke it when it hit the enemy's body, two spears - if it broke along its entire length, three spears - if the blow knocked the enemy out of the saddle. The top of art was considered if the knight managed to knock down the enemy with the horse or hit the visor three times. A system of penalties was also introduced: one spear - for hitting the saddle, two spears - if the knight touched the barrier.
Military weapons or horses were usually assigned as tournament prizes. At the annual tournament in Lille, the winner was a statuette of a golden hawk, and in Venice - gold wreaths and silver belts. In 1267, a "magic tree" with gold and silver leaves was planted in Thuringia: a knight who knocked an opponent out of the saddle received a gold leaf that broke a spear - a silver one. But sometimes the knights fought for much more extravagant awards. In 1216, one of the English ladies appointed a live bear as the main prize. In 1220 Waltmann von Setentetm from Thuringia announced that the knight who had defeated the "Keeper of the Forest" would receive an honorable service to the lady of the defeated heart as a reward. And the ruler of Magdeburg, Brune von Schonebeck, in 1282 appointed the winner a "fairy of beauty" - a beauty of an ordinary origin.
Taking the opportunity to legally gather fully armed and with an armed retinue, the barons sometimes used tournaments to organize conspiracies and rebellions. Opponents of the English king Henry IV in 1400 tried to kill him at a tournament in Oxford. A special place in history is held by the tournament in the Wall (1215), in which the barons lured into a trap King John Lackland, forcing him to sign the Magna Carta.
For the sake of fairness, it must be said that, unlike participants in modern role-playing games, the knights were exposed to very serious danger at tournaments. Often there were severe injuries, and even death of participants, regardless of their nobility and social status. So, in 1127, the Count of Flanders, Charles the Good, died at the tournament. In 1186, the same fate awaited the son of King Henry II of England, Geoffroy of Breton. In 1194 this list was supplemented by the Austrian Duke Leopold, and in 1216 Geoffroy de Mandeville, Count of Essex, was assassinated. In 1234, Florent, Count of Holland, died. In 1294, at a tournament by an unknown knight, Jean, Duke of Brabant, the son-in-law of King Edward I of England, was killed, and he had 70 victories. The most terrible result was the result of the tournament in the Swiss city of Nus (1241), when from 60 to 80 knights suffocated in the dust raised by galloping horses. And on June 30, 1559, King Henry II of France died in a duel with the captain of the Scottish riflemen Count Montgomery in Paris. A fragment of the spear shaft hit the crack of the visor and sank into the king's temple.
Henry II, King of France, portrait by François Clouet
This sad incident glorified the physician and astrologer Michel Nostradamus, who had recently written a quatrain:
The young lion will surpass the old
On the battlefield in a one-on-one duel
His eye will be gouged out in his golden cage.
(The fact is that Henry's helmet was gilded, and lions were depicted on the coats of arms of both opponents.)
Michel de Nostrdam
Numerous sacrifices led to the fact that the church councils of 1130, 1148 and 1179. passed verdicts condemning and prohibiting tournaments. But the monarchs and knights of all European countries unanimously ignored these decisions and in 1316. Pope John XXII of Avignon was forced to admit the obvious, remove all prohibitions on tournaments and cancel the church persecution of their participants. Moreover, already in the XIVth tournaments gradually lost the character of training and competition in military valor - the entourage meant more than the actual fights. High-born aristocrats did not want to expose their lives to real danger, but to show off in luxurious armor in front of the festively discharged ladies. The equipment has become so expensive that the circle of participants has sharply narrowed. Tournament battles became more and more conventional. In 1454, at the tournament of the Duke of Burgundy, most of the noble guests went to dinner, without even waiting for the end of the duels.
But, on the other hand, impromptu tournaments appeared during hostilities. During one of the Anglo-Scottish wars (in 1392), the four Scots prevailed over the British in a duel on the London bridge, and King Richard II of England was forced to present the winners.
Richard II, King of England
During the Hundred Years War in Ploermal (Brittany) there was a "battle of 30" - 30 English and French knights fought on foot without restriction in the choice of weapons. The French won. In 1352, a duel took place between 40 French and 40 Gascon knights. The tournament in Saint-Englever near Calais was especially famous in 1389: Jean Le Mengre, Reginalde de Royer and the lord de Saint-Pi challenged the English knights, announcing that they would defend the field indicated by them for 20 days. About 100 English knights and 14 knights from other countries arrived. The French prevailed in 39 matches. Their weapons were deposited in the Cathedral of Boulogne, and Charles VI awarded them 6,000 francs.
Charles VI, King of France
The famous French knight Pierre Terrai, Seigneur de Bayard, whose motto was "Do what follows - and come what may", was considered invincible in a horse spear battle, for which he received the nickname "spearman". In 1503 he became famous for defending the bridge over the Garigliano River. In 1509, in a 13 to 13 tournament, he and the knight Oroz were left alone against 13 Spaniards during the battle. For 6 hours they continued to fight and remained undefeated.
Pierre Terray, Senor de Bayard
Bayard never used a firearm and was killed by a shot from an arquebus in the battle of the Sesia River in 1524. His grave is in Grenoble.
The last tournament was staged by fans of romanticism in 1839 near Eglinton in Scotland. Even now, theatrical battles in knightly armor are becoming an integral part of many historical holidays.
