• 1 The most significant study still is Cline’s “The Influence of Romances on Tournaments of the Middle (...)
• 2 Philip of Novara, Mémoires, C. Kohler (ed.), H. Champion: 1913, p. 7, cit. in Flori, O Tempo dos Ca (...)

1The way medieval tournaments became influenced by their literary counterparts has already been written lengthily about.1 Since at least the first quarter of the thirteenth century the Arthurian world with its heroes, and their deeds, fortunes and misfortunes, started to be enacted in the gallant setting of the tournament and its pageantry. Far and wide, from Cyprus, where “the adventures of Brittany and of the Round Table were imitated”2 to the spectacular festivities in the English court of Edward III, more than two centuries later, far from becoming tiresome, they kept on being a joyous entertainment particularly to the aristocracy. The early beginnings of the popularity of Lancelot, Gawain, Perceval and their peers are the work of Chrétien de Troyes, which was to be followed soon after by numerous others.

• 3 Cf. Arthurian Romances, Carroll, C., and Kibler, W. (edd.), pp. 4-5.
• 4 His direct support in Champagne came from Marie, wife to count Henry. See also Crouch, W., William (...)

2But in Chrétien’s time there were already tournaments. From c.1160 to c.11903, when he would have written the five romances we know today, he was also witnessing the flourishing of a tournament circuit that was bringing the lords from the Anglo-French world together into a premier league of knightly teams. He happened to attend both the cultured courts of Flanders and Champagne, under the patronage of two of the most active tourneyers of the time;4 and was therefore almost certainly acquainted with the greatest pastime of the nobility he was writing for. We will observe from the texts that Chrétien does make clear that to a great extent he had knowledge of the procedures a tournament would require in his days. There could be various reasons for organising one, and matters such as the time and the place, when and where to have it, are crucial for the understanding of the tournament in its historical background.

• 5 To Crouch, these would be from 1167 to 83 (William Marshal, idem). Benson gives a slightly differen (...)

3There has long been much debate as to whether medieval literary records are or are not of avail for tracing historical evidence, and if they can be equal testimonies of reality and of imagination. The period that concerns us is not rich in comprehensive accounts about tournaments, and so I will largely rely for my assessments on our other major source of information. It is a biography, the Histoire de Guillaume le Maréschal, completed between 1226 and 1231, which comprises his adventures in the lists,5 and in the main reliable throughout;

• 7 “Chrétien & Guillaume le Maréchal”, p. 20. See also pp. 21-3.

4Benson was particularly referring to the “language, themes and conventions of romance tournaments”7 sometimes used to enhance the figure of the Marshal. These situations are however identifiable, and for the majority the descriptions are characterised by their practicality and down-to-earth style.

• 8 Tournaments, p. 11.

5Barber and Barker’s impressive Tournaments, undisputedly the most valuable work on the subject, make restrained use of the romances as historical evidence, “in support of what we can show to have had some existence in reality”8, and opt not to take into account possible clues and details found there. This approach takes the risk of deliberately discarding valuable information and is in my opinion somewhat over-sceptical. Flori, on the other hand, allows for caution with the treatment of literary sources:

• 10 “Chrétien & Guillaume le Maréchal”, pp. 24, 13.
• 11 Lachet, C., “Les tournois dans le Roman de Flamenca”, p. 69.

7Benson also argues that “Chrétien’s tournaments had been bloodless and decorous affairs” and that he “purified the tournament”.10 He is right in observing that the overall feeling conveyed by the descriptions might even be one of aseptic tidiness - but for the matter, we are dealing with a literary piece of evidence and should treat it accordingly. Thus, it is not from a general sense but from exact references that our conclusions should arise. One should not ignore that the treatment of violence in the romances is less concerned with portraying a gory scenery – although sometimes painstakingly it does – rather than with the reassurance of any character as that character, helping to shape its characteristics. As happens with all combats, “les tournois permettent aussi une valorisation chevaleresque des deux protagonists masculins”.11

• 12 Chênerie M. L., “’Ces Curieux Chevaliers Tournoyeurs’: des Fabliaux aux Romans”, p. 350.
• 13 “Les tournois dans le Roman de Flamenca”, p. 67.

9In the whole of the five romances, there are only four tournaments. This may seem a little score, given the importance they already had where and at the time Chrétien wrote. This scarcity may perhaps be explained by the role they have within the development of each of the romances, which in fact is not fundamental to the story itself, but still serves as “un ressort décisif dans l’approfondissement du héros”12, and so to the character rather than the narrative. Individual jousting arguably does better in making the protagonist stand out, demarcating him as the chivalrous hero. Lachet avows that the jostes, rather than the characteristic twelfth-century mêlée, would be more to the liking of the audiences,13 to what should be added the fact that those audiences lived in a specific environment, the courts, and tournaments were a mark of its culture. The public was certainly familiar with their structure: on the whole, men – because they participated – and women – because they were having more and more influence - were undoubtedly quite fond of them. But, as we shall see, there are other aspects well worth considering, namely the reasons why these tournaments are held.

• 14 The following abbreviations will be used henceforth: Erec - Erec et Enide; Histoire - L’Histoire de (...)
• 15 See, for example, Tournaments, p. 164.
• 16 Cf. Barber, R., The Knight and Chivalry, p. 162.

10One might remark that more tournaments can in fact be found adding to the number I gave. Indeed, there are more descriptions of haslitudes, but they cannot be considered as tournaments. The words tornoiz, tornoi, tornoiement, are used to refer to the tournaments in, respectively, Érec, Cligés and Lancelot, and Perceval.14 In Cligés, there are two other occasions when there are two groups of knights jousting: at the time Alexander and his companions fight the defenders of the castle besieged by Arthur and between Cligés and the household of the German emperor against the Duke of Saxony’s party. In both events the encounters are referred to as not “to tourney”, but to behorder, a definition known already in France, as it appears in Wace’s translation of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, c. 1150. This is most significant, for the béhourd was, throughout the middle ages, a sort of lightweight version of the tournament proper,15 and the two were not confused: Usually the knights – and perhaps more frequently the squires – fought clad only in hardened leather and even attired with just a “linen armour” (probably a quilted gambeson), as Mathew Paris later puts in his Chronica Majora16. He would be referring to this type of joust, as they are depicted in Cligés, where

• 18 For knightly equipment in general during the twelfth century, see Painter, S., French Chivalry, pp. (...)

12Along with renown, the objective is to practise skill at arms, what is done in a particular way concerning equipment, different from the one for tournament, which is to say at this period, the same as for war.18

• 19 Arthurian Romances, p. 157.

13Kibler’s translation is then misleading when in the same romance he later gives “he strode defiantly from the court; but as he was leaving, his youthful impetuosity led him to challenge Cligés to a tournament.”19 What in fact appears in Foerster is

• 20 In Walter’s edition these correspond to ll. 2857-62 and 2863-5, where the definition used is again (...)

14Immediately, so it seems, they mount their horses and proceed, along with other knights, to behorder (2881-2).20 This is the only instance in the five romances where a “tournament” takes place immediately after the challenge is made. Thus, I will centre in those we can be certain to be tornois.

• 21 The numbers given may be naturally discussible. I have tried to make the most accurate division, ci (...)

15The first – if we follow the conventionally established chronological order given to the romances, that is, Erec, Cligés, Yvain, Lancelot, Perceval – is on the occasion of Erec’s marriage to Enide, marking the beginning of the second part of the romance, and taking 135 lines21; another at the time Cligés arrives in Britain in quest for glory, endeavouring to be knighted by king Arthur (435 lines); the next is when Lancelot, imprisoned by Méliant in one of his castles, pledges to return if granted leave to attend a tournament where Guenivere will be present (697 lines); finally, Gawain, on his way to respond to Guinganbresil’s insult, gets involved - somewhat against his liking – in another (778 lines altogether: there are satellite episodes in between that do not concern this survey so much). There are no substantial descriptions of tournaments in Le Chevalier au Lion.

• 22 “Curieux Chevaliers”, p. 340.

16Why are these tournaments held? Chênerie would abridge by saying that “le tournoi y apparait comme un plaisir de classe”22, and certainly it is, but along with other reasons. Further than a means to assure the prominence of the hero’s knightly and chivalric attributes among his peers or before the eyes of his sweetheart, these can also indicate the contemporary and rather practical functions a tournament could have. Surely it is indispensable for Cligés, when he conquers the Saxons at the béhourd, that Fenice will think him the knight the most bel, cortois and preu (2966-8), and that all the knights at Cologne will make clear their admiration for such great glory and renown (pris) won in such a short time by a knight-to-be (2951-2). Chrétien´s tourneys offer more in addition, since military, political and social purposes underlie them.

• 23 Good summaries of this can be found in Chivalry, p. 88 and Chevaliers, pp. 97-9.

17The former was certainly the most common inspiration in the mid-twelfth century. Tournaments, with their mêlées, were privileged opportunities for commanders and their forces to exercise tactics and techniques in a warfare-like scenario, and as a result were sponsored by feudal lords, who participated with their entourages.23 Upon his arrival at Wallingford with his men, and desirous to make himself known to Arthur and his knights, Cligés takes part in one of these. What is said is that

• 24 Cf. Tournament in England, pp. 7-10.

19But this was on the Continent. Henry II was enforcing the ban of haslitudes in England, and that is the reason why his son and William the Marshal were roving around the Northwest of Europe apparently getting into every tournament they could find. William of Newburgh affirms that since Henry I it was – at least in theory – impossible to tourney in England. But even under his grandson’s reign there might have been a few, as evidence indicates.24 And according to Kibler

• 26 Chivalry, p. 92. He was later to embark on another journey, dressed as King Arthur.

22And Méliant acts accordingly. D’armes fet is what, in 1227, Ulrich von Lichtenstein would do for the sake of his lady: while travelling from Italy to Bohemia he jousted with all willing to; “if the challenger was defeated, he was to bow to the four corners of the earth in honour of Ulrich’s lady.”26 This is an example of literary influences on History rather than otherwise, but even so it clarifies to what extent knightly exploits would be motivated by the conceptions of amorous vassalage.

• 27 Chrétien & Guillaume le Maréchal, p. 13.

25These measures are no less than a defensive strategy in the face of a direct attack or siege. They can either point towards a particularly brutal mêlée, in which the challengers would break into a castle and toz destruire, or imply the tournament as a substitute for real war. Therefore I wholly disagree with Benson, who oversimplifies stating “this is another very life-like tournament”.27

• 28 An overall description of the twelfth century tournament can be found in French Chivalry, pp. 47-50
• 29 Histoire, ll. 2849-1.

26We have no evidence for the first supposition, simply because, for what we know, fortifications would not be assaulted in a tournament, and furthermore because knights would be more interested in taking prisoners amongst noble fighters on the other side, while possible infantry would be engaged in defending the lords.28 When Young Henry and William the Marshal are tourneying between Anet and Sorel, in 1176, they pursue Simon de Neauphle to find him in a street of the village of Anet. (Even then, and despite he was being guarded by three hundred men, “li Mar[es]chals ala prendre / Monseignor Symon par le frein”.29) The Histoire does not refer to deliberate aggression of civil population, basically because there was no reason for it.

• 30 For a comparative analysis, see Tournaments, pp. 19-20.

27On the other hand, citizens of the quarrelling Italian cities of Piacenza and Cremona, while at Roncaglia, make use of the 1158 Imperial assembly there to engage in “combat, which they normally call a tournament”, thus appeasing bloodier enthusiasms.30 This may support a different approach: Tiebaut reacts as if he would fear an invasion and is backed up by la gent del chastel, “Et li plusor grant joie avoient / Del tornoi qui remés estoit” (4920-1), but an experienced vavasour reassures him, saying

• 31 Courtly Culture: Literature and Society in the High Middle Ages, p. 205.

31The barons assembled in Arthur’s Court for the occasion of the nuptials decide to hold a tournament soon after the banqueting and the feasts, characteristic of aristocratic life. They all are a natural extension of the celebrations. In 1184 Frederick I summons princes, dukes and knights to Mainz for a great feast, he himself taking part in a gyrus (a war game emphasising horsemanship).31 Arthur does the same,

• 32 Tournaments, p. 169.

32while it is interesting to observe that the German gathering also begins on Whitsunday. To Bumke “above all the tournament was associated with weddings”, a practice first registered in the 1180s by Lambert of Ardres, on the occasion of the count Arnould l’Ainé’s marriage to Gertrude of Flanders,32 not that far from the time and place when and where Chrétien is writing.

• 33 Chevaliers, pp. 141-2.
• 34 For a sociological approach to the tournament in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries see Duby, The (...)

33Lancelot goes to a tournament of which the purpose is to find a number of husbands for the dames and dameiseles of the kingdom that are desconseilliees (5367-77). That is to be organised by women: the Lady of Noauz symbolically challenges the Lady of Pomelegoi, in what is an early demonstration of the theatrical aspects tournaments would later acquire, based on the issue of a fictitious challenge. In this instance we have a most courtly example of knights fighting exclusively – in theory – for the honour of the ladies they stand for. Although to my knowledge we have no contemporary record from which we can gather that tournaments could indeed sometimes be a joint feminine initiative, we may suggest that their importance to aristocratic marriage can be significant. Count Arnould manages to marry such a figure thanks to his chivalric deeds in tourney, which come to her brother’s knowledge, the lord of Alostz, who eventually gives him her hand. “La prouesse, la vaillance guerrière, sont alors vertus éminentes qui méritent d’être honorées, admirées”,33 these being the qualities that must be displayed in the field, especially by knights-bachelor, younger brothers who do not have rights of inheritance and that are not willing to take vows, and who will ultimately find in the tournament promising financial opportunities, either by capturing knights and horses, or by capturing the attention of some well-off lady.34 On the other hand, by and large it would be to the interest of marriageable noble women to find a proficient suitor with the attributes necessary to administer land and household. To Duby

• 36 Historical references pointed out in this section can largely be found in Tournaments, pp. 173-7. O (...)
• 37 Cf. William Marshal, pp. 175-6.

37The four tournaments in the romances share familiar characteristics as regards their organization.36 The feudal magnates of, mainly, Northwest Europe who were also patrons of the tournament – Baldwin of Hainault, then after Philip of Flanders or Henry of Champagne – actually took part in them besides caring for their organization. In fact, they were running the most popular and enjoyable sports circuit of the time. Also, while they visited the other’s territorial domains, each was also keen on hosting such events back home, if they had the means to do so. Tournaments were prestigious affairs and unarguably functioned as a most fitting vehicle at their disposal for display of power.37 Therefore they ought to make sure they welcomed the largest possible sum of participants.

• 38 In fact, instead of the four days of Guiot, it should be noticed that Foerster for some reason has (...)

40What is more, about the tourney Cligés is also told “Qui devoit durer quatre jorz” (4580)38. A concern with planning is noticeable, from both the organiser and the participant. The intent is even clearer in Lancelot:

• 39 As might be expected, a variant would be the “tournament” at Cologne, apparently getting on immedia (...)

44As for the rest, in Perceval, as we have seen before, Méliant’s challenge is issued in advance, and in Erec, when Arthur’s court at Cardigan decides to make arrangements for another, this tourney is to start only a week after (2086-8 / 2095-6).39 No matter how uncomplicated tournaments of this period may seem to us, especially if compared to later spectacles, they still required an effective administration to make them and their patrons’ investments worthwhile.

• 40 These are Crouch’s calculations (in William the Marshal, p. 175. Compare this to Tournaments, pp. 1 (...)

45In respect of a preference for a specific time of the year, I do not think we can vouch for a “high-season” of Chrétien’s Arthurian tournaments. In Northwest Europe, from what one can make out, for instance from the Histoire, that would be in late autumn,40 even if we can find the Marshal in the lists “As oytaves de Pentecoste”, and even during winter, some time after Christmas. As far as the romances are concerned, they appear whenever there is need for them. Singling out the one in Erec, which takes place “Un mois aprés la Pantecoste” (2098) – as we see, another popular period for tourneying, marking the end of Lent – the information is inconclusive as to the exact time of the year. Despite the fact that the text does not tell us if and what specific days of the week would witness these events, we can gather elements pointing – roughly, though – to a timetable of the day. Before, it should be noted that they can take more time than that.

• 41 Le Chevalier Errant dans les Romans Arthuriens en Vers des XIIe et XIIIe Siècles, p. 135.

46Chênerie’s valuable table of tournaments in the Arthurian romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries41 shows that they can range from one up to four days, two being the most common. In fact, the one in Cligés is the longest, followed by Beaudous, that lasts three. In our more concise corpus a couple of days normally suffice for the hero to make his prowess more than apparent. The knights, on two occasions and at the end of the encounter, agree to prolong the fighting onto the next day. In Lancelot, all try to decide whom to laureate, “Au departir i ot grant plet / De ces qui mialz l’avoient fet” (5717-8), concluding that no one had clearly distinguished himself or was worthy enough to spouse the ladies. Thus the decision is made to resume the competition later:

• 42 Tournaments, p. 176.
• 43 Histoire, ll. 1410-2.

49Barker and Barber affirm that “tournaments usually began in the afternoon, largely because the process of arming the knights and organising them was a protracted one”42, but in the latter part of the twelfth century these would not yet be such major impediments. Body armour was still largely confined to a mail hauberk, comparatively simpler and faster to don than later defensive equipment, and the same may well be true of the organisation, also much more practical at the time. When the Marshal hastens to a tournament between Saint-Brice and Bouere, three days after the one he was just coming from, he still arrives in time. “Que [il] est venuz a tot tens / La ou li chival[i]er s’armoient”43, and manages to get himself in, recognised by two knights there. Goes without saying that he wins the tournament.

• 44 “Et quant se vint a l’anjornee / Refu a la genz tote atornee” (5773-4): Kibler gives “When day brok (...)

50The four descriptions we have in Chrétien allow us, to establish a very plain daily schedule. The second day of the tournament in Cligés unequivocally begins in the morning - “L’andemain as armes revindrent / Tuit sanz semonse et sanz proiere.” (4748-9) - and in Lancelot the same is apparent44, while the Maiden with the Little Sleeves, after getting up “au matinet” (5475) to see Gawain before the tourney, finds him and his peers already stepping out from the church:

• 45 French Chivalry, p. 47.

52All of this would happen after a suitable place had been chosen beforehand. “A feudal prince (…) would select as a site a pleasant meadow in his lands and then send heralds about the countryside to announce the affair”,45 as we have seen already. Painter’s supposition that haslitudes of the time would require such a place is confirmed by both Chrétien and the Histoire. Here we find tournaments being fought in a designated area in between two towns or villages, such as between Gournai and Ressons or Sainte-Jaumes and Valennes, the same happening in the romances. So now we shall look at the site of the tournament as a competition ground, that is, the lists.

• 46 The peculiarities of this designation are explained in Tournaments, p. 213.

56Depending on which side they take, they lodge in or outside the town. They choose whether to hold the site as a sign of their lady’s honour or to be venants,46 just as Lancelot does.

• 48 Cf. Histoire, vol. III, note 3 to p. 45.
• 49 Cf. Knight and Chivalry, p. 163.

61This castle is naturally on a mount, a deduction that can be made when the ladies tell a squire that Gawain is “An ce pré qui est desoz nos” (5128), that is, in a lower position and having retreated from the lists proper because he was not taking part in the fighting. But the place where he is encamped has been deliberately enclosed by a palisade “S’antre an un pré desoz la tor, / Qui estoit clos de pex antor” (4915-6). Everything suggests that this is meant to set the knight apart from the fray and not to surround all the tournament site, which would be rather unpractical, particularly if we take into account that when Méliant charges he leaves his companions “Bien loing deus arpanz et demi” (5507). Even this distance should not perhaps be a fictional exaggeration: the Marshal goes to a tourney that is to take place “Entre Mestenon e Nogent”, two towns that have eight kilometres setting them apart.48 To encircle a tournament field, as small as it might be, is perceptibly at least idiosyncratic for this period. So, the area where Gawain has his tent pitched can only be a refuge prepared for the participants of the tourney to recover from the skirmishes, in what indeed are the “lists” of the time, an already established feature of tournament grounds.49

• 50 Tournaments, p. 7.

62It is hardly surprising to gather a weight of information out of the various depictions of tourneys in the romances we have been looking at. The tournaments of the twelfth century, from merely being an end in themselves, as training and enjoyment, were already being used to mark exceptional occasions closely bound to social and political interests. They encompassed multiple purposes altogether, and were as valuable to the great magnates who organised them as to the landless knights seeking renown and fortune there. A feminine presence is even worthier to mention and, although it will only be consistently pointed out in historical accounts by the thirteenth century50, the History of the Kings of Britain refers to such before:

• 52 “Chrétien & Guillaume Le Maréchal”, p. 3.
• 53 This is also pointed out by Barber in The Knight and Chivalry, p. 162.

65The scarcity of sources providing any glimpse into why and how these events were arranged is yet natural. Benson’s assumption that this absence of references means that tournaments were unimportant, and “not worthy of historical record”52 is groundless; to add to what I have been adjudging, it is just reasonable to think that no clerk would be delighted to describe in detail something that basically meant excommunication to those who participated in it.53 Tournaments, to the Church, were a menace to social order, meaning killing and violence and, more important still, as deaths were not that many, a menace to the authority of the Church itself. I would add that when Chrétien was writing the tournament was already so well established and well defined as a cultural attribute appertaining to the aristocracy that it comes naturally in the romances as a means of identifying that social class – with its habits and interests – with what happens in the narrative. It seems logical that the response expressed by the courtiers of the time had much to do with the realism they could find in the fictional work of Chrétien: their world in Champagne and Flanders was too close to the great tourneys of the time for them to accept anything categorically implausible.