The Medieval Tournament as Spectacle: Tourneys, Jousts and Pas d'Armes, 1100-1600

Fresh insights into the development of the tournament as an opportunity for social display.


The period from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century witnessed a rapid development of the tournament. Alongside the original tourney — a mass battle fought between opposing armies of knights with minimal and rudimentary regulation — new forms of chivalric military contests emerged, in which entertainment featured alongside the necessity of practice for war. The joust featured individual combats, wi...