If movies have not lied to me (😜), knights’ tournaments are involve hacking, slashing, and jousting each other. How did they not kill each other using such weapons or speed on horses? And if it was actually dangerous, why did they participate?
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They do real jousting at the tournament of kings in Las Vegas it’s a dinner show once a week. The winning knight from last week gets to sit it out and be the “king” that presides over the event.
They wear full plate and armor pads and the bout is won whe you unseat the opponent. Lances for jousting are blunted and sometimes have something on the end like a fist or square end to give you more force but less pierce. The lances are also designed to break at a certain pressure to also not dismount yourself like you would if it was like a pole vaulting implement.
This, but with combat sports, american football, etc.
The answer is they do die: normally slowly and painfully, out of sight and sometimes much after the not-apparently-lethal injury.
Battle lances had a spear end, but tournament lances were very blunt and relatively large (the aim being to unseat your opponent from his horse, not kill him).
once one of the pair was inseated, usually the ‘battle’ would continue on foot, with blunted swords.
The aim was to get your opponent to submit, either by disarming him or just plain tiring him out. It didnt usually end in a simulated kill, like the movies show.
Why, apart from their job was fighting in wars and jousts was good training but it was also a way to make a lot of money! many jousts with big melees or massed fights in teams allowed opponents to be captured and ransomed. Even if that was not allowed there were often valuable prizes and for unknown knights and those without a holding it was a good way to show good you were making it possible to gain a position in great lords household.
So knights went from poor landless knights to in one case the Marshall of England, based mainly on his fame and wealth from jousting.
I just watched a trial at arms with a jousting match yesterday.
Yes, it can be dangerous. But far less than movies show. They wear specialized armor (wealthy knights owned parade armor, jousting armor, and battle armor). Weapons were not the same as they used in battle: not so sharp, lances of softer wood without metal tips, etc.
Another thing that is different from movies is that swords used by knights were not nearly as sharp as you think. If you and your opponent were wearing plate armor, the goal was to knock them over and then use the sharp tip to slide between plates (or use a dagger instead of the sword). That’s why hammers, flails, maces, and axes were popular weapons. Not as aristocratic as a sword, but the blunt weapon with a larger contact area had a better chance of unbalancing an armored opponent and hurting them from impact damage.
Knights were at least in theory soldiers. Most of the activities in a tournament were part of their training routines. They participated because they gained status and were able to show off their prowess, and they were doing most of the same things as regular drills anyway.
eta: The typical format does not start with knights jousting at each other. In the skills course before the ORF jousts, for example, one challenge is to hit a shield on a stand with a sandbag as a counterweight. Miss the shield or ride too slow and get hit by the sandbag, and you get no points. The next challenge is to hit a small round target that is approximately the size of the tip of a lance hard enough to make it spin. If a rider misses these two challenges, they will not have enough points to advance to facing a live opponent. Warm-up games would weed out people unable to control their horse and hit a target, making sure those who did get to joust were prepared at least to a degree.
> And if it was actually dangerous, why did they participate?
I dunno where in the world you are but in the US there is this massive sport called football that permanently injures thousands of children who play, and the best case scenario for most players is massive, permanent brain damage. xD
So. It’s not *that* strange for people to play dangerous sports.
They were heavy armored and the jousting lance were of a soft wood. They would break very easily and the one who broke his lance on the opponent was awarded the winner.
Source: I read this in a museum in germany were many armors and tournament weapons were on display.
You could probably ask the same about boxing, UFC, freeclimbing, rugby, Formula 1, etc..
If there’s a dangerous sport then some people will want to do it. And if jousting was still a thing then people would probably be lining up to participate.
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