Medieval Tournaments

published in: Stefan Krause and Matthias Pfaffenbichler (Ed.), Turnier. 1000 Ritterspiele, Vienna (KHM) and Munich (Hirmer) 2017
(http://www.hirmerverlag.de/de/titel-1-1/turnier-1557/)

The publication contains 21 essays by 17 international experts. It is the first publication to tell the story of tournaments from the 11th up until the 21st century.

Compte rendu critique de l'ouvrage de Sébastien Nadot sur les tournois, joutes, pas d'armes et emprises, qui est une version légèrement remaniée de sa thèse soutenue à l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.
Critical review of a book written by Sébastien Nadot, based upon his thesis.

Статья представляет собой краткий обзор и авторский перевод фехтовального трактата «Le Jeu de la Hache» (MS Francias 1996), что значит «Игры с топором». Это анонимный манускрипт на среднефранцузском языке, предположительно написанный в XV веке миланским фехтовальным мастером при дворе бургундского герцога Карла Смелого (1433 – 1477) и состоящий из 18 страниц рукописного текста форматом 240 на 160 мм. Трактат полностью посвящен только одному оружию, рыцарскому топору (poleaxe), и содержит самое большое из известных собрание приемов с этим оружием. Манускрипт был обнаружен в 1544 году в библиотеке Франциска I в Фонтенбло. В данный момент находится в Bibliothèque nationale de France в Париже.

Discusses the role of the Internet enabling "affinity groups", in this case influenced from the corpus of Arthurian romance blended with the historical literature on feats of arms. The emphasis is on the nature of the affiliations and the resulting social networks.

Les armoriaux de l'Epinette reproduisent avec plus ou moins d'exactitude l'exemplaire présenté en janvier 1566 par Nicolas Tournemine et Jean de Villers à la gouvernance de Lille. La version la plus ancienne ayant pu servir de modèle, rédigée et peinte à la fin du XVème siècle par Gaspard Dubois, poursuivant d'armes de la ville de Lille, a disparu depuis longtemps. La mémoire des fêtes de l'Épinette, divertissements publics, joutes et tournois donnés par le patriciat lillois depuis la fin du XIIIe siècle, ainsi que le souvenir des « rois » qui y participèrent pendant deux cents ans, ont été conservés par les recueils exposant leurs armoiries. Depuis, ces armoiries décrites dans les armoriaux de l'Epinette ont servi à entretenir et diffuser bien des spéculations généalogiques. François Boniface s'est attaché à retrouver la réalité des mentions portées dans les différents recueils. Les résultats de cette enquête sont exposés dans l'ouvrage.

René d’Anjou’s Livre des tournois is famous as the most substantial
account of the organisation of a medieval tournament that has come down
to us. It survives in eight manuscripts, most of which have an almost identical layout; the best of these is a magnificent work of art in its own right.

But these manuscripts are striking in another way: as a group, they show
that this work is one of the first illustrated manuals, in which text and
image are complementary, and form a single whole. The copyists understood
this, and followed the original because the layout and exact images
were an essential part of the whole. Justin Sturgeon’s interdisciplinary
study reveals the patterns and relationships which give the manual its very
specific character.

The study begins by exploring the relationship between the work’s images
and the way in which heraldry forms a visual counterpart to the narrrative
in the text We then turn to the subject matter and to René’s authoritative
use of sources, both written and practical, and how they relate to
late-medieval tournament and court culture. The author shows that René
was drawing on specific precedents toconstruct his idealized version of
such an event. Analysis of the visual presentation uses spatial and ritual
theory to engage with a series of spectacles surrounding the punishment
and review of the noble tourneyers, and their impact on group identity and
status. The last section of the book concentrates on the physical manuscripts.

The evidence from all eight known medieval manuscript copies is
used to construct a new understanding of the provenance and transmission
of the work, before turning to scrutinize the reception of two copies in
detail. The conclusion draws together threads of identity, authority, and
the importance of the Livre des tournois as a product of the culture and
circumstances of its production.

The second volume is a series of appendices to the main text, including
the first scholarly edition of the source manuscript to make use of all eight
medieval manuscripts,with tables anddiagrams showing the relationship of
all the extant manuscripts.

The third volume contains 300 supporting images, ncluding detailed high
resolution close-ups of vital examples, and images that utilize a special
technique, developed by the author, of highlighting important details
within images while identifying clearly where they are to be found in the
picture as a whole.

It is fair to say that it is probably the first instance of a technical handbook,
and the existence of eight copies which reproduce text and illustrations
using the same illustrations and the same layout, represent a group which
has no immediate parallels among medieval books. Presenting the important
comparative material has required the design of tables of illustrations,
and the use of highlighting of particular details, in a way which uses the
tools now available in digital imaging to great effect.

‘Best loved of the King’: homosocial bonding and male friendships at the courts of Edward IV and Henry VIII


Homosocial bonding played a major role throughout the Middle Ages in the transfer of power and prestige between the king and his men at court. In particular the bond between knights at the courts of both Edward IV and Henry VIII was expressed as a form of ennobling love. Many of these ‘new men’ at the courts of Edward IV and Henry VIII were able to advance their status through homosocial relationships, which were clearly an important aspect of a man's identity as a courtly gentleman in this period. This paper examines and reflects on the representation of male friendships in the late Middle Ages, which has often failed to depict homosociality as anything other than a superficial interaction. Yet Edward IV and Henry VIII chose to prioritise these male friendships above their male-female relationships and they formed an emotional attachment to these men.

My analysis of Edward IV and Henry VIII’s relationship with these men focuses on one important setting that enabled them to develop a close homosocial bond with these knights: the medieval tournament. This paper argues that the primacy of Edward and Henry’s love for their chivalrous companions was displayed through a non-verbal form of interaction in the tiltyard. Though this was a public space, the close proximity and bodily contact experienced between king and knight signified the homosocial bonds of chivalry. It is the aim of this paper to demonstrate that the performance of chivalric masculinity was intimately bound up with the companionship of other men and that this desire to be included in the dominant male group led to the formation of strong emotional bonds between king and knight.

Chivalric traditions continued to shape all aspects of life for those of high status in the late medieval and early modern periods. But this same period has most often been characterised as witnessing a decline of chivalry. Indeed William Worcester and William Caxton lamented this decline of chivalry and a related loss of English masculinity, grieving for the loss of French territories, all of which took an emotional toll on the English nation. Yet in fact Edward IV’s reign brought a revival of chivalry as his kingship was presented as the antidote to England’s humiliation through his embodiment of a chivalrous version of masculinity. From the start of his reign Henry VIII also made it clear that he wanted to go to war with France. He felt compelled to equal and to even surpass the victories of his martial hero Henry V not just for his own prestige, but also for England’s. This paper argues that by the late fifteenth century the English nation was more chivalric than it had been for decades as noblemen untied against a common enemy, thus displaying a range of emotions that included: nostalgia, anger and revenge.


This paper will also examine the role of the medieval tournament in establishing knightly bonds between the men of the tiltyard and both kings who held and competed in jousting contests. Friendships between knights were the most important bonds in the elite cultural system that constituted chivalric life. This paper identifies individuals such as William Hastings and Anthony Woodville in the reign of Edward IV who demonstrated chivalric masculinity because of his knightly expertise. For Edward in the absence of brothers in the tiltyard, these men provided a substitute for this familial connection; functioning as the king’s chivalric brothers- in-arms, who promised mutual support, encouraged acts of bravery and personal loyalty. This paper demonstrates that the mutual respect between Edward and these chivalric brothers saw them develop strong emotional bonds that transcended beyond the tiltyard and even beyond death.

The winners of the jousts of the tournament company
'The White Bear' in Bruges, 1380-1458.

An authentic manuscript from the Burgundian period. The manuscript in the Royal Library of Brussels is dated around 1460. It shows the coats of arms of the participants who won the tournament in this period. Participants came from Lille (Epinette), Ypres, Douai, Tournai, Vallenciennes, Ghent and Mechelen. These participants belonged to the patriciate and nobility of their city. Flemish squires and knights also took part, as well as noblemen from the surroundings of the Burgundian court.

Les gagnants des joutes de la société du tournoi
'L'Ours Blanc' à Bruges, 1380-1458.

Un manuscrit authentique de l'époque bourguignonne. Le manuscrit de la Bibliothèque royale de Bruxelles est daté d'environ 1460. Il montre les blasons des participants qui ont remporté le tournoi à cette époque. Les participants sont venus de Lille (Epinette), Ypres, Douai, Tournai, Vallenciennes, Gand et Malines. Ces participants appartenaient au patriciat et à la noblesse de leur ville. Des écuyers et chevaliers flamands y participaient également, ainsi que des nobles des environs de la cour de Bourgogne.

GAMES OF THE KINGS
European Arms and Armor of Renaissance and Mannerism
in the State Historical Museum

This is the first presentation of late Renaissance and Mannerist European ceremonial arms and armor from the collections of the State Historical Museum. In the 16th century, arms and armory production was highly developed. Ceremonial arms and armor acted as symbols of power, grandeur, and opulence and were integral components of the festivity culture, which developed in the 16th century European courts.

Королевские игры. Западноевропейское оружие и доспехи позднего Ренессанса в собрании Исторического музея / Авт.-сост. А. А. Герасимова.
В книге представлены уникальные памятники западноевропейского оружейного искусства и предметы вооружения, созданные придворными мастерами Габсбургского императорского двора, княжеских дворов Дрездена и Брауншвейга, крупнейших художественных и ремесленных центров – Аугсбурга и Нюрнберга. Подобные предметы использовались в ритуальных и игровых действиях, связанных с жизнью двора: триумфах, турнирах, охоте, стрелковых состязаниях и т. д. Многие предметы публикуются впервые. Издание адресовано специалистам и широкому кругу читателей

Whereas tournaments of the late thirteenth century were infused with cross-channel contact, whether in reciprocity of form or in the international composition of the participants involved, by the early fifteenth century, tournament forms in England and the Netherlands had significantly diverged. As has been thoroughly explored by recent historians, English tournaments became increasingly socially exclusive, whilst retaining an international dimension in the interests of diplomacy. However, this essay demonstrates that this development was by no means typical of all late medieval tournaments. The case of the Low Countries demonstrates that the more socially inclusive style tournaments did continue into the fifteenth century, and provided an opportunity for the ducal household and noblemen to come into contact with patrician townspeople and even more diverse urban audiences.

The tournament of Ghent, June 20, 1369 - Recently discovered manuscripts, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, about this tournament show the participants with their coats of arms. The manuscripts are by Jacques le Boucq, herald and king of arms of Emperor Charles V, lord of the Netherlands, and Engelbert Flacchio, king of arms 'Luxembourg', of Philip IV of Spain and later Charles II.
The tournament was held in honor of the marriage of Philip Duke of Burgundy and Margareta Countess of Flanders. 57 participants took part in the tournament. These participants belonged to the Flemish and Brabant nobility, and the magistrate families of the cities of Ghent, Bruges, Brussels, Antwerp and Mechelen.


Le tournoi de Gand, 20 juin 1369 - Des manuscrits récemment découverts, datant des XVIe et XVIIe siècles, de ce tournoi montrent les participants avec leurs blasons. Les manuscrits ont été écrits par Jacques le Boucq, héraut et roi d'armes de l'empereur Charles V, seigneur des Pays-Bas, et d'Engelbert Flacchio, roi d'armes "Luxembourg", de Philippe IV d'Espagne et plus tard de Charles II.
Le tournoi a eu lieu en l'honneur du mariage de Philippe duc de Bourgogne et Margareta comtesse de Flandre. 57 participants ont pris part au tournoi. Ces participants appartenaient à la noblesse flamande et brabançonne, et aux familles de magistrats des villes de Gand, Bruges, Bruxelles, Anvers et Malines.

This online (link below) booklet reflects the research on a group of stoves mainly made for Hungarian kings and their nobles. In it the use of pipe clay figures as stove tile decoration, the origin of the workshop in South-Western Germany and it's followers are discussed as well as dating. Next to the heraldry and the style and especially the armour of the figures technical aspects are taken into consideration. https://archeologia.hu/content/archeologia/661/grimm-stoves-st-kicsi.pdf

Henry VIII is not now remembered for his military exploits, which were rather thin. However, it is important to examine the fact that this is how he wanted to be remembered, nonetheless. War with France was the established means by which a King of England could secure lasting renown. Henry V is the best example, thus he was a model for Henry VIII. This paper will reveal the continuing power of the medieval model of martial masculinity in the early sixteenth century as Henry VIII attempted to commemorate his status as a warrior king. This paper will also discuss Henry’s designs for a monumental effigy of him on horseback that would have immortalized his martial image and presented an idealised portrait of manhood for his posterity. Henry made powerful use of this tradition of visual representation of the royal person most famously commissioning portraits by Hans Holbein and one significant wall mural to commemorate the Tudor dynasty as he wanted it to be remembered. Finally, this paper will consider Henry’s public representation of chivalrous masculinity through his participation in tournaments, in which the king sought to establish himself as a legendary jouster. For Henry VIII wanted to be remembered as a military and chivalric hero, who had equalled and even surpassed the most virtuous deeds of the Lancastrians and Yorkists.

Dass Maximilian I. als "letzter Ritter" kein Auslaufmodell war, ist weithin bekannt. Auch war er kein Einzelfall, wurde doch auch den französischen Königen Karl VIII., Ludwig XII. und Franz I. wie auch dem englischen König Heinrich VIII. ein besonderes Maß an Ritterlichkeit zugeschrieben. In welchem Verhältnis aber stand diese zur Schau getragene Ritterlichkeit zur Persönlichkeit des Fürsten und dessen individuellen Fähigkeiten? Wurde Rang auch durch agonale Performanz vermittelt und zählten Stärke im ritterlichen Kampf und damit Mut, Kraft, geübter Körper und Geschicklichkeit zu den von einem Herrscher zu erwartenden Eigenschaften? In welcher Beziehung standen dabei Ideal und Physis, Rang und Idoneität?
Unter Rückgriff auf Beispiele aus dem spätmittelalterlichen Burgund (Philipp der Gute, Karl der Kühne), Frankreich (Karl VII., René d'Anjou) und dem Reich (Maximilian I., Albrecht Achilles) nimmt der Beitrag hierfür fürstliche Turnierteilnahmen im 15. Jahrhundert näher in den Blick. Er kommt dabei zu dem Ergebnis, dass die angemessene Physis und das individuelle Können sicherlich wesentliche Voraussetzungen für die ritterlichen Fürsten waren, in der Inszenierung auf dem Turnier auch zu überzeugen. Wichtiger aber noch als die eigentliche Physis waren offensichtlich die individuellen Vorlieben und Veranlagungen der Protagonisten.

This article explores the significance of writing history for a late medieval Antwerp patrician family. In recent historiography, these families (in this case Van Halmale)  have not received the attention they deserve, in part because their social status is difficult to pin down. Although members of the family Van Halmale had knightly titles and performed deeds of arms on the battlefield and during tournaments, their noble status was not undisputed. Both a chronicle and a tournament diary written by different members of the Van Halmale family reflect the aspirations of a dominant social category in the late medieval towns of Brabant, Flanders, and Holland. Their writings reflect how these men perceived themselves and how they wanted their contemporaries and peers to perceive them. In that sense the writing of history was indeed a means for nobles (and would-be-nobles) to justify (or to claim) their privileged position. Their works helped them to express their identity as powerful aldermen, firmly rooted in an urban environment but with open minds for the world of princes and (inter)national politics.

Medieval tournaments were heavily regulated in 13th century England. These regulations did little to quash enthusiasm for tournaments, and in fact may have hurt the reputation and governing abilities of the kings who enacted them. This paper examines the reigns of Henry III of England, and his son Edward I of England in depth and compares their tournament policies, particularly their effects on public order and governance. Henry III's restrictive and oppressive tournament policy led to further resentment and unrest during his already unpopular reign. Edward I meanwhile regulated tournaments in a way that, while still demanding, was more attuned to the wants and needs of the knightly class. Edward used tournaments to strengthen his reign rather than weaken it as his father and grandfather John II of England had.

This article focuses on the reign of James II of Scotland (1437–1460) and argues that the Scottish king deliberately attempted to gain a monopoly over chivalry as part of his assertion of royal power. In seeking to integrate the historiographies of state-building and chivalric culture in fifteenth-century Scotland, what is offered here is an account of the principal strategies employed by James II to establish royal authority throughout Scotland, and an assessment of the various means in which chivalry was being patronised and promoted by the Scottish nobility and the political challenge inherent in this activity. James's response to this challenge is examined through a series of incidents in the 1450s and, in this manner, seeks to rethink the role of chivalry in late medieval Scotland. Far from being a peripheral cultural practice, this article argues that it should be seen as an integral part of James II's state-building agenda.

From 4 to 7 May 1439 a massive tournament (235 participants) was organized at the Grote Markt in Brussels, in which the Burgundian duke Philip the Good himself participated. This tournament was maybe one of the last in the massive (urban) melee-style in the fifteenth century. This article demonstrates that both the town and the duke had an interest in the organization of this tournament. The duke and his household officers were happy to exhibit the splendor of the court to the citizens of Brussels, the nobility of Brabant and the international community. The town considered the tournament as a stimulus for the local economy. At the same time the chivalric event would position Brussels as an attractive residence for the Burgundian duke.

The union of Normandy and England in 1066 recast the political map of western Europe and marked the beginning of a new era in the region's international history. This book is a groundbreaking investigation of the relations and exchanges between the county of Flanders and the Anglo-Norman realm. Among other important themes, it examines Anglo-Flemish diplomatic treaties and fiefs, international aristocratic culture, the growth of overseas commerce, immigration into England and the construction of new social and national identities. The century and a half between the conquest of England by the duke of Normandy and the conquest of Normandy by the king of France witnessed major revolutions in European society, politics and culture. This study explores the history of England, northern France and southern Low Countries in relation to each other during this period, giving fresh perspectives to the historical development of north-western Europe in the Central Middle Ages.

Introduction
1. Power and politics in Flanders and the Anglo-Norman Regnum
2. Military treaties and diplomatic culture
3. Anglo-Flemish diplomacy: context and mechanisms
4. Tournament in Anglo-Flemish society
5. Politics of cross-Channel commerce
6. Flemish immigration to England
7. Social identity and the image of Flemings in England
Conclusion
Appendices
Bibliography

Flanders and the Anglo-Norman World, 1066-1216 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought 4th Series, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2012)

The heralds' compendia are covering a surprising variety of texts, dealing as well with the heralds and their office itself as well as the different ceremonies of chivalry and the organisation and the symbols of the noble society. Presenting themselves nearly as a kind of manuals for the heralds' office, these manuscripts, until now widely neglected, constitute a veritable "kaleidoscope" of the late medieval noble culture. Because, the duties and interests of the heralds of arms surpassed largely their preoccupation with heraldry in stricto sensu: they consist either in diplomacy and noble representation, especially in the preservation and spreading of the honour of the nobility. The aim of the present study is to introduce this promising group of sources, proposing a preliminary classification and interpretation. Therefore it makes use of two different methods. The first one focuses on the manuscripts as material objects, trying to locate their elaboration and reception in their former concrete historical context. The second one studies the texts they are including, stressing the difference between their instrumental and symbolic meaning to present in detail their eventual use and inherent attraction. By these means, the present thesis achieves to demonstrate how noble readers get appropriate the compendia. It explains this phenomenon by a peculiar image of nobility carried by them, which turns them into witnesses for the transition from the feudal society to the uprising princely state. Finally, this thesis propagates a new comprehension of the singular role played by the heralds at the end of the middle ages.

Les compendia des hérauts d'armes réunissent une diversité de textes étonnante. Ceux-ci traitent aussi bien de l'office d'armes en lui-même, que des cérémonies chevaleresques et de la société nobiliaire en général. Se présentant presque comme des manuels dédiés aux Hérauts d'armes, ces manuscrits, qui passèrent jusque là presque totalement inaperçus, constituent un véritable " kaléidoscope " de la culture nobiliaire de la fin du Moyen-Âge. Car les devoirs et les intérêts du héraut d'armes dépassaient largement l'héraldique au sens propre et s'étendaient non seulement à la diplomatie, mais également au cérémoniel de la cour. Avant tout il leur incombait de préserver et de propager l'honneur de la noblesse. Le but de cette étude était de faire connaître cette source prometteuse et d'en proposer une première classification ainsi qu'une première interprétation. Pour ces raisons, deux méthodes ont été utilisées. La première se consacre aux supports matériels de ces compendia et cherche à replacer chacun des manuscrits conservés dans leur contexte d'élaboration et celui de leur réception. La seconde s'attache au contenu des textes qu'ils referment en tentant de différencier leur enjeu pratique de leur portée symbolique, afin d'éclairer leur usage éventuel leur attrait présumé. La thèse est ainsi parvenue à démontrer comment la noblesse s'appropria ces compendia. Ce phénomène, explicable par une certaine image de la noblesse qu'ils véhiculent, fait de ces compendia des témoins privilégiés de la transition de la société féodale vers l'état princier. Enfin, la thèse illustre d'une façon nouvelle le rôle singulier des hérauts d'armes à la fin du Moyen-Âge.

Die Kompendien der spätmittelalterlichen Herolde vereinen in sich eine erstaunliche Vielfalt von Texten. Sie handeln ebenso vom Heroldsamt selbst, wie von den verschiedenen Zeremonien der Ritterschaft und der Welt des Adels im Allgemeinen. Mögen sie auf den ersten Blick auch wie schlichte Handbücher zur Ausübung des Heroldsberufes erscheinen - tatsächlich stellen sie wahrhaftes « Kaleidoskop » der spätmittelalterlichen Adelswelt dar. Denn die Interessen und Pflichten der Herolde gingen weit über die Heraldik im eigentlichen Sinne hinaus: Sie fanden ebenso in der Diplomatie eine wichtige Rolle wie im höfischen Zeremoniell. Vor allem aber kam es ihnen zu, die Ehre des Adels er bewahren und zu verbreiten. Das Ziel der Studie ist es, diese vielversprechende Quellengruppe zu erschließen und eine erste Klassifikation wie v.a. eine erste Interpretation ihrer Inhalte anzubieten. Hierfür wird auf zwei wesentliche Methoden zurückgegriffen. Die erste widmet sich v.a. den erhaltenen Handschriften als solches und fragt nach dem Kontext der Entstehung und Rezeption der Kompilationen. Die zweite hingegen setzt sich mit den Inhalten der einzelnen darin enthaltenen Texte auseinander und versucht zwischen deren praktischem Wert und symbolischer Bedeutung zu unterscheiden, um so ihren eventuellen Gebrauch und ihre mögliche Attraktivität zu erhellen. Die Arbeit konnte dabei zeigen, wie sehr der Adel selbst sich für diese Kompilationen interessierte und deren Überlieferung an sich zog. Ein, Phänomen, welches sich vor allem durch das ganz eigene, besondere Adelsbild erklären läßt, welches die Heroldskompendien propagierten und sie damit zu herausragenden Zeugnissen des Übergangs von der alten Lehnsgesellschaft zum modernen Fürstenstaat macht. Die Arbeit demonstriert damit auf eine ganz neues Weise die besondere Rolle, welche den Herolde in den gesellschaftlichen Umbrüchen des ausgehenden Mittelalter zukam.

download: http://www.perspectivia.net/content/publikationen/phs/hiltmann_heroldskompendien/at_download/file

For reviews see:
H-Soz-Kult (Klara Hübner): http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/rezensionen/2012-2-048
Sehepunkte (Sven Rabeler): http://www.sehepunkte.de/2012/05/20549.html
Historische Zeitschrift 295 (2012), S. 776f. (Malte Prietzel): http://www.oldenbourg-link.com/doi/pdf/10.1524/hzhz.2012.0594
Das Historisch-Politische Buch 60 (2012), S. 598-600 (Markus Frankl)
Revue historique 664 (2012), S. 950-953 (Karin Becker): http://www.cairn.info/landing_pdf.php?ID_ARTICLE=RHIS_124_0937
Le Moyen Age 118 (2012), S. 187f. (Henri Simonneau)

Jousting is the most iconic form of mounted combat. For more than five hundred years, the contest itself, and the chivalric culture that surrounded it, took on almost mythical qualities. Here, Tobias Capwell explains the glitz and glamour of a sport that attracted enormous popular audiences throughout the late middle ages. Though he deals almost exclusively with weapons and warriors, Capwell tells a story not of war and destruction, but of pageantry and valour. This is the story of the armour of peace.

This paper examines the role of the Turnierbuch in helping to build a greater understanding of the tournament during the reign of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519). Through these unique literary works we may learn more about the practical realities of the tournaments and their significance to this late-medieval empire, both its nobility and its ruler.

This paper analyses two late sixteenth-century armorials with the coats of arms of the 235 participants of a tournament organized in May 1439 on the central market square, the Grote Markt, of Brussels. The armorials, trustworthy copies of a now lost original, record the performance of an exclusive social category in public space, and express in a distinctive visual way the internal hierarchy of the tourneying society: team leaders, leaders of large companies, leaders of of small companies, and 'ordinary' participants. The heraldic elements that were essential to this hierarchic arrangement - banners, pennons, shields – were actually used during the tournament, as well as the depicted helmets and crests.
It goes without saying that these occasional rolls were important for the nobility of the Low Countries, both at the time of the tournament and at the time of their creation in the last decades of the sixteenth century. Inclusion of their coats of arms in the armorials ensured the participants of a place in the collective memory. The compilers of the armorials played an essential role in defining the nobility as a social category since participating in a tournament meant that you lived nobly and that your peers considered you as a nobleman. The two copies of the original armorial in the last decades of the sixteenth century reproduced the social classification within the nobility in the second quarter of the fifteenth century. It shows that the same mechanisms of social distinction still played a role at that time.

Cet article traite du rapport entre texte et image au sein d'un corpus de sources techniques, codifiant les gestes guerriers à la fin du Moyen Âge. Ce lien est examiné en particulier au travers des approches codicologiques et herméneutiques, basées sur les observations de deux témoins marginaux du corpus. Ces considérations méthodologiques et ces observations critiques mènent à la constitution d'hypothèses dans le cadre de différentes problématiques, comme celle du manuscrit comme vecteur de la transmission du savoir gestuel ou celle de la place du savoir martial dans le contexte historique, du point de vue sociologique et anthropologique.

Besides entertainment, the Hispanic Arthurian literature is a vehicle of ideological and religious contents, and a privileged instrument of moral instruction of the nobility. This work defines and analyzes some relevant dimensions of the chivalrous ethics in the cycle in prose as a model of Courtesy, centring the attention on two preferential scenes –the combat, and the council of the sovereign– focused on regulating the military action and the king’s power. From the point of narratologic view, the Courtesy in the combat defines the nobility and the value of the characters, and causes new lines of action. The desire of prowess is limited by the sportsmanship and a few of regulated limits. The Council shows the right of the nobles of the king’s household to provide guidance to the king, supported by the lineage links and of the vassalage, which means an effective restriction of the sovereign power in the kingdom matters.

A brief summary of a research project (Paul Mellon Fellowship, CASVA, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Nov./Dec. 2014) on Freydal, the tournament book of Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519) in Vienna (KHM) and its early draft in Washington D.C.
The results of this research project will be published in two new and comprehensive publications in late 2018 and in 2019 commemorating the 500th anniversary of Emperor Maximilian's death.

This book tells the history of Cambridge from the earliest Roman and Anglo Saxon inhabitants through to the notorious Cambridge Spies, who actively spied for the Soviet Union in the 1950s. Told in an accessible manner, and illustrated throughout, the contents are:
1. Etheldreda: Born a Princess, Died a Saint
2. Vanquished by the Vikings: the sacking of Cambridge
3. Fire, Death and Murder at the Fairs: Stourbridge and Midsummer Fairs
4. Jousting Tournaments: history of jousts at Cambridge
5. The Black Death: death in Cambridge
6. Peasants' Revolt: attacks on Cambridge colleges during the revolt
7. Bloody Mary's Revenge on Cambridge
8. Burnt at the Stake: John Hullier, the Protestant Martyr
9. Bear-Baiting: cruel sport in Cambridge
10. Witches and Witchcraft: women killed for being witches
11. Bull-Baiting: more cruel Cambridge sports
12. The English Civil War: the fortification of Cambridge
13. Oliver Cromwell's Missing Head
14. Pressed for an Answer: Peine Forte et Dure
15. One in the Eye for Sir Isaac Newton
16. Highway Robbery: highway men in Cambridge
17. Branding: punishment for crimes
18. Bloody Burwell Fire: the death of 70 innocent people
19. Dick Turpin: his time hiding in Cambridge
20. Cockfighting: history of cockfighting at Cambridge
21. The Resurrection of Tristram Shandy - death of Laurence Stearne: grave robbers steal his body for dissection in the university
22. Cambridge Gallows: the tragedy of those hung at Cambridge
23. The Tragical Death of the Revd Samuel Reeve
24. The Chimneysweep Burglars: thefts from colleges
25. Elizabeth Woodcock and the Curse of the Three Tuns Inn
26. General Tom Thumb Causes a Riot
27. Sister Act: The Cambridge Arsenic Poisoners
28. The Three Tuns Inn: Den of Thieves
29. Burned Alive
30. Bloody Students: The Battle of Town and Gown
31. Fatal Bumps: death on the river Cam
32. Suffragette's Protest
33. The Great War: the role the university played in WWI
34. The Judases Who Betrayed from Within: the story of the Cambridge spies: Blunt, Burgess, Philby, MacLean, and others
35. The Enigma of the Second World War: the role Cambridge played in cracking the German enigma codes at Bletchley Park

Also attached are reviews of the book in the Cambridge News by Emma Higginbotham and a piece about Oliver Cromwell's Head, taken from the book.

Honour was one of the key social concepts in medieval aristocratic culture but its rules and conventions often go unspoken in contemporary sources. Studying the tournament, a public display of chivalry in which reputations were both won and lost, can help modern scholars to understand what sort of behaviour the nobility considered honourable. This paper takes a 'long' view of the tournament, from the mass tourneys of the twelfth century to the elaborate pas d'arms of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, tracing how understandings of honour and their specific expression in the tournament changed over the period.

Lecture course surveying how the medieval tournament changed from its earliest forms through the expensive festivals of the sixteenth century, emphasizing the role renown and how such feats have been structured to exercise martial skills in the modern era

En la esgrima medieval y moderna, la espada que tenía filo de corte y punta punzante se denominaba “espada blanca”, de ahí el modismo, todavía en uso, de denominar “armas blancas” a las que son hirientes y cortantes, como cuchillos, dagas, navajas, etc. Por analogía inversa, se llamó “espada negra” precisamente a la que no cumplía aquellas características sino las contrarias, es decir, a la que era roma y sin capacidad de corte, caracterizada en líneas generales por llevar un botón saliente en la punta para mitigar el efecto hiriente.