Knight’s Tournaments in England and France from the 11th to the 14th Century: The Problems of Sources and Terminological Aspects
Knight’s Tournaments in England and France from the 11th to the 14th Century: The Problems of Sources and Terminological Aspects

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with arguable terminology of tournaments in England and France between the 11th and the 14th centuries. Following the analysis of English and French sources, the basic conceptual apparatus for the study of medieval battles was established. It was proved that the word “tournament” is a general and collective term. The work proves that the “tournament” consists of several types of fights: jousts, melée, behourd, hastiludе, etc. In the study of the phenomenon of tournament fights, the interpretation of the significance of knightly competitions is quite controversial. Some scholars appeal to the fact that it is only a sport and ritual, or a type of exercises to improve military skills. Others believe that a tournament is more than just military training or entertainment. The concept of tournament was used mostly for all kinds of knightly martial games. Tournois, behourds, joustes, pas d’armes, or some other purely French words of that time were used by French historians: As for English-speaking scholars, they usually used the following names in their works and studios: tournament, tourney, joust borrowed from French-language concepts. There also existed other kinds of fights, for example, fortunium—this tournament occurred probably only once—in Hertford in 1241. This concept is literally interpreted as a “chance” or a “draw.” Common term in English and French chronicles in the period 1100—1400, was hastiludium or hastilude, literally a game fought with spears. Jousts were specifically single combats, one against one, though the jouster could belong to a team. This paper analyzes the latest discussions regarding the adopted terminological constructions and highlights the latest innovations concerning the tournaments.

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