One rider against another
A joust is a contest between two mounted men, each trying to strike the other with a lance as they pass. It is the best-known part of a tournament, but it was originally only one part. The early tournament was dominated by the group melee, and the joust developed alongside it as a separate, more orderly exercise. By the later Middle Ages it had often taken center stage, partly because it was easier to organize and easier for a crowd to follow.
The aim was not necessarily to injure the opponent. Success meant breaking a lance cleanly on the other rider’s armor or knocking him from the saddle, and either was seen as a sign of skill and nerve.
The lance
The jousting lance was a long wooden shaft, typically of ash or a similar strong wood, often well over three meters in length. A rider held it couched, meaning tucked under the right arm and pointed across the horse’s neck toward the left. The weight and length made it awkward to control, so riders used a rest on the breastplate, and a guard called a vamplate protected the hand.
There were two broad kinds of tip. A lance “of war” had a sharp head. A lance “of courtesy,” also called a rebated lance, was fitted with a blunt, often crown-shaped head known as a coronel, which spread the force of impact and reduced the chance of piercing armor. Sport jousting generally used the second type, although the line between the two was not always strictly observed, and accidents happened in both.
Armor and horses
Jousting armor changed over time. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries a knight might wear mail with a large helm and carry a shield. As plate armor developed, special jousting harness appeared, usually in the fifteenth century and after. It was heavier than armor for war, with reinforced pieces on the left side, which faced the opponent, and often a helm bolted to the breastplate. Because the rider could not see easily, much of the skill lay in holding a line and aiming by feel.
Horses were large and well trained, though not necessarily the giant animals sometimes shown in popular images. They were also vulnerable, and many rules forbade aiming at the horse. Heralds’ records and decorative horse trappings show how much of a spectacle the event was, and colors and designs on shields and trappings connect jousting to the history of medieval heraldry.
The lists and the tilt
The enclosed area where jousts took place was called the lists. The word came to mean the arena itself, as in “entering the lists.” It was typically a rectangular space fenced with wood, with stands or galleries for the nobility and ranks of onlookers beside it.
In the early jousts riders passed one another on open ground and could collide. Around the fifteenth century a barrier called the tilt was introduced in many parts of Europe, a long wooden fence or a cloth-covered rail running down the center of the course. The riders charged on opposite sides of it with the barrier on the left of each horse. The tilt kept the horses from colliding, made the line of approach predictable, and prevented some of the more dangerous glancing blows. A lance would therefore strike across the horse’s neck onto the opponent’s left side. Historians tend to date the barrier to the later medieval period, and its use varied by place, so it should not be assumed for every joust in the Middle Ages.
How scoring worked
Scoring varied between events, and the rules were set out beforehand by the organizers and recorded by heralds and judges. The principles were fairly consistent, though specific point values differed. Typical elements included:
- Unhorsing an opponent was the most decisive result and often ended the contest.
- Breaking a lance on the opponent’s body scored well, with higher marks for a hit on the helm or upper body than on the lower body or shield.
- Striking the opponent’s saddle, his horse or the barrier, or hitting below the belt, could cost points or lead to disqualification.
- A lance that did not break, or a rider who missed completely, scored nothing.
Marshals and judges watched from the side, and the winners were usually announced publicly. A prize, often an item of jewelry or plate, was awarded by a lady of rank or the host, as described more fully in the discussion of the tournament as a sport. Because many records come from festivals rather than from rulebooks, modern readers should not assume that a single universal scoring system existed.
Joust of peace and joust of war
Sources distinguish between jousts “of peace,” fought with blunted weapons for sport, and jousts “of war,” which used the weapons and conditions of real combat and could be fought to the death or until serious injury. Challenges of the second kind occurred, often arising from a quarrel or a formal vow, but they were not the norm at festive tournaments. Treatises written by knights, including those by the French knight Geoffrey de Charny, discuss the practical and moral aspects of such contests.
Risk and decline
Even blunted lances carried risk. Fatal injuries from splintering lances or from falling are recorded, and the rider’s vision and balance were limited by equipment. These dangers were one reason that jousting developed so much specialized gear.
The joust outlived the medieval period. Lavish tilting continued at courts into the sixteenth century and later, by which time it was a ceremonial sport rather than preparation for war. What began as a segment of the mass melee thus became the most recognizable image of the tournament in popular memory.