In the 1200’s the concepts of chivalry and courtly love came into vogue, concepts that applied almost exclusively to knights and nobility. Chivalry meant that a knight was expected to behave honorably, at least toward the nobility and other knights, and courtly love meant that a knight could select a lady, preferably one who was beautiful and married to a man of slightly higher station, and go to tourney in her honor. If he won, she was obligated to grant him a night alone with her.

The Church, of course, abhorred this flagrant violation of monogamy, as well as the savage violence of the tourney, and condemned the whole thing. It was even declared that any knight who died in a tourney would be refused a Christian burial, and go straight to hell. Nevertheless, tourneys became more popular than ever.

By the late 1200’s chivalry had evolved a bit, and came to mean that knights were expected to behave like gentlemen. In addition to being honorable fighting men, they had to learn courtly manners and dancing. Courtly love also changed, and unrequited love for one’s married lady-fair became the vogue. Now the favors that knights received for victory were mere tokens, or kisses, much to the Church’s relief.

In 1292 the Statute of Arms for Tournaments was passed, enforcing the ideas of honorable conduct and fair play, which reduced the body count considerably. Tourneys became organized spectacles, more sport than conflict, and were usually fought with blunted weapons. To kill an opponent was considered bad form, and to kill a horse was inexcusable.

It was at the beginning of the 1300’s that the tourney ceased to be an open melee and began to focus on individual competition. Many knightly skills were featured, including competitions with the sword, spear and bow, but by far the most popular was the joust. The lance, long since established as the most effective method for knocking a knight off his horse, became the single accepted weapon used for the joust. The jouster’s objective was simply to unhorse his opponent. Failing that, it was to break as many lances as possible while trying, for a broken lance was a testament to the force of his blow.

Special armor was developed for the joust, heavier than battle armor, and padded inside. Heavy horses were bred for the sport, bigger and more powerful than draft horses of the day, and more spirited. In 1420 a low partition wall was used to separate the jousters, to reduce injury to the horses. At last the tourney had evolved to become the spectacular martial sport we recall today!

Tourneys became tremendously popular all over western Europe, and some knights made their fortunes traveling from one tourney to the next. A tourney was now a spectator sport, and was often held in conjunction with a grand faire, with music, dancing and feasting that went on for days.

To develop the skills necessary for the joust, a knight had to spend many hours practicing. Before he was ready to joust against an opponent, he had to master the quintain and the ring-joust. The quintain was a rotating horizontal beam mounted on a post. On one end was a shield-shaped target, and on the other a sandbag or flail. If the knight was moving too slowly when he hit the target, the flail would swing around and hit him on the back of the head. The ring-joust was a dangling ring that had to be speared on the tip of the knight’s lance as he rode past at a full gallop, which was no easy feat. Practice tourneys became events in their own right, with knights competing by tilting at the quintain and rings.

The medieval tourney remained popular until the mid-1500’s. In 1559, after King Henry II of France died in a jousting accident, man-to-man jousting came to an end. At about the same time gunpowder was brought to western Europe from China, and the advent of guns made the wearing of armor obsolete almost overnight. The ring-joust survived for another several hundred years, in various forms. The carousel ride of the 1800’s and early 1900’s, where one tries to grab the gold ring while riding by on a wooden horse, is a derivative of this ancient sport.