Medieval tournament

A tournament, or tourney (from Old French torneiement, tornei) was a chivalrous competition or mock fight in Europe in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (12th to 16th centuries). It is one of various types of hastiludes.

Old French tornement was in use in the 12th century, from a verb tornoier, ultimately Latin tornare "to turn". The same verb also gave rise to tornei (modern English tourney, modern French tournoi). The French terms were adopted in English (via Anglo-Norman) by 1300.

The Old French verb in origin meant "to joust, tilt", but it came to refer to the knightly tournament more generally, while joster "approach, meet" became the technical term for jousting specifically (also adopted in English before 1300).

By the end of the 12th century, tornement and Latinized torneamentum had become the generic term for all kinds of knightly hastiludes or martial displays. Roger of Hoveden writing in the late 12th century defined torneamentum as "military exercises carried out, not in the knight's spirit of hostility (nullo interveniente odio), but solely for practice and the display of prowess (pro solo exercitio, atque ostentatione virium)."

The application of the term tournament to competition in games of skill or sports in general dates to the mid 18th century.

Medieval equestrian warfare, and equestrian practice, did hark back to Roman antiquity, just as the notion of chivalry harked back to the rank of equites in Roman times. There may be an element of continuity connecting the medieval tournament to the hippika gymnasia of the Roman cavalry, but due to the sparsity of written records during the 5th to 8th centuries this is difficult to establish. It is known that such cavalry games were central to military training in the Carolingian Empire, with records of Louis and Charles' military games at Worms in 843. At this event, recorded by Nithard, the initial chasing and fleeing was followed by a general mêlée of all combatants.

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