JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: If you've been following along at home for any amount of time, you know I love, love, love historical mysteries. And you also know I'm frequently amazed at the amount of research that goes into them; pouring over old photos and court records, reading up on clothing and food. My friend Jeri Westerson, however, doesn't stop there. She rubs medieval memorial plaques. She tracks down medieval relics. She takes pictures of medieval underwear (I promise, she's not a perv.) Honestly? I suspect she started writing her "medieval noir" mysteries so she could feed her habit. She says it's to reproduce the 14th century world of Crispin Guest, disgraced knight-turned-detective, but I think it's an excuse for her to put on her armor and hit the lists.
Two knights sit on horses and aim for
each other with lances, trying to knock the other guy off the horse.
This is what most people think a joust is.
Not so fast.
There was far more to it than that,
and more than Sir Walter Scott even knew in his Victorian potboiler,
Ivanhoe.
Why does a mystery author give a joust
the time of day? Because I write medieval mysteries, the Crispin
Guest Medieval Noir series, to be exact, with my disgraced knight
turned detective on the mean streets of fourteenth century London.
But I digress. We were talking about
tournaments. A tournament is not necessarily a joust, though a joust
can happen at a tournament. Because a tournament is a competition of
battling techniques, though it is likely it always involved some sort
of horsemanship. The word tornoi from which we derive
“tourney” and “tournament” alludes to a mounted charge with
lances couched under the arm. It was a dangerous sport, but in the
beginning 
even more so, if you can believe it. In the 12th
and 13th centuries it was all about the mêlée or all out
battle and these earlier games were going for the real thing with a
field so wide it was set between the boundaries of two towns. If your
village was unlucky enough to be in the way, well…let’s just say
you got a front row seat. The lists were originally not the field set
aside for jousting, but actually the place marked off to get out of
the way of the battle. No one is sure where the word comes from. It
might come from the lil, the designated spot in the French martial
court where such games of skill were played, or from licium (band of
material) or palicium (paling) the stuff surrounding the lists.
At any rate, William Marshall, the
knight of knights from the 13th
century, wrote down many
of the rules for being a knight and for the proper comportment at a
tournament. He even explained how a young knight could make a lot of
scratch from ransoms and prizes by “doing the circuit” of the
tournaments.
century, wrote down many
of the rules for being a knight and for the proper comportment at a
tournament. He even explained how a young knight could make a lot of
scratch from ransoms and prizes by “doing the circuit” of the
tournaments.
Of course, it’s all fun and games
until someone puts out an eye. Or loses a limb. Or gets killed. There
were detractors. The Church wasn’t happy with this careless use of
manpower. Sixty men alone met their end in a tournament near Cologne
in 1240, not from battle, but suffocating from the heat and dust. In
1193, Pope Celestine III declared an edict against tournaments but,
maneuvering around it, Richard the Lionheart granted licenses for
tournaments anyway. The Church went further to discourage it by
declaring a ban on sacramental burial for those who died during a
tournament, but the clever knights got around that, too, by slipping
a monk’s habit on the dying knight and proclaiming him a cleric.
As armor got better, that is, moved
into the era of plate armor rather than simply mail, it became
possible to support tournaments with fewer casualties. But it was the
joust that made tournaments more acceptable because this was a bout
between only two combatants at a time. The word “joust” likely
derives from the Latin juxtare—to come together. And indeed,
they do.
Two men, mounted on chargers—big
warhorses—run at each other between a barrier at full gallop,
lowering lances aimed at the other. What could be better than that?
There were three points on the body
the knight aimed for: the four nails on the shield, the helm, or the
throat armor. Usually, it was a test of three broken lances. If you
could withstand the hits without being unhorsed, you could call a
draw, keep going, or continue on foot.
With time, more regulations were added
and more order took over the rather rough and tumble that the
tournaments used to be, making tournaments truly the sport of kings.
By the fourteenth century when my books are set, a joust could be held for all occasions; royal weddings, coronations, and even for
deciding judicial matters. In my upcoming book BLOOD LANCE, one of
the threads of the story involves a dishonored knight accused of
desertion. Meanwhile, Crispin witnesses a body hurtling from London
Bridge into the Thames. Whispers claim it’s suicide but Crispin
insists otherwise. Now he’s caught between rebellious actions in
King Richard’s court, an old friend’s honor, and the true
ownership of the legendary Spear of Longinus, culminating in a deadly
joust on London Bridge.
Because such feats of arms always seem
integral to my stories, I find myself doing a bit of hands on
research. Yes, you can find me in armor now and again, doing my best
to capture the feel of what my characters are going through, whipping
a sword around, and harassing the populace.
(And yes, those pictures are of me,
doing my best research for Crispin).
BLOODLANCE will be released October 16, 2012 in hardcover, ebook, and
audiobook. Find out more on Jeri’s website, including a book
trailer and a video on Jeri’s swordcraft. You can read her not-to-be-missed blog, Getting Medieval, and follow her on Twitter as @jeriwesterson. She's not on Facebook, but Crispin Guest is! (His interests include solving crimes, hunting, and hawking.)
Jeri is offering a copy of BLOOD LANCE to one lucky commentor! So hop onto the back-blog and tell us what you'd have been doing back in the Middle Ages!
Jeri is offering a copy of BLOOD LANCE to one lucky commentor! So hop onto the back-blog and tell us what you'd have been doing back in the Middle Ages!
