There’s nothing better than a cool drink in a pub on a sunny day off followed by a spot of jousting. Yes, jousting and not watching it but actually doing it! I recently returned to The Knights of Middle England at Warwick to feed my rapidly growing addiction.
Horse riding in its less violent forms has been a huge part of my life since I was a child. My love of horses is part of the reason why I am interested in history with its Mongolian hordes, the Charge of the Light Brigade and medieval Knights with their chivalry and tournaments.
As most people probably know, jousting was a medieval sport where two knights cantered towards each other, aiming to break their lance on certain parts of the body to score points. It was initially a training for warfare, alongside other war games, but towards the mid to late medieval period, it began to become more of a spectacle, a bit like football nowadays but a lot more aggressive!
During the two hour lesson I attempted to master three skills; the rings, tent pegging and the quintain. The aim of the lessons are to get you up to a standard to be able to compete in the bi-annual amateur competitions which feature these skills; as well as jousting at an experienced knight, and of course to have a lot of fun.
The Rings!
We began with the rings; the lance looked like it would barely fit through! I succeeded with the largest rings they had, but they can get a lot smaller. The rings are placed on props above the tilt line rather than on the gallows; like in A Knight’s Tale. It was fairly easy to get one ring, but then I often ended up trying too hard to aim at the second ring rather than keep it level and straight to secure the first ring before getting to the second.
The hardest event: tent pegging
We then moved on to tent pegging, where we are told that the ‘sport’ began during the crusades with target practice on the heads of buried enemies. It has been used as a training exercise since the 4th Century BC in Asia, it was also very popular in India against elephant-mounted troops. This was the event in which I had the least skill, my timing was awful. I would get in position to spear the peg then wait too long, hitting the ground behind the peg! I did manage to get it a few times, which is some consolation.
Hitting the quintain
Then we moved on the final skill and the one that was the most fun – hitting the quintain, a revolving shield with a ball on a string which follows it round on the opposite side. This packs a hell of a punch. On your first run you are mostly concerned with the ball hitting you in the back, but this changes to worrying about the force that travels down the lance as you hit a solid metal object!
The whole event left me on such an adrenaline high, it was fantastic! Although it also left with a nasty three week long bruise on my chest!
I thoroughly enjoyed my brief time as a woman warrior in training (check out this Guardian article about the inclusion of women in English Heritage events) and it has me completely hooked, I’m planning my next lesson as we speak!