Medieval Knights

In medieval times, knights were the most powerful forces on the battlefield. These knights went through many years of training and made sure that their fighting skills were always in top shape. One of the main ways that they trained was through tournaments. These tournaments were war games for knights so they could keep their swordsmanship and horsemanship in top shape. Rich nobles sponsored the tournaments and provided prizes for the winners. The tournament was held on a field close to the noble who was sponsoring it. However, because the knights only went to battle for a total of a little more one month a year, they had to make sure that they wouldn't get rusty for when they had to go back out. The knights used this as a their job and the …show more content…
Melees were the orig-inal events and were the most common ones. A melee is a mock battle where knights split into two teams and fought like a real battle. The armor used in battles and melees started with padded garments and chains but turned developed into more sophisticated armor and was individually fitted to each knight. This suit was made of full metal and weighed about fifty pounds. This ar-mor could deflect blows from most weapons of the early middle ages. The quality of the armor was a symbol of status, knights with better armor were considered better knights. Even with the armor, melees were very dangerous and injuries were very common. No mercy was given when in a melee and they were the least safe event. That is why they were replaced by jousting. Jousting is an event where two knights on horseback ride at each other with a long pole called a lance, and try to knock the other person off of their horse. Jousting replaced melees as the main event mainly because of how much safer it was. The lances used for jousting had soft spheres on the ends of them so they couldn't puncture armor. There were also barriers in between the horses called tilts. The tilts formed two barriers so that the horses wouldn't run into each oth-er. The horses were outfitted with full suits of armor. The safety of jousting was the main reason that it replaced …show more content…
However, the development of new weapons eventually caused the serious battle training of tournaments to be-come obsolete and the focus of tournaments was shifted away from the battlefield to entertain-ment. Jousting and melees were used to celebrate birthdays, baptisms, marriages and parties. Actors began their careers by participating in fake melees and they became a main focus in thea-tre. While the focus of tournaments shifted from a serious war strategy to entertainment for the public, they remained a popular historical