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Concept
Tournament (medieval)
Summary
A tournament, or tourney (from Old French torneiement, tornei), was a chivalrous competition or mock fight in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (12th to 16th centuries) and is one type of hastilude. Tournaments included mêlée, hand-to-hand combat, contests of strength or accuracy, and sometimes jousts. Some thought that the tournaments were a threat to public order. The shows were often held to celebrate coronations, marriages of notable figures, births, recent conquests, peace treatises, etc. They were held to welcome worthies, such as ambassadors and lords. Finally, some tournaments were held simply for pure entertainment. Certain tournaments are depicted throughout the Codex Manesse.
The Old French word, tournament, was in use in the 12th century, from a verb tornoier, ultimately Latin tornare "to turn". The same word also gave rise to the Italian torneo (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 and 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)."
Medieval equestrian warfare and equestrian practices hark back to Roman antiquity, just as the notion of chivalry goes 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.
Official source
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