3 Jousting Rules you (probably) Haven't Heard

[@pokemon1895]

I'm here because of your collab with Matt Easton. Glad I found this channel. Really cool stuff, and I hope your channel grows!

[@juvenal8929]

Fascinating to understand more of the structure.

[@caspar_van_walde]

A nice Video indeed! Found you through your collab with Matt Easton, glad I did! Since hearing you speak about that the laws against weapons at tournaments in England being issued multiple times the German term Bedarfsgesetzgebung (literally demand legislation= when laws are issued when they are needed, not beforehand) came to my mind. As far as I know at least in German lands in at least the 15. century this form of legislation was common. This also meant, that laws were issued multiple times, when people didn't care about them ( at least that seems to be the academic interpretation right now), eg in sumptuary laws in some German Towns ( 2and half 15th century) being constantly reissued, even in altered forms which accepted new trends eg in minimal lengths of overgarments. I don't know if this was also in England common. But the repetitive enactment speaks for it. This would mean, that at least every now and then something happened, that gave enough reason to reenact the law. Also would be quite interesting, if there are some differences in the different versions. Maybe additions to forbidden weapons or those who are affected...

[@aleksacrkvenjakov4693]

The ban on carrying weapons for almost everyone is very interesting, though I guess it makes sense. Have you ever encountered a fight in the crowd during a modern jousting tournament?

[@ZacharyEvans]

I haven't, no, although a lot of people still seem to think that our jousts are staged, so people don't generally take them as seriously as they did back in the day.

[@JCOwens-zq6fd]

Well said. Most dont realize that the classical joust they are familiar w/ from TV etc are more renaissance era than medieval. Comparing those jousts to the earlier ones would be like comparing a late 18th century sword duel to modern olympic fencing. The safety rules/ equipment changes implemented in large part by Emperor Maximillian & his court turned it into the 1st odern sport.

[@aplaisance7850]

0:15 I tend blame film and television.... :-(

[@ZacharyEvans]

It's a good shorthand for "winner", but as with a lot of film and TV tropes it basically just doesn't give the audience much credit for understanding more complex stuff

[@vanivanov9571]

Was there a practical reason ladies were the judges? I'm sure someone would reference the simp meme, and it'd be easy to assume that after reading Frauendienst, but I suspect it was for more practical reasons? Most of the high ranking men were busy fighting in the melee, for example, so they'd be the next highest ranking people to decide to put it to a stop. It might also be a bid to find a neutral party. Plus, an angry knight is probably less likely to take revenge against a woman, possibly.

[@ZacharyEvans]

I think this requires more research and more videos. The relationship between genders in the medieval period was a lot more complicated than a lot of people imagine, coupled with all of the many and varied ideas of what "chivalry" is and was. I think a lot of your ideas hold water. In addition a lot of tournaments announcements talk about how one of the main reasons for tourneys is to impress the ladies with your prowess, so if that is one of the stated aims, having a panel of lady judges makes sense.

[@vanivanov9571]

@@ZacharyEvans True that it is an official reason for it (even if they're lying through their teeth). This would be worth its own video, since as you point out it is pretty complex. Courtly love itself is also worth a video... that and Frauendienst were remarkably sordid.

[@stephena1196]

@@vanivanov9571 I'd not heard of frauendienst before and while looking it up came across an interesting article called, "With them she had her playful game." The Performance of Gender and Genre in Ulrich Von Lichtenstein's Frauendienst.

[@stormiewutzke4190]

I would love to hear more.

[@AdelaideSwordAcademy]

loved this! really enjoyable

[@ZacharyEvans]

Thank you.

[@stoker1931jane]

Interesting video👌🏻. 🤔Do you think that famous Historical people, having serious accidents during "later" jousts Like King Henry II in 1559 (his death even cited as the start of the decline of Jousting in France) & Henry VIII 1936's unhorsing. Could also a factor: why people now, often think, that jousting is about: forcefully removing the opponent out of their saddle and flat on their backs?

[@ZacharyEvans]

I think it's a very good way of showing to an audience who the winner is, and so it's just grown from that.

[@justinwebb2214]

This is a super random question, but i've been searching all of the internet for an answer and havent found it, so im resorting to asking people who seem to have good knowledge on the topic on youube lol. Im trying to make a board game about Late Medieval tournaments with the core of each round being the Joust. My question is, are there different styles of jousting? Like in other sports like baseball, a pitcher may throw submarine style, or focus on lots of offspeed pitches, of just rely on speed and fastballs. Or another sport for example could be racing where someone races reckless and fast at all times whereas another racer is tactical, patient and even slow but waiting for the perfect opening.... Does jousting have different techniques, or styles of jousting? i know tournaments had different rules for a joust, but would an individual rider have different approach than another knight. Or is it simply who can ever master this one specific skill and there's only one way to do it.... sorry long question, love to know if you have an answer or place to direct me to. thanks!

[@ZacharyEvans]

Such a big topic. The answer is yes, but also not everyone agreed with everything. Generally people would only attend tournaments that matched the style they wanted, but there are examples where there were complaints about individuals based on their tactics.

[@justinwebb2214]

@@ZacharyEvans Thanks so much for the reply! I knew that diff tournaments had varying rules of types of jousting like only hitting shields, going for the helm, no shields, etc. And these tournaments/rules varied based on location and era/year of tournaments. But your saying two knights within the same tournament could have two separate approaches/styles when competing against each other (baring all rules were followed). Also, any advice on how to research this more thoroughly, or have a resource I could follow? I would just love to make a historically accurate game, not a Hollywood viewpoint on jousting. Again thanks so much for responding, i appreciate it!

[@ZacharyEvans]

It very much depends on what period you are looking at. There are around 500 years of medieval tournaments to choose from.

[@justinwebb2214]

@@ZacharyEvans mainly the later years, when tournaments were less about military prowess and practice and more about pageantry and show of wealth, BUT just before the decline of tournaments and jousting all together. Focusing on the tournaments that were more about points, and didn't involve melee after the knight fell off the horse (that's hard to portray in a boardgame; point based structure is easier to translate over). Though admittedly not really sticking to a set era, or specific tournament. Goal of the game would be to go through a few tournaments, each with varying rules/win-structure, to simulate the inconsistency of tournament rules as seen in history. But I wanted to give each player/user a unique style so that everyone wasn't playing the same person, but rather asymmetric characters with unique jousting styles (which sparked my random searching for whether or not that was a real thing in historical context)

[@Sirsethtaggart3505]

Were the tournament weapons sharp?

[@ZacharyEvans]

That depends. Lances were often sharp to an extent, especially in jousts of war. Jousts of peace would use coronels, but the points on them could be varying levels of sharpness. Swords and maces were not sharp in any ruleset I have read.

[@minatomat]

Is there any basic ruleset for modern jousting? Or each tournament pick a different ruleset?

[@ZacharyEvans]

There are several different types of jousting that happen around the world at the moment, with rules set by the organisers. In the UK, a very popular rule set is 1pt for an arm hit, 2 points for a torso hit, 3 points for a shield or head hit. Some tournaments disallow headshots. Some give extra points for lances that are broken more completely.

[@aplaisance7850]

To add to what Zac said...the differences between jousts today tend to be defined more by the type of lance used...i.e. historical shaped solid lances, America style dowels, frangible tips. Even then, each tournament likely has different scoring. At my tournaments, you can score 1, 2 or 3 points (depending on where you strike) and we add an extra point if you break more than 1/2 the tip. At the tournaments I've attended in Europe, they may add extra points for good riding or a particular style of panache or something that impressed the lady's gallery. So, there really isn't one type of scoring system. There is some talk amongst some organizers of having a system that is ubiquitous throughout a "circuit" but it hasn't fully jelled over the last 18 months for obvious reasons. Lots of cool ideas being tossed around while we haven't been jousting! ;-)