Tournament (medieval)

A tournament or tourney was an armed combat, usually under royal license, between knights, designed to show their skills and valor. 

Tournaments were introduced into England from France in the 11th century. They were formalized in the 15th century.

The earliest known use of the word "tournament" comes from the peace legislation by Count Baldwin III of Hainaut for the town of Valenciennes, dated to 1114. It refers to the keepers of the peace in the town leaving it 'for the purpose of frequenting javelin sports, tournaments and such like.'

Early versions of tournaments tended to be confused occasions of mock battles between groups of knights. 

In the morning, after attending mass, the knights would go to the tourney field. Here the combats or jousts between the knights were fought. Sometimes two knights fought alone, sometimes whole companies met in combat. Along the sides of the field were handsome pavilions filled with fair maidens, young pages, beautiful ladies and jewel-bedecked nobles. 

Depiction of mounted combat in a tournament from the Codex Manesse (early 14th century)

The points of the weapons used in tournaments were usually encased in blocks of wood to make the encounter less dangerous, but the sport was so rough and the knights jousted in such earnest that many were wounded and some were killed. 

Points were scored in the combats according to the number of broken lances or blows sustained.

The jousting with the two knights charging on either side of an anti-collision barrier was the most dramatic. The joust was attended by much excitement, with the blowing of trumpets, the clash of steel, the shouts of heralds, and the applause of the spectators. It continued until one or the other of the knights was overcome. If he was still alive, the defeated knight then yielded his horse and armor to his adversary and was assisted from the field by the squires. 

Manuscript miniature illustration of a joust

Later tournaments sometimes lasted for several days, feasting, dancing, and hawking filling the hours not given to fighting. 

Hawking was a sport indulged in by the ladies and the squires as well as by the knights and almost every lady had her own hawk or falcon. 

Tournaments flourished until the 16th century, and have modern revivals.

Source Compton's Encyclopedia