1. The earliest tournaments had no rules

Tournaments originated in northern France and took a form similar to battle. Two opposing small armies of knights rode on horseback against each other in ferocious warfare. No rules were enforced and knights could use any tactic to obtain victory. Nothing discouraged several knights from grouping together in order to ambush one opponent, or from ordering their foot soldiers to drag an enemy off their horse. Unsurprisingly these matches were bloody and deaths were not uncommon, one tournament recorded 60 fatal casualties.

3. The church condemned tournaments

From their earliest days, most people viewed these violent and chaotic tournaments as good training for war. However, the church took a stance against tournaments, claiming that they were temptations to sin and a distraction from crusading. The church even went as far as to condemning them as ‘inventions of the devil’ and knights killed in them were forbidden burial in holy ground. This disapproval of the church and the deadly feuds and riots which often followed these tournaments led to King Henry II (1154-89) banning them altogether. Tournaments were restored in 1194 by Henry II’s son Richard the Lionheart, but they were only permitted under strict conditions.

5. Jousting was an expensive and physically demanding hobby

Jousting knights needed to be extremely athletic, riding in armour weighing over 40kg, at speeds of up to 30mph, and the sport demanded a great deal of specialist equipment. Knights needed a strong, trained horse (a ‘destrier’ or ‘courser’) capable of carrying the immense weight of an armoured knight, his saddle, his weapons and (in the later days of tournaments) its own horse armour. A knight’s jousting armour included reinforcements for the left shoulder, where the lance struck, and ‘frog mouth' jousting helmets, designed to maximise protection at the cost of visibility. All this equipment was very costly, and eventually only the wealthiest of knights could compete in tournaments.

Queen Elizabeth I’s reign saw the tournament’s last blaze of glory, as favourites like Robert Dudley spent fortunes impressing the Virgin Queen with their skill, style, fabulously expensive armour and lavish fantasy outfits. The last traditional tournament in England was held in the 1620s.