Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-rkxrd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T05:59:01.913Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Between Sport and Theatre: How Spectacular was the Pas d’armes?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 September 2020

Get access

Summary

Picture medieval knights and squires charging towards each other on horseback, striking helmets or shields and breaking lances: it is spectacular. Men in shining armour striking each other with swords or poleaxes, and groups of men exchanging blows in a melée must have been spectacular as well, even if their weapons were blunted. Noblemen performing deeds of arms in pas d’armes during the fifteenth century competed in all three types of combat. Yet it is generally thought by those familiar with the pas d’armes that it was more spectacular than other jousts and emprises due to its theatricality.

Definitions of the pas d’armes commonly indicate that theatrical production is one of its defining features. The following passage, for example, is emblematic of definitions found both in general studies on medieval chivalry and in specialised analyses of pas d’armes: ‘This form of deed of arms, sprung from the custom of a knight holding a bridge or gate against all comers, is attested as early as the eleventh century and probably has Germanic roots. In the fifteenth century, such deeds took on the form of state theater – though the combat was no less real or intense.’ The second sentence suggests that although the pas d’armes consisted of real combat (and indeed people were hurt and occasionally killed), an accompanying theatrical production or performance was one of its defining properties. The introduction to the most recent critical edition of a pas d’armes states that a pas d’armes is half theatre, half sport, a theatrical representation with elaborate decoration and rich costumes, careful staging, and dialogues written in advance.3 However, examination of the accounts of twenty-three events commonly found in corpora established by scholars investigating pas d’armes reveals that, while many did in fact feature such theatrical representation, the descriptions of several of these events mention little or no theatrical production at all. Is it appropriate to define a pas d’armes by saying that it was a type of medieval tournament whose spectacular character was enhanced by theatrics, including actors in character and in costume performing dialogue, careful stage production, and decoration according to a fictional scenario developed in its governing document?

Type
Chapter
Information
The Medieval Tournament as Spectacle
Tourneys, Jousts and Pas d'Armes, 1100-1600
, pp. 120 - 138
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×