Tournaments were, for hundreds of years, the most impressive and lavish form of public entertainment available. Although modern man associates the tournament exclusively with the middle ages it is an established fact that something close to the tournament of the Arthurian legend was practised as early as the days of the Roman Empire and as late as the days of the nostalgic Victorians.
Tournaments reached their zenith in the middle ages. They were not just a magnificent ‘show’ but they were also mock battles in which the combatants had the opportunity to practice the bloody sport of war. Tournaments served to stiffen the backbone of the medieval armies.
Predictably, the church discouraged the bloodbaths, for the colourful shows were as greedy in devouring the scarce resources of the day as they were in claiming lives and limbs.
In fact, wounded chests and broken skulls frequently feature in the illustrations of jousts in the illuminated manuscripts of the middle ages.
Maltese popular belief excludes Malta as the site of knightly tournaments and romantically looks towards the continent for a vivid picture of that flamboyant past. Historical records now point in the opposite direction and indicate that at least one proper tournament was held in Malta. The Knights of Malta were keen fighters and they imported the popular custom to the stranded isle of Malta. Taciturn evidence of this obscure tournament is found on page 140 of Volume III of Giacomo Bosio’s interminable Dell’istoria della Sacra Religione et Illma Militia di San Giovanni Gierosalemitano (Rome, 1594). Bosio narrates that in the days of Carnival in the year 1535, the Knights of Malta organised a splendid tourney “Erano all’hora I giorni di carnevale, ne’ quail fecero I Cavalieri in Malta, un bellissimo Torneo a’ piedi, di pica, e di fiocco”.
Bosio’s wording indicates that the tournament which the Knights set-up was probably not the familiar Scharfrennen in which the main goal of the mock-combat was unhorsing the opponent. The tournament organised in Malta was a foot-combat tournament (Welschrennen) similar to (though on an obviously lower profile) the famous field of the Cloth of Gold of 1520. This type of contest was fought between two heavily armoured knights on foot. Welschrennen was exceedingly prevalent in the 16th century in the Courts of Henry VIII and Maximilian I. The latter was such a keen enthusiast of this sport that he is said to have devised special armour and helmets. The fluted armour devised by him and his Master Armourer, Seusenhoffer remained popular for years after his death and examples created after his demise continued to be called ‘Maximilian’. Two such examples survive in the Palace Armouries Museum in Valletta. One of them is indented with a deep blow which is compatible with the damage which could have been inflicted by the blunt weapons used in foot combat.
David Edge and John Miles Paddock in Arms and Armour of the Medieval Knight An Illustrated History of Weaponry in the Middle Ages give the following details about spectacular public duels similar to the one held in Malta in 1535:
“Besides the tilt, tournaments also included foot combat duels, in which the knights initially wore field harness (Armour for War) and used their ordinary weapons-swords, axes, maces or clubs and also staff-weapons, of which the polelaxe was the favourite. These duels were either fought in an enclosure (called in France the ‘champ clos’), or like the tilt over a barrier separating the contestants. In the latter case, of course, it was not necessary for the legs to be armoured at all. A general melee’ in which groups of knights fought each other as in a battle was a popular way of ending the tournament. By the fifteenth century there was a multiplicity of rules and different forms of combat that could be employed”.
The suits of armour used in these types of contests were the same suits of armour used on the regular battlefield and not the special suits of armour used for Scharfrennen. This factor might explain the absence of the heavy jousting helms and armour made especially for jousting in the Palace Armouries of the Knights of St. John. Yet, armour compatible with the tilt, even a mounted Scharfrennen does survive in the Armoury. The Palace Armouries Museum boasts a number of breast pieces with lance rests and sturdy reinforcing pieces (which could also be used to achieve a bullet proof resilience). These breast pieces could have also been used in a mounted Scharfrennen.
Giacomo Bosio says that the Maltese tournament of 1535 also saw a touch of special effects “…. con leggiadrissime inventioni, e livree”.
Was the Maltese tournament what Claude Baire in his monumental European Armour calls Mechanisches Rennen?.
“For this the breastplate was fitted with a spring-operated mechanism covered by a metal shield made up of separate fragments; when this was struck the mechanism caused the segment to be flung in the air. Two breastplates of this type, lacking the shields, are preserved at Vienna.”
The zenith of the technology of the day was frequently displayed in tournaments.
Special devices which used to make plate Armour shatter on being hit or peculiar lances which used to violently burst into fragments when crushed against shields are known to have been used at the time. None of these examples are to be found in the Armoury.
Bosio reveals that the sponsors for the 16th century Maltese tournament were a certain Frere Percival del Ponte and Frere Costanzo d’Operti. Jousts were excessively costly and reflect a bygone age when wealth was unevenly distributed. The 16th century Maltese tournament was followed up by a sumptuous banquet and probably a play was also staged (Bosio uses the word mascherate – play or carnival float?).
My reading of Bosio, a writer whose style of writing was frequently tortuous and ambiguous implies that the Grandmaster of the day, Grandmaster Pierino del Ponte Dan Savino “inviolabile osservatore degli statute della sua religione” was not too happy with this tournament. He was a puritan and disliked luxuriant festivities, and like many a Pope chose to prohibit these tournaments “Il Gran Maestro, diligentissimo osservatore de gli stabilimenti, contra la forma dei quail non facea, ne permettere voleva, che cosa alcuna si facesse; Nel Quattro Tempo sussegguenti della quaresima, havendo in conformita’ degli statuti, e dell’antiche consuetudini… Indi con carita’, e con modo bellissimo riprese alcuni abusi; che nei religiosi suoi veduti havea, biasimando particolarmente quelle pazzie; e quelle leggierezze che nel Carnevale fatte s’erano, domstrando, che se ne’ popoli secolari istessi, da uomini mature e gravi, non solamente erano lodate, e approvate, anzi piutosto biasimate; come quelli che dell’antiche Feste Baccanali de’ Gentili derivano; Tanto meno erano lecite a’ Cavalieri Religiosi, c’haveano fatto voto di vera, e d’incorrotta castita’. Bando’ nondimeno il torneare, & il giostrare…”
This might explain why evidence of tournaments in Malta is scanty. Only one joust might have been staged in Malta, after all. However the custom might have been revived by some other Grandmaster as Del Ponte died in the same year of the tournament. No unequivocal evidence of any Maltese post-1535 tournament survives yet the 17th century breast pieces fitted with large tournament-style lance rests indicate that some form of mock battling might have been re-introduced when jousting was on its way out.
Unfortunately, we do not know the location where the 1535 Malta tournament was held.
The Mall, in Floriana was a popular recreation area with the Knights and likewise a number of spectacular British military manoeuvres were also held in the area. It thus is possible that Floriana may have been the site for the tournament of 1535.
Robert Attard is a lawyer by profession. He is the author of Collecting Military Headgear, Introduction to Income Tax Theory and Malta, A Collection of Tales & Narratives Series.
This article first appeared in the Easter 1999 issue of Treasures of Malta, which is published by Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti. Treasures of Malta is a magazine about art and culture which is published three times a year, and is available from all leading bookshops.