Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna is this weekend hosting the first jousting tournament at Fort Rinella, Kalkara, in the hope that it will revive the sport that has long been dormant in Malta.
Four professional jousters from the UK and Germany will be performing this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon, in an event that should be attended by families and people who love horses, knights in armour, and weapons.
Jousting is a martial game between two knights mounted on horses and using lances, often as part of a tournament. It is nowadays practised as a sport and a show of skill.
The Malta Jousting Tournament is the first activity of its kind being held in Malta in the last 400 years. At the time of the Knights, jousting on foot definitely used to take place but it is uncertain whether jousting on horses actually used to be performed in Malta.
The event is meant to provide a unique spectacle and raise awareness of this sport in an entertaining atmosphere. The spacious arena where the tournament will be held, outside the Fort itself, will also be furnished according to the theme, with food and drink stalls and open areas, making it an ideal venue for the family.
The show will consist of a jousting tournament with all its phases, from the well-known cavalry clashes to on-ground sword fighting and knights’ displays.
Visitors will be able to feel the thrill of watching this show of skill and ancient pageantry; they will also get the opportunity to get the feel and try on iron suits of armour.
Knights are a fixture of medieval times and they trained for many years. There were no battles to be fought but the knights needed to keep in shape, so jousting events started being organised and by time their popularity grew.
The medieval joust has its origins in military tactics of heavy cavalry during the High Middle Ages. Two knights on horseback would face off at a distance, generally armed with a lance, a one-handed sword and a small dagger called a rondel. The primary goal was to use the jousting lance to unhorse the other by striking him with the end of the lance while riding towards him at high speed – a technique known as tilting.
Initially, knights wore chain mail for protection, but later started using full plate armour.
The arena where a jousting event took place was a roped-off vast enclosure.
In the late medieval period, castles and palaces were augmented by purpose-built tiltyards as a vast enclosure for jousting tournaments.
There were several types of jousting: The all-out form had knights riding in a field, attacking all they encountered and even killing each other.
There was the individual joust in which two knights squared off. This too sometimes involved a fight to death. Here the knights would ride towards each other and attempt to score points.
One point was awarded for a body hit, two for breaking a lance and three for knocking a knight off his horse.
Jousting tournaments were usually held in honour of a lady, usually the wife of a nobleman. Fame and fortune was at stake and the winner of the joust reaped many awards. But after the tournament, the victorious knight would bathe, eat a good meal and retire to bed, accompanied by the wife of the nobleman in whose honour the game would have taken place.
As the sport’s popularity grew, rulers and the Church questioned the joust as it cost the lives of many knights and distracted attention away from the Crusades. However, the sport was so popular, it was reluctantly accepted, but it became less deadly over time.
The sport is still quite popular in England, Germany and North America and is a niche market in cultural tourism.
Nowadays, every effort is taken to perform safely, yet spectacularly. The armour, which weighs around 40 kilograms, is impenetrable but there are certain gaps in it for the knights to be able to breathe and move. Their visibility is reduced as they can only see through a five-millimetre gap.
Their thighs and legs are not covered by the gear since they need to use certain muscles to ride the horses.
The Malta Jousting Tournament is an event being organised as part of a series to raise funds for the renovation of Fort Rinella, which is being restored and furnished to host a number of exhibits and events.
Meanwhile, it is planning to purchase one full knight’s armour – garniture, which costs around €60,000 so as to have a Maltese person participating in future jousting events.
Entrance tickets are at €5 for adults and €1 for children.
Programme for today and tomorrow:
10am: Doors open
10am – 2pm: Film shows, explanations,
knights and armour displays
2pm: Knights’ preparations
3pm: Fighting practice
3.15pm: Jousting
4pm: Foot combat