We Experienced a Real Medieval Knight Jousting Tournament!

Becoming a successful knight during the Middle Ages required years of training, iron discipline and plenty of bravery in the face of danger. Today we were going to find out more about what being a knight meant by reuniting with our favourite historic re-enactor at Royal Armouries in Leeds, Andy Dean. Hi Andy, how are you? Nice to see you too. Nice to see you again. Didn't really have time did you? But it's great to see you back in the tilt yard. Thank you for having us. Well we're back here and last time obviously the archery challenge didn't go too well but today we're going to turn the tables a bit and we're going to be challenging you this time. Alright. That's right. So we've got the tilt yard set up with various traditional medieval challenges but first of all will you just give us a bit of context about the place that jousting had in medieval society. So I mean, high days and holidays were a time of celebration. It happened really, life was pretty hard. Obviously the further down the ladder you go the worse it got. So the time to celebrate literally the red carpet was rolled out and you threw everything at it. So tournaments and if you weren't going to battle in your armour you wanted to look fantastic so your entire household would sort of come with you to the tournament. Your squad, your men-at-arms, the ladies and such like so that you had a community that was celebrating. It might be a saint's birthday or whatever it might be but in reality you're celebrating like any party. Again, using an analogy, it's kind of the Formula One of its time. It's colourful, it's fast, it's exciting. All the beautiful people were there. I hesitate to call myself a beautiful person but you know what I mean. Come on. So it was pinnacle. So you have been training all your life since you were a young boy to ride horses, to fight, to wear the armour efficiently in battle and in tournaments. So this is the day that all that training pays off. Yeah, we'll let you get on with it. We're going to go watch from the balcony this time. Right, I'll get my horse and we're going to do some jousting. Awesome. With their origins stretching back to the cavalry displays of the Roman Empire, medieval tournaments saw knights on horseback compete with arms and equipment similar to those used in real warfare. More often than not, the challenges set at these events were designed to test an individual's skills at horsemanship, hunting and fighting. Over time they became a forum for European knights to show off their martial prowess, indulge in a bit of pageantry and display their chivalrous qualities, winning both riches and glory in the process. From the 10th to 16th century, tournaments were the principal expression of aristocratic ideals and noble lineage, where family arms and honour were put on the line, ladies were wooed and national pride was at stake. For today, it was just Andy's pride at stake, as he would attempt to complete our tournament challenges with the help of his loyal steed Snuff. As you can see, the Royal Armouries Tilt Yard has been decked out for a medieval tournament. Yeah, and you can see we've got some challenges set up for Andy Dean, our medieval knight on horseback. First one, Black Poe, so we're going to put a cabbage on top of this and he's going to chop it in half with his sword. Right, next up, we're going to be placing some hoops along the tilt rail, which Andy's going to try and spear with his lance. Next challenge, we've got a wild boar throwing spear and he's going to hit this from his horse. Right, next up, another cabbage because one isn't enough, but if you follow me around here, we're going to be placing a gauntlet on the floor, which Andy's going to have to try and scoop up with his lance. You've got to get really low on the saddle for that one, not easy. Not easy. And then next challenge, the Quintain, you might have seen this before. So Andy's going to try and hit this shield with his lance and he's going to try and spin it around 360 degrees. The more spins, the more points you get. And for the grand finale, we're going to get Andy to joust against a real live opponent. It's going to be great. This is going to be exciting. Starting off easy, Andy's first task was to decapitate a cabbage with his sword on horseback. Come on then, sweetheart. Let's go and play. Well done, Andy. Congrats. First challenge completed. I'm going to say the horse did a great job. The horse? It's all about the horse, isn't it? I mean, the thing with the cut and thrust stuff is obviously it's just hand-eye coordination. And they're set at targets that would be vulnerable areas on a man on foot tyres, aiming sort of neck area. And then with the heart, basically the face. If you've got your visor up, that's where I'm going to aim. Challenge one completed and a very impressive start for our night. It was now time to test Andy's hunting skills with a throwing spear. Alright, he's going. Here we go. Excellent job. Incredible. Look at that accuracy. Andy Dean. A boar is gone. What a man. That's all challenges completed so far. Excellent. Well done. Two out of two. What have we got next? We've got the quintain coming up, the gauntlet. Shall we do the rings next? Let's do the rings next. Why not? Let's do the rings. It's a slightly different challenge, but equally equally hard. So the idea is, are you going to get them in the throat? Are you going to get them in the eye? Are you going to get them in the chest? So the rings are designed to be at the height of a man's chest. Of a mountain man coming back towards you. So a great jousting training challenge. But this is for jousting, yes, targeting, but obviously if a cavalry charges, two cavalry charges and throwing themselves against each other, you've got to be able to evade, but also be able to pluck a target. Right, well let's see if you get three out of three. I believe, I believe in Andy Dean. Alright, Andy's completed both challenges so far. Not a bad effort. I think one out of three, I think. No, it's not bad, is it? No, not bad at all. Had the battle cry, here he comes. Andy, you sounded a little bit frustrated with that. One out of three. If I were to get dripped going down a window pane, I'd be upset that my drip lost. But, I don't mind, it's a windy day and blah, blah, blah. But, most importantly, the one I sort of missed is only that somebody's face is usually a bit bigger. Exactly. You hit the first two, but the last one was the one you got through. Obviously riding a horse at the same time, you want your horse to do exactly as you ask. And I started off a little bit wide on my horse, just with my bum cheek and my leg, I just said come over a little tiny bit, and he did it perfectly. So, for me, training as well as actually performing also go hand in hand. And this is a youngish horse who's starting to get used to a new job. Definitely. So, I'm pleased with him. Well done, Snuff. Excellent. My pleasure. We can't give you that one, but not too bad. Sorry, Andy. He's not happy about that. As frustrated as he may have been by our scrupulous scoring system, we couldn't give Andy full marks on that challenge. Could he redeem himself, though, by taking up the gauntlet? Well done. Now that, that was seriously impressive. He's going to be happy. Get his smug face. Andy, on point. I think that was the most impressive one so far, actually. Yeah, definitely. You have to time that perfectly, don't you? Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's kind of a mindset of, you don't, don't look at the glove. Look at the hole in the glove, as it were. Just look straight through the middle and commit. But again, for me, that was all about the horse, and he's such a great young horse. Because, again, I started a little bit wide, then I asked him to come over, he went over for me, and then he went. And then I realised it was a bit too tight, so I asked him to come out slightly, all within about five strides. So, although it's, yeah, it's fabulous being fabulous. But... You've got to give it credit. The horse has got to do all the, it's got to get you out of trouble every time. There you go. And I'm constantly getting into trouble, so, yeah, very pleased with that. The challenge there, getting low in the saddle. Yeah, it hasn't changed. In the 19th century, tent pegging, the closer you can get down here, obviously, the easier it makes things. And then you don't want it jarred out of your hand, so that follow through, where you're sort of swinging, use the inertia of the lance, and it's nice and smooth, so that it's not juddering through your horse, it's not juddering through your joints. So, yeah, I mean, there's plenty of ways of picking up a lady's glove. Unfortunately, there's not many ways of picking up a lady's glove without putting a bleeding grey hole in it. So, Andy didn't manage to get three out of three on the hoops challenge, but he did manage to successfully scoop up the gauntlet. So, that's now three challenges completed for Mr Dean. Standing between Andy and tournament glory was the Quintain. In preparation for the joust, knights would hone their aim by striking stationary objects, mannequins and occasionally foolhardy volunteers. The Quintain on our course was attached to a spinning ball and chain, making it the ultimate test of agility on horseback. Right, so Andy, for the Quintain, how many spins have you got to get it round for it to be a good score? With this Quintain, the way it's set up, hitting it would normally be good enough for most people, but if I'm using my horse properly, anything more than seven is good. So, if it's less than seven, you can howl with laughter and I will look for lawn in the saddle. Does that sound like a plan? We'll be counting. We'll be watching you like a hawk, Andy. Still spinning, are they? Yeah, still spinning. You could see in his eyes, he was just laser focused on that. Full of confidence. Laser focused. It's one of the few days I get to play in the winter, so any opportunity. So, really all the thanks is to you two for coming up and allowing me to play and show what we do at the museum, but also some of the skills that are inherent to a medieval man whilst messing around on horses. I say messing around, of course it keeps you alive on the band. And with that impressive display of accuracy, Andy had scored a solid four out of five in our medieval tournament challenge. But the fun was not over yet. We couldn't possibly leave the tilt yard without seeing an exclusive live joust. It was time for our knight to transform into a knight in shiny armour. Andy, so you're about to do some live jousting against a real opponent now. This would actually be quite a nerve-wracking part of their life, right? Yeah, it's what you've been trained for, but it's like any sport. That moment, you sort of tingle with excitement or with maybe, there might be some anxiety if they're huge, but basically you've been training and this is your job. You do it for the love of it and the glory and everything else. So all that hard training is now, well, it's only a minute away really. But Andy, what's the worst that could happen in this scenario? And what's the worst that has happened in history? Have there been any major jousting accidents? Yeah, I mean, there are famous ones. Henry VIII had a couple. One where he got a bit of his leg gouged out. One where he got knocked out for a period of time. And they now think that his whole outlook on life changed after he'd been knocked unconscious. Yeah, and he became a very different, volatile person after. So Henry II of France, again famous. He got a shard, went through the sight of his visor, pierced his eye, threw the eye back. Yeah, died in agony. So I mean, hopefully none of these things happen today. Everything can go wrong. Your horse, you go charging down, suddenly it takes a half a leap and it's on the wrong side and you've got your opponent on the same side of you and you've got two horses about to hit each other at nearly 50 miles an hour. If you think both of them can go at 25 miles an hour. Yeah, I mean, there's car wrecks all over the place if it does go wrong. Thankfully, touch wood, it'll all go well today. Yeah, so no way of mitigating all the risks. And David, you're Andy's squire for the day. But that's actually quite a big responsibility, right? Yeah, so a squire was essentially a knight in training. And so in turn, Andy's been teaching me how to be a knight, the duties of a knight. And my duty is to make his life as easy as possible. So I'm going to be there maintaining his armor. I'm going to be carrying his things around, make sure everything's good. I'm putting him in the armor, checking everything is in order, make sure everything's on properly. Nobody else is allowed near it. He's the only one who puts me in it. Yeah, got it. He's the only one that does it right. Also, if I've done badly and it's an equipment malfunction, I only need to find one person wherever he's hiding. Yeah, absolutely. It even comes down to maybe choosing the horse on the day as well. I'm there to essentially make sure that the knight is well looked after. And in turn, hopefully one day I might in turn be knighted. Exactly. Then I'm the marshal sitting on top and he's all those... It's like any apprenticeship. You're an apprentice, yeah. You carry on being an apprentice and one day you're no longer the apprentice. Well, Andy, you look pretty much ready to go. So we wish you the best of luck in the joust. Yeah, we'll let you get on with it. Good luck, mate. Good luck. Good luck. Here we go. Good run. That was crazy. Those sprinters went everywhere. Amazing. Scary, but amazing. A fiery first encounter with both Andy and his opponent landing impressive hits. It seemed, however, that Luke's loyalty was being tested. The reason I'm rooting for this black horse here is I've been told that it's the horse that was used in Peaky Blinders and it's Poldark's horse as well. And possibly Lloyd's TSB, the famous black horse. I don't think it's from Lloyd's TSB. No, that's what I've heard, Louis. That's what I've heard. I wouldn't bank on it. I could feel Andy's anger as he sensed my betrayal. The final round was upon us. An incredible spectacle and thankfully no medieval surgery required. While the main aim of the joust in earlier periods was to unhorse your opponent, it later became a more complex point-based sport with plenty of rules to stipulate what was and wasn't allowed. If opponents couldn't be separated on horseback, they'd often continue the duel on foot. But we let Andy off this time. That was amazing, Andy. Good job, Andy. Amazing. Takes a lot of skill, doesn't it? Yeah, and as far as tiring, the horse does most of the work. And you're so in the zone that all the armour and the noise, it basically sort of leaves you and you just hear the other bloke and you just want to hit him harder than he's about to hit you. Do you know what, Andy? I'm glad that we haven't had to do all that work in the armour because it does look like it's quite a big effort. Well, yes, but it would be a terrible thing if you were to leave the museum without having a little go yourselves. I've organised a little something for you. So you get a bit of a taster of what it's like to wear a bit of 15th century armour. Oh, Andy. Fantastic. As you're all aware, we could never say no to a historic challenge. What's more, it would allow us to find out if the Hollywood image of the clunky, slow-moving knight was really that accurate. Here we go. What do you think? Looking good. I feel good. Sort of cobbled together quickly, but it looks really good. Shall we get on with the challenges? Let's do it. You stand to one side, I've got two for you. What are you going to have me do? Drop, give me five press-ups. No, give me as many press-ups as you can. Make sure your nose touches the ground. That'll be easy for me. Come on. Good job, mate. I was worrying about the rest. Now get up. Ready? You're going to count to three, you're going to get up as quick as possible. I'll give you a clue. Roll onto your side before you try and even get onto your hands and knees before it. So try and straight from your back. Roll, hands and knees, get up. Okay. Ready? Okay. Teddy, go. One, two, three. There you go. Six, seven, the brakes are coming. Eight, nine, ten. Ready for battle. Yay. I'll say no more about it. It didn't exactly look like a second skin on Luke there. That was tough. Yeah, you can laugh at me, mate. Go do your challenges. All right, let's do it. Okay. Come on then, Luke. Quicker than that. Let's get through here. And then I've got some shuffle runs for you. Is this the challenge? Yeah. It is now. Apparently for you. That's it. Oh, beautifully done. That's the easy bit. Pop over your knee without dying. And let's get those legs pumping and arms pumping. Up here. Up, down, up, down. I'll tell you when to stop. Go, go, go, go. Faster than that. Make it an effort. Come on. You're showing how good aren't we? That's much better, Luke. Now do it twice the speed again. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Go, go, go, go, go. Go, man. Don't fall over. Don't die. Good, good, good, good, good, good. There we go. It's quite compressing on the chest, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. You've got to learn to breathe with your diaphragm rather than let that chest heave up and down because it's got nowhere to heave. Is that even the case with your fitted arms? Yeah. So I've got a little bit more room in here. But nonetheless, I'm breathing a lot down here in the same way as sort of singers and dancers. They're using the diaphragm as actors. They're using that diaphragm, the lower part of that body. So you're not heaving that chest up and down. Well, I say that. Why don't we just go and try and heave that chest up and down by doing a bit of running. Let's do it. Come on, then. Let's go. My shuttle runs probably weren't enough to inspire a chivalric poem. But I wasn't going to turn down another challenge. You did it, 57-year-old man. Well done, you. Well done, both of you. Well done. I had absolutely no idea what my body was going to do when I set off there. But you covered the ground, didn't you? Yeah. There you go. Andy, what a day. What a day we've had here. It's a pleasure having you both. It's been such fun. We've got to actually learn a little bit about… You've already learned a lot. I'm puffing a bit now, actually. Take that knowledge out into the great wide world. We will. Thank you so much for having us here. Always a pleasure. Hopefully, we'll see you soon. Yeah. Two weeks. Shall we get out of it? Right. Let's go home. Let's go get warm. Yes, please. As the sun set, our full day of lessons at night school was over. The life of a medieval knight was clearly dangerous and exhilarating, albeit comprised of hard work, loyalty, and dedication. With our series of challenges done, it was time for a quick debrief. So, Luke, tell me, honestly, what are your opinions? What did you think it would be like wearing armour, and what has it been like? I'll be honest, I didn't think I could move about as much as I can. It's still quite weighty on the shoulders, on the traps, and I can't quite imagine how you could really fight for hours and hours and hours with this on. I'm surprised. I mean, the image of the kind of clunking knight, it can't be accurate. I mean, the knights who would have really worn custom-fit armour would have been much more fit than we are. Definitely. Would have had years of training. Definitely takes some practice, though, still, doesn't it? It would definitely take some practice to get used to it, yeah. I mean, apparently, knights could climb up castle walls, climb up the underside of ladders. Apparently, there are some accounts of them swimming across moats. I just can't imagine how that would have happened. But, yeah, it's been good to experience it for ourselves, hasn't it? It definitely has, and obviously, Andy as well, what an instructor, what a legend. What a total legend. Yeah. One thing I can tell you, it is a bit like a fridge in here. It is. Once the cold starts to seep through, it really is, you know. Yeah, put it this way, I want to take it off as quickly as possible, to be honest. Yeah, let's go to the pub. If you need the toilet, I've just been told, all you have to do is lift that up. There you go. What about the other way? Yeah, I don't know about the other way. Check out the History Hit YouTube, where you can get great exclusive videos and a sneak peek at what's available on the world's best history channel, History Hit TV. It's growing really fast, we're thrilled to have you all aboard.