For the Love of His Lady

Tournaments often had elaborate themes drawn from romances, the popular fiction of the day, such as stories about the love affair between the knight Sir Lancelot and King Arthur’s Queen, Guinevere.

One tournament theme was about the Lady of the Secret Isle, in which a knight was held prisoner by a mysterious lady and could only be set free once he had broken a hundred lances in a tournament. His challengers would bang a gong to summon a dwarf who unchained a giant who in turn would open the entrance to the tournament field (the lists).

During a skirmish in the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) a French squire called out: ‘Is there among you any gentleman who for the love of his lady is willing to try with me some feat of arms? I am ready to ride forth to tilt three courses with the lance, to give three blows with the axe, and three strokes with the dagger. Now look you English if there be none among you in love!’

Often a lady would give her knight a token to wear, known as a lady’s favour. In one French romance a lady says to a young squire, “for love of me wear a gold bracelet enamelled with my device for the space of one year”. He was expected to meet any challenges from other knights who wished to win it from him.

In 1440 it was noted in a letter that there was ‘come to England a knight from Spain with a kerchief of pleasance wrapped round his arm who will run a course with a sharp spear for his sovereign lady’s sake’. Also, according to one chronicler a lesser knight managed to secure the hand of the sister of King Henry IV in marriage after she had seen his performance during a tournament at York.