The quintain (from Latin "fifth"), also known as pavo (Latin "peacock"), may have included a number of lance games, often used as a training aid for jousting, where the competitor would attempt to strike a stationary object with a lance. The common object was a shield or board on a pole (usually referred to as 'the quintain'), although a mannequin was sometimes used. It was not unknown for a seated armoured knight to act as the target.[ citation needed ]
The word quintain derives from Middle English quintaine, taken from Old French, derived from Latin quīntāna, "fifth", in reference to a street between the fifth and sixth maniples of a Roman camp, where warlike exercises took place. [1] [2]
Quintain was a game open to all, popular with young men of all social classes. While the use of horses aided in training for the joust, the game could be played on foot, using a wooden horse or on boats (popular in 12th-century London). [3]
As late as the 18th century running at the quintain survived in English rural districts. In one variation of the pastime the quintain was a tun filled with water, which, if the blow was a poor one, was emptied over the striker. A later form was a post with a cross-piece, from which was suspended a ring, which the horseman endeavoured to pierce with his lance while at full speed. This sport, called "tilting at the ring" or "running at the ring", was very popular in England and on the continent of Europe in the 17th century and is still practised as a feature of military and equestrian sport. [1]
A form of quintain known as štehvanje is practiced by Slovenes in the Gail Valley (German : Gailtal) in Austrian Carinthia, and it was also introduced to villages in the Sava Valley north of Ljubljana in the 1930s. [4] [5] [6]
The best known historic feature of the village of Offham in Kent is the Quintain, situated on the Green, a supposedly Roman invention which was popular in Elizabethan times as a means of testing the agility of horsemen.
Writing in 1782 in his History of Kent, [7] Hasted says:
On Offham green there stands a Quintain, a thing now rarely to be met with, being a machine much used in former times by youth, as well to try their own activity as the swiftness of their horses in running at it. The cross piece of it is broad at one end, and pierced full of holes; and a bag of sand is hung at the other and swings round, on being moved with any blow. The pastime was for the youth on horseback to run at it as fast as possible, and hit the broad part in his career with much force. He that by chance hit it not at all, was treated with loud peals of derision; and he who did hit it, made the best use of his swiftness, least he should have a sound blow on his neck from the bag of sand, which instantly swang round from the other end of the quintain. The great design of this sport was, to try the agility both of horse and man, and to break the board, which whoever did, he was accounted chief of the day’s sport. [8]
During the Second World War, the quintain was removed to avoid serving as a landmark for an invading army, being restored to its present place on the Green with much ceremony in the presence of Lord Cornwallis, Lord Lieutenant of Kent, on 11 August 1945. [8]
The stone and plaque explaining the history of the Quintain was unveiled on Saturday, 15 September 1951 in the presence of General Sir E. Thomas Humphreys (Chairman of the Parish Council), Mrs Emily Cosgrave and Colonel A. M. Wilkinson as part of the Festival of Britain celebrations. [9] A replica quintain was used in the 1980s for tilting on horseback during the annual May Day celebrations, but this has been curtailed due to safety concerns. Responsibility for upkeep and maintenance of the Quintain now rests with the Parish Council.
The Offham Quintain is a Grade II listed monument and further details are given at Images of England. [10]
Jousting is a medieval and renaissance martial game or hastilude between two combatants either on horse or on foot. The joust became an iconic characteristic of the knight in Romantic medievalism.
A bullfighter is a performer in the activity of bullfighting. Torero or toureiro, both from Latin taurarius, are the Spanish and Portuguese words for bullfighter, and describe all the performers in the activity of bullfighting as practised in Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Peru, France, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and other countries influenced by Portuguese and Spanish culture. The main performer and leader of the entourage in a bullfight, and who finally kills the bull, is addressed as maestro (master), or with the formal title matador de toros. The other bullfighters in the entourage are called subalternos and their suits are embroidered in silver as opposed to the matador's gold. They include the picadores, rejoneadores, and banderilleros.
A tournament, or tourney, was a chivalrous competition or mock fight that was common in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and is a type of hastilude. Tournaments included mêlée, hand-to-hand combat, contests of strength or accuracy, and sometimes jousts. Some considered the tournaments to be frivolous pursuits of celebrity, even a potential threat to public order. But the shows were popular and often put on in honor of coronations, marriages, or births; to celebrate recent conquests or peace treatises; or to welcome ambassadors, lords, or others considered to be of great importance. Other times tournaments were held for no particular reason at all, simply for entertainment. Certain tournaments are depicted throughout the Codex Manesse.
Tilt may refer to:
A pauldron is a component of plate armor that evolved from spaulders in the 15th century. As with spaulders, pauldrons cover the shoulder area. Pauldrons tend to be larger than spaulders, covering the armpit, and sometimes parts of the back and chest. A pauldron typically consists of a single large dome-shaped piece to cover the shoulder with multiple lames attached to it to defend the arm and upper shoulder. On some suits of armour, especially those of Italian design, the pauldrons would usually be asymmetrical, with one pauldron covering less and sporting a cut-away to make room for a lance rest.
Combat reenactment is a side of historical reenactment which aims to depict historical forms of combat. This may refer to either single combat, melees involving small groups, or nearly full-scale battles with hundreds of participants.
Hamsey is a village and civil parish in the Lewes district of East Sussex, England. The parish covers a large area and also consists of the villages Offham and Cooksbridge. The main centres of population in the parish are now Offham and Cooksbridge. Around the main settlements are enlarged fields, isolated old cottages and farms. The winding and undulating parish lanes between banks, old hedge rows, trees, flowery verges and ditches are popular with cyclists and give good views of the Downs. In 2011 the parish had a population of 632.
Tent pegging is a cavalry sport of ancient origin, and is one of only ten equestrian disciplines officially recognised by the International Equestrian Federation. Used narrowly, the term refers to a specific mounted game with ground targets. More broadly, it refers to the entire class of mounted cavalry games involving pointed and edged weapons on horseback, for which the term "equestrian skill-at-arms" is also used.
Animals in sport are a specific form of working animals. Many animals, at least in more commercial sports, are highly trained. Two of the most common animals in sport are horses and dogs.
Horses in the Middle Ages differed in size, build and breed from the modern horse, and were, on average, smaller. They were also more central to society than their modern counterparts, being essential for war, agriculture, and transport.
Offham is a village in the local government district of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England, five miles to the west of Maidstone.
Hastilude is a generic term used in the Middle Ages to refer to many kinds of martial games. The word comes from the Latin hastiludium, literally "lance game". By the 14th century, the term usually excluded tournaments and was used to describe the other games collectively; this seems to have coincided with the increasing preference for ritualistic and individualistic games over the traditional mêlée style.
The Accession Day tilts were a series of elaborate festivities held annually at the court of Elizabeth I of England to celebrate her Accession Day, 17 November, also known as Queene's Day. The tilts combined theatrical elements with jousting, in which Elizabeth's courtiers competed to outdo each other in allegorical armour and costume, poetry, and pageantry to exalt the queen and her realm of England.
Full Metal Jousting is an American reality game show that debuted on the History Channel on February 12, 2012. The show featured 16 contestants, split into two teams of eight, competing in full-contact competitive jousting, a combat sport developed by host Shane Adams since the late 1990s. One by one, the contestants were eliminated tournament-style until only one remained. That contestant received a $100,000 grand prize.
Norton, Buckland and Stone is a small rural civil parish 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Teynham and 3 miles (4.8 km) west of the centre of Faversham in the borough of Swale, Kent, England. It is bypassed by the M2 to the south and traverses the historic A2, on the route of the Roman road of Watling Street. In 2011 the parish had a population of 467.
Ježica is a formerly independent settlement in the northern part of the capital Ljubljana in central Slovenia. It is part of the traditional region of Upper Carniola and is now included with the rest of the municipality in the Central Slovenia Statistical Region.
Slovene quintain is a traditional Slovene mounted folk game, a form of jousting, that has been preserved in the southern Austrian state of Carinthia. It is held during Kirchweih festivals in the lower Gail Valley, where it has become a major tourist attraction. The štehvanje competition has also taken place every year in Savlje, Ljubljana and sometimes in neighboring villages since the 1930s.
The Ripon Millenary Festival was a pageant and festival held in Ripon over a week in August 1886, with the main activities concentrated on two days, to celebrate the supposed millenary of the granting of a royal charter to Ripon by Alfred the Great.
Running at the ring, riding at the ring or tilting at the ring is an equestrian tournament activity originally practiced at European royal courts and likely derived from other lance games like quintain. It gained new popularity at Natural Chimneys near Mount Solon, Virginia, possibly as early as the 1820s, and since 1962, has been the state sport of Maryland. A similar contest, the corrida de sortija, is held in Argentina where it is considered a gaucho sport derived from the Spanish tradition of medieval tournaments.
