A Knight's Tale is a 2001 American medieval adventure comedy film written, co-produced and directed by Brian Helgeland. The film stars Heath Ledger as William Thatcher, a peasant squire who poses as a knight and competes in tournaments, winning accolades and acquiring friendships with such historical figures as Edward the Black Prince and Geoffrey Chaucer. Its 14th-century story is intentionally anachronistic, with many modern pop culture references and a soundtrack featuring 1970s music. The film takes its name from Chaucer's "The Knight's Tale" in his Canterbury Tales, and also draws several plot points from Chaucer's work.
Arezzo is a city and comune in Italy and the capital of the province of the same name located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about 80 kilometres southeast of Florence at an elevation of 296 metres (971 ft) above sea level. As of 2022, the population was about 97,000.
Pistoia (, Italian: [pisˈtoːja] is a city and comune in the Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of a province of the same name, located about 30 kilometres west and north of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno. It is a typical Italian medieval city, and it attracts many tourists, especially in the summer. The city is famous throughout Europe for its plant nurseries.
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. The participants of a joust on horseback experience close to three and a quarter times their body weight in G-forces when the lances collide with their armour.
A tournament, or tourney, was a chivalrous competition or mock fight in the Middle Ages and Renaissance and is one type of hastilude. Tournaments included mêlée and hand-to-hand combat, contests of strength or accuracy, and sometimes jousts. Some thought that the tournaments were a threat to public order. The shows were often held to celebrate coronations, marriages of notable figures, births, recent conquests, peace treatises, etc. They were held to welcome of people of perceived high worth, ambassadors, lords, and such. Finally some tournaments were held simply for pure entertainment. Certain tournaments are depicted throughout the Codex Manesse.
Palio is the name given in Italy to an annual athletic contest, very often of a historical character, pitting the neighbourhoods of a town or the hamlets of a comune against each other. Typically, they are fought in costume and commemorate some event or tradition of the Middle Ages and thus often involve horse racing, archery, jousting, crossbow shooting, and similar medieval sports. Once purely a matter of local rivalries, many have now become events that are staged with an eye to visitors and foreign tourists.
Foligno is an ancient town of Italy in the province of Perugia in east central Umbria, on the Topino river where it leaves the Apennines and enters the wide plain of the Clitunno river system. It is located 40 kilometres south-east of Perugia, 10 km (6 mi) north-north-west of Trevi and 6 km (4 mi) south of Spello.
Guardiagrele is a town and comune in the province of Chieti, part of the Abruzzo region of central Italy. It is in the foothills of the Maiella mountain at an elevation of around 576 metres (1,890 ft). Its population numbers about 10,000.
Piazza del Popolo is a large urban square in Rome. The name in modern Italian literally means "People's Square", but historically it derives from the poplars after which the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, in the northeast corner of the piazza, takes its name.
The Porta del Popolo, or Porta Flaminia, is a city gate of the Aurelian Walls of Rome that marks the border between Piazza del Popolo and Piazzale Flaminio.
The Eglinton Tournament of 1839 was a reenactment of a medieval joust and revel held in North Ayrshire, Scotland between 28 and 30 August. It was funded and organized by Archibald, Earl of Eglinton, and took place at Eglinton Castle in Ayrshire. The Queen of Beauty was Georgiana, Duchess of Somerset. Many distinguished visitors took part, including Prince Louis Napoleon, the future Emperor of the French.
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 Giostra della Quintana was a historical jousting tournament in Foligno, central Italy. It was revived as a modern festival in 1946.
Silvano "Nano" Campeggi was an Italian artist who designed and produced the artwork for the posters of many classic Hollywood films. His iconic images are associated with the golden era of Hollywood and Campeggi is now generally regarded as the most important graphic artist and poster designer in the history of American cinema.
The Carolina Renaissance Festival is a 25 acre renaissance themed amusement park and one of the largest Renaissance fairs in America. The Festival is set in a fictional storybook village of "Fairhaven" and nestled within 325 acres of autumn woodlands. The open air village and artisan marketplace contains cottages and bungalows of 16th century European architecture. Inside the village gates are over 140 merchants, crafters, and artisans. Sixteen outdoor stages are used for theater, comedy, music, dance, magic, circus entertainments, swimming mermaids, and live falconry demonstrations. Hundreds of costumed villagers and fantasy characters roam the lanes offering additional interactive entertainment. The Festival's premier attractions feature knights on horseback jousting three times daily inside the Queen's tournament arena, Falconry presentations, and Swimming Mermaids. The Festival is held annually on Saturdays and Sundays in October and November and three consecutive week dates in October as a field trip destination for area schools. The Festival is located just north of Charlotte, North Carolina between the towns of Huntersville and Concord near the intersection of 73 and Poplar Tent Road and with equal distance access to I-77 and I-85. An average of 195,000 visitors time travel to the Festival during its fall season.
Montisi is an Italian village in the municipality of Montalcino, Province of Siena, Tuscany. It sits on a hill on the boundary between the Val d'Orcia and the Crete Senesi.
Traditions of Italy are sets of traditions, beliefs, values, and customs that belongs within the culture of Italian people. These traditions have influenced life in Italy for centuries, and are still practiced in modern times. Italian traditions are directly connected to Italy's ancestors, which says even more about Italian history.
The frog-mouth helm was a type of great helm, appearing from around 1400 and lasting into the first quarter of the 16th century. The helmet was primarily used by mounted knights for tournaments (jousting) rather than on the battlefield.
Piazza d'Aracoeli is a square of Rome (Italy), placed at the base of the Capitoline Hill, in the Rione X Campitelli.
Freydal is an uncompleted illustrated prose narrative commissioned by the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I in the early 16th century. It was intended to be a romantic allegorical account of Maximilian's own participation in a series of jousting tournaments in the guise of the tale's eponymous hero, Freydal. In the story, Freydal takes part in the tournaments to prove that he is worthy to marry a princess, who is a fictionalised representation of Maximilian's late wife, Mary of Burgundy.
