226 RIDING 



leathers that the toes of the riders can barely find support, but 

 they soon appear at such a length that, as is too often the case 

 in our day, the rider depends upon them in a great measure 

 for the security of his position, and in the tournaments it 

 was considered discreditable, as an indication that the seat 

 had been in jeopardy, for a knight to lose his stirrup in the 

 encounter. 



Of these tournaments Fossbrooke says l that they were pro- 

 bably derived from the Ludus Trojanus mentioned by the Latin 

 writers, and that, according to Du Cange, they were revived 

 by Geoffrey de Preuli in 1066. Other writers assign their 

 revival to a much earlier period, but it is difficult to say when 

 the duels between the quarrelsome soldiery of the middle ages 

 arrived at the dignity of the tournament. The English borrowed 

 the sport from the French in the reign of Stephen. 2 The last 

 tournament took place in France in i56o. 3 



Between the twelfth and the sixteenth centuries the tourna- 

 ment was the favourite pastime of the kings and nobles of 

 Europe, and these passages at arms were participated in not 

 only by the knights of the courts at which they were held, but 

 by bold adventurers who, desirous of extending their reputation 

 for skill and courage, traversed 'Christendom' to seek adver- 

 saries worthy of their lances. , 



In the days of chivalry the encounters between mounted 

 men were confined to the lance, the sword, and the battle-axe ; 

 and we are asked to believe that in the time of these combats 

 when the horse had to exhibit as much intrepidity as his rider, 

 rushing with eagerness against the lances, rendering calm and 

 immediate obedience to the bit under the sword-strokes and 

 the fearful blows of the lightning-bearing axe, when the rider, 

 encumbered with armour, skilfully turned, advanced, withdrew, 

 to fall with fatal blade upon a wary adversary we are asked, I 

 say, to believe that horsemanship wa* neglected. 



1 Antiq. ii. 609. 2 Lingard, ii. 3 Buckle, iii. 135. 



