The Tournament and its Role in the Court Culture of Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519)

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including falconry and boar or bear hunting. He pays homage to various events he considered 
central to his legacy, such as his marriage to his first wife Mary of Burgundy (along with 
accompanying representatives of his acquired Burgundian territories) as well as that of his son 
Philip the Fair to Juana of Spain (no section, interestingly, is dedicated to Maximilian’s second 
marriage to Bianca Maria Sforza of Milan). Illustrations are included of the Holy Roman 
Empire’s most famous princes, counts, barons, and knights, and the various wars and battles in 
which Maximilian participated are commemorated. What is critical to note about the 
Triumphzug, however, is that it is not a tournament book. The tournament images do not 
chronicle specific tournaments, or any real-life event, but portray idealised versions of knights 
participating in various forms of combat. Like Rüxner’s Turnierbuch, the value of this work 
comes not from its depiction of actual historical events, but rather from their representation of 
a specific, carefully-constructed image of the tournament. 
 
For the purposes of this study, the Triumphzug is one of the most useful works 
produced under Maximilian when it comes to understanding the different forms of joust which 
he favoured in his court. In this work, the styles of joust to be found in Maximilian’s court are 
specifically labelled, each with an individual name and different forms of equipment and 
decoration. The Triumphzug clearly divides the participants of the Gestech and the Rennen into 
two separate categories. The Gestech is further subdivided into four varieties, while the Rennen is 
more impressively presented in twelve different forms. The Triumphzug played a critical role in 
memorialising German tournament culture by acting as a survey of each form of joust 
                                                 
tournament prints of the Triumphzug with only slight alterations – mainly changes to the dress of the 
figures. These images have also played a role in this thesis from these sources: Hans Burgkmair des 
Jüngeren: Turnierbuch von 1529, ed. by Dr Heinrich Pallmann (Leipzig: Karl W. Hiersemann, 1910); Hans 
Burgkmaiers Turnier-Buch, ed. by Heinrich Jakob von Hefner, (Frankfurt am Main: Sigmund Schmerber, 
1853); and Munich, BSB, Cod.icon. 403, Turnierbuch - Kopie nach dem Original von Hans Burgkmair. 

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favoured by Maximilian in which each image clearly demonstrates what defines the various 
forms as a Rennen or a Gestech and the equipment needed. Hans Stöcklein, in his introduction to 
a re-printing of the tournament prints alone, says that,  
Kaiser Maximilian I. war betanntlich ein begeisterter Freund des, 
seinem ritterlichen Gefuehl besonders zusagenden, Turniers. Er 
hat, wie der Freydal beweist, selbst jede Gelegenheit benuetzt, sich 
auf dem Turnierplatze im Stechen und Rennen zu ueben, hat so 
manchen Gegner zu Boden gestrecht, ist auch selbst zuweilen 
abgerannt worden und hat sich in Erfindung neuer Arten des 
Turniers sowie der Verbesserung der Ruestung eifrig betaetigt. So 
ist es ganz natuerlich, dass die Darstellung des Turniers in seinem 
Triumphzuge eine bedeutende Rolle spielen musste.
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It must also, however, be clearly stated that none of the images in this work reflect 
historical tournaments which took place in actuality; they are entirely figurative images in a 
fictional parade. In other words, the images do not attempt to recreate what an actual moment 
of combat from the depicted form might look like, as a Turnierbuch would. Rather, they are 
purely a symbol, emblematic of what the ideal competitors in each might look like. The men 
parade, in groups of five, in a straight line, looking ahead and holding their lances aloft in neat 
rows, taking their place in the train of sometimes realistic, sometimes fanciful, people, places, 
and things of Maximilian’s realm. Nor are the figures themselves, apart from two exceptions, 
to be discussed later, intended to be real people of Maximilian’s court.
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 They are generic, 
                                                 
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 ‘Emperor Maximilian I was, of course, an enthusiastic friend of the tournament, which was 
particularly suited to his chivalrous feeling. He himself, as Freydal proves, took every opportunity to 
practice the Gestech and Rennen in the lists; he knocked so many opponents to the ground, and he was 
also sometimes defeated, and he eagerly engaged in the invention of new kinds of the tournament as 
well as improvement of the armaments. So it is quite natural that the presentation of the tournament 
had to play an important role in his Triumphzug;’ Stöcklein, ed. Turnierzug Hans Burgkmair des Älteren, p. 9. 
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 Other sections of the Triumph do feature a selection of the actual princes, counts, and knights 
of Maximilian’s court, many of whom did indeed compete in his tournaments, but who, in this work, 
are not associated with the tournament sections. 

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occasionally faceless male figures, forming part of the idealised image of one style of joust in 
its most uniform, refined form.  
 
There is also the question of how believable the Triumphzug is as a guide to varieties of 
the joust. Some forms, as shall be seen in Chapter 3, can be found to have been conducted on 
a regular basis in Maximilian’s court, while some represent more fanciful, imaginative 
incarnations of the joust. Taken as a whole, these illustrations are elevated above what a real-
life occurrence of one of these competitions may have looked like, with all the accompanying 
inconsistencies and varying factors which might come into play in a real-world situation. They 
are instead a perfected, streamlined portrayal of how Maximilian, approaching old age, wished 
his tournaments to be remembered. Apart from the artistic restrictions and limitations of such 
a work, this lack of acted-out combat in the images suggests a basic understanding on the part 
of its intended audience of what the names of each specified form meant and the rules which it 
implied. It expects the viewer to be able to recognise each style and to imagine for themselves 
the competition which would result from each; it is a celebratory and not a didactic work. 
Two other primary sources produced by Maximilian himself have been of use as both 
illustrated and narrative resources, and these are the printed works Weißkunig and Theuerdank. 
These two books are often grouped with Freydal in discussions of Maximilian, as the three 
represent Maximilian’s efforts to produce printed works in book form to commemorate his 
reign in various ways. When combined, these three in particular represent a complete cycle of 
the emperor’s life - although admittedly highly fictionalised - and with Maximilian featuring in 
each as the allegorical, titular hero. Weißkunig tells the story of Maximilian’s (the young ‘White 
King’) youth and education as he takes over power from his father (the old ‘White King’) and 

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