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

 
 
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Again Maximilian appeared as a participant in the mounted jousts. He jousted twice, 
both times against Anthony von Yfan.
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 The first occasion was on Saint Barbara’s Day (4 
December), and the second on the first Saturday (4 January) of the new year, 1490. This 
second joust was explicitly described as a Scheiben Rennen. This is a critical detail, as it applies a 
descriptive label to a certain style of joust. Otherwise, the phrase most commonly used to 
describe the act of jousting in this manuscript is the verb phrase haben […] gerennt, meaning 
simply, ‘they ran’. The noun Rennen, derived from this verb rennen (‘to run’), is also a proper 
name for a specific style of German joust, as will be explained in Chapter 3. The origin of this 
connection may be seen in this wording. 
 
This manuscript only illustrates twelve individual competitions of mounted joust. 
These are likely, however, to only be a selection of the entire number of jousts which took 
place over this time. Those twelve illustrated may represent the most famous of the 
combatants.  
 
Maximilian’s fortunes continued to fluctuate. In 1490, Maximilian has a stroke of good 
luck when he inherited the region of Tyrol from his cousin, the archduke Sigismund of 
Austria. This inheritance included the city of Innsbruck, which was to become one of 
Maximilian’s most favoured residences.
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 Also in 1490, however, Maximilian married the young 
heiress Anne of Brittany (1477-1514) by proxy. This marriage failed spectacularly when Anne 
repudiated the unconsummated marriage and instead married the dauphin of France, Charles 
VIII, who had until then been betrothed to Maximilian’s own daughter, Margaret. Thus both 
Maximilian and Margaret were deprived of their intended spouses, and Maximilian 
                                                 
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 Anthony von Yfan was a figure of some significance – a frequent competitor in the jousts of 
Maximilian’s highly mobile court. For more on von Yfan, see Chapter 6, Section 6.4.b. 
69
 Wiesflecker, Kaiser Maximilian I.: Das Reich, Österreich und Europa an der Wende zur Neuzeit, vol. 1, 
pp. 248-50. 

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subsequently did all in his power to ensure that marriages arranged for his descendents were 
designed to keep power out of French hands.
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The Turnierbuch BSB, Cod.icon 398 provides a record of another tournament held the 
next year, in June 1491.
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 This tournament took place in Nuremberg. Maximilian was again 
among the participants, in this case jousting against Christoph Schenk von Limpurg.
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 Again, 
the joust is given a particular label: a Schwaiff. In an extraordinary overlap, this tournament was 
also documented in another Turnierbuch, that of Johann of Saxony, who was also among the 
participants.
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 This documentation in a second source is significant in that it lends veracity to 
the first. 
 
Johann of Saxony’s Turnierbuch includes another tournament in which Maximilian was 
involved; this one was held in Innsbruck in 1492 (month unspecified). Maximilian is illustrated 
once in the manuscript, jousting against Johann. The elector himself is depicted competing in 
seven different jousts against various nobles at this tournament.
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70
 Wiesflecker, Kaiser Maximilian I.: Das Reich, Österreich und Europa an der Wende zur Neuzeit, vol. 1, 
pp. 323-26. 
71
 Munich, BSB, Cod.icon. 398, plate 47: Der hochgeboren Romischer Kunig Maximilian rit zue 
Norenburg auf die ban im vierzehenhundert unnd im ain und neunzigisten jar das geschach darnach auf dem Rathaus 
bey nacht vil der freuden spil wurden gehalten bey jungen edelleuten undalte. Am Montag vor S. Baptista tag das mancher 
edler zue der erden lag, wa man noch solche Ritterliche spil thet treiben wurden vil unrath und zwitracht dahin den 
blieben (‘The highborn Roman King rode to Nuremberg along the road in the year 1491, there took 
place at the town hall in the night many of the joyful games were held by nobles young and old. On the 
Monday before Saint Baptista’s Day, when many a knight lay on the earth, where yet such knightly 
games were taking place amid much restlessness and conflict.’) 
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. Christoph Schenk von Limpurg, Christoph (c. 1468-c. 1515) was the son of Albrecht II and 
part of a noble Swabian family. The name comes from ownership of Limpurg castle at Schwäbisch 
Hall. He was a leading military captain in the Austrian territories and an ally of Maximilian. He often 
participated in Maximilian’s tournaments and travelled with Maximilian’s court.  The title Schenk could 
come from schenken and refer to the medieval profession of wine-server or cup-bearer, possibly from a 
historic role in the coronations of German kings and emperors. ‘Schenk von Limpurg’ appears to have 
become a complete last name unit associated with this family.  
73
 Der Sächsischen Kurfürsten Turnierbücher, plates 38, 39, 41, 44, 45-48. 
74
 Der Sächsischen Kurfürsten Turnierbücher, plates 50-52, 54, 90-92. Unfortunately, none of these 
encounters are included in this reprinted edition. 

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2.4 Maximilian as Emperor and the Establishment of Tournaments in his Court 
In 1493 Frederick III died, leaving Maximilian as his widely acknowledged successor as Holy 
Roman emperor (although he would not actually be officially crowned until many years later).
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As he became a powerful ruler in his own right, Maximilian began to, more and more, place 
tournaments in a critical role in his court. This dominant role of the tournament in a royal 
court, however, was built on a long-standing medieval tradition. For hundreds of years, the 
tournament, in one form or another, had featured in noble courts as a form of military 
training, athletic competition, and entertainment. It served several purposes during these 
centuries.  
 
In its earliest form, as stated above, the tournament was primarily a martial exercise, 
allowing knights to hone and perfect skills which would be crucial to them on the battlefield. 
This iteration of the tournament also allowed knights to show off their athleticism and 
equestrian abilities in a chivalric setting, both to each other and to the growing contingent of 
spectators which came to witness the events. Alongside this, there was also the opportunity for 
wealth and renown to be gained on the tournament scene. Later, there was also the obvious 
role of the tournament in providing courtly entertainment and as a pastime not just for knights 
but for audiences as well. These same factors also influenced the tournament’s prevalence in 
German-speaking courts and formed part of the tradition of which Maximilian’s own court 
was the natural continuation.
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75
 Wiesflecker, Kaiser Maximilian I.: Das Reich, Österreich und Europa an der Wende zur Neuzeit, vol. 1, 
pp. 351-55.  
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 The tournaments which took place in noble courts like Maximilian’s and which are the subject 
of this thesis are distinctly different from those held by the German tournament societies, or 
Turniergesellschaften, which were also popular around this time (the Turnierbuch of Marx Walther is as 
much of an overlap as will be found in this present study). Not much has been written about the 

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