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



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Figure 21: The Wulstrennen in the Triumphzug....................................................................................255 
Figure 22: The Pfannenrennen in the Triumphzug.................................................................................256 
Figure 23: The Rennzeug........................................................................................................................256 
Figure 24: The Stechzeug........................................................................................................................257 
Figure 25: A Rennzeug Backplate.........................................................................................................257 
Figure 26: Mechanical Breastplate for the Rennen............................................................................258 
Figure 27: Gasper Lamberger’s Personal Emblem..........................................................................258 
Figure 28: Child’s Jousting Toy on a Caparison...............................................................................259 
Figure 29: The Lock and Key Caparisons in the Turnierbuch of Wilhelm IV...............................259 
Figure 30: The Margrave Friedrich of Brandenburg and his Servant Jousting...........................260 
Figure 31: Young Boy on a Lance in the Turnierbuch of Marx Walther........................................260 
Figure 32: Fabric-Draped Shields in BSB, Cod.icon 398...............................................................261 
Figure 33: Marx Walther Wearing a Skewer of Sausages Crest.....................................................261 
Figure 34: Gaspar Lamberger Wearing a Basket of Cats Crest.....................................................262 
Figure 35: Marx Walther and his Attendants in a Tournament.....................................................262 
Figure 36: A Romantic Image of the Tournament of Worms.......................................................263 
 
 


xi 
 
 
A Note on Spellings 
In this thesis, the often various Early New High German (subsequently ENHG) spellings of 
the names of the nobles of Maximilian’s court have been updated to their modern German 
versions. Additionally, all titles, where possible, will be rendered in their common English 
translations, as will place names. The German name ‘Friedrich’ is used when describing all 
people of that name except for Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, as this is how he is 
universally known in English scholarship. 
 
 
 
 
 




 
Introduction 
 
0.1 Research Aims 
We should then talk of another pursuit at which many men-at-
arms aim to make their reputation: that is at deeds of arms at 
tournaments. And indeed, they earn men praise and esteem for 
they require a great deal of wealth, equipment and expenditure, 
physical hardship, crushing and wounding, and sometimes danger 
of death. For this kind of practice of arms, there are some whose 
physical strength, skill, and agility enable them to perform so well 
that they achieve in this activity such great renown for their fine 
exploits; and because they often engage in it, their renown and 
their fame increases in their own territory and that of their 
neighbours; thus they want to continue this kind of pursuit of arms 
because of the success God has granted them in it. They content 
themselves with this particular practice of arms because of the 
acclaim they have already won and still expect to win from it. 
Indeed they are worthy of praise; nevertheless he who does more 
is of greater worth.
1
  
 
The medieval tournament and the mental images which it inspires – armoured knights on 
horseback, dramatically splintering lances, ladies bestowing favours from the sidelines – are 
central to the modern conception of the Middle Ages. It is a cultural touchstone, familiar to 
both its original audiences and its contemporary mytholigisers, and it encapsulates the often 
contradictory combination of lofty chivalric ideals and martial violence which helped to define 
the era. One figure who bridged the gap between the medieval and modern ideal of the 
tournament was Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519). Maximilian’s reputation, in 
his own lifetime and and beyond, was built in many ways around the tournament. The aim of 
this thesis is to examine the significance of the tournament during the lifetime of Maximilian I 
                                                 
1
 Geoffroi de Charny, The Book of Chivalry of Geoffroi de Charny: Text, Context, and Translation, ed. 
by Richard Kaeuper and Elspeth Kennedy (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), p. 48. 



 
and his reign as king of the Romans and, later, as Holy Roman emperor.
2
 It will analyse the 
tournament’s role in his court, its place in the representation of his rule, and its practical reality 
while also investigating the tournament as a form of entertainment, military display, and public 
promotion. The study of tournaments is a well-established field, and the life and political 
interests of Emperor Maximilian have also been examined in several different contexts. Yet, 
while many aspects of Maximilian’s reign have been comprehensively researched, little effort 
has been made to investigate the place of tournaments in his life and political career.  
 
In the above passage, the French knight and noted author on chivalry Geoffroi de 
Charny (c. 1300-1356) articulated both the risk and the appeal of the tournament which 
gripped men throughout the Middle Ages. At the tournament, men had the chance to win 
fame and renown, as well as financial rewards, while also immersing themselves in the chivalric 
ethos of the time.
3
 The tournament space, whether it was wide-ranging open fields or narrow, 
enclosed lists, was a distinct environment in which men could act out the motions of warfare 
without (normally) the consequences of it.  
 
In Maximilian’s Holy Roman Empire, the joust on horseback with lance as a 
competition of skill between two individuals had risen in prominence and popularity, as it had 
across much of Europe. However, the mêlée-style competition, known as a tourney in English, 
in which two groups of competitors fought against each other, either as individuals or in 
                                                 
2
 It should here be noted that this thesis will focus primarily on the joust and its role in 
Maximilian’s tournaments. Although Maximilian also participated in and promoted foot combat in the 
tournament, and passing reference to this form of combat will be included here, this is largely outside 
the scope of this thesis. The addition of the subject of Maximilian’s foot combats could easily supply 
enough material to double the size of the current study.  
3
 For more on the development of the tournament in medieval Germany and its transition from 
military practice to recreational pursuit, see Josef Fleckenstein, ‘Das Turnier als höfisches Fest im 
hochmittelalterlichen Deutschland’ in Das ritterliche Turnier im Mittelalter, ed. by Josef Fleckenstein 
(Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1986), pp. 229-56. 


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