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

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teams, was still popular in several forms.
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 Yet this form undeniably lacked the glamour and 
prestige that came with the joust, as the joust allowed two individual competitors to show off 
their martial skills in a one-on-one setting rather than getting lost in the crowd of a tourney. In 
the medieval German-speaking territories, different forms of the joust, itself just one possible 
style of competition found at a tournament, were given specific names, and each had their own 
rules and their own style of armour. The joust itself existed in two main forms: the Gestech and 
the Rennen.
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An insight into the world of the German tournament at the time of Maximilian may be 
gained through an understanding of its ideal and its practical reality, as this thesis will explore. 
During this time, for example, there was ‘a considerable overlap between concepts of chivalry 
in peace and war’, and the tournament was where one could attain reputation and honour 
outside the battlefield. Success when linked with gentlemanly conduct brought respect, and 
Larry Silver points out that, in the literature that remains detailing Maximilian’s exploits, 
military victory often overlapped with tournament victory in this respect (i.e. victory in one 
arena was as worthy of renown as victory in the other).
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 Beyond literature, this attitude further 
carried over into the realm of arms and armour, which were produced in plenty for 
Maximilian, and were sometimes made to be interchangeable between tournament and 
                                                 
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 For the purposes of this thesis, I shall refer to the group competitions on horseback as 
‘tourneys’ (plural), or ‘tourney’ (singular). Mêlée, being a French term, was never used by any German 
sources contemporary to Maximilian to describe group combat at a tournament. Rather, some form of 
the noun Turnier was most frequently used (often in a compound form). Although the most common 
English translation of this word is ‘tournament’, Stanley Appelbaum, in his edition of the Triumphzug, 
uses ‘tourneyers’ to describe the knights depicted as taking part in group combat, and I believe this is 
the most useful translation: The Triumph of Maximilian: 137 Woodcuts by Hans Burgkmair and Others, ed. and 
trans. by Stanley Applebaum (New York: Dover Publications, 1964), p. 7. 
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 Each of these three broad forms of tournament competition – the tourney, the Gestech, and the 
Rennen – and their various sub-forms, will be considered in-depth in Chapter 3. 
6
 Larry Silver, Marketing Maximilian: The Visual Ideology of a Holy Roman Emperor, pp. 147-58 (p. 
147). Silver further adds that, ‘The interplay between serious play within tournaments and life-and-
death combats in battle thus renders the value of jousting […] more essential’ (p. 148). 

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battlefield, but more and more were designed exclusively for the joust. When not at war, after 
all, tournaments were (along with hunting) Maximilian’s chief leisure activity. Given this close 
connection Maximilian had to tournaments in both his daily life and his literary activity, it is 
perhaps little surprise that the Rennen and the Gestech which emerged in Germany should be 
worthy of closer investigation.
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Thus Maximilian found himself at this interesting crossroads of the tournament, and 
those with which he was involved, as will be shown, perfectly demonstrate this. In many ways, 
his tournaments embody the most lavish forms of spectacle which could be found in such late 
medieval events. The influence of Burgundy, in particular, may clearly be seen in these 
elements – a theme which will be explored. Yet Maximilian’s tournaments managed to do this 
while retaining some of the intensity and violence of the competitions of earlier centuries. 
Certainly, with regard to the above de Charny quote, Maximilian could safely be called ‘he who 
does more’.  
The present study will fill in a critical research gap regarding Maximilian’s lifetime and 
the study of tournaments by exploring the ways in which he used the tournament in his own 
court, where it held as much weight as any of his other political and cultural achievements. It is 
meant to show how often Maximilian, even as one of the most powerful rulers of Europe, 
risked his safety participating in such events – and he did suffer injuries – and his noted skill in 
doing so; to show the role he also might play as a spectator and how he utilised the 
tournament as not just a festive occasion but a political tool; to give an idea of the most 
common reasons for which and times of year at which Maximilian would hold tournaments, as 
                                                 
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 Of course, at this time, Germany did not exist as a country. For the purposes of this thesis, 
however, ‘German’ may be used as an adjective to describe the tournament customs and regulations 
unique to Maximilian’s court as a way to denote its cultural distinctness.  

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well as illustrate their frequency; to shed light on some of the technical details involved in such 
occasions and emphasise some of those who competed alongside Maximilian; finally, to 
highlight the other elements which came alongside a tournament and the events which most 
often accompanied them. 
 
0.2 Historiography 
Both the study of Maximilian I and of medieval tournaments are ones which have been 
conducted in various and thorough ways by numerous scholars over the years, yet the two 
have never been sufficiently brought together. Indeed, as will be discussed, Maximilian’s reign 
and court culture has been analysed through several different lenses, yet a comprehensive study 
of the tournaments of his court has not been conducted. The tournament is often mentioned – 
or plays a small role – in studies of Maximilian, but it has not received the full attention which 
it deserves. Not only does an examination of the tournament and Maximilian add substantially 
to our understanding of Maximilian as a ruler, but, at the same time, it also contributes greatly 
to overall scholarship on the medieval tournament. 
 
When it comes to Maximilian, this late medieval ruler has, comparared to some of his 
contemporaries, been the subject of relatively few straightforward biographies. Instead, 
scholars have often preferred to focus on one aspect of his reign or to study another cultural 
phenomenon as it was reflected by Maximilian. The most comprehensive biography of the 
emperor is undoubtedly Hermann Wiesflecker’s five-volume opus, which covers the entirety of 
Maximilian’s life in great detail.
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 An earlier, nineteenth century biography by Heinrich Ulmann, 
                                                 
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 Hermann Wiesflecker, Kaiser Maximilian I.: Das Reich, Österreich und Europa an der Wende zur 
Neuzeit, 5 vols (Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 1971-1986). A later work by Wiesflecker, Maximilian I.: Die 
Fundamente des habsburgischen Weltreiches (Vienna: Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, 1991), presents 
essentially the same biographical information but condensed into a single volume. 

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