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

 
 
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brother, the King your master, which by word doth call me father; and I do call him son, 
which I do take right gladly upon me’.
8
 This father/son-style relationship, as it is presented 
here, also manifested itself in several gift exchanges in the form of armour. In 1514 Maximilian 
gifted to Henry a suit of armour which included a highly unique horned parade helmet made 
by his favoured armourer Konrad Seusenhofer.
9
 In addition, Maximilian also gifted Henry the 
so-called Burgundian bard (c. 1510), a luxurious horse armour decorated with pomegranates, a 
personal symbol of both Maximilian and Henry’s first wife, Katherine of Aragon.
10
 These two 
rulers seemed to have had a shared interest in chivalric culture as represented by fine suits of 
armour and spectacular tournaments. In Henry’s own tournaments, as commemorated in the 
Westminster Tournament Roll (1511), or even the Field of Cloth of Gold (1520) – possibly the 
most famous tournament of all time – we may see a reflection of the pageantry of Maximilian’s 
own court. 
 
In such ways Maximilian’s influence on the tournament continued to be felt directly 
after his lifetime. As the tournament, and specifically the joust, continued to evolve and 
became even less viable as a form of either military training or entertainment, gradually being 
replaced by more pacific events like running at the ring or formal carousels, Maximilian still 
made his impact felt, even after his death.
11
 The Hans Burgkmair tournament images originally 
presented in the Triumphzug, in particular, were re-issued in various forms and editions in the 
                                                 
8
 Wingfield, quoted in Chisholm, ‘Robert Wingfield: English Ambassador to the Holy Roman 
Empire (1510-1517)’, p. 75. 
9
 Leeds, UK, Royal Armouries, Object Number IV.22. 
10
 Leeds, UK, Royal Armouries, Object Number VI.6.  
11
 An example of how the German tournament evolved and its gradual transition in emphasis to 
more benign forms of competition, particularly tilting at the ring, can be seen in Georg Rodolf 
Weckherlin, Triumphall shevvs set forth lately at Stutgart. Written first in German, and now in English by G. Rodolfe 
Weckherlin, secretarie to the Duke of Wirtemberg (Stuttgart: John-Wyrich Resslin, 1616), Early English Books 
Online: from a copy in the British Library, London. 

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decades after Maximilian’s death. His effort to properly define and categorise forms of the 
German joust evidently had a wide-ranging appeal. A variation on these unmistakable images 
are also included in a fighting manual, De Arte Athletica, by the Augsburg aristocrat Paulus 
Hector Mair (1517-1579). This two volume manuscript (c. 1540s) includes treatises on an 
abundance of forms of combat, including fencing, wrestling, and fighting with staff weapons. 
It also features an extensive section on the German tournament dedicated ad aeternam memoriam 
divi Maximiliani Romanorum Imperatoris, Casaris, et Augsusti.
12
 In this work, Maximilian is directly 
credited with establishing the glory of the German tournament; his name has become linked 
with the pastime. 
 
The same phenomenon can be seen in the introductory plate to a mid-seventeenth 
century partial edition of the Triumphzug, which reads, ‘Hereafter are following, dedicated to 
the Most Worshipful memory of the late Most Illustrious and Great Mightiest Prince and 
Lord, Maximilian First of his Name, Holy Roman Emperor, etc, sundry knightly games that 
were in part invented and regulated by His Majesty himself and every so often made use of by 
His Majesty for pastime and entertainment.’
13
 Over a century after his death Maximilian’s 
reputation as lover of, participant in, and designer of the tournament was firmly set in place; 
here he is directly credited with ‘inventing’ and ‘regulating’ the tournament. In the Triumphzug 
Maximilian had found a way to guarantee his legacy and to share with future generations those 
things of which he was most proud, and being an architect of the tournament was key among 
these.
                                                 
12
 Munich, BSB, Cod.icon. 393(2, De arte athletica II, plate 194. 
13
 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 22.229, Album of Tournaments and Parades in 
Nuremberg, plate 3. 

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And indeed, in the centuries after his death, just as he desired, Maximilian was 
remarkably successful in his efforts to place tournaments at the heart of his legacy. This is 
exemplified in some particularly interesting ways, of which his encounter with Claude de 
Vauldrey in Worms in 1495 is a good case study. This famed encounter transformed into 
almost a legend as the story passed down and grew over the years. One rather romantic 
account of it found its way into the nineteenth-century work, Memoirs of the Court, Aristocracy, 
and Diplomacy of Austria, by Carl Eduard Vehse, who claimed:  
When he [Maximilian] held the first Diet at Worms, the French 
knight Claude de Barre, a man of gigantic strength, hung out his 
shield from the window of his inn, challenging all the Germans to 
single combat. Maximilian then had the arms of Austria and 
Burgundy hung by the side of the shield of the Frenchman, whom 
he conquered with the sword, after the lances of both had glanced 
from the cuirasses.
1
  
 
This account, although far from factually accurate, shows the impression the encounter 
between these two famous knights – one of an older and one of a younger generation – made 
upon the German people and how it passed down through the centuries, adding to 
Maximilian’s chivalrous image – that of ‘the Last Knight’.  
 
In the same vein, a series of prints published in 1824 claimed to depict the tournament 
at Worms. This sensational and highly romanticised series of images bears no resemblance to 
historical reality. The introduction falsely claims that the imperial diet took place in 1487, and 
that there, in fact, Maximilian held the last ever German tournament.
2
 The accompanying 
images show men in anachronistic armour, including winged and horned helmets most 
                                                 
1
 Carl Eduard Vehse, Memoirs of the Court, Aristocracy, and Diplomacy of Austria, trans. by Franz 
Demmler (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1856), vol. 1, p. 8. 
2
 Das Turnier zu Worms in plastischer Aufstellung mit Figuren, Versetzstücken und Oertlichkeiten in kleinen 
und grossen Cartons (Vienna: M. Trentsensky, c. 1824), p. 6. 

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