The Lysts on the Lake 2013 competitive jousting tournament was held October 30 - November 1 in Cedar Park, Texas, USA. Nine jousters competed in jousting, mounted melee, mounted skill at arms and chivalry for the tournament championship. Jeffrey Basham of Texas won both the jousting and mounted skill at arms competitions as well as the tournament championship. Dave Wise, also of Texas, won the mounted melee competition, and Sarah Hay, who came all the way from Australia to compete, was chosen to receive the Award of Chivalry.
Jouster Jeffrey Basham on his jousting horse Pooh Bear at Lysts on the Lake 2013(photo by Zhi Zhu/The Jousting Life)
Josh Baker of AzulOx Visuals, who has been photographing the Lysts on the Lake jousting tournaments for several years, videotaped the tournament for the first time. It took a while to edit, but he released the finished video documentary of the tournament in May 2015. The documentary not only features video of the equestrian competitions, it also includes interviews with some of the jousters and ground crew involved in the tournament, as well as tournament organizer Steve Hemphill of a'Plaisance, Ltd.
Lysts on the Lake 2013 Documentary(video by AzulOx)
You can find out more about the Lysts on the Lake competitive jousting tournaments on the Lysts on the Lake website.
In what has become a much anticipated climax to the Sherwood Forest Faire season, instead of the usual jousting show, there will be a competitive jousting tournament on Saturday and Sunday, March 28 - 29, the final weekend of the 2015 faire.
Charlie Andrews(far left) and Mark Desmond(center) unhorse each other during the Mid-Faire Jousting Tournament at Sherwood Forest Faire 2015(photo by GRHook Photo)
George Appling, the owner of Sherwood Forest Faire(who also plays the part of King Richard the Lionhearted within the drama of the faire), first decided to hold a competitive jousting tournament the final weekend of the faire back in 2011.
"The Knights of Mayhem television show was being filmed in Sherwood Forest and everyone involved thought a tournament would be quite the fitting climax.... We had the Knights of Mayhem doing the joust every weekend at Sherwood Forest Faire 2011. A tournament with more knights seemed like an obvious closer to such a great season of jousting." -- George Appling
This will be the second competitive jousting tournament at Sherwood Forest during the 2015 season; a Mid-Faire Competitive Jousting Tournament was held February 28 - March 1, 2015. When asked why he decided to hold two competitive jousting tournaments this season, Mr. Appling replied:
"Two reasons really: First, we always have more jousters interested than we have time in a day. There were some jousters who wanted to qualify, so we wanted to create a qualifying competition. Second, we love the tournament and wanted to see it twice!"
A total of nine competitors from five different jousting organizations competed in the mid-faire tournament, and although two competitors were disqualified early on, it was nevertheless a spectacular event with several single unhorsings and two double unhorsings.
David Schade(left) breaks his lance against Robbie Hubbard(right) during the Mid-Faire Jousting Tournament at Sherwood Forest Faire 2015 (photo by GRHook Photo)
The Final Weekend Jousting Tournament should be equally spectacular since many of the same jousters will be returning to compete. Charlie Andrews, leader of the Knights of Mayhem, will again be competing, and his troupe member Brian Stephenson will be there for the first time this season. Other jousters who will be returning to compete include Eddie Rigney of the Knights of Valour, Dustin Stephens of the Knights of Four Winds, and Joshua Warren, of Sherwood Forest Faire's own Sherwood Knights Academy. David Schade will, of course, be returning to defend his title, while Samuel Keucker, another member of the New Riders of the Golden Age, will be competing at Sherwood Forest for the the first time this season. However, the final list of competitors is still subject to change.
2015 Sherwood Forest Faire Mid-Faire Jousting Tournament (video by Zhi Zhu/The Jousting Life)
If you are hungry either before or after the tournament, make a pilgrimage over to the Jerusalem Cafe (which is behind the water wheel next to the jousting arena) for some restaurant quality middle-eastern fare. I don't usually talk about faire food, but the chicken schawarma and hummus were so delicious, and the service so delightful, that I just had to share the news about this wonderful cafe.
Tournament organizer Steve Hemphill leads the charge of several of the jousters who competed in
the original Lysts on the Lake 2011 jousting tournament at Castleton (photo by AzulOx)
The Lysts on the Lake tournaments are open to all qualified equestrian competitors (check the Rules Page for details). Participants can choose to compete in either the overall tournament(which consists of three competitions: jousting, 'la Chasse' [a type of mounted skill at arms course] and mounted melee) or they may choose to compete in either or both of the la Chasse and mounted melee competitions.
There will also be two foot combat competitions. There will be a Deed of Arms consisting of combat with the knightly weapons of sword, axe and spear in accordance with the rules of the Dekovan Concord, and a Blossfechten Tournament which recreates the medieval judicial duel where two opponents fight with matching weapons.
Anyone who does not wish to compete, but who would like to participate in other ways, can register to volunteer as ground crew.
This year's Lysts on the Lake will be held April 24 - 26, 2015, in Austin, Texas, USA, and this year the event will return to the site where it first took place in 2011, the lovely lands of Castleton.
Lysts on the Lake 2015 Returns (video by a'Plaisance)
You can learn more about the Lysts on the Lakes competitive jousting tournaments by checking out the Lysts on the Lake Facebook page.
For the past several years, Sherwood Forest Faire in Paige, Texas, USA, has substituted an actual competitive jousting tournament in place of their usual jousting show during the last weekend of the faire. However this year, Sherwood Forest Faire is hosting two competitive jousting tournaments during its run, one during the fourth weekend(mid-faire) and one during the eighth and final weekend.
David Schade jousts Robbie Hubbard during the mid-faire jousting tournament at
Sherwood Forest Faire 2015 (photo by GRHook Photo)
Sherwood's Mid-faire Jousting Tournament was held this past weekend, February 28 - March 1. Eight competitors from five different jousting organizations took to the list field, and after two days of competition, David Schade, leader of the New Riders of the Golden Age, was the winner of the tournament. David rode the jousting horse Abraham, a six year old Percheron gelding, throughout the tournament.
David Schade on the jousting horse Abraham, Tournament Winners, Mid-faire Jousting Tournament at Sherwood Forest Faire 2015 (photo by GRHook Photo)
The tournament consisted of six sessions of jousting: a qualifying session(noon Saturday), four sessions of jousting competition(Saturday, 2pm & 4pm and Sunday, Noon & 2pm), and a Finals session(Sunday, 4pm). The qualifying session was used to examine the horsemanship, jousting skill and general safety of those wishing to compete in the tournament. The sessions of jousting competition included three to four matches between pairs of qualified competitors. The Finals session was to feature the top two jousters from the previous four competitive sessions in an extended final match to determine the tournament winner.
Points within each match were awarded in the following fashion: a solid hit against a legal target(above the waist, below the head) earned 1 point, a lance broken against a legal target earned 5 points, and unhorsing your opponent by striking him in a legal target area earned 10 points. The jouster with the highest number of points after four passes won the match. If the points were tied after four passes, additional passes were run until there was a winner.
Once each match was over, the points earned during the match were irrelevant, and only the number of matches won was used to determine the ranking of the jousters.
The list of jousters who competed in Sherwood's Mid-faire Jousting Tournament included:
From the New Riders of the Golden Age (the home team):
David Schade, leader of the troupe, colors red & gold, stage name "Sir William"
Mark Desmond, colors blue, black & silver, stage name "Sir Marcus"
Harry Bouchard, colors red, green & silver, stage name "Sir Henry Darling"
Left: Mark Desmond on the Brabant mare jousting horse Daisy (photo by GRHook Photo)
Right: Harry Bouchard on the Percheron gelding jousting horse Marcus (photo by GRHook Photo)
From the Knights of Mayhem:
Charlie Andrews, leader of the troupe, sporting yellow feathers on his helm, stage name "Prince Kyllem Awl"
Robbie Hubbard, sporting various borrowed colors, stage name "Sir Michael"
Left: Robbie Hubbard on the Percheron jousting horse Arthur (photo by GRHook Photo)
Right: Charlie Andrews on the Belgian jousting horse Jaegermeister (photo by GRHook Photo)
From the faire's own Sherwood Knights Academy:
Joshua Warren, colors red, black & white, stage name "Lord Arcadia"
Joshua Warren on the Percheron jousting horse Mercy (photo by GRHook Photo)
From the Knights of Valour:
Eddie Rigney, colors pink & white, nickname "The Hitman"
Eddie Rigney on the Percheron jousting horse Skull Crusher
(photo by The Jousting Life)
Dustin Stephens on the Belgian jousting horse Sampson
(photo by GRHook Photo)
Although many of the jousters used stage names during the tournament, the competition was real.
Unfortunately, the Four Winds jouster Dustin Stephens was disqualified during the first day of competition for being unable to get the horse he was riding to consistently canter the length of the tilt. Horses do have minds of their own and can sometimes decide that they just don't feel like jousting at the moment.
The remaining jousters gave the audience quite a few thrills and spills throughout the tournament. On the first day of competition, Mark Desmond and Charlie Andrews managed to unhorse each another, not once, but twice. During their first match together, they were both competing for ranking points, and in their second pass, they had a dramatic double unhorsing. (Both the first and second pass are shown in the video below)
Jousting - 1st Session, Double Unhorsing, Mark Desmond & Charlie Andrews, Sherwood Forest Faire (video by The Jousting Life)
After they came off their horses, both jousters still had one foot caught in the stirrup, as you can see in the still photo below:
Mark Desmond(left) and Charlie Andrews(right) with their feet caught in their stirrups
(photo by Pamela Morgan Photography)
If you watch the video closely, you can see that Charlie was actually dragged along the ground by his horse Jaegermeister, which, according to Charlie, was absolutely terrifying. For a few seconds, he seriously thought he was going to die. Fortunately, Jaegermeister was stopped fairly quickly, and neither Charlie nor Mark was seriously hurt. Both were ready to continue jousting within a couple of minutes, and after completing their fourth pass, Charlie had won the match.
When they faced each other again during the next session of jousting, only Mark was competing for ranking points. Charlie had enthusiastically agreed to take the place of disqualified jouster Dustin Stephens in order for Mark to have someone to joust against. During the fourth pass of the match, Charlie and Mark again unhorsed one another. There is video of the second double unhorsing on The Jousting Life's YouTube channel. However, photographer Gary R. Hook of GRHook Photo was kind enough to share this spectacular sequence of photos documenting the pair's second double unhorsing. (Click on the thumbnails to enlarge.)
This time, since Mark was in the lead coming into the fourth pass, he was the winner of the match.
Mark Desmond on the jousting horse Daisy (photo by GRHook Photo)
There were also several single unhorsings during the tournament. Sherwood's own Joshua Warren was unhorsed by Charlie Andrews late in the first day, and then again by David Schade early in the second day of competition. In the video below, you can see that Joshua was having trouble with his horse and had swung his lance far to the side. However David could not see that Joshua was having trouble and hit him solidly in the grand guard, unhorsing him.
Jousting - 3rd Session, 1st Match, David Schade unhorses Joshua Warren at Sherwood Forest Faire 2015 (video by The Jousting Life)
It is an accepted practice that a jouster can swing his lance far off target to indicate that he is having trouble and is asking for a mercy pass (i.e. not to be hit). However, it is understood that due to the extremely limited visibility through a jousting helm, the opposing jouster cannot always see that the first jouster has asked for a mercy pass. Therefore it is also understood that asking for a mercy pass does not always mean that you will receive it. Just one of the reasons that, despite taking every reasonable precaution, jousting is still a dangerous sport.
After the second unhorsing, during which he landed badly on his face, Joshua chose to withdraw from the competition due to injury.
The second day of joust competition saw Harry Bouchard unhorsed three times during the same session. He was unhorsed twice by Charlie Andrews during the four passes of their match, and was later unhorsed a third time during his match against Robbie Hubbard. When asked how he felt about being unhorsed three times, Harry responded:
"I don't mind at all. I will eat as much dirt as it takes until I get better."
His persistence paid off. In the next session of jousting, Harry managed to win his match against Eddie Rigney.
Harry Bouchard unhorsed, 2015 Sherwood Forest Faire Jousting Tournament 1
(video by The Jousting Life)
Going into the Finals, David Schade was clearly the top competitor so far, having won all of his matches. However, who the second jouster in the finals should be was not clear. Mark Desmond and Charlie Andrews had earned the same number of ranking points, both having won all but one of their matches. Therefore, it was decided to hold two matches during the Finals. The first match would consist of four passes between Mark and Charlie to see which of them could earn the right to face David in the final extended match(six passes) which would determine the tournament winner.
During the first pass of the first match, Charlie managed to unhorse Mark, putting Charlie in the lead, both in terms of the match and in terms of unhorsings between the two of them. Although Mark managed to resist another near unhorsing during their second pass and to break his lance against Charlie during the fourth pass, it was not enough to overcome Charlie's initial lead. Charlie won the match, putting Mark in third place, and earning Charlie the right to face David Schade in the final match.
Jousting - Finals, Mark Desmond unhorsed by Charlie Andrews, 1st Pass, Sherwood Forest Faire
(video by The Jousting Life)
Charlie and David had actually faced each other once before during the tournament, and David had won that match 16 to 12. The weather, which had been freezing cold all day, turned wet during the Finals, when rain began to fall. The conditions were truly miserable. However, both jousters were still eager to try their mettle against one another one last time. And after six cold, wet passes, and with a score of 18 - 13, David Schade won the match, and by doing so, won the tournament – much to his surprise.
Jousting - Finals, David Schade & Charlie Andrews, 6th Pass, Sherwood Forest Faire
(video by The Jousting Life)
Jouster and tournament organizer Steve Hemphill is best known for the series of Lysts on the Lake competitive jousting tournaments that his company a'Plaisance organizes. However, he also is an experienced video producer and has recently published a new video that attempts to answer the question,"What is Jousting?"
Steve Hemphill on his jousting horse Tinkerbell during the first Lysts on the Lake competitive jousting tournament in 2011 (photo by Christopher Vaughn Strever)
For the past several years, during the last weekend of the eight weekend long event, Sherwood Forest Faire has replaced their usual jousting show (performed by the New Riders of the Golden Age) with an actual competitive jousting tournament. This year, two of the eight weekends will include competitive jousting tournaments as part of the entertainment.
Jousters Eddie Rigney and James Johnson unhorse each other during the Sherwood Jousting Tournament 2014 (photo by The Jousting Life)
The first competitive joust will take place during the 4th weekend of the faire, February 28 - March 1, and the season finale Sherwood Forest Faire Jousting Tournament will take place, as usual, on the last weekend of the faire, March 28 - 29. Last year's tournament was won by the leader of the New Riders of the Golden Age, David Schade. It will be exciting to see who wins this year's tournaments.
David Schade unhorses Joshua Warren during the Sherwood Jousting Tournament 2014 (video by The Jousting Life)
This year's competitions will again include jousters from David Schade's New Riders of the Golden Age (the faire's home troupe) as well as jousters from Charlie Andrews' jousting troupe, Knights of Mayhem. You may remember Charlie and his troupe from the National Geographic tv series Knights of Mayhem.
Charlie Andrews(left) and David Schade(right) break their lances against one another during the final match at the Sherwood Jousting Tournament 2014 (video by The Jousting Life)
In addition, there will be several free-lance jousters – jousters unaffiliated with a specific troupe – participating in the competition, including Joshua Warren who teaches at the faire's own Sherwood Knights Academy.
Dr. Tobias Capwell BA MA MA PhD FSA, known to his friends and fellow jousters simply as Toby, was the Overall Champion of this year's Tournament of the Phoenix.
Toby Capwell, Tournament Champion, on the Azteca horse, Lucas, who carried Toby throughout the tournament, Tournament of the Phoenix 2014 (photo by Clarence Alford Photography)
This year's tournament was held the weekend of October 17 - 19, in Poway, California, USA, and involved not only a jousting competition, but also mounted melee and poleaxe competitions, as well as an award for the most chivalrous. There were a total of six jousters from five different countries who competed:
Alix van Zijl of the Netherlands
Darth Rimmer of the USA
Dmitry Savchenko of Russia (received the Chivalry Prize)
Jeffrey Hedgecock of the USA
Luc Petillot of France
Toby Capwell of the UK
Left to right: Alix van Zijl, Luc Petillot, Darth Rimmer, Toby Capwell, Dmitry Savchenko and Jeffrey Hedgecock (photo from Tournament of the Phoenix)
There was also a separate competition in mounted skill at arms which was won by Chris Godby.
Chris Godby, riding the Azteca horse Lucas, winner of the MSA competition, Tournament of the Phoenix 2014 (photo by J. Camacho Photography)
The world’s only jousting curator, Toby has been competing in tournaments all over the world for twenty years. Building and fighting in armour have fundamentally informed his scholarly approach to an intensely physical subject, allowing him to experience it in ways that would be impossible otherwise.
Toby approaches his subject in a passionate and unique way, offering personal and original insights into weapons, armour, horses, chivalric combat, and their deeper significance for the people who lived in the Middle Ages.
Toby Capwell explains his passion for jousting in a video created for the Grand Tournament of Schaffhausen (video by Ritterturnier Schaffhausen)
Toby graciously agreed to answer some questions about winning the Tournament of the Phoenix and his other jousting experiences.
Congratulations on winning the Tournament of the Phoenix 2014!
Thanks!
How did you become involved with the Tournament of the Phoenix, and how long have you been competing in it?
I’ve known the event producers for a long time – Jeff and Gwen first started coming to the tournaments at the Royal Armouries in Leeds about ten years ago. Jeff and I formed a team with two other friends a bit later on. It all kind of went from there. I first fought at the Phoenix in 2008, and then have gone every other year since, again in 2010, 2012, and 2014.
Please describe one of your favorite moments during the tournament.
It’s funny, this time around it was small, perhaps slightly inconsequential things that made an impression on me. There was a moment during a pass run by Luc Petillot against someone else – can’t remember who – when Luc’s lance was knocked out of his hand by the force of his strike. The lance somehow bounced across his body and started to fall down between his horse’s near side and the tilt. Automatically, without looking or seeing, Luc reached down with his right hand across his body, still at a fast gallop, and retrieved it.
I was right at the end of the tilt and saw the whole thing perfectly. I was really impressed, because it showed not only skill, but also concern for the safety of the people around him. The historical jousting treatises say that the lance (or whatever is left of it) should never be thrown down after an encounter. The jouster should always hold on to it until it can be safely taken from him. Luc just showed in that moment that he was a real jouster with good awareness and the right attitude.
Luc Petillot(left) shakes hands with Toby Capwell(right), Tournament of the Phoenix 2014
(photo by J. Camacho Photography)
What is your favorite memory from any of your previous jousting experiences?
No question about it, when my 3-year-old son showed up unexpectedly in Switzerland this year, to see me joust in Schaffhausen. Seeing him peering over the grandstand railing was incredibly moving. He looked at me across the field, and I looked at him, I raised my hand, and he lit up and waved back. Magical.
Of course his favourite jouster now is Alix [van Zijl], not me. Understandable, I suppose.
How did you become involved with jousting?
Matthew Mansour gave me a job jousting for him back in 1993… I jousted in the USA for a couple years, then ended up in the UK, jousting at the Royal Armouries from 1996 onwards.
Toby Capwell(left) is featured with Matthew Mansour(right) on the cover of the
May 1995 Renaissance Herald (photo provided by The Jousters)
What aspect of learning to joust did you find most difficult?
Riding. It’s all about the riding. The rest is easy.
What accomplishment within the field of jousting are you most proud of?
Staying on. Most of the time.
Toby Capwell(left) unhorses himself when he strikes Luc Petillot(right) who is rocked back, but manages to stay on, Tournament of the Phoenix 2014 (photo by Dwain Linden Photography)
What other equestrian activities do you participate in?
Sadly, I’m not very active as a rider at the moment. I don’t have the time. I’m sure that will change, but not right now. I’ve played a bit of polo, but I’ve never been able to get excited about ball games. My good friend Mike Loades recently founded a mounted archery club in Petaluma, California (strangely, where I was born). I’d love to get into that.
Please tell us about the horse that you rode during the Tournament of the Phoenix.
In all my Phoenix appearances, I’ve been partnered up with Lucas, a little rocket-powered Azteca. He’s great, in every way. He won the tournament this year as much as me. In fact, he also won the mounted skill at arms competition with a different rider. He’s utterly wonderful to ride, and is actually one of those really rare horses who does both joust and tourney very well. Often the different nature of the two disciplines means that a horse is good at one or the other, but not both. Lucas does it all, with great spirit.
Azteca horse Lucas asserts that he deserves some of the prize flowers
that Toby Capwell is holding (photo by Michael Lozich)
When you were previously interviewed after the Grand Tournament of Sankt Wendel in 2012, you mentioned that the armour you were wearing for that tournament was based on pictorial sources from the Inventario Iluminado of Charles V. Are you still using that armour? If so please tell us more about it. If not, please describe your current jousting armour.
No, the Sankt Wendel armour was a special project. I wanted to get some kind of understanding of how those heavier jousting armours work and feel. It was an interesting project, and I’m glad I did it, but there isn’t much opportunity to use it. Only one other of my pals has one. At Sankt Wendel, he wore his and I wore mine, but the rest of the participants wore field armour with jousting helms. I don’t really like mixing armour styles. Historically, jousters tended to be very concerned about everyone having the same style of kit – the right armour for the right style of joust.
This year I have been jousting in my Italian field armour, which in style dates from c. 1465. It was made by Per Lillelund-Jensen and Jeff Wasson, with my armet by Robert Macpherson. I quite like having different parts by different craftsmen. That’s usually how it was done historically. The few homogeneous armours which survive, like the ‘Avant’ armour in the collections of Glasgow Museums, have the marks of different makers all over them. One master would oversee the making of a good armour, but the individual pieces were usually made by different specialists working under him, and they all had their own marks.
Left: Toby Capwell in his Italian field armour, c. 1465
Right: Toby Capwell's armet (photos by J Camacho Photography)
A side view of Toby Capwell's very shiny armet. Notice the reflections? You can also see a maker's mark on his pauldron(shoulder armour) (photo by J. Camacho Photography)
What other styles of armour have you used for jousting in the past? What other styles would you like to try?
Well, my Italian armour has had a few different incarnations, then there was the English armour, and before that a few different German ones…. Basically it's all been mid-late fifteenth century field armour of one sort or another, with the exception of the Anglo-Flemish jousting armour mentioned above. I would have liked to have tried something late fourteenth or early fifteenth century, but I guess my really big last remaining armour dream project would be Elizabethan. I’d love to do a c. 1570s-80s English royal joust in a Greenwich garniture. But it’ll never happen. Too expensive. Because what would be the point of a Greenwich armour without all the etched and gilded decoration? And you need at least two to play…
Although your armour has changed several times, the design of your heraldic coat-of-arms has remained the same. How did you come up with that design?
Armour can change, but arms should never change. They are your visual name. I chose mine when I first needed them, when I started jousting at the Royal Armouries in the mid-90s. Heraldry is a complex subject, and often misunderstood. It is a visual language. Like a written language, it has rules. These rules need to be followed for it to work and to look right.
Heraldry is a complex subject, and often misunderstood. It is a visual language. Like a written language, it has rules. These rules need to be followed for it to work and to look right.
I not only wanted my arms to work, I wanted them to look medieval. Medieval heraldry looks different than 17th-century heraldry, which is different than modern heraldry. So I basically just looked through a lot of real fifteenth century armorials – basically lists of hundreds of medieval knights with each coat-of-arms illustrated – until I saw an overall design which seemed to jump off the page. Then I just changed the colours, so I wasn’t claiming to be that person. The original is argent, three chevronels interlaced and a crescent sable, and mine is sable, three chevronels interlaced and a crescent or. The original belonged to Sir Robert Brackenbury, Constable of the Tower under King Richard III.
Toby Capwell and his squire, Lonnie Colson, who is wearing a surcoat and holding a banner displaying Toby's heraldic arms (photo by Clarence Alford Photography)
I wish heraldry was better understood and appreciated in the jousting community. It really is as simple as knowing how to say your own name in visual terms. It isn’t really a license to just make up whatever you want. If a coat-of-arms looks obviously modern, if it doesn’t have an authentic feel, it kind of blows the whole show for everyone.
Coats-of-arms also have specific uses. Personal coats of arms were rarely worn in jousts for example. In a joust, everyone already knows who you are, and in one-on-one contests, identification isn’t that complicated. Personal identification is obviously much more important in the tourney, and on the battlefield.
It’s also really important to understand the distinction between heraldic and non-heraldic display. Richard III never wore the white boar badge personally. The white boar, just as an example, is not a heraldic device – it is a livery badge. It was a way of expressing loyalty to someone else, not personal identity. Richard’s personal coat-of-arms as King was the royal arms – the lilies and leopards of the King of England.
Despite all of that, I had intended to wear all my own personal heraldry at the Phoenix this year. But I couldn’t get my personal shield into my luggage and keep within the weight limits. So I started the event with my team shield (red with silver crescents; non-heraldic, expressing team loyalty).
Toby Capwell wearing his team shield (photo by Dwain Linden)
Then that was destroyed by Dmitry [Savchenko] on the first day. Jeff [Hedgecock] then kindly lent me one of his, which was emblazoned with the gold escarbuncle, a badge used by the original historical Order of the Crescent, and also by our modern jousting team of the same name, which takes its themes and inspiration from the historical order. The escarbuncle is in this context a non-heraldic image closely associated with St Maurice, patron saint of the historical order. So I ended up, correctly, using a non-heraldic shield in the joust, despite my contrary intentions.
Luc Petillot(left) jousts Toby Capwell(right) who is wearing the gold escarbuncle shield (photo by J. Camacho Photography)
What are your degrees in, and how does your academic experience influence your jousting? Or vice versa?
I have a BA (history and English literature); two MAs (Art Gallery and Museum Studies; Medieval Studies) and a PhD (Medieval Studies). Certainly my academic experience has equipped me to do better historical research than I would have known how to do otherwise, and this has meant I’ve been in a better position to research armour, saddles, horses, lance technique, heraldry… all the stuff that is essential to good jousting. I’ve also tried to help provide research material and ideas to other jousters who don’t have the advantage of a full-time job researching this sort of thing.
Toby Capwell talks about how his experiences with the Royal Armouries inspired his academic career (video from Creative Spaces)
Please tell us about your work as Curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection and how it relates to your jousting.
At the Wallace Collection I am responsible for arms and armour- European, Islamic, Indian, and South Asian. It is around 44% of the total museum holdings. I write books about the collection, do talks and lectures, publish articles, answer inquiries, manage volunteers and interns, and am project leader on the museum’s Islamic, Indian and South Asian arms and armour cataloging project. Plenty to do! We have some nice jousting pieces in the collection, including a Stechzeug from the Nuremberg Gesellenstechen series and three Anton Peffenhauserjousting armours dating from the late sixteenth century.
Just that it was one of the best organised events I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending. Everyone was on the same page. Everyone had a shared vision for what it should be. Everyone wore clothing and equipment of the same period and quality, everyone was united, paying attention, and having a great time. Also, vitally, everyone was really well taken care of. Good accommodation, good food, good beer. Lots of concern for safety and well-being. Physiotherapy! This often gets forgotten about, which is crazy, given what we are trying to do.
I just really enjoyed it. Often I’ve been so into the intricacies of research and preparation that I’ve forgotten to enjoy myself, or have not been able to for whatever reason. But this one was really special. And it would have been, even if I had ended up at the bottom of the scoreboard instead of at the top. Everybody got it. It clicked. That’s really hard to achieve.
Ultimately real historical tournaments were supposed to be great social occasions, of celebration and spectacle. This time it happened like that.
Well, to be a dad/husband, a curator, and an author. In that order. Beyond my work at the museum, the first book in what I hope will be a three-volume trilogy (watch out Peter Jackson, I’m catching up!) publishing, finally, my research on armour in England, will be coming out next year, but there is a shed-load of work over the next three months that needs to be done to make it happen. I’m on it. I think.
Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck in the future.
Toby Capwell unhorses Darth Rimmer, Phoenix 2014(photo by Marina Savchenko)
Left: Toby Capwell and the horse Switch, Royal Armouries Leeds 2005 (photo from Order of the Crescent) Right: Toby Capwell waves to the crowd, Tournament of the Phoenix 2014 (photo by J. Camacho Photography)
Toby Capwell(left) and Jeffrey Hedgecock(right) both break lances against one another, Phoenix 2014 (photo by J. Camacho Photography)
Top left: Toby Capwell(far right) during a mounted melee, Phoenix 2014 Bottom right: Toby Capwell(left) and Dmitry Savchenko(right) exchange glances during a mounted melee, Phoenix 2014 (photos by Marina Savchenko)
Toby Capwell(left) fights Alix van Zilj(right) in the poleaxe competition, Phoenix 2014 (photo by Clarence Alford Photography)
Top left: Steve Mallet, Toby Capwell and Jeffrey Hedgecock, 2005 (photo from Order of the Crescent) Bottom right: Bill Burch, Matthew Mansour, Toby Capwell, 1993(photo from The Jousters)
Toby Capwell(left) jousts Darth Rimmer(right), Phoenix 2014 (photo by J. Camacho Photography)
