Armoured Joust

1. Our most popular Tournament

The Knights of Royal England are well known for presenting our most popular jousting tournament which recreates a late 13th century joust.

The real Mediaeval Tourney in this period may have lasted 3-4 days. In the timescales afforded to us when we recreate this spectacle for you, we are able to pick out the highlights, the action bits, the crashes, the spectacle of the wonderful horses striking out at full gallop and the excitement and the drama without losing any of the pomp and pagaentry. During each day of our Tourney we condense all this into two action packed 45 minute tournaments.

Fantastic fun and enjoyment for all the family.

2. An authentic 16th century joust

The Knights of Royal England were commissioned by Historic Scotland to recreate an authentic mediaeval joust to commemorate the marriage of James IV (King of Scotland) and Margaret Tudor (Henry VIII's older sister) in 1503 at Linlithgow Palace.

Eight fully armoured knights took to the field in the authentic colours of the original knights of 1503, this followed on from intensive research and a remake of most of our props and equipment to ensure we were as accurate as possible in our portrayal of the event. Under the watchful eye of the historians at Historic Scotland and in the presence of the Scottish First Minister the Rt Hon Alex Salmond MSP the tournament began.

What was different from our usual jousting tournament was the pace and pageantry of the event. The spectacle was incredible, 8 knights in full combat on horseback, in full armour, the squires and knight marshalls on the ground were put under intense pressure to ensure their knights were fit and ready to compete in every part of the competition.

The competition was un-choreographed and unplanned, challenges rang out across the field of Tourney and the sound of breaking lances against metal armour will be remembered by all the knights who competed on those days.

In July 2019 a Tudor joust was called at Hever Castle under the watchful eyes of King Henry VIII and his new wife Anne Boleyn. Four brave knights competed with solid wooden lances (ouch) and a very competitive and boisterous competition followed which led to controversy, disqualifications and 4 knight marshalls trying to keep their jobs amid calls for VAR to be introduced, whatever that is?

The Tourney lasted two full days with 52 broken lances, lots of bruises (who said armour protects), 4 sore heads, several splinters and a bemused Henry VIII who really didn’t like the result or the winner.