T017R17AMENT (Fr. tournoi, from tournoyer, to turn round), a military sport of the 'middle ages, in which combatants engaged one another with the object of exhibiting their courage, prowess, and skill in the use of arms. The invention of the tourna ment has been ascribed to Geoffroy de Prenilly, ancestor of the counts of Anjou, who lived in the 10th c.; France was its earliest locale, whence it spread first to Ger many and England, and afterward to the s. of Europe. A tournament was usually held on the invitation of some prince, who sent a king-of-arms or herald through his own dominions and to foreign courts signifying his intention of holding a tournament and a clashing of swords in presence of ladies and damsels. The intending com batants litIngup their armorial shields on the trees, tents, and pavilions around the arena for inspection, to show that they were worthy candidates for the honor of con tending in the lists in respect of noble birth. military prowess, and unspotted character. The combat took place on horseback, or at least was always begun on horseback, though the combatants who had been dismounted frequently continued it on foot. The us,.al arms were blunted lances or swords; but the ordinary arms of warfare, called arms is Coutrance were sometimes used by cavaliers who were ambitious of special distinction. Tournaments were the subject of minute regulations, which in some degree dimin ished their danger. The prize was bestowed by the lady of the tournament on the knight to whom it had been adjudged, he reverently approaching her, and saluting her and her two attendants. Tlie period when tournaments were most in vogue comprised
the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries; and the place where the most celebrated English tournaments were held was the tilt-yard, near St. James's, Smithfield, London. The church at first discountenanced tournaments, some of its decrees prohibiting persons from engaging in them under pain of excommunication, and denying Christian but MI to a combatant who lost his life in one. The church scents, however, to have looked with more favor on these combats after the middle of the 13th century. During the 15th and 16th centuries, tournaments continued to be held, but the alteration iu the social life and warfare of Europe had changed their character, and they are rather to be regarded as state pageants than as real combats. The death of Henry II. of in 1559, consequent on the loss of his eye at a tournament, led to their general abandon ment, both in France and elsewhere, and there have been few attempts to revive them even as mere spectacles. A magnificent entertainment, consisting of a representation of the old tournament, was given at Eglinton castle in 1839, by the late earl of Eglinton: lady Seymour was the queen of beauty, and many of the visitors enacted the part of ancient knights; among them prince Louis Bonaparte, afterward Napoleon M.—Ac cording to Ducange, the difference between a tournament and a JOUST is that the latter is a single combat, while in the former a troop of combatants encounter each other on either side. But this distinction has not been always observed.