The Tudor Society
  • 24 January – Can jousting heal the problems between Englishmen and Spaniards? and Henry VIII’s Jousting Accident

    On this day in Tudor history, 24th January 1555, in the reign of Queen Mary I, a great joust was held at Westminster between English and the Spanish knights.

    It was one of the events planned by Philip of Spain, Queen Mary I’s husband, to try and tackle the problems between Englishmen and Spaniards in London.

    Tensions had even led to violence and murder.

    Find out more about the problems, and how King Philip tried to tackle them, in this talk…

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  • 7 February – A joust, unrequited love and a nasty accident

    A portrait of Henry VIII by an unknown artist, c. 1520.

    On this day in Tudor history, 7th February 1526, Henry VIII took part in the traditional Shrovetide joust at Greenwich. In this video, I give details of this joust, its theme and a nasty accident that affected one courtier that day.

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  • A Brief Overview of Jousting and Armour by Heather R. Darsie

    Jousting, much like rugby or American football, was a full-contact, dangerous sport. Severe injuries and even death were quite common. Henry II of France died in 1559 when a lance’s splinter breached Henry’s helmet and entered his brain by way of the eye. More like American football and less like rugby, individuals participating in the joust wore protection.

    Most armour was made by smiths in either Germany or Italy, though those smiths would travel to workshops all over the continent and England. One workshop in England boasted of smiths from Flanders, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. The city of Milan was most famous for its skilled armour smiths, though German armourers under the Holy Roman Empire outfitted the likes of Maximilian I and Charles V. Henry VIII established royal workshops at Greenwich, with previous workshops having been located in London. Some French workshops recruited Italians for their workshops in Lyon and Tours. There is not much information about armour workshops in either Spain or the Netherlands, but most of the large Belgian cities had active armourer’s guilds during the Renaissance period.

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