[MR] A Rapier King?

[Gary Halstead]

At 04:15 PM 2/13/02 -0500, Lisa and Ken Theriot wrote:
<major snippage>

>No one
>can date anything even remotely resembling fencing earlier than the 1520s,
>and the real heyday came much later than that.  By that time, courtly love
>was a memory.  Europe was long past the days of seizing a throne, or much
>of anything else, by right of arms.

If so, it wasn't for lack of trying.  Off the top of my head: Henry VII 
seized the throne from Richard III in 1485, Gustavus Vasa booted the Danes 
out of Sweden and was elected King in 1523, Christian II of Denmark was 
deposed by his nobles the same year, and Mary of Scotland was forced to 
flee Scotland in 1568 following the battle of Langside.  I'm sure we could 
add more incidents from Italy and Germany.

>The medieval tournament had its heyday
>in the 12th to 14th centuries, after which time it became an excuse to
>dress up and have a big party (hmmmm, maybe that wasn't the best
>example...).

Not entirely.  The tournament certainly changed form from a mass brawl to a 
sporting event.  But Henry VIII was champion jouster in his youth and Henry 
II of France managed to get himself killed in one in 1559.

Ranulf