[MR] Fwd: [EK] The latest extreme sport - Jousting sca-east Digest, Vol 90, Issue 70

[Karen]

Dulcy asked:

> Now, having said that, don't you wonder how people don't get killed A LOT doing 
>this?

Sure they did.  Lots of men were seriously injured and/or killed.  King Henri II 
of France died from a lance-wound to the eye, during the tournaments celebrating 
his daughter's wedding.  This sort of injury also took the life of a modern 
jouster about three years ago 
(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-489086/Jouster-dies-speared-eye-freak-accident-Channel-4s-Time-Team.html).


There was some research that came out last year suggesting King Henry VIII of 
England's personality (and weight gain) followed a jousting accident, too 
(http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-jousting-accident-that-turned-henry-viii-into-a-tyrant-1670421.html).



> Their idea of doctoring was to put leeches on people. I am just saying. 

That's kind of oversimplifying medieval medicine.  Not that they didn't use 
leeches, of course, but it wasn't all doctors willy-nilly prescribing leeches 
for every possible injury & illness, for a thousand years of human history. ;-)

They did, for example, have bonesetting, which would probably have been at least 
somewhat useful for some jousting injuries:
http://www.imagesonline.bl.uk/results.asp?image=003982


You might find http://larsdatter.com/doctors.htm interesting, in terms of 
looking at some of the treatments that medieval doctors did. ;-)  There's 
several extant medical manuals, too.

You can find more resources on medieval medicine at 
http://moas.atlantia.sca.org/wsnlinks/index.php?action=displaycat&catid=546

Also, the Folger Shakespeare Library will have an exhibition next year on women 
& medicine: http://www.folger.edu/wosummary.cfm?woid=601



Karen Larsdatter
www.larsdatter.com