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The Greatest Knight

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Subido el 13 de mayo de 2019 por Manuel P.

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think of a tournament and you're likely to think chivalrous Knights splintered 00:00:00
lances and admiring damsels with the odd handkerchief drops the polite ritual 00:00:08
displays of arms that are joust but before the joust came to the fore there 00:00:14
was the melee tournament a brutal free-for-all with sharpened weapons few 00:00:23
rules and one undisputed champion william marshall the best night in all the world 00:00:28
his story reveals a very different kind of tournament one in which brute force ruled 00:00:38
handkerchiefs stayed in pockets and money was more important than matters 00:00:44
it was hugely violent people got hurt seriously hurt break their arm or crack their ribs or 00:00:48
something but just make sure they can still reach for their walls in this program i'm going on a 00:00:55
journey into the nightly world of william marshall i'll be training like him trying out his weapons 00:01:02
and testing his armor and i'll be following the clues of his story from temple church in london 00:01:09
to the museums of manhattan and the battlefields of northern france it's an epic tale of the 00:01:18
greatest tournament night of his era a man who dominates europe's first international sporting 00:01:27
arena takes the reins of power and then saves a kingdom on the battlefield seven nights a week 00:01:32
audiences gather at medieval times in new jersey to feast on a mock medieval banquet 00:02:12
and cheer on their favorite knights in a jousting extravaganza 00:02:17
this is what most people think of as a tournament it's a scene we know well from movies and shows 00:02:21
two knights on horseback charging at each other with lances and all for the love of a fair maiden 00:02:58
but i want to explore the tournament era before all the pageantry and courtly shenanigans seeped 00:03:04
As I look for information on the early tournament, 00:03:22
the one name that keeps cropping up is William Marshall. 00:03:33
And I have a hunch that this tournament champion 00:03:37
is the key to unlocking the events that preceded the joust. 00:03:40
So I've come to Temple Church in the City of London, 00:03:46
built in the 12th century by the Knights Templar. 00:03:50
I'm here because it contains the life-size effigies 00:03:54
of nine medieval knights. 00:03:57
One of them is of William Marshall. 00:04:00
And here we have the effigies of our own knights. 00:04:03
Which one do we think is William Marshall? 00:04:07
Since the 1840s, this is the character who has been identified 00:04:09
as William Marshall, the first Earl of Pembroke, 00:04:13
surrounded by three of his sons, or so it seems at least. 00:04:16
We can't actually be sure? 00:04:21
I'm afraid not. You can't bet on it. 00:04:22
The knights have been laid out like this 00:04:24
with our present identification since the 1840s. 00:04:26
when a very great archaeologist more or less saved them from hopeless destruction. 00:04:29
But he knew that William Marshall I was here, 00:04:34
and he knew at least one of his sons was here, 00:04:38
and he played pretty fast and loose with the evidence 00:04:40
to get the identifications he needed. 00:04:43
That does strike me, this one in particular. 00:04:46
He looks like a knight ready for action, doesn't he? 00:04:49
He's got all his martial kit, his shield, his sword, his coif. 00:04:51
He's fully armoured. He's also quite tall. 00:04:54
I mean, we know that this man, William Marshall, was a great champion. 00:04:56
There's a good chance, isn't there, that this is him? 00:05:01
Yes, and it was rather striking. 00:05:03
When the bones were dug up from underneath the round in the 1840s, 00:05:04
it was discovered that at least one of the men buried here 00:05:08
would have stood, in his lifetime, over six foot tall. 00:05:11
I mean, in 1220, this is a giant. 00:05:16
Twice unusual. 00:05:19
And you put the man onto a war horse 00:05:20
and you put them both into armour from head to foot, 00:05:21
you have a one-man tank. 00:05:24
William Marshall was born around 1147, 00:05:26
precisely when a where isn't clear 00:05:30
because his family wasn't prominent enough for the details to be recorded. 00:05:31
But despite his relatively humble beginnings, 00:05:36
he rose to be Regent of England, 00:05:39
one of the most powerful men of his generation. 00:05:41
We may not know for certain which of these men is William Marshall, 00:05:46
but we do know a lot about his life 00:05:49
thanks to an extraordinary document that survived from the 13th century. 00:05:51
It contains many details about Marshall's career 00:05:55
and some tantalising clues about the tournaments in which he made his name. 00:05:58
I'm on my way to see William Marshall's biography. 00:06:05
It's a document that's almost 800 years old. 00:06:12
And, after being bought and sold a number of times, 00:06:15
it's now in the archives of the Morgan Library and Museum, 00:06:17
here in New York City. 00:06:20
Many a saddle was turned, and many a knight knocked to the ground. 00:06:24
Many were injured, many were beaten, many captured, many made to swear a pledge. 00:06:28
Many gave him a wide berth, yet many a blow struck with sword and mace were directed at William Marshall, 00:06:36
squashing his helmet completely and reaching through to his very scalp. 00:06:43
They boldly hacked at each other, just as a carpenter chops and carves wood with his axe, so they struck one another. 00:06:48
Hello, Bill. 00:06:57
Oh, hello, Salma. 00:06:58
Good to see you. 00:07:03
And you. 00:07:04
So this is the amazing William Marshall biography. 00:07:05
Yes, here it is, all 127 leaves of it. 00:07:08
And as you can see, it's written in two columns. 00:07:12
It's in Engle Norman, rhymed verses. 00:07:15
There are almost 20,000 of them. 00:07:17
Is it unusual for a knight of this period to have a biography written of him? 00:07:19
Oh, yes, I would say so. 00:07:23
While there are, of course, extensive biographies of mythical knights 00:07:25
like Lancelot, Tristan, and so forth, 00:07:29
we have almost no biographies of real knights. 00:07:32
And what sort of details has it got in it 00:07:35
that give us an insight into who William Marshall was? 00:07:37
We have a physical description of the man, 00:07:40
who was over six feet tall, had brown hair, 00:07:43
and his physique was described as being a work of sculpture, 00:07:45
that he was well made for his purpose as a knight. 00:07:49
His hair was brown, his face swarthy, 00:07:54
but his features were so much like those of a true noble 00:07:57
that he could have been emperor of Rome. 00:08:00
It's a genuine biography, 00:08:04
and it's the only one that actually survives the Middle Ages. 00:08:06
It's perfectly possible it was the only one ever written in the Middle Ages, 00:08:09
as we would recognise it, a classic biography. 00:08:13
This manuscript is just packed full of interesting information 00:08:16
on the tournament in the 12th century. 00:08:19
It also contains some fascinating details about the marshal's life story. 00:08:22
We read, for example, how his father sent him to be schooled 00:08:27
at the Tankerville household in Normandy. 00:08:30
Now, you would have thought that the man who became known 00:08:32
as the greatest knight in the world 00:08:35
would have been the keenest squire on the training ground. 00:08:37
But actually, it's clear he's a bit of a lazy blighter, 00:08:41
and when he wasn't sleeping, he was stuffing his face. 00:08:44
And we know this because the life records his nickname 00:08:48
as Gaste de Onde, Greedy Guts. 00:08:51
We know he was taught to sing, and he did it rather well, too. 00:08:56
Quite a nice voice, according to his biographer. 00:09:01
And he certainly enjoyed music, we know that much. 00:09:04
Probably he had some instruction in the skills of the hunt. 00:09:11
The one thing that he didn't have, which is actually most unusual in his day, 00:09:15
was a literate education. He wasn't taught his letters. 00:09:19
The only way he could actually make a living for himself was as a soldier. 00:09:23
and we can be sure our would-be knight 00:09:27
received a top-notch military education. 00:09:29
His lord was considered one of the grandest patrons 00:09:32
of knighthood, with a retinue of well over 100 men, 00:09:35
and I'm on my way to try out some of the training methods 00:09:38
used by knights of the Tankerville retinue, 00:09:41
including the young William Marshall. 00:09:44
I've joined up with some highly skilled 00:09:55
tournament performers. 00:09:56
I'm feeling a little nervous, though. 00:10:00
I haven't ridden for years, 00:10:02
and I've never handled any medieval weapons. 00:10:03
But I'm hoping to get a few tips 00:10:06
from my tutor in arms, Alan Larson. 00:10:08
Hi, Alan. 00:10:12
Hi, sir. 00:10:13
So as you can see, I'm all kitted out, 00:10:15
but what exactly is the lance you're holding? 00:10:16
This is a war lance, yeah? 00:10:19
This was the primary weapon 00:10:21
of an 11th and 12th century knight. 00:10:23
He'd work so that he could use this lance effectively, 00:10:25
deepen the saddle, lower it down, 00:10:30
and put all of the impact, half a ton of horse and rider, 00:10:33
travelling at 25, 30 miles an hour, right behind it. 00:10:37
And the mass of knights riding knee to knee 00:10:40
was the new shock tactic of the 12th century. 00:10:43
It really was cutting-edge technology, very effective. 00:10:47
OK, so you've got the real McCoy. What's this toothpick I'm holding? 00:10:51
Right. This is what we're going to use for your training against the Quintain. 00:10:53
Now, this lance, as you know, is more typical of the 11th century. 00:10:59
But because the quintain is a tricky beast, as you'll find, 00:11:04
it's that spinning device. 00:11:08
You really want to be starting off at this stage of your training 00:11:10
with something a little bit more manoeuvrable. 00:11:13
You'd work up in due course to this. 00:11:16
OK, so we'll go and give this a shot then, shall we? 00:11:18
Let's go. 00:11:20
follow my line remember you have it down don't have it wobbling all over the place yeah just 00:11:29
keep it in look like the business and you want to establish this this folk on here yeah 00:11:57
to keep wedged in yeah remember sitting back heels down thinking and riding like a lord 00:12:04
Let's keep that ghastly grin on your face, gentle pressure on the reins, lean back and 00:12:13
use your voice, yeah? 00:12:20
Push them on. 00:12:23
Nice. 00:12:30
Come back on the same line, just as long as you get that length out in front of the horse. 00:12:31
Okay. 00:12:38
Yeah, it felt good. 00:12:39
It felt good. 00:12:40
I mean, you've got to think of five different things at the same time, controlling the horse, 00:12:41
leaning back, heels down, and then the accuracy of the launch. 00:12:46
I suppose, Alan, it's pretty obvious it's going to take a while to master these sort of techniques, 00:12:57
which is why it probably took William Marshall, what, seven years to become a fully trained-up knight? 00:13:02
Yeah. 00:13:07
Most days, he and his fellow squires would have been out there practising. 00:13:07
He had been up on horseback, practising, practising, practising, 00:13:13
so that he could hit not only that shield, but pretty much anywhere on it, 00:13:17
pinpoint accuracy, so that when it came to war, 00:13:22
he could find that chink in his opponent's armour 00:13:26
and drive that lance right through. 00:13:28
If William Marshall wasn't training with his lance, 00:13:31
it's likely he was practising with his longsword. 00:13:39
Whether he actually swiped at cabbages, his biography doesn't tell us. 00:13:43
But it's not hard to imagine the young squire slicing through vegetables 00:13:49
in the bailey of his lord's Normandy castle. 00:13:53
The other key weapon in the Marshal's arsenal was designed for blunt destruction. 00:14:02
The mace. 00:14:08
As William approached the end of his seven years of training, 00:14:11
word reached him that his father had died, 00:14:14
and, worse still, had left him nothing in his will. 00:14:16
So when the young Marshal was knighted soon afterwards, 00:14:20
he knew he would have to make his own way in the world. 00:14:22
And one of the ways to do that was to use his skills 00:14:25
so he could draw attention to himself as a young knight 00:14:29
by fighting well and displaying his talents, 00:14:31
which he would do at the court of William of Tancorville, 00:14:35
both fighting in skirmishes but, more importantly, in tournaments. 00:14:39
And in the late 12th century, it was the Picardy region of northern France 00:14:44
that played host to knights looking to showcase their talent on the tournament field. 00:14:48
I'm on my way to a location just north of Paris, 00:14:54
which was one of the most popular sites for tournaments during William Marshall's lifetime 00:14:58
and one where he often fought himself. 00:15:01
I'm still not sure I really know what these early tournaments were all about. 00:15:05
But fortunately, I'm meeting with an expert 00:15:11
who can tell me what used to take place here 800 years ago. 00:15:13
Hello, David. 00:15:23
Hi, Saul. 00:15:24
So here we are in tournament country in northern France, 00:15:25
but where exactly are we? 00:15:28
Well, we're in Picardy, and we're between two towns, 00:15:29
halfway between two towns. 00:15:32
That's Raison-sur-Matte, to our north, and to our south, the town of Gournay-sur-Arwande. 00:15:33
And this was the place where you came to be seen if you were a knight in the 12th century. 00:15:39
This is where you would come to establish your reputation. 00:15:42
You would come from a long way. 00:15:45
People came from Spain, people came from Germany, people came from England, 00:15:46
people even came from Scotland to here, because this was the place to showcase your talent. 00:15:50
This was the Stade de France of the Middle Ages. 00:15:54
Now, we're talking about the area all around us because this is a huge area. 00:15:57
This is a huge area. 00:16:00
We need a map to show you exactly how large and how it was used. 00:16:01
This overlay here will show you exactly what sort of area we're talking about. 00:16:06
Amazingly, the area that was set out for the tournament here was about nine square kilometres. 00:16:12
That's the size of 20 full-size golf courses. 00:16:16
So we're not talking about a small-scale joust event, then? 00:16:20
No, this is an entirely different order of event. 00:16:23
I mean, a joust is a one-on-one event between two knights. 00:16:26
But this is more of a mock battle involving hundreds, thousands of knights. 00:16:29
They would assemble and draw up opposite each other in two great long lines, 00:16:35
hundreds of knights on either side. 00:16:43
It must have been tremendously exciting. 00:16:46
Your insides must have been turning to liquid, though. 00:16:51
I mean, it would be unbelievably frightening. 00:16:54
And the last moment, that great helm is put over your head, 00:16:57
and through it, you can just see your noble opponents 00:17:02
at the other end of the field. 00:17:06
Once the green light went on and everybody was off, 00:17:21
the whole thing is completely out of your control 00:17:25
and you're just swept along with the tide of the event. 00:17:28
It must have been really exhilarating 00:17:32
to be part of so many knights 00:17:46
charging against a wall of other knights. 00:17:49
Both sides would come together 00:17:53
and there'd be a huge clash right in the middle of the field. 00:18:01
The people who are off are going to try and protect themselves from the horse's hooves. 00:18:07
And the dust and the noise would be unbelievable. 00:18:12
Screaming horses, screaming men, people yelling orders, 00:18:16
trying to get their formations back together. 00:18:20
It'd be total chaos. 00:18:22
They would turn, this is what gave the tournament its name, 00:18:29
and then they would melee, which means that they would fight, 00:18:33
and they would fight as if they were in an actual battle. 00:18:36
This is where you get out your swords and your maces 00:18:45
and hammer down blows on the helmets of your opponents. 00:18:48
Now you can hear the sound of sword blade on sword blade. 00:18:58
the grunts and groans of effort and exertion sooner or later the whole melee would break up 00:19:01
as some nights broke away some were pursued some were turning to find advantage and eventually they 00:19:17
would spread over this entire landscape and they would use the landscape too because this was a 00:19:22
mock battle and it was used like a battlefield and they would use the ditches they would use 00:19:27
the hedges they would use the small woods to take cover to take refuge as a 00:19:31
rest place as somewhere to actually sit and just bandage up their wounds 00:19:36
and also they would use it as a place for ambushing other nights who came from 00:19:43
suspecting past and it might go on to sunset or in my 00:19:47
consulate I or it might go on until one side had just lost heart and ran for it 00:19:55
back to their base but what could have motivated these nights to trek to a 00:19:59
field in northern France and risk their lives in such a lethal activity by the 00:20:09
late 12th century the knight had already begun to develop his role as a lord as a 00:20:15
social figure as a figure with political power but primarily they were warriors 00:20:23
They were the warrior elite. 00:20:31
What made them special was the fact that they fought on horseback. 00:20:36
That is what defined the medieval knight 00:20:41
and set him apart from every other form of fighting man. 00:20:43
Anyone who wanted to be a professional soldier had to train, 00:20:53
and the best way of training to be a knight was to fight in tournaments. 00:20:57
That was the whole reason they were invented, was as training for war. 00:21:01
You need to know what it's like to face people who desperately want to kill you. 00:21:05
It was said that you weren't truly a knight 00:21:12
until you'd felt your teeth crack and your blood flow. 00:21:17
And both of those things are going to happen in a tournament. 00:21:22
While the warrior elite reveled in their martial training, 00:21:26
Their violent behaviour was far from popular with medieval society's other elite. 00:21:29
The church always had a very negative attitude towards tournaments. 00:21:35
They objected on many grounds. They objected on moral and spiritual grounds. 00:21:39
They thought that tournaments were breeding places for all the vices. 00:21:43
You get examples of abbeys where knights have been put up for the night, 00:21:46
ready to go out to fight the tournament, 00:21:53
and they all get drunk and rampage through the place and destroy it. 00:21:55
and sometimes townsmen objected for that same reason, they would shut the doors. 00:21:59
You've got large groups of armed men wandering around the countryside, 00:22:10
they can seize what they want, they don't necessarily pay for it, 00:22:13
because they've got arms and who's going to argue against them? 00:22:16
The church always said, right from 11.30, 00:22:20
that anybody who took part in a tournament should be excommunicated, 00:22:23
which meant they were literally cut off from all the sacraments of the church, 00:22:27
they couldn't go in, they couldn't confess, 00:22:30
they were not allowed to have church burial if they were killed in the tournament. 00:22:31
In practice, the church could do very little to prevent the knights from indulging in their 00:22:37
violent hobby. But the knights were not totally without religious scruple. They avoided holding 00:22:42
their mock battles on Fridays and Sundays, the days of meditation and worship, and they 00:22:47
put away their lances for the whole of Lent, which is why Shrove Tuesday was the most popular 00:22:52
day for a melee. 00:22:57
And another type of melee also took place on Shrove Tuesdays across 12th century England. 00:23:01
Mass football games were held throughout the country, a tradition that is still alive today here at Ashbourne in Derbyshire. 00:23:08
Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all them that are penitent. 00:23:17
the tournament was an extremely violent exercise and even the most skilled 00:23:26
martial artists would get banged up 00:23:57
broken arms and broken shoulder blades there's probably never been 00:24:03
a medieval knight who hasn't had some of his fingers broken and some of his teeth 00:24:08
knocked down 00:24:11
people got hurt seriously hurt there are plenty of examples of 00:24:18
famous noblemen even from england who were hit on the head in a tournament 00:24:22
and and literally lost their senses or lost their sight they were blinded in the in the midst of the 00:24:27
melee and people were killed too people tended to commemorate a tournament as oh that was the 00:24:31
tournament in which such and such a man was killed which tells you that actually it wasn't that 00:24:36
common but you could get killed and there are plenty of high profile people were killed 00:24:40
but how anyone survived this brutal activity remains a mystery to me 00:24:46
especially if like william marshall they were at it for 20 years 00:24:51
tournaments were intended as training for war so killing people can't be the primary objective 00:24:57
it has to have an element of danger for it to be useful as training for war 00:25:07
but there are other considerations in the tournament ransom is first and foremost of those 00:25:11
it turns out that the aim of the tournament is not to kill your opponent but to capture 00:25:17
him and take a ransom and you can't get a ransom from a dead man this prize usually 00:25:36
took the form of his weapons his armor his tack and of course the valuable possession 00:25:42
of his highly trained horse the objective was to try and capture another night so one 00:25:48
more people would set upon a knight that they thought looked a good wealthy one and they would 00:25:54
capture him by dragging hold of his reigns and pulling him out of the fighting and away from 00:25:59
his own men they would take him to one of the refuges and force him to give some sort of oath 00:26:03
that he would pay a ransom you could be very physical and brutal as well you could reach out 00:26:08
grab his chainmail hood and wrench him off the horse over the back and onto the ground then jump 00:26:13
on him and get him to say the magic word and the magic word was fiance fiance i offer you a pledge 00:26:17
Disable them, break their arm or crack their ribs or something, but just make sure they can still reach for their wallets. 00:26:24
William Marshall's great thing was that he would go up and grab the reins of a knight and drag him out of the melee and force him to surrender. 00:26:35
A dazzling feat of horsemanship, you know, riding past another knight, grabbing the reins out of his hand and then just dragging him off the field, handing him over to Skyes. Everybody applauded that. 00:26:48
that so if you were a poor landless knight like william marshall if you were really good at the 00:26:57
tournament you could make your fortune doing that because you not only acquired better equipment for 00:27:03
yourself but you could sell on all your games and and earn yourself a nice little fortune while you 00:27:08
were at it william's first tournament was a great success he captured three knights one an important 00:27:13
courtier of the king of scotland these ransoms gave him a measure of independence and william 00:27:20
Tim Tankerville led him head straight off to another tourney. 00:27:25
Again he distinguished himself, and he soon embarked on a lengthy tour of the tournament 00:27:28
circuit. 00:27:33
The marshal was well on his way, and the melee was his means. 00:27:34
ransoms weren't the only protection for knights during these violent tournaments 00:27:53
just as important was their armor 00:27:58
let's just pause there shall we and rewind that 00:28:11
just in case you miss me risking life and limb 00:28:19
and yes that really is me in there 00:28:25
That was terrifying. 00:28:31
But no harm done, thanks to this plate armour, 00:28:33
which is designed to deflect all blows against it. 00:28:37
But when William Marshall was tourneying in the late 12th century, 00:28:40
plate armour was still in the future. 00:28:44
What he was using was very similar to the armour 00:28:46
worn by William the Conqueror at Hastings in 1066. 00:28:49
But what I can't understand is how anyone using such minimal protection 00:28:52
could have been attacked with swords and lances 00:28:56
and lived to tell the tale. 00:28:59
This is the kind of armor that you would expect to see on the battlefield and on the tournament ground in the 12th century. 00:29:02
It's mostly male, supplemented by solid steel helmets and cloth armor, padded cloth armor. 00:29:09
Very important for this period. 00:29:16
If anything, it looks a little bit more flexible and lighter than some of the armor I can see around the walls, 00:29:18
but probably the best way to get a sense of what it feels like is actually to put it on. 00:29:23
Yes, armor is a physical subject, and to really understand it, you need to get inside. 00:29:27
So, let's put you in it. 00:29:34
Okay, I'll give it a go. 00:29:36
Throughout the whole of that night, the knights had their halberds polished, their leg armor rubbed, and they ready their arms. 00:29:40
The others tried out their helmets to see that they were comfortable for the occasion. 00:29:47
Some said, bring me my shield 00:29:51
I want the neck strap to be sturdy 00:29:54
And I also want the arm thong to be made to fit my size 00:29:56
As it should 00:29:59
After that, you would have seen men on all sides 00:30:00
Putting on their coifs and ventails 00:30:04
And adjusting them to fit their lengths of mail 00:30:06
Excellent 00:30:09
So, Saul, how do you feel? 00:30:24
Well, the first sensation is the sheer weight of it all. 00:30:27
I mean, you begin to wonder when you first put it on. 00:30:30
When I put the legging on, I thought, if that's the weight on one leg, 00:30:32
what's it going to feel like, the whole thing on? 00:30:35
So the weight, but not too heavy for you not to be able to move. 00:30:37
And, of course, it restricts you a bit under the arms, 00:30:41
but actually I can move my arms, I can fight, I can get on a horse. 00:30:43
So I'm beginning to see how this stuff actually works. 00:30:47
Well, the first thing that we've got to be aware of 00:30:50
is that the mail, the metal bit, 00:30:52
is not the most important part of the armor. 00:30:56
We tend to focus on it because that's the interesting bit. 00:30:58
But the foundation of the armor 00:31:02
is the padded undergarment, the padded gambeson. 00:31:05
That's your real armor. 00:31:09
That's what cushions the shock of blows. 00:31:11
That's what really protects you. 00:31:13
The mail is there simply as an augmentation. 00:31:15
It's an extra defense if you can afford it. 00:31:18
And what it does is it protects the soft armor from laceration and from the points of arrows and that kind of thing, which the soft armor can't protect you. 00:31:20
Now, to get through all of that, this is good protection against swords. 00:31:29
To get through that, you have other weapons appearing around this time, like the mace. 00:31:33
Now, this kind of mace was a fairly recent development in William Marshall's time. 00:31:38
But it's focusing the force of an attack on a very small area. 00:31:44
And the idea is to break your bones through all of the various soft and and and hard armor 00:31:49
It's not designed actually to get through the mail itself 00:31:56
It'll just the blow will this will just crush you inside the mail now 00:31:59
Of course the final piece of protection is the helmet and this of course is complete insurance, isn't it? 00:32:03
You've got the protection from the flows from the top from the front and also from the bag anymore sneaky enough to come around 00:32:08
The back absolutely so can I try this on please? 00:32:14
fits very well I can actually see quite well either side heavy of course but the 00:32:16
real key is it probably would protect very well from blows on the top 00:32:28
William Marshall may being one of the first people to wear one of these 00:32:40
all-enclosing bucket helmets we know this because of the famous incident the 00:32:43
tournament of Pleurs in 1179. He'd won the prize and everybody was looking for him everywhere 00:32:48
and they heard blows coming from the blacksmith's forge. They went there and they found William 00:32:54
Marshall lying with his head on the anvil and the blacksmith was literally trying to beat the helm 00:32:59
back into shape so that he could take it off. Well I've learned a lot about the type of armor 00:33:05
that William Marshall would have worn during the melee but it begs the question if everyone 00:33:10
was wearing one of these how could they tell friend from foe it's a mystery that i'm hoping 00:33:14
a modern day herald can clear up for me what they hit on was to take the newly developing form of 00:33:22
heraldry of devices on shields as you can see very colorful things with the combination of geometric 00:33:31
shapes and animals and beasts and birds of all kinds in rather stylized form and to use that 00:33:38
not only on the shield but on a surcoat the coat that would go over armor and in this different way 00:33:45
a knight and his followers would be easily recognizable you wear badges of your company 00:33:52
so that you can tell that you're not fighting against your own people but the other thing is 00:33:57
that it enables you on the battlefield the tournament field to identify who is going to 00:34:02
be the most valuable person to capture so you can say i can see that's the count of so-and-so 00:34:07
he will be worth so many great thousands of numbers of shillings or pounds i will all i will 00:34:13
take my company and grab him and in the 1170s and 80s it was the colors of the young king henry of 00:34:18
england that every night seeking a large ransom was focused upon so the king had the very best 00:34:30
men to protect himself the young king was the new heir to the throne and he held a very lavish court 00:34:37
and he was besotted with tournaments and william was specifically appointed 00:34:44
to look after him in the tournament and to teach him how to do it 00:34:49
the young king was always running out of money because he was so lavish and in his patronage 00:34:54
and we know that in the greatest tournament of the 12th century the tournament of long 00:35:02
1179 in november he took on the field with him 500 knights which cost him 200 pound a day 00:35:06
200 pounds was the revenue for the county of Worcester in England for a year and he was 00:35:13
spending that every day that that enormous retinue was in the field and the funding of 00:35:30
those great tournament teams in the 12th century was not unlike the funding of a very very great 00:35:35
football team today and Abramovich the young king both people with gigantic resources the 00:35:40
difference is that the young king could actually fight himself whereas i've yet to see abramovich 00:35:47
actually play for chelsea it's hard to make an exact modern sporting parallel with the tournament 00:35:53
but for sheer physicality it has to be closest to professional rugby 00:36:02
and like sport today the marshals tournament exploits were watched by passionate fans 00:36:07
among them knights squires and their ladies and also a group known as lara sky the riffraff 00:36:24
the common people as it were were spectating held behind barriers and they got so excited 00:36:31
that they pull up the barriers and literally wade in to join in the action. 00:36:38
So it's just like a Millwall football match, you know. 00:36:42
And you get people called palour d'armes, which means armchair warriors. 00:36:44
Perhaps knights who were just superannuated 00:36:50
who came to talk about the current champions of the day and who was best 00:36:51
and to bore people senseless with their recollections of previous tournaments. 00:36:55
And there were even team chants. 00:37:02
The most famous was that of the English king, Dex Aie. 00:37:04
God I help 00:37:08
But unlike today's regulated sports 00:37:18
There were few rules in the tournament and little chivalrous behavior as we would understand it 00:37:20
There's nothing at all fair about the way that William Marshall and his contemporaries fought tournaments 00:37:26
They would all gang up on a particular night who they thought was vulnerable 00:37:31
Information would be passed from one team to the other as to who were the inexperienced young knights 00:37:34
who were easy to pick off and had lots of money and would be wonderful juicy prizes. 00:37:38
One of the great tactics of the tournament field, which William Marshall was adept at doing, 00:37:43
was to hold back his company, wait until all the rest of them had fought for several hours and were absolutely exhausted. 00:37:49
And then he would charge in with his men who were all fresh and ready to fight 00:37:57
and they would capture everybody because nobody could put up any resistance. 00:38:00
any resistance. But the Marshal's opportunism was to get him into trouble. 00:38:03
He devised his own chant, Dex Aiee Marichal, God for the Marshal, a rip-off of the royal 00:38:11
chant. And from 1179, he wore his own colours, featuring a red lion rampant associated with 00:38:19
the Kings of England. He and the King soon fell out. 00:38:27
William Marshall had a falling out with the young King and didn't know what to 00:38:33
do with himself lots of other great leaders and patrons of the tournament 00:38:36
came rushing up with great offers to him saying come and fight for me he took a 00:38:41
fee a very substantial free quarter the rents of the city of Santo Mayor from the 00:38:46
count of Flanders as his transfer fee into the count of Flanders his team 00:38:51
it's almost impossible to put a modern figure on that but it's a lot you're 00:38:57
talking millions you're talking about a deal that even david beckham would widen his eyes at 00:39:05
but lancers for hire like william marshall could get more from the tournament than just money 00:39:15
there was also the prospect of political power the tournament was a hugely important social 00:39:22
networking opportunity because it brought together barons and knights and all the 00:39:29
wealthy and prestigious people from a very wide area right across northern france and i'm from 00:39:34
england too and all coming together to socialize and william marshall's social acumen off the 00:39:40
tournament field was as effective as his military prowess on it he was much more than just brawn he 00:39:47
was also a great brain he was very skilled and acute and a good politician he knew how to work 00:39:54
his way around the camps at night and go and talk to the right people um to make alliances with 00:40:01
people and and to build up connections that would serve him in the future and his connections did 00:40:08
serve him well after henry the young king died in 1183 william marshall moved to the courts of 00:40:16
richard the lionheart and then to that of his brother king john and when john died in 1216 00:40:24
he was made regent of england protector to the nine-year-old king henry iii 00:40:32
william marshall was now 70 years old and he was about to face the toughest challenge of his career 00:40:38
french knights under prince louis invaded england and joined forces with disaffected english barons 00:40:46
it looked highly likely that within a few months um henry we sort of either killed or consigned 00:40:53
to a monastery the whole of his dynasty would be swept away louis would become king of england and 00:40:59
england and france would come under the same dynasty the whole political shape of europe 00:41:05
would be different the fate of the country depended on william marshall defeating the 00:41:09
rebellious army part of that rebel force came here to lincoln they took the town and then besieged 00:41:16
this castle william marshall's response was to gather a force to the north of the town 00:41:23
on a flat plane suitable for battle at first the rebels went out to fight him but they soon 00:41:28
changed their minds and ducked back inside the city walls to await reinforcements i joined up 00:41:33
with david carpenter to hear how the tournament champion fared in his battle to save a kingdom 00:41:39
so david how did the marshal get into the town well it was all thanks to the bishop of winchester 00:41:45
an extraordinary armor-plated prelate master in warfare he went on this daring personal 00:41:50
reconnaissance and discovered the strongly this undefended entrance so it goes back to the 00:41:56
marshal said right there's your chance you can get in that way the marshal's at 70 but he's so 00:42:00
keen to get in he just charges in and forgets to put on his helmet so his squire pulls him 00:42:06
past he must put a helmet on laces up for heaven's sake and then in he goes again the bishop winchester 00:42:11
charging behind says god help the marshal and they charge on into the town the marshal charges 00:42:15
into town, knights, opponents on either side. He deals a great blow onto the shoulders of 00:42:23
Robert of Wropsley and then it's here, right in front of the cathedral, that the really 00:42:28
decisive confrontation takes place because the Count of Perche, the commander of the 00:42:33
French forces, makes his last stand and he's fighting with the marshal and with a knight 00:42:38
called Reginald Crock and then all of a sudden Reginald, the Count's wearing on these great 00:42:42
with his little eyepiece, jabs his sword through the eyepiece of the Count's helm. 00:42:47
And no-one quite saw what happened. 00:42:52
For a second, the Count was OK. 00:42:54
He brought three crashing blows of his sword down on William Marshall's helmet, 00:42:56
so lucky he'd put it on, and then he suddenly crashed from his horse. 00:43:00
The Marshal just said, ''Take his helmet off, he's probably just fainted. 00:43:04
''Give him a bit of air, a smelling-salt, something like that.'' 00:43:07
And then they saw the ghastly wound, and he was dead. 00:43:10
And that was the decisive moment of the battle. 00:43:14
battle. After that, the French, their English supporters retreat down the hill. The battle's won. 00:43:16
David, it sounds like a lot of people were killed during this battle. 00:43:22
Well, yes and no. Yes, if you're like you and me, ordinary soldiers. But everyone was terribly sad 00:43:24
about the death of Count of Perch. And actually, very, very few members of the High Nobility were 00:43:30
killed in the battle. And I suppose that's a profound way in which the battle was very much 00:43:35
like a tournament. It was like that for this reason, that the great aim in the battle was not 00:43:40
kill your noble opponent at all. It was to take him captive. And why? Because then you 00:43:45
could get the ransom. And one of the best jokes about William Marshall's helmet is this. 00:43:51
Why did he forget it? It was because he was so eager to get into the battle, so all the 00:43:56
best ransoms hadn't gone before he got there. So, you know, in an extraordinary way, Lincoln, 00:44:00
a battle which decides the whole future political structure of Europe, is really just like a 00:44:06
tournament. Lincoln was William Marshall's last set piece. Fortunately for England, the man who 00:44:11
had won so many prizes on the tournament field won again on the battlefield. Louis was soon on his 00:44:22
way back to France and the English throne had been saved. It was a fitting end to the final chapter 00:44:28
of the Marshall's extraordinary career. Two years after the Battle of Lincoln, William Marshall lay 00:44:34
dying surrounded by his family and his entourage the deathbed scene in the 00:44:44
martial biography is one of the most poignant in literature as he lay dying 00:44:52
surrounded by family and retainers he recalled with mingled regret and pride 00:44:58
that he had taken prisoner as many as 500 nights along with their arms horses 00:45:03
and equipment but when someone suggested that he return all this booty he chided 00:45:09
them. A tournament night to the end. And finally, the man who had defended himself against the 00:45:15
blows of countless enemies said, I am dying. I cannot defend myself from death. 00:45:23
With William Marshall's death, the great era of the melee also passed. Writing soon after 00:45:48
his demise, William's biographer lamented that the tournament had changed so dramatically. 00:45:54
the huge melee tournament which took place here in the 12th and early 13th centuries 00:45:59
began to lose its popularity with the emergence of the small-scale joust the joust was more 00:46:04
practical there were fewer fatalities less damage to property and above all the great 00:46:16
deeds of the Knights could now be more easily admired by their audience and in the most 00:46:22
unlikely places so Juliet what he brought us here well we're looking over 00:46:29
one of the great medieval streets of London this is cheap side hugely 00:46:35
important jousting scene for tournaments that were held in the Middle Ages 00:46:39
particularly in the 14th century we're standing on the balcony of the Church of 00:46:42
Saint Mary Lebeau which was rebuilt by Ren after the Great Fire of London but 00:46:47
apparently according to legend he built this balcony here because this was where 00:46:51
they had all the stands where the ladies used to come to watch the joust that 00:46:54
were taking place in the street below. 00:46:58
They'd cover the street with sand 00:47:01
so that the horse's hooves didn't slip. 00:47:03
And then they'd have to damp it all down 00:47:05
because obviously if it got dry and dusty, 00:47:07
then the crowds would actually be covered in dust 00:47:09
and be choking. 00:47:11
And when two knights actually joust against each other, 00:47:12
they often miss. 00:47:15
So what they did was try and jazz it all up 00:47:16
and make it more exciting. 00:47:18
So literally knights bring in tents 00:47:19
that are painted to look like castles 00:47:21
and the knights can emerge and rescue the damsels 00:47:23
who are stuck in another set of towers or whatever. 00:47:25
Or they would even dress up as women. 00:47:28
They would have the monks versus nuns. 00:47:29
And there's even one sort of, my favourite one, 00:47:32
where they dress up as the seven deadly sins. 00:47:34
And you can just imagine what fun they would have doing that 00:47:36
and how it would be instantly recognisable to the spectators. 00:47:40
It was meant to be fun for everybody involved. 00:47:43
And now we will bring a cheer for all of our heroes! 00:47:45
And that theatrical pageant which replaced the mellow 00:47:49
is one that has continued to entertain us down the ages. 00:47:58
Now to bbc.co.uk forward slash time watch 00:48:02
to talk with me online about the world at the greatest night. 00:48:28
Subido por:
Manuel P.
Licencia:
Dominio público
Visualizaciones:
90
Fecha:
13 de mayo de 2019 - 22:58
Visibilidad:
Público
Centro:
IES JOSÉ SARAMAGO
Duración:
49′ 01″
Relación de aspecto:
1.75:1
Resolución:
630x360 píxeles
Tamaño:
206.32 MBytes

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