Tournaments and Hunting

This chapter considers tournaments and hunting as aspects of early modern court culture. It briefly sets out the cultural context of both quasi-martial sports among elite men (and women) as ways of expressing status and looks at their importance for the princes who hosted them. The chapter presents the main developments in tournaments, their different competitions and equipment and particularly the emergence of the pas d’armes from the fifteenth century to the early sixteenth. It then reviews the place of hunting at the court, looking at its conduct, its various forms, its principal participants, its role in diplomacy and as a cultural force, particularly among men, in early modern court culture.