6 - Between Sport and Theatre: How Spectacular was the Pas d’armes?

Summary

Picture medieval knights and squires charging towards each other on horseback, striking helmets or shields and breaking lances: it is spectacular. Men in shining armour striking each other with swords or poleaxes, and groups of men exchanging blows in a melée must have been spectacular as well, even if their weapons were blunted. Noblemen performing deeds of arms in pas d’armes during the fifteenth century competed in all three types of combat. Yet it is generally thought by those familiar with the pas d’armes that it was more spectacular than other jousts and emprises due to its theatricality.

Definitions of the pas d’armes commonly indicate that theatrical production is one of its defining features. The following passage, for example, is emblematic of definitions found both in general studies on medieval chivalry and in specialised analyses of pas d’armes: ‘This form of deed of arms, sprung from the custom of a knight holding a bridge or gate against all comers, is attested as early as the eleventh century and probably has Germanic roots. In the fifteenth century, such deeds took on the form of state theater – though the combat was no less real or intense.’ The second sentence suggests that although the pas d’armes consisted of real combat (and indeed people were hurt and occasionally killed), an accompanying theatrical production or performance was one of its defining properties. The introduction to the most recent critical edition of a pas d’armes states that a pas d’armes is half theatre, half sport, a theatrical representation with elaborate decoration and rich costumes, careful staging, and dialogues written in advance.3 However, examination of the accounts of twenty-three events commonly found in corpora established by scholars investigating pas d’armes reveals that, while many did in fact feature such theatrical representation, the descriptions of several of these events mention little or no theatrical production at all. Is it appropriate to define a pas d’armes by saying that it was a type of medieval tournament whose spectacular character was enhanced by theatrics, including actors in character and in costume performing dialogue, careful stage production, and decoration according to a fictional scenario developed in its governing document?