From a modern perspective, the tournament is perhaps the most colorful and spectacular representation of medieval chivalry and knighthood. As training for war, as practice in deeds of arms, or as literary trope, the tournament conveys some of the highest ideals of chivalry including prowess, honor, and nobility. However, in The Medieval Tournament as Spectacle: Tourneys, Jousts and Pas d'Armes, 1100–1600, editors Alan Murray and Karen Watts highlight a different component of the medieval tournament: its public and spectacular nature. Such an undertaking is most valuable for students and scholars of medieval war, chivalry, and sport. Though the ten contributed chapters of the volume do not always directly address the spectacular elements of tournament, they do present a compelling and erudite understanding of tournament in the High and Late Middle Ages.

Two of the most compelling chapters in The Medieval Tournament advance clearer arguments about spectacle and tournament in the larger chivalric culture. In the second chapter, James Titterton draws on anthropological understandings of honor to argue that tournament itself—not just war—was a space where European knights could publicly assert their claim to honor among their peers. Titterton notes that several key components of chivalric honor—prowess, largesse, and courtesy—permeated the tournament experience, thus producing invaluable honor for men, women, and noble families. Titterton is eminently convincing and helps to construct the intersection of two closely related areas of study: chivalric ideology and tournament. Similarly, Rosalind Brown-Grant (chapter 7) engages another intersectional relationship: historical and literary tournaments, with a specific focus on pas d'armes in Burgundy. Brown-Grant argues that we can identify key components of late medieval literary pas d'armes that are clearly drawn from actual events held in an earlier period. Her essay is important in complicating our understanding of the relationship between life and art. Traditionally, pas d'armes are understood as excessive and perhaps even ridiculous imitations of Arthurian (or other chivalric) literature. Brown-Grant's contribution emphasizes the cohesive nature of chivalric thought; literature was not simply escapist or silliness, but was in constant dialogue with actual events and people.

Three other chapters in the collection examine the political nature of spectacular tournaments. In chapter 3, James Beswick examines the Smithfield Tournament of 1390 and ties it to the aspirations for political power on the part of a young Richard II of England. Beswick's evidence suggests that the tournament was a turning point for Richard in which he successfully brought his loyal nobles and his somewhat less loyal nobles together in a grander chivalric unity under the Crown's leadership. Beswick's argument is convincing; this is an area that perhaps begs for a longer treatment. Natalie Anderson in chapter 9 takes a broader approach to the role of tournament in the reign of the Emperor Maximilian I. Anderson's emphasis is that tournament shaped much of Maximilian's political strategy and political behavior, though the emperor does not seem to have always succeeded in the way that Berwick claims Richard II did. Nonetheless, Anderson successfully demonstrates the centrality of tournament to the reign of Maximilian in his successes and failures. Finally, in chapter 10, Karen Watts reconstructs much of the Field of Cloth and Gold, a late medieval or early modern encounter between Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France. As she walks her reader through a narrative of the event, Watts constructs an understanding of the significance of tournament to two young men who would help to usher in a new age in western Europe. And she highlights the friendship that Henry and Francis apparently built over their shared love of tournament. An added bonus from chapter 10 is the inclusion of two contemporary sources from the Field of Cloth and Gold.

One particularly interesting component of The Medieval Tournament is its collaboration between historians, archivists, and curators at the Royal Armouries. As a result, several of the chapters provide abundant information on the arms, armor, and processes of tournament. In chapter 4, Ralph Moffat lays out a methodology for understanding jousting equipment through written sources such as “wills, inventories and household payments” (77). Not only does Moffat provide a comprehensive understanding of jousting equipment, but he presents the equipment in the order that a jouster would have equipped it. This reader appreciated that detail. Marina Viallon in chapter 5 provides a very detailed look at tournament saddles, their design, structure, and purpose. This is one instance where the role of spectacle is perhaps less clear, yet the information provided here is simply invaluable for anyone wishing to understand the technical details of tournament equipment. Rounding out these more technical chapters is Iason-Eleftherios Tzouriadis’ contribution in chapter 8, which examines the late medieval and early modern phenomenon of foot combat. Foot combat is a poorly understood component of tournament in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and Tzouriadis does a great deal to rectify that situation.

Finally, chapters by Murray and Catherine Blunk provide introductions to two important topics. In chapter 1, Murray examines twelfth- and thirteenth-century German tournaments and provides an understanding of technical terms from Middle High German for an Anglophone audience. This work is crucial in expanding our knowledge of tournament out of the more thoroughly studied areas such as France, the Low Countries, and England. Blunk's contribution (chapter 6) asks how spectacular the pas d'armes actually was. Were participants and spectators more focused on the theatrics or the athletic or martial activity. Ultimately, she argues that we cannot be sure, but that it seems as though the theatrical component has been overstated.

The Medieval Tournament as Spectacle is a valuable volume. It seems very well suited to advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and non-expert scholars interested in tournament in the High and Late Middle Ages. It strikes a useful balance between chapters that advance new arguments, chapters that provide introductory narratives to key subjects, and chapters that provide highly detailed surveys of technical aspects. Such breadth, together with useful photographs of arms and armor, do much to recommend the volume.