Events

Battlefields Trust Online Lecture: Jousting & Warfare in the 100 Years War

Monday 18th March 2024

Few spectacles in the medieval European world could rival the joust for pageantry and showmanship. Later medieval jousts, however, were about a lot more than a few men prancing around with horses and sticks. Against the backdrop of the Hundred Years War, jousts in English and French territories acted as microcosms for political and martial confrontation and confraternity. Such encounters reflected not only the personal desires of the combatants – to win glory and to fight their usual foes in regulated arenas – but also expressed the wider policies of their leaders. This talk will explore how jousts were military events that were both informed by, and used to reflect, the wider conflict of the Hundred Years War.

Dr Rachael Whitbread is a writer and historian based in North Yorkshire. She researches and writes about combat and conflict in medieval and early Tudor England. Her first book, ‘Battle: Understanding Conflict from Hastings to Helmand’ was released in September 2022, and her second, ‘Duel: Single Combat in Medieval England’ will be published in 2024. Rachael has appeared on multiple radio and digital broadcasts. She is the co-convening editor of ‘Battalia’ (the academic journal of The Battlefields Trust) and an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

 

 
 

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