Etienne de l'Isle, servant of Duke Finnvarr de Taahe, sends greetings to all who read these words.

At the end of August of A.S. XXXI, the Shire of Flaming Sky in northern Ealdormere held its customary Bonfield Battle, at which several notable contests of arms took place. Among these was a tournament in the style of the twelfth century. I am describing it for those interested in simulations of actual historical tournaments.

The twelfth-century tournament was inspired by the ones described in the Life of William Marshal: warriors would fight in teams in an extensive area, in hopes of capturing and ransoming their opponents. We were fortunate to have a partly wooded, partly clear area of at least 15 acres to tourney in. There were about twenty fighters, divided in two teams. One side was largely made up of House de Taahe, Duke Finnvarr, several of his squires, and a number of other warriors; the other was based on House Blackcloak, and included the notable warriors Sir Mordain Blackcloak, Rory Cennedi, Esq., Viscount Kildare, and Earl David Martin Failsworth. The duke's team represented England, and Sir Mordain's Normandy.

Two safe areas were located at either end of a wooded road. At each site were water and fruit for the fighters. Good thing, too, it was very hot! Also in these safe areas was a herald (in 12th century terms) whose duties included warning approaching fighters that no combat could take place in the safe areas. There were also a number of roaming heralds. Fighting in this scenario worked a little differently than in standard combat. Any fighter wounded once, in any legal target, was immobilized but could continue to fight. To remind everyone of this fact, a single blow -- to head, body, or limb -- was shown by the fighter dropping to the knees. A second would took the warrior out of the fight. Such fighters were not considered "dead," but merely wounded or unhorsed or otherwise incapable of fighting.

A twice-wounded warrior could be either rescued or captured by a standing fighter. A once-wounded warrior could be rescued by a friend. This is how it worked. If another warrior, X, stood in front of a once or twice wounded one, Y, and said, "I, Sir X, rescue you, Y" then Y was up and able again. If an opposing warrior was able to stand before a twice-wounded warrior and say, "I, Sir Z capture you, Y," Y was obliged to follow the captor to the nearest herald, either at a safe point, or wandering loose, where Z could register the capture. Then Y was up and able.

If in the process of trying to find a herald and register a capture, Z ran into one of Y's friends, W, W was allowed to try to rescue Y. Y could not run away during the combat, but was not obliged to follow Z if he was chased off by W. Then he would be free and able.

The ransoms were not fixed, and were not bargained for at the time of registration. No tokens were carried around. To guide the eventual ransom-fixing, Duke Finnvarr set his own at 5 crowns, each crown being 1/4 of a loon, or one of the Queen Elizabeth silver pennies, the ones with the elk on the back ($.25). The idea was that the heralds would compare notes after the tourney, find out which ransoms cancelled each other, and identify net creditors and debtors. The creditors were asked to tell the debtors to contribute their crowns to a worthy cause, the support of the Tidings of Ealdormere.

In the actual fighting it was soon proved that Normandy was stronger than England. The vigorous Rori Cennedi was an excellent scout, and twice guided the forces of Normandy to complete victory, in which all of England was captured, without any of the English being left to rescue fallen comrades. To keep the game alive, the Norman tourneyers broke up into smaller units. There were several combats between smaller English and Norman units which were much more even, and ransoms were gained on both sides.

All agreed that the scenario was a great deal of fun, but that improvements were possible. All agreed that the ability of victors to register captures with roaming heralds made it too easy to turn an initial advantage into a crushing one. It was suggested that there be more (4?) safe areas (and more water), and that heralds able to register captures be only at those sites.

Another suggestion was that downed fighters be allowed to recover in a certain amount of time if unguarded. (At one point most of the men of England were downed in one spot, but not formally captured, and were hardly guarded; this struck the participants as wrong.) There was no agreement about how many fighters a single able warrior should be allowed to guard. The final suggestion was to break up the teams into smaller groups, of perhaps five each. This could mean that there would be several teams, or two teams which could not fight as a single mass.

A further improvement would have been a more ceremonious reckoning of accounts at the end of the battle. Duke Finnvarr was captured three times, but only one herald, representing two of the captors, found him in the camp that evening to remind him of his debts and to whom they were owed.

Duke Finnvarr, the original deviser of the tournament, was both pleased with the contest, and in agreement with most of the suggested improvements. He would willingly hear further comments from participants and others.