Monday, November 17, 2008

The weak central governments of Middle Ages Europe did not like tournaments--gatherings where knights fought each other for sport.

For knights to kill or permanently disable each other was not the point, but it could and did happen, and then the central government had lost a trained fighter, since knights were fighters, farm managers and elite political players, all in one.

The government, the monarch, needed the knights,but were not strong enough to stop them from having their rough fun.