Well we made it home from Battle Abbey. What a brilliant venue and a terrific weekend. despite the B's of the title. One of our team who is allergic to stings was stung by a Bee on arriving on Friday and needed a trip to A&E, one of our squires blew a head gasket in his car and needed collecting from a Tescos carpark 20 odd miles away in the pouring rain, the church across the road joined in the Olympic celebration during setup and rang and rang and rang. But none of that stopped us:0)
On arrival we took one look at the crypt and thought that it would make an excellent venue for the Crest melee, unfortunately (For our artistic side) so many people came to Battle Abbey viewing would have been impossible, so all parts of the tourney took place in the arena provided.
This tourney was hosted by the Countess of Lewes, an Earl in her own right, who was looking for a protector for her children as her husband had recently died. The four finest knights in the country had come together to fight for the honour. (We had some personnel changes from Old Sarum, Sir Robert moved to represent the East and Sir Henry moved into the South.
We didn't have an archery contest at this weekend, (although if we go back next year we have found somewhere to do it.) So our first event of the day was the Crest melee. Some awesome foot work from Sir Robert saw him take an early lead. Sir Henry acquitted himself well for his first outing in this event taking the odd crest. Sir Adrian was solid and TALL. My performance was a little reserved, some may think this due to my grizzled, aging, scarred veteran status (only some of the adjectives used to describe me) but I believe it was more down to getting a sword in the eye, from the Gold Knight. This is a contact sport and unrehearsed, The Gold Knight struck at my crest I moved and subsequently his blade came through my visor and struck me just to the right of my eye. Fortunately with our training and the whale bone wasters no damage was done, although it did make me a tad reserved from that point.
Club Melee in the afternoon saw a brutal session with the knights and squires really going for it. The Gold Knight injured his hand in the Clash of Steel at lunchtime so Squire Francis stood in for Sir Robert and Squire Phillip was promoted onto the field to fight for the Gold team.It is hard to write about the club melee with any accuracy. It is mayhem out there, needless to say the Knight Marshal, Sir Erasmus Hyll, earnt his fee. By the end Squire Francis was in the lead, but the Countess of Lewes favoured a different knight to her daughter, and awarded points to Sir Henry to make the day a tie. The result was then given to the commoners who bellowed for their favourite.
This was Battle Abbey in Sussex, much further south and we would have been in France. And unsurprisingly and despite much encouragement from Gold The commoners bellowed for Sir Henry for the win.
Sunday saw another lovely day weather wise and we were delighted with the number of visitors who enjoyed themselves so much on Saturday they came back for more on Sunday.
The Crest Melee this morning was fast and furious. Squire Francis stood in for Sir Robert again and fought well taking several crests, including mine. Sir Henry beat Squire Francis and I, Sir Henry. I had recovered my confidence from the previous day and had more fun. Even Sir Adrian lost the odd crest, but by the end he had a commanding lead.
The Clash of Steel took a different format today and saw Sir Henry and Sir Edward fighting with a variety in of weapons we worked through; arming sword, falchion and buckler; hand and a half sword, poll axe then back to knives and finally (not sure where it came from) we ended up wrestling.
The Club Melee in the afternoon was another heavy affair. There was much making and breaking of alliances this day. Squires and knights tumbled and tempers frayed . Sir Erasmus had his work cut out and several men took a real beating. By the end of the first Melee only Sir Edward stood a chance of catching Sir Adrian. In the second Melee Sir Henry was eliminated quickly after taking flying lessons from Sir Edward. The combat was then down to three knights. Pride took over and each man fought for himself not allying with each other which eventually Sir Squire Francis, beaten to the floor. LEaving Sir Adrian and Sir Edward. These two knights;one gnarled and haggered, the other TALL fought on, eventually Sir Adrian's relentless assault brought him victory. He won by three points and the Countess decided that that was sufficient, she had found her protector.
An excellent weekend, if a little bruising. Only marred by rain as we took down all the canvas:0(
We are off for a week as the tourney goes oop north, but we will be back at Framlingham Castle, in Suffolk on the 11th and 12th August. See you in the fifteenth century.
Sir Edward
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