Knightly Training

[Richard Marsden]

An interesting reference I found about knightly training, but mildly suspicious in my mind.

Jean Boucicaut was a French Marshal who lived during the Hundred Years war. His adventures led him from the mountains of Hungary, to Turkish prisons, from Constantinople to the north of Italy. He was at Agincourt and captured and died in captivity in England. This is all true and accounted for.

An anonymous account of his life was published in 1886 and a small portion covers his training as a knight. The biography was used in Barbara Tuckman's 'A Distant Mirror' and Kottenkamp's 19th century work on the history of chivalry and armor.

Here is a summary of the things Boucicaut did according to the anonymous biography. There is much leaping involved.

1 - While fully armored he leaped on and off his horse without assistance.
2 - He ran great distances in armor to build up his endurance.
3 - With an axe or mace he delivered strikes to a thick logs or a block of stone. (The wording here is taken from my text-source.)
4- He did many leaps while in armor.
5 - He leaped upon his horse in armor while the horse had no stirrups.
6- He danced in his hauberk. (No explanation is given)
7 - He would vault onto the shoulders (unarmored it appears) of a tall man on a horse with no help except grabbing the man by his sleeves. (?)
8 - With one hand on the pommel of the saddle and one hand on the ears of a charger, he'd leap over it.
9 - He'd, unarmored, find two narrow walls and scale up them using his legs and arms.
10 - He'd climb a ladder upside-down. Unarmored he did this one handed.
11 - He and his squires practiced the art of 'darting the lance' (no explanation given).

The book this comes from is 'Anonymous, Le Livre des faits du bon messire Jehan le Maingre, dit Boucicaut. maréschal de France et gouverneur de Jennes.'

It's in French and I can't find much else on it- but thought I'd share.

The memoirs of the Duke of Sully, first translated into English in 1775, supposedly gives an intimate account of the life of King Henry IV of France, including some of the training he did in armor. Alas, I could not find anything specific beyond a few oblique references to the book and what it contains. Perhaps of use for the truly scholarly sorts in HEMA!

[Jeffrey Hull]

Perhaps a lot of that was possible.

I have read of other crazy stuff like supposedly swimming in full harness. I think there is a video amid the InterWeb of some guys in full plate harness swimming in an Alaskan pool.

The German material about knightly training (ueben), whether guerre lettres or belle lettres, liked to emphasise springen (springing/leaping/jumping), laufen (running - possibly cross-country), and even rennen (racing). Also too steinstoessen (lit. stone-shoving - either like weight-lifting or shot-putting) and stangeschieben (lit. staff-struggling - like a two-way tug & push-o-war). Some would even name schwimmen (swimming). And the almighty ringen (wrestling) and fechten (fencing) and reiten (riding) were always there. We may conjecture that any or all such were done both armoured and unarmoured.

Cool stuff!

[Joey Nitti]

holy.................
what a beast. vaulting onto the shoulders of a tall man on a horse? Climb ladders upside down? This dude was a superhero!

and clearly, we should all start including dancing in hauberks as part of our training regimen. I don't see that an explanation is needed. Suit up, and get down

[Richard Marsden]

HA! Indeed the feats described are very 'beast'. I wish I knew more about the source they came from just in case it's Victorian make-believe. But I wanted to share what my readings brought forth and it's led to a promise by Jeffery Hull to wear full armor and swim in an Alaskan lake. At least, I hope he does this for the benefit of the internetz and book-sales.

[Bill Welch]

What no practicing in a bikini? I'm sure I heard about that somewhere!

[Joey Nitti]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrZNVzoO ... age#t=130s

[Ariella]

The description of Boucicault's prowess comes from an actual (if rather flattering) medieval biography of the marshal. It survives in a single manuscript (Paris, BnF MS fr. 11432).

You can read the passage in a fairly recent edition here.

http://books.google.ca/books?id=tub0Q9LSsFsC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA24#v=onepage&q&f=false

[Richard Marsden]

Thanks for the find! While probably over-the-top, like Charlemagne's biography, at least it is a primary source and not a Victorian invention like I feared. Thanks so much for the link!

[nathan f]

The swimming in the armour vid i saw a while back think its on the my armoury forum somewhere. The guy succeeded in treding water for a while though could not swim back to the surface. with practice could have done better.
I have seen some of the things on there done though some seem a bit difficult to say the least.
The dancing in armour i have read a quote before from a french knight who bragged he could dance as well in his armour as he could without so it could be something along those lines.

[Ariella]

I do wonder whether swimming in armour was actually practiced in the Middle Ages. All the references I've seen have turned out to be medieval copies or paraphrases of Vegetius' De Re Militari. Some men at arms may well have known how to swim, and some of them may have fallen in the water on rare occasions, but I'm a little suspicious of the idea that anyone soaked their armour deliberately in training.