«In the thirteenth century they are little more than battles without a cause. Men are frequently killed: in 1241 eighty knights are killed in a single tournament. But you need to remember that in those days it is said that a man ‘is not fit for battle unless he has seen his own blood flow, and heard his teeth crunch under the blow of an opponent’.17 A fourteenth-century behourd is gentle by comparison – undertaken for the benefit of the spectators rather than actual military training. »


The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England
Ian Mortimer