If you’ve ridden a mechanized carousel horse, then you’ve felt the nostalgia bygone entertainment can bring. But the carousel isn’t just a souvenir of the age of steam; it carries echoes of medieval war games. Over centuries, combat training shifted from battlefield drills to crowd-pleasing displays, and the carousel eventually sprang from these knightly traditions.
Jousting: From Battle to Sport
The tournaments from which carousel games emerged began around 1100, when knights started wielding underarm lances instead of spears, according to Alan V. Murray, a professor of medieval European history at the University of Leeds. A block of knights armed with these weapons could be devastating, but charging together took practice. To prepare for the rigors of combat, they started training through mock battles, with mobs of armored and mounted knights charging at each other across miles of countryside.
Starting around 1200, the nature of these events began to shift. Jousts—one-on-one contests between knights—gained popularity as a chance to show off skills as riders and warriors. Jousters galloped down the narrow confines of the tiltyard, an enclosed area designed for tournaments, instead of roaming freely across battlefields.
Tournaments moved from rural locations to cities, drawing crowds of thousands and transforming into grand public spectacles. They also became opportunities for political maneuvering. “Monarchs could use these things as a way of projecting power and authority, but also develop bonds with their own subjects,” says Murray. These events could function as a political display, such as a tournament at Smithfield, London in 1390, when King Richard II of England presided over a contest that included former adversaries—an event symbolizing reconciliation.