Hello! Did you enjoy your summer? Mine has been fantastic especially my week holiday in Scarborough. The highlight was definitely the tudor day we went to up at Scarborough castle. We met King Henry himself and Lady Grey, we witnessed Jousting, the Fooling of the court Jester and the most amazing falconry displays ever. Here are a couple of photographic highlights from the day.
Here is Tomkin, the Court Jester. He popped up throughout the day with jokes and general fooling around. This was by far his most impressive trick -fire breathing. It was an amazing spectacular and after watching his act my cheeks ached from smiling and laughing so much.
This is a Harris Hawk and I was amazed to capture such a good photo! It was totally accidental I can assure you. The falconry that we witnessed took my breath away. We saw several different birds of prey and we found out amazing facts about the birds and the way they were used for hunting in Tudor times. I love Birds of prey and so the falconry displays were the highlight of the day for me.
And this was one of the Jousts. The amazing thing was that they were really jousting with completely solid wooden jousts! It was totally authentic and amazingly exciting all though everything happened very quickly when it did happen.
Some of the poor riders even got hurt and the French rider got stuck in his helmet! They had to take a hammer and chisel to it to get him out of it. My daughter loved the jousting and especially loved being introduced to the horses afterwards.
We had a thoroughly excellent time and I would like to thank the English heritage for a day packed with amazing entertainment.
Oh and one last photograph of the new friend I purchased on the day with the permission of His Majesty the king. This folks is Sir Percy of Perg:
I Love Sir Percy and I was highly honoured to be allowed to take him home. Back in Tudor times you could only take Birds of Prey from the Wild if the King gave you permission to do so. I was so glad when King Henry said I could take a Peregrine Falcon home with me.
It’s not every day you get to go back in time but I thoroughly enjoyed mine.
It sounds as though you had a great day, Victoria! I’ve been to a couple of English Heritage events (usually at Bolsover Castle) so I’ve seen sword-fighting and archery, but I haven’t had a chance to see any jousting or falconry – it looks fascinating! (And also inspires a desire to watch ‘A Knight’s Tale’ again.
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Thanks for the great photos!
Merry
=^..^=
That does look like fun, and those lads who joust are completely insane! Though having said that, I approve of them doing it right. Much more fun for the audience that way
Merry, I had a great time and I’m glad you liked the photos.
Alex -it was completely spectacular and the noise…it just made you feel as if you’d gone back in time.
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It looks like a fab time. Thanks for sharing.
I love going to reinactments. We had one earlier this year near where I live. The jousting was full on. One guy had a very sore wrist by the end! And I’m sure there were some nasty bruises under all that armor!
Great post!
It’s good to see an British version of this, as my Livejournal flist is always full of Renfaires in the USA where people sweat in costume in 100 degrees of sun. Nice to see some normal British weather over the joust here.
I love your falcon!
Great post Vicki
I love watching jousting and falconry. I ride Western style and many of the riders use Western saddles, adapted to look like mediaeval English saddles. Of course the Western stock saddle was developed from the Spanish military saddle so it’s natural to adapt them for jousing and mediaeval renactments.
Falconry is wonderful to watch – the most amazing falconry display I’ve ever watched was called ‘Ye Old Redtail Falconry display) and the handler, Ray, looked as if he’d walked straight of a Robin Hood set. He put on the most amazing performance, including asking for volunteers to lie down while he flew an owl over them, to experience ‘a mouse eye view!
It’s great that so many people enjoy these sort of events and that there are so many experts keen to perform and entertain and educate others.
Beautiful photos too!