A Tournament of Black Knights – Alexandria, Virginia, 1865 – Emancipationists Mobilize the Medieval

Summary

On August 4, 1865, the Alexandria Gazette happily reported some good news for city residents eagerly awaiting a return to normalcy after the Civil War. Under “Virginia News,” subscribers learned that the corn crops in Rockingham County look “very promising” while the crops of oats and hay appear “very heavy”; county election results in areas east of the Blue Ridge indicate that “the old officers have generally been re-elected”; and in some areas “pic nics, balls and tournaments are ‘all the go,’” with the tournaments proving to be “specially in favor.” Southerners were deeply invested in tournaments, and Virginians especially so. Their love affair with these chivalry-laden medievalisms began as early as 1840 when the proprietors of the Fauquier White Sulphur Springs, inspired by the pageantry of Lord Eglinton’s 1839 tournament, introduced their guests to a “novel scene of amusement.” Unlike armor-encased knights crossing lances with one another in Scotland, knights in the United States began riding, sans armor, at a quintain. According to a notice printed in the Alexandria Gazette on September 7, 1840, knights aimed to knock the figure to the ground decisively or face the consequences of an ineffective strike – a sprinkling of meal and a whip lashing as the rider passed by. Hearing that the tournament had “caused a great deal of sport,” the paper’s editors wanted more information and requested a spectator to “give an account” for “it would be an admirable offset to the Eglintoun affair.” The difficulties of defeating the quintain were significant; enough so that the following year, tournament organizers jettisoned the dummy and suspended a ring 9 feet in the air as the new target of attack. Program rules in 1841 now instructed a knight at the fashionable springs to ride three times at the ring, at full speed, over a distance of at least 75 yards, with the goal of capturing the ring upon his lance “in chivalric triumph.” Resort staff also made another notable innovation to the South’s budding tournament tradition by dispensing with a pre-selected Queen of Love and Beauty. The triumphant champion now claimed the privilege of placing the chaplet upon the regal brow of “the Lady of his choice.”