Renaissance Fair Question

[Drahthaardogs]

My co-worker is attending (participating) in a Renaissance Fair complete with roasted fowl legs, knights on horses, and court jesters etc. I asked her what do English castles and knights and other generally feudal Saxon traditions have to do with the Renaissance which was centered in Firenza (I spent a lot of time in Italy) Italy and best represented by the house of di Medici?

Someone explain this to me.

[sadbear]

1. $$$$$$$$

It's a fantasy meant to elicit cash from attendees. Their use of the word Renaissance is not entirely accurate. But it's close enough for their purposes.

[lunatica]

2. Would you rather it be named the Dark Ages Fair?

[Drahthaardogs]

3. Hell yes,

I would not call Halloween Easter now would I? Lorenzo di Medici has about as much in common with a knight on a horse as I do with an astronaut. Just pointing out the obvious here.

[lunatica]

4. LOL! Never under-estimate the power of pointing out the obvious!

[haele]

5. They did joust during the Renaissance. As part of a pageant or a noble's local celebration.

In the late 13th century, jousting events came to be a Court-sponsored sporting event to keep the cavalry captains and knights in shape between conflicts. They comprised of both tilting exercises (fancy horse and spear tricks, rings and pells) and the competitive joust competition. On special occasions, such as commemorating a winning battle, they would include the mock team battles. But when Henry II of France died in a joust in 1559, killed by the captain of one of his Guards, the shock of that pretty much ended jousting as a regular sporting event.
But jousts as tilting events continued on as part of pageants up through the 17th century. There was a joust at Queen Elizabeth I's ascension day in 1601.
In the 16th century, the Germans called jousting with a barrier between the combatants the Italian mode.
In reality, by then it was pretty much all show and had pretty much nothing to do with warfare, nor in an actual "trial by combat". The armor they wore at tournaments was pretty much only good for looks, it couldn't be useful in any serious combat.

Now, as for the food; most Renaissance Faires now-a-days would not serve the food they served back then. The feasts would only be for the "nobles" and would probably be mainly soups, pan-cakes and roasts. The normal people would eat the occasional fruit in season, if they could find it, meat pies with truly awful hard crusts or something akin to a multi-grain and seed cracker with cheese to go with it, if they were lucky. And there would be copious amounts of different types of beer and wine to go around.

The other entertainers would probably be a mix of groups wandering through the crowds or on street-corners; buskers, acrobats, street magicians, animal wranglers/trainers, puppeteers, and an occasional actor/comedian who had to mind his or her words or they would find themselves in prison pretty damn quick. The "court jester" was for the nobility only, and they would not be out in public. Nor would any of the other nobles; no chance of seeing a real beautiful princess in distress on the streets, nor of a handsome duke catching sight of a peasant girl and falling head over heels in love at the fair. They lived in their own world that the rest of the fair-goers and commoners got to get a glimpse of if they were lucky.

Other than that, your friend can have plenty of fun play-acting with the fairy-tale. Just don't spend too much, those Ren-faires are f'n expensive.

Haele (former SCAdian and history buff)

[HopeHoops]

6. The easiest thing to do is go naked. That fits in regardless of the setting.