"Drink your blood and your thirst will be gone"

The big loser in the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) between France and England was the knight. In several major battles English longbowmen had cut down thousands of French nobles. At the same time, military leaders characterized less by noble lineage than by professional military skills. In the end, France owed its victory above all to solid state organization and not to the bravery of its armored cavalry. The future should belong to the early modern princely state, which was able to maintain mass armies with strong infantry.

But this development did not reach the minds of contemporaries for a long time. Even war entrepreneurs, who were mainly active as mercenary leaders on the English side, submitted to the traditional warrior ethos of the knights. The Habsburg Emperor Maximilian I was responsible for the long after-effects of these traditions. For some he was “the father of the lansquenets”, for others “the last knight”, who once again staged the world of medieval chivalry with his magnificent tournaments, albeit he himself laid the foundations of a new era.

The following episode from the Hundred Years' War shows how much even the military of the future were shaped by knightly ideals. We are talking about the "Tournament of Thirty", which was held on March 26, 1351 "halfway" between the Breton castles of Josselin and Ploërmel. Although it was just a meeting between 60 combatants during the so-called War of the Breton Succession, the battle provoked a pan-European echo, being hailed as a glorious example of chivalry.

In fact, hardly any noble knights were involved in the fight. The leader of the English, Robert Bramborough, was a typical warlord who, with a mixed force of mercenaries, Bretons and hired criminals, waged a bloody small-scale war from Ploërmel Castle against the supporters of Charles de Blois, who was supported by the French king.

John of Montfort had also claimed the Duchy of Brittany. After his death in 1345, his widow continued the fight to secure her son's inheritance. The fact that the English king helped her with troops and money turned the conflict into a proxy war that lasted for decades.

To keep his motley crew happy, Bramborough cared little about the agreed truce, considering the surrounding peasants as prey, regardless of which side they had to work for. In some sources he is also described as Brandebourch, which suggests that he was "a German mercenary", i.e. represented the modern type of private war entrepreneur who rented out himself and his troops for a limited time.

Nevertheless, Bramborough accepted the demand that the commander of the "French" Castle Josselin, Jean de Beaumanoir, sent to him. For "honor and entertainment of the ladies" he suggested a duel to the lord of Ploërmel in order to clarify the different opinions about war and peace. Bramborough is said to have countered that such a bout was for short show only and that a larger number of fighters should take part. It was finally agreed on 30 gunmen on each side.

The company followed the old rules. Military operations leading up to the tournament have been cancelled. A battlefield was marked out between the two castles. Both parties brought numerous spectators, including high-born ladies. The combatants prepared for the fight with church services, confession and absolution.

However, many participants slipped into a role to which they were only partially entitled. On the English side, not only Bramborough was of dubious descent. Some of his people are explicitly characterized as "Germans" and "servants". Four are described as Bretons or Brabantians. Hardly any of the "Englishmen" seems to have been from the nobility. Robert Knolles and Hugh Calveley are well-known, who were later to gain fame and glory as high-ranking commanders, but in 1351 they were at best the leaders of a few mercenaries. After all, Beaumanoir is said to have brought together nine knights and 21 squires on the other side.

After the usual pleasantries had been exchanged, the combatants formed into battle lines. Then the opponents attacked each other with swords, daggers, spears and axes. It stands for the condition of those involved and the stability of their tanks that the wrestling dragged on for several hours. However, there were occasional breaks during which refreshments were served.

Nonetheless, some of them lost their strength. When Beaumanoir, exhausted, asked for a drink, he was scornfully answered: "Drink your blood, Beaumanoir, and your thirst will be gone." drove the English line. With Bramborough already fallen, English resistance collapsed. Most were captured, nine are said not to have survived the fight. The French side had three dead, according to other sources four.

The "Tournament of Thirty" had hardly any substantial consequences for the progress of the conflict - the War of the Breton Succession ended in 1364 when Charles of Blois lost his life and battle near Auray. But to European public opinion, Beaumanoir's "victory" appeared as powerful revenge for the crushing defeat the English inflicted on the French at Crecy (although French casualties there are estimated at around 10,000 men).

The meeting was celebrated in verse, on pictures and tapestries, a monument was erected on the battlefield. "The fame and honor of this battle reflected the knight's nostalgic vision of what a battle should be like," says American historian Barbara Tuchman in her bestseller Der ferne Spiegel. Though the knight "practiced warfare of plunder and devastation, he dreamed of the noble greatness of Sir Lancelot."

Just five years later, the English longbowmen at Poitiers proved that the knight's dominance of the battlefield was nearing its end. Several thousand French died again in the hail of arrows from the lightly armed foot soldiers.

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