Ransom Tournament

A modern format of tournament growing in popularity in the Society for Creative Anachronism, frequently called William Marshal tournaments after the greatest tourneyer of the ransom-tourney age. In these tournaments men entered the lists at their own risk--if they were ‘defeated’ their horse and armour was forfeit to the capturing knight. This was a popular way for younger sons of knights and nobles to earn a living and to earn renown. In the SCA form of the tourney, combatants enter the lists worth a certain number of tokens or coins or a point value ranking according to their rank within the Society. If they are ‘killed’, they must accompany their captor without hindrance to their recess, where they must surrender their ransom or tally their point value to the captor’s total. These tourneys have proven to be excellent fund-raisers; the Company of Saint George first tried such a tourney as a fund-raiser for the kingdom newsletter, the Page, and the Company of the Angels held another such tourney two years later, donating their proceeds to the Tomb of William Marshal in London. See Chronique: The Journal of Chivalry \#9 and the Tournament Formats for SCA Combat monograph.