698 tournament
Aquitaine, they turned their attention south, moving on
BARCELONAto seize in an attempt to enlarge their power
over all of PROVENCE.
Toulouse prospered in the 11th century through its
position on the north-south TRADE and PILGRIMAGE
routes. The pilgrimage church of Saint-Semin was started
there in 1075. Recognizing its sympathy to heretics,
SIMON DEMONTFORT, THEELDER, captured it during the
Albigensian Crusade. Numerous religious houses were
founded there to combat the heretical beliefs common in
the city. The Dominicans introduced the INQUISITIONto
the town in 1234. Rule by counts ended in 1249 and the
brother of King LOUISIX, Alphonse of Poitiers (d. 1270),
inherited the town and changed its government to resem-
ble more closely those of northern French towns, more
readily influenced by the Crown. Toulouse then acquired
an estates-general and a provincial parliament. At
Alphonse’s death, Toulouse passed to the direct control of
the Crown of France.
See alsoPILGRIMAGE AND PILGRIMAGE SITES.
Further reading:Kathryn Horste, Cloister Design and
Monastic Reform in Toulouse: The Romanesque Sculpture of
La Daurade(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992); John H.
Mundy, Liberty and Political Power in Toulouse, 1050–1230
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1954); John H.
Mundy, The Repression of Catharism at Toulouse: The Royal
Diploma of 1279(Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediae-
val Studies, 1985); John H. Mundy, Men and Women at
Toulouse in the Age of Cathars(Toronto: Pontifical Insti-
tute of Mediaeval Studies, 1990); John H. Mundy, Society
and Government at Toulouse in the Age of the Cathars
(Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1997).
tournament From its appearance in the mid-11th
century in western France, the tournament initially took
the form of a confrontation or meléebetween two groups
of 40 to 50 mounted combatants over a large area away
from inhabited places. It resembled a battle and was a
training ground for KNIGHTS, an outlet for aggression and
warlike attitudes, and a way to make a fortune and a
career. Its objective was to capture an adversary, hold
him to ransom, and take his arms and horse or HORSES.
The participants had to develop signs to allow recogni-
tion on the battlefield, which led to the heraldic devices
of the later Middle Ages. Opposed to such violent activi-
ties, the church forbade Christian burial to those killed
in tournament fighting. Nor did monarchs like these
assemblies of soldiers outside their control, among
whom sedition might be plotted and armed forces mus-
tered and assembled.
In the 13th century, the tournament changed,
becoming more domesticated. The battlefields became
smaller arenas solely for spectacles, including jousts or
duels, between two knights and thus even more the most
prestigious forms of noble entertainment and sport. Tour-
naments remained dangerous but were more artificial,
regulated for safety, and ritualized according to literary
and artificial ideals of form and style. In most of them
two knights charged one another while separated by a
barrier, carrying blunted lances, seeking to unhorse one
another. Crowds of men and women watched these
jousts. The English king, EDWARDIII, was particularly
fond of this style of tournament, recognizing its prestige
value for English arms. In the 15th century the element
of display and pageantry was cultivated to fancifulThe court of Empress Theodora
See also CHIVALRY; KNIGHTS AND KNIGHTHOOD;William Caxton
Further reading: Richard W. Barber, Tournaments:
Jousts, Chivalry and Pageants in the Middle Ages(Wood-
bridge, England: Boydell, 1989); Richard W. Kaeuper,
Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe(Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1999); Maurice Keen, Chivalry(New
Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1984).towns SeeNAMES OF INDIVIDUAL CITIES AND TOWNS.trade and commerce Trade and commerce in the
Middle Ages revolved around the Baltic Sea in the north,
the Mediterranean Sea in the south, and the overland
routes from Asia and AFRICA. It could involve luxury
items but also more common bulky material, often food-
stuffs or manufactured goods. Increased population, bet-
ter agricultural organization and productivity, improved
techniques of capital formation, better and more efficient
means of transport, and more innovative mercantile
entrepreneurship led to a commercial revolution in the
13th century. The urban centers of the Low Countries,
CHAMPAGNEin FRANCE, and ITALYwere at the heart of
this development, but it was not limited to them. The
MONGOLconquests of the 13th century led to more stable
conditions in the regions between Europe and Asia and
produced an increase in trade. GOLDand later slaves pro-
moted the trans-Saharan trade in Africa. Islamic mer-
chants maintained commercial links in the Persian Gulf
and the Red Sea and down the coast of Africa and across
the Indian Ocean to India. The CRUSADES, though
destructive, also promoted links between the eastern and
western Mediterranean. Such expansion of trade led to
the growth of cities and urban populations who con-
sumed, distributed, and manufactured trade goods. WAR-
FAREand disease in the 14th and 15th centuries certainly
impaired international, local, and regional trade and com-
merce, though they continued everywhere.
See alsoBANKS AND BANKING;BRUGES;CAIRO;CON-
STANTINOPLE; FAIRS AND MARKETS;FLORENCE; FOOD,
DRINK, AND NUTRITION; GENOA; PISA; SHIPS AND SHIPBUILD-
ING; SIENA; VENICE.
Further reading:Robert S. Lopez and Irving W. Ray-
mond, eds. Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World: