A report of Bern 2008

[Mathieu Harlaut]

Dear guests, recruits, members and officers,
After two week of vacations I am finally home and now the event of  
Bern seems like a dream blurred by time gone by. But thanks to the  
pictures posted by Marta, Nina, Konrad, Tom and Andrea I know it was  
not a dream but memories form one long and great event of the  
Companie of Saynt George.

I would like to thanks each and everyone, guest, recruits and members  
alike for your hard work, energy and enthusiasm (I promise this the  
last time) :-). I am really proud and honored to have shared this  
moment with you and to have "led" you during those days.

 From a couple of emails I received, I know that many enjoyed this  
event like me.

I would like to thanks Gerry and Christian one last time. The former  
because this great event would never had taken place without him and  
for his kind advises, his support, his understanding and the trust he  
granted to Christian and me. The later for all the hard work he does  
behind the scene all year long, preparing this event and many other  
and keeping the company alive in between.

This is my humble report of this event. I apologize in advance  
because I certainly omitted a lot of things, so much happens in  
twelves days. If you wish to add your own feedback or any thing you  
think is important, please feel free to do so. I have added the seven  
reports from Christian's blog in between my text for a better  
rendering of what happened.

Notre Dame !  Monseigneur St George, Bourgogne !

Mathieu Harlaut

Lieutenant of the Companie of Saynt George during the campaign of  
Bern 2008.



Event Report Bern 2008

The Company of Saynte George had a 12 days event in the Historical  
Museum of Bern from July 30 to August 10. It has been the longest  
company event since I joined in 2000 and it may well have been the  
longest ever, nearly 2 weeks sleeping under our tents. We were lucky  
with the weather; it was perhaps too hot and sunny but no rain except  
some nights and a couple of short showers during the day. If the heat  
were sometime difficult to endure, rain would for sure have spoiled  
everything. We feared storms like in 2003 but despite some strong  
winds, there was no damage done to the camp.

Since April 25, and until August 24 2008, the Historical Museum of  
Bern is the host of an extraordinary exhibition on Charles the Bold  
that will then go to Bruges and to Vienna in the years to come. The  
highlight of this exhibition was a 12 days tournament on the plaza in  
front of the Museum. The company was asked to give its support to the  
4 jousting Knights and to display 15th Century military daily life  
and crafts in a camp settled in the backyard of the Museum.

I must say that this exhibition is an absolute delight, if you can  
spare some time to see it, either in Bruges or Vienna, it is worth  
the trip and even more.


_____________________

Report I

This is Friday after St. Marta and it is a cloudy day. The first part  
of the Company of St. George got to Berne on Thuesday setting up the  
campground for the rest of the Company and supporting the knights  
around Sir de Romont at their tournament very close to our camp. We  
are having a headcount of 25 men, 9 women, 2 babies, 10 horses, 2  
falcons a mother pig and 7 piglets in the camp. Werner hurt his knee  
yesterday on the stairs and Walter cut his finger. We are expecting  
two dozen additional men and women today. We had a soup of peas and  
carrots for lunch and the cooks got some fish from a local dealer for  
tonight, may god bless them. I will need to make sure the tents are  
safe as the cloud look as if a thunderstorm would be arriving.


_____________________


The company was present with a total of 118 people. We were as few as  
22 on the first day, and up to 70 during the second week. I believe  
that the camp was always a busy and lively place; we even provided a  
constant military presence on the front of the museum from the first  
Friday until the last Saturday.

The camp was settled in the same spot as in 2003, but the space  
available was smaller, limited to the small courtyard where our  
kitchen used to be. This time, the visitors could only access to the  
camp through the Museum. The camp was indeed small, but there was  
enough shade under the trees to hide from the sun. All this made it a  
jolly and agreeable place to live in. Even if the camp was settled in  
the middle of modern buildings those were well hidden behind the  
stables and the many tents we had raised. It is quite amazing to  
realize that we set up so many tents in such a small space? and that  
a lot of them were left empty.

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Report II

This is Saturday after St. Marta and we had a calm night. I had  
instructed the night watch to pay very much attention to the tents  
but god held his guarding hands over our camp. The Lieutenant  
assembled a large guncrew and an armed dizaine last night when the  
city was in turmoil for a local holiday. So we marched out into the  
city and took the town hall of Berne in a surprise attack. Tonight  
there will be a courtly feast with the knights and I hope the cooks  
make a fine dish. They have sent two people to the market in the city  
to get some crayfish. I am sure this will impress the noblemen.

_____________________

We had two military dizaines. It was decided before the event that  
when one would stay in the camp, providing help to the kitchen and  
keeping watch, the other would go in front of the Museum to display  
military glaive drills and shooting cannon. This worked really well  
and I must thank the dizainiers for keeping their men active in the  
front. Master gunner Franck was also very helpful on this matter. It  
is worth noting that the dizaine system is improving with each event,  
the dizainiers getting more and more confident and being a source of  
new activities each day. To emphasize the Burgundian identity of the  
company, it was decided to provide a full drill in French. The  
dizainiers and men of the rank mastered quite well this complicated  
language, along with the new war cry ? Notre Dame, Monseigneur St  
George, Bourgogne!? which was very impressive. I sent some specific  
ordinances to all dizainiers before the event, including the new  
order in French, specific instructions for the event and the drill  
step by step. I believed it made things clearer and easier for all.  
Our Burgundian identity was also underlined by the opportunity to  
drill with our brand new glaives provided in a very short time by Jakub.

Our men spent a lot of time doing exercise with the guns under the  
supervision of the master gunner Franck. He pushed them very hard,  
keeping them active even when after shooting 60 times in 5 days the  
Museum asked us to stop because of too many complains.  He then  
switched to the usual dismantling and assembling of the gun. One  
unseen exercise was to lower the gun in pieces trough a man powered  
medieval elevator in the Museum park.

Peter, a guest from Austria, brought is steel crossbow and Arnaud?s  
dizaine had the leisure to test it on our large pavise. The said  
pavise was soon transformed into a porcupine and it seems that it is  
sufficiently resistant to crossbow. However, considering the  
difficulty to pull the darts away I must add that this crossbow is  
indeed a frightening weapon.


_____________________


Report III



It is Sunday now and I had to take over the kitchen myself. The cooks  
have been very exhausted after the feast. We had planned for a lot of  
fish, but then Seegras went out for a hunt with his men and they came  
back with a wild boar and a smiling face. The Joust is still running  
as planned and we have musicians in the camp now. I like the bosine  
very much, the sound is so clear in the morning. Tomorrow, the  
knights will not ride and we may take a stroll in the city again.


_____________________

The main attractions of the event was the Pas d?armes, held twice a  
day on the plaza in front of the Museum. The place and the arena were  
the same as last time but the similarity ends here. This time the  
joust was a real thing, with riders wearing real armours and trying  
their best on the field. It is true that there was a scenario and the  
winner was always the same, but they broke lance for real and the  
combats, lance on horse and longsword on foot, were not written in  
advance. There were 4 Knights, each one accompanied by a squire :

Quoted from an email from Tobias Capwell:

"Toby Capwell (knight): has been riding for 25 years and jousting for  
15 years. Toby jousts in several major competitions every year, and  
is a founding member of the Order of the Crescent. In daily life he  
is Curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection in London,  
and has published numerous books and articles on the subject of  
historic weapons and armour. Toby wears armour in the Italo-Flemish  
'al antica' style.

Steve Mallet (knight): is an expert rider and trainer of the Iberian  
Doma Vaquera school, and works as a full-time professional jouster  
and cinematic horseman. Also a member of the Order of the Crescent.  
Steve wears armour of the Italo-Spanish style.

Graham Turner (knight): is a historical artist, and regularly  
illustrates books for Osprey Publishing among others. Graham has been  
riding since childhood and jousting for about 4 years. He wears  
armour of the English style.

Luke Binks (knight): is an armourer and jouster from Australia, and  
perhaps the newest member of the European historical jousting  
community. He wears armour of the Italian style, unless he has built  
something else without telling me!

Adam des Forges (Squire): Adam is a full-time artist and historical  
interpreter. He was head of the Interpretation dept. at the Royal  
Armouries in Leeds for a number of years before going freelance.

Dave Rawlings (Squire): Dave is new to 15th century living history.  
He is one of the UK's most experienced historical swordsmanship  
instructors, and in addition to squiring he will also be acting as  
fight master for the knights, conducting regular training sessions to  
prepare them for combat in the lists.

Nick Checkfield (Squire): Nick is a full time living history  
professional, with a full calender of talks, lectures, and other  
events. He is also a skilled armourer and medic (!)

Lockhart Ogilvie (Squire): Lockhart is a professional actor, camera- 
man, and fight specialist, who has worked with me many times on film  
and TV projects."

I believe we worked and get along quite well and we hope to be able  
to invite some of them at one of our future events.


_____________________


Report IV



It is Tuesday now and the knights are back on the field. One of the  
noblemen has recieved a fierce blow during one of the fights and he  
went down into the sand. With holy Marys help it was nothing serious  
and he rode again afterwards. We are spending happy days in the camp  
and the weather is fine. So fine in fact that the men forget to look  
after their tents and I would almost like to see a bit of rain and  
wind in the night to remind them to stay vigilant. Not to much though.

Today is the anniversary of the birthday of our magnificent  
Lieutenant Mathieu. For two days now all the dizaines are working on  
presents for him. Tonight's muster will be a happy one.


_____________________



Being only eight it is clear that they were not enough to run the  
joust and they had to rely a lot on the company. On the first days we  
had to participate with a lot more company people then planned, but  
as the event went on we got back to a more reasonable number, thanks  
to Gerry, Ian and the jousters themselves. Eventually it kept Ian and  
his joust dizaine busy all week long. The dizaine in the front of the  
Museum took part as well by guarding a corridor to allow the horses  
to reach the field. It wasn?t as easy as it seems since the horses  
needed to go through the Museum park crowded with all the visitors.  
This Pas d?armes was inspired by the legend of the Jason and the  
Golden Fleece and each joust was introduced by an ?entremets?  
presented by children and telling the story of Jason. Of course the  
costumes were not what we could have hoped for, but the ship tracked  
by two courageous ponies crossing the field attacked by hallowing  
Harpies was in fact very much in the spirit of those medieval shows  
depicted in many primary sources like Olivier de la Marche. Many  
participants had the opportunity to see the joust, and some of us  
even had the privilege to participate as judges. Wearing all their  
fineries company participants could watch the Pas d?armes from the  
Grand Tribune decorated with Charles the Bold?s coat of arms at the  
far end of the field. What a fine picture it was to see those  
beautifully dressed people crossing the full length of the field  
waving at the crowd!!! The joust was indeed very impressive, even  
more so in the field as many company members and guests saw it. One  
of the most impressive things were the horses themselves. They had  
been trained only a couple of weeks before the event, and were  
therefore quite unpredictable, even very nervous for some. In these  
conditions, it is not surprising that one of the Knights finally gave  
up riding his horse? He ended up entering the field on foot for the  
longsword combat. He had been unhorsed twice in front of the crowd  
before starting the fight. Falling from a horse with a 30 kg?s armour  
is not what you would like to do everyday. The same horse made Andy  
and I ran for our life on the first day. His rider could not master  
it, and as a consequence, we had to hide behind the horse of an other  
Knight before heading for the other side of the field!!!

_____________________

Report V


This is Wednesday and it was a fine joust yesterday. We had delicious  
chicken for supper and Lieutenant Mathieu was really touched by the  
great many gifts he was offered. Among them was a useful megaphone, a  
good replica of a medieval helmet (in paper), a new drill for the  
Company, champagne, a patten for a child, fruit cakes for everyone, a  
piece from a lance said to be a piece of the holy lance of St. George  
and a splendid bag with stitching containing 3 hooks he dearly wanted  
to have for such a long time.


_____________________


As it is usual in company camps nowadays, numerous artisans were  
present, showing different medieval crafts. They were for a change  
divided by social status into 2 dizaines according to the prestige of  
their crafts. This led to fierce competition between the two  
dizaines, the upper class artisan displaying all their wealth with  
Master tailor Harry as their representative, and the lower class  
artisan led by patens maker Roger Kolb and very eager to show their  
value to the company. Of course it was just a game in which most of  
the artisans took part. This kind of acting makes camp life a bit  
more eventful and is a good opportunity for laughter?s, especially  
during the musters? I must say that having so many talented artisans  
in the middle of the camp was a real blessing. I very much  
appreciated the fact that they were part of the camp life and all  
ready to answer the need of any participant, whereas in events like  
Haut-K?nigsbourg,  artisans are far away from the camp and usually  
unreachable because of the crowd. And of course during twelve days  
you have plenty of time to figure out your needs. Klaus made a lot of  
small hooks and a couple of cauldron handles for the kitchen. Nina  
sold many of small irreplaceable small items like aiglets, buckles  
and belts; and she was ready to mount them if necessary. Tom was also  
a great help to tailors and gunners alike, providing pines and  
needles specifically designed for their trades. Jimmy or Véronique  
easily replaced any broken pottery and you know that it can happen  
once so often during twelve long nights. Tobi mastering the rare  
skill of writing was employed for many different tasks: writing reply  
letters from the lieutenant to new recruit, ?resignation? letters for  
seamstress, gift labels and beautiful illustrations for gifts? I must  
admit that I found the tailor workshop very handy as Harry mended my  
hose twice, repairing more than I wished for. My birthday and  
Christian and Saara?s wedding party were good examples of the  
participation of the artisans to the camp life.


_____________________


Report VI

This is Thursday before St. Laurentius. The weather is still fair and  
we welcomed more people in the camp last night, when Henrik and the  
other friends from Sweden made it. In the evening, there was a  
surprise after the muster. Suddenly one of the dizaines came after me  
and Saara. They took hold of us and placed us at a decorative table,  
where we received roses from the whole company. As a gift for the  
upcoming wedding, we received two wonderful chandeliers and we  
enjoyed the dinner in the Company of Mathieu. Yesterday people  
started to wear paper badges with an "M" written on it. This seems to  
be some kind of fashion.


_____________________


This event was a huge success. During the twelve days 35000 visitors  
came, 22000 spectators saw the joust ( all tickets sold out at every  
show).


_____________________

Report VII

This is the 12th Sunday after Trinitatis. The weather spared us  
again. The Company will break down camp tonight and I am already on  
my way out o Berne. With a reasonably sized dizaine I am looking for  
a new camp ground near the street back to Burgundy. The final Joust  
is being held today and Jacques de Romont is praying for a final  
victory. We think he deserves it.

Last night, we saw a live edition of Sir Toby's talkshow on Reenactor  
TV, the channel where history is made. Not surprisingly Sir Tobi  
invited Toby Capwell for an interview. After a being trapped by a  
huge mess of ropes behind one of the cameras he found his seat and  
warmed up in the conversation. When surprise guest Charles the Bold  
appeared, the female audience was close to ripping their hood of. It  
was a splendid night.


_____________________


Jacques de Romont won the last joust and Charles the Bold himself was  
the final judge. He was escorted by the lieutenant and 4 archers of  
the Companie of Saynt George. It was a supreme honor.  Charles was so  
pleased by Jacques prowess that he went down in the arena to give  
Jacques the necklace of the order.