Tournament Gallery
The Tournament area serves two functions:
- A display area telling the story of tournaments through the ages with imagery of tournaments from the earliest times. Cased objects include Italian and English jousting armours of the early 17th century.
- A combat/interpretation area that will host live demonstrations of hand-to-hand combat including pollaxe and hand-and-a-half swordsmanship.
When there are no live performances monitors nearby will show a tournament film. For the younger visitors, there are two interactive computer games, The arming of Henry VIII and Heraldry, are also included.
The gallery symbol used throughout is in the form of a jousting helm together with a rich colour purple. The colour signified wealth in early times because of the great cost of the expensive dyes needed to produce it.
Notable objects located in this gallery
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Armet of Sir Henry Lee
Armet of Sir Henry Lee. English, Greenwich, about 1580
Dates from 1580 | Object number: IV.43