La educación física del caballero medieval

Abstract

The medieval knight was required to perform the same physical exercices and have the same capabilities as Spartan, Athenian and Roman soldiers. They had to be agile, strong, fast and able to use weapons on foot as on horseback. To be pysically fit was as important as knowing history as explained by tutors and sung by jugglers in moments of leisure during which they learnt of legends, nationals heroes and the paradigms that distinguish nations. All the heroes praised through generations provide models shaped the collective personality of entire peoples. San Isidoro de Sevilla, Ramón Llull, King Alfonso X the Wise and Don Juan Manuel were the principal writers to exalt the figure of the knight and his education. During the XII, XIII, XIV and XV centuries and including the Renaissance, there were exhibitions of physical games, during which knights sought fame and fortune: jousts, tournaments, staged games, games using canes and processions of arms called «pasos honrosos» were undertaken with popular enthusiasm in Western and central Europe in the Byzantine Empire and throughout the Moslem world.