Eglinton Tournament of 1839

Eglinton Tournament Of 1839

The Eglinton Tournament of 1839 was a re-enactment of a medieval joust and revel held in Scotland on Friday 30 August. It was funded and organized by Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton, and took place at Eglinton Castle, near Kilwinning in Scotland. The Queen of Beauty was Georgiana Seymour, Duchess of Somerset. Many distinguished visitors took part, including the future Napoleon III of France.

Widely publicized and open to the public, it was a deliberate set piece of Romanticism, in the face of widespread social and ideological upheaval experienced by Europe during the 1830s. A hugely popular and significant phenomenon (planned for 4,000 people, it drew 100,000 spectators; significant impact on attitudes to gothic revival; gigantic boost to local economy), the Eglinton Tournament is primarily famous today by way of the ridicule poured on it by those of politically late Whig/Liberal motivation and by many of their successors today. Problems were caused by rainstorms of freak severity. And yet it would be untrue to claim that period critics were necessarily absolute in their condemnation: “Whatever opinion may be formed of the success of the Tournament, as an imitation of ancient manners and customs, we heard only one feeling of admiration expressed at the gorgeousness of the whole scene, considered only as a pageant. Even on Wednesday, when the procession was seen to the greatest possible disadvantage, the dullest eye glistened with delight as the lengthy and stately train swept into the marshalled lists". Despite contemporary ridicule being better remembered today than its successes, it was a real tournament, participants having attended regular training during the course of the year prior. Indeed, when one high spirited combat exceeding these regulations it so stood out for doing so that it was soundly mocked in the press for the enthusiastic violence of the participants.

To understand the actual significance of the phenomenon of the Eglinton Tournament one must understand that it was not an event lasting just a few days: the years of planning, the numerous training sessions before a private audience in St John’s Wood and very public promenading in Regent’s Park before and after these practices, the many works of art both commissioned for and inspired by the Eglinton Tournament, a number of which were copied industrially to satisfy widespread enthusiasm for the event all had a significant effect on public feeling throughout Britain and no small effect on the course of 19th century gothic revivalism. The Eglinton Tournament, had been far more ambitious than previous tournament festivals in Europe since the rise of neo-gothic revival in the 1750s, not just in size, but in terms of its efforts to achieve an exercise that reflected ever more accurate perceptions of the past. In this way, the massive and ambitious Eglinton Tournament, via events of ever increasing attention to archaeological accuracy such as the lavish Tournament of Brussels in 1905, was an important and pioneering stage in a continuum that has resulted in the educational and entertainment industry of multi-period Historical reenactment of the present. It is true that many features of the tournament were inspired by specifics from the tournament conjured by Sir Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe rather than from primary evidence but the Eglinton “tournament was attempting to be a living re-enactment of the literary romances” and not an early exercise in experimental archaeology.

In Eglinton’s own words “I am aware of the manifold deficiencies in its exhibition — more perhaps than those who were not so deeply interested in it; I am aware that it was a very humble imitation of the scenes which my imagination had portrayed, but I have, at least, done something towards the revival of chivalry”.

It is also generally neglected that the event successfully brought incredible sums of money (one contemporary source estimated as much as £500,000) to the area around Irvine in Ayrshire. The only person to have made an actual loss was Lord Eglinton himself who none can claim to have set out to profit from the project anyway. The Earl's grand-daughter, Viva Montgomerie recalls in her memoirs that due to the tournament the family resources had been badly degraded, believing that he had spent most of the wealth of the estate.