Knights

I read last night that during the 12th century, when Henry II was King of England and Richard the Lion Heart but a boy, that tournaments between knights were becoming all the rage. They joined bawdy literature about knights and their noble born mistresses. But there were no jousts as yet, only a gigantic general melee followed by running battles in which knights and troops of knights struggled to capture each other for fame and ransom.

Like this....

It was held a very clever trick, as many did, to announce that one would not join the tournament, but would sit it out. The after the general melee to suddenly leap into the fray and capture as many scattered and disorganized knights as one could.

Henry the Young, King of England with his father and his trusted friend William Marshal did this frequently.

William Marshal's coat of arms.