History Main / TheTourney

* One of the several [[StoryWithinAStory in-universe fanfics]] in ''Fanfic/SkyholdAcademyYearbook'' puts [[Franchise/DragonAge Varric]] on the back of a horse, trying to win a joust in order to earn the right to marry the woman he secretly loves. He loses badly, but because of the nature of the story, things work out anyway.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* In ''Film/AKidInKingArthursCourt'', a tournament of arms is held to determine who will win the hand of King Arthur's elder daughter, Princess Sarah. Arthur surprises his people by opening the tournament to everyone, rather than just nobles, so that the man Sarah loves has a chance.

* William Marshal became known as "the greatest knight who ever lived" and started his career as a Tourney fighter when his father send him away to France to get rid of him. He became so successful and famous, that he was chosen by King Henry II of England to be the personal trainer of his son and to take him into his tournament team. He came to serve the royal household under four kings and for some time even was the regent of the kingdom.

* In Sir Creator/WalterScott's ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfQuentinDurward'', in the BackStory, Isabelle's aunt was married off to the victor of a tourney; the king, citing that, decides she shall be married off to whoever brings him the head of de la Marck.

* In ''The Armor of Light'', James's court stages one. Sir Philip Sidney, fighting, is targeted by BlackMagic but still manages to triumph.

* In Victoria Ugryumova's ''Doppelganger for the Jester'', a tourney in the honor of the new empress is marred by an assassination attempt on TheEmperor. Also, by tradition, the winner of the tourney challenges a member of the [[PraetorianGuard Emperor's Guard]] to one-on-one combat -- and gets his ass handed back to him, just like every other challenger before him.

* In the ChivalricRomance ''Ipomadon'', Ipomadon appears at the tourney in disguise -- pretending to be hunting in the meantime, even though it is for the hand of the princess he loves.

* In Creator/EdwardEager's ''Knight's Castle'', the children visit a world of toy knights who host a tournament.
* In Debra Doyle and James [=MacDonald=]'s ''Knight's Wyrd'', the newly knighted Will sets out on the round of tourneys throughout the land. Unusually, this is the melee.

* In the ChivalricRomance ''Partonope de Blois'', the last thing Partonope must do to win back his beloved Melior is to win at three days of tourney.

* In Sir Creator/WalterScott's ''Literature/QuentinDurward'', in the BackStory, Isabelle's aunt was married off to the victor of a tourney; the king, citing that, decides she shall be married off to whoever brings him the head of de la Marck.
* In the ChivalricRomance ''Richard Cœur de Lion'' -- bearing minimal resemblance to the historical figure -- Richard appeared in disguise for a three-day tourney, once in black, once in red, once in white.
* In the ChivalricRomance ''Roswall and Lillian'', Roswell magically appears as an armored knight to fight in the tourney for three days, despite working as a menial servant in between.
* In the ChivalricRomance ''Sir Degare'', Degare fights in a tourney for the hand of a princess. Only once he has won does it occur to him to test the princess with a token left with him when he was abandoned as a child; this enables her to recognize him as her son before the situation gets out of hand. He later meets his father and reunites the couple.
* In the ChivalricRomance ''Sir Degrevant'', Degrevant, long persecuted by a neighboring lord and long in love with the neighbor's daughter, enters and wins a tournament for her hand.
* In the ChivalricRomance ''Sir Isumbras'', Isumbras [[FallenOnHardTimesJob is reduced to menial work]] as TheBlacksmith. However, he makes himself armor, and when some characters, as a jest, give him a horse, he distinguishes himself at the tourney.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'', one is organized by Lord Farquaad to find a suitable knight to rescue Fiona and bring her back for marriage. Shrek barges in and defeats all the knights when he becomes the target of the tournament, becoming the "winner" by default.

* The Barons of the March in ''VideoGame/KingOfTheCastle'' love a good jousting tournament and hold them regularly. Several story events involve the King being invited to such events, and they can either sponsor one of the knights in the tournament or declare their intent to compete themselves; if the King competes openly, their opponents will deliberately lose out of fear of retaliation for injuring the ruler, but if they don a SecretIdentity, they will actually get a proper fight out of their opponents.

* In ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'', Prince John organizes an archery tournament to lure Robin out of hiding, and uses the perfect bait by awarding the winner a kiss from Maid Marian.

** [[SpinOff In the same universe]], "The Hedge Knight" (a [[Literature/TalesOfDunkAndEgg "Dunk & Egg"]] story) has the two characters meet up on the way to a tourney. Duncan, a squire to a dead knight, [[SelfProclaimedKnight pretends to be a knight himself]] in order to enter, and over the course of the series continues BecomingTheMask. From main-series history [[ForegoneConclusion we know that he will go on]] to become Lord Commander of the [[PraetorianGuard Kingsguard]].
* In Creator/MichaelFlynn's ''Literature/SpiralArm'' novel ''In the Lion's Mouth'', the Pedant notes that the pasdarms is certainly descended from this. While the fighting bears no relationship, the pageantry was very like the late medieval tourneys.
* In ''Literature/TheTraitorSonCycle'', there are several tourneys, organized either to celebrate victories or as a cover for more insidious actions.
* In Creator/SusanDexter's ''The True Knight'', Titch and Gerein fight in one; Titch hopes to make his fortune there.
* In ''Literature/TheUnhandsomePrince'', Melinower hosts a regular one, with separate categories for regular and enchanted weapons. Prince Hal decides to enter with the apparently-useless enchanted sword he recently bought, and, since no one knows that he's finally discovered the sword's secret, he can bet heavily on himself.

* The UsefulNotes/Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire has a plotted story each year which centers around the reigning monarch (either Henry VIII or Elizabeth I), and features live jousts as part of the daily story. Attendees can, if they wish, basically follow the story around the faire and witness the entire plot. The festivities of each day are concluded with the grand joust on Bosworth Field, where predetermined victory in the tournament wraps up the plot for the day.

* ''Literature/AConnecticutYankeeInKingArthursCourt'' (1949). While at a tournament Hank Morgan fights a duel with a knight, defeating him by lassoing him with a rope.

* ''Literature/MothAndCobweb'': In Creator/JohnCWright's ''Green Knight's Squire'', the knights of Summer and Winter fight in one that verges on highly ritual combat. We also hear that in the back story, Ygrainne had talked the elf knights into this instead of GladiatorGames, pointing out they should be able to do what merely human knights did.

* ''Series/{{Galavant}}'': Galavant enters a jousting tourney because the group is out of money, only to be woefully underprepared because he's become an alcoholic, lazy HeartbrokenBadass since his girlfriend left him. [[LivingLegend His reputation]] gets him moved to the championship bracket, giving Isabella a day to whip him back into athletic shape. She tricks his opponent, Jean Hamm, into getting wasted on absinthe for good measure. [[spoiler:Galavant is too sore to move much during the actual joust, leading to the most anticlimatic match ever as both get knocked off their snail's-pace horses. The confused referee deems whoever stands up first to be the winner, which Galavant luckily is.]]