The English Tournament society has been set up to recreate as many of the aspects of the 15^th century tournament and its associated activities as we can. Our ambition is  to put  mounted mêlées, jousting and foot combat in their context at the centre of a feast of music, heraldry and theatre. Given the competitive excitement, theatre and humour of the original events, we see no conflict between a desire to achieve a good standard of authenticity in the tournament buildings, dress, martial activities, music and other entertainment and our desire to create events that are massively entertaining for ourselves, our fellow re-enactors and the public. Who are we? We are a recently formed group of experienced re-enactors, academics and craftspeople who all share a passion for the culture of the late 15^th century and its most extraordinary manifestation …The Tournament. Some of our older members took part in the first living history experiments Kentwell Hall in the late1970s and have returned to reenactment after a long break. Craftsmen members  have worked on museum displays such as Jorvic, the Medieval Royal Palace display at the Tower of London, the Ashmolean Museum Oxford and Gerry Embletons Time machine projects. We also have members working on the conservation and restoration of  medieval  buildings at York Minster and New College Oxford amongst others. If you add a theatre stage manager, several early musical instrument makers and players and others with considerable experience of event management, we are well equipped for the task of recreating the infrastructure of a 15th Century Tournament. The Edgcote Tournament We are  promoting the second Edgcote Tournament as our own major event, While we fully intend the Edgcote Tournament to be viable in every sense, we hope that the control we have over the festival will allow us  to pursue our vision with fewer  compromises than events with purely commercial intentions. After Edgcote Because of the complexity of what we are creating, our aim will be to promote or attend two or three events a year .We are not attempting to compete with other groups or events, or to provide a full diet of reenactment activity for our members, indeed most will also be members of other more active groups. However, we do hope to provide something unique and extraordinary in the 15^th Century re-enactment calendar. We are very happy to interact with other groups, and welcome all who share with us King Rene’s passion for The Tournament. Alan Lamb The English Tournament Society     September 11th & 12th 2010