Tournaments and the Integration of the Nobility in the Habsburg Composite State

Abstract

This article examines the chivalric encounters organized on the occasion of the Joyous Entry of Prince Philip in the Low Countries in 1549–50. It poses the question as to how they functioned as a performative tool to enhance cohesion among the nobles of the Habsburg composite state. The tournaments served as a regulated outlet for noble violence, controlled by the prince and his closest collaborators. In this way, they both created and cemented the bonds of knightly brotherhood within the entourage of the household, while at the same time reaching out to others who did not (yet) belong to the new prince's circle