Of the mandates issued for the suppression of tournaments, many examples have come down to us. The Fœdera contains a considerable number. Some were sent forth by the temporal prince, others were launched by the spiritual arm; for it was no difficult matter in these days to obtain the pope's aid in any scheme of this nature, where a benevolent intention could be assigned, and a liberal douceur had been supplied. In 1220, Pandulf the legate forbids a tournament in England, under pain of the forfeiture of goods and of excommunication[427]. In 1234, the king of England charges his subjects that they offend not by tourneying or behourding (_buhurdare vel torneare_[428]). In 1255 the royal inhibition is again sent forth, and the reason given for its publication is the peril of Prince Edward in Gascony: "eo quod Edwardus, filius Regis in gravi periculo existit in Wasconia[429]." 1265 is the date of another[430]. In 1299, the king again issues his mandate: this time with penalties of peculiar severity. The knight is forbidden "sub forisfacturâ vite et membrorum, et omnium que tenet in dicto regno, torneare, bordeare, seu justas facere, aventuras querere, aut aliàs ad arma ire, quoquo modo, sine nostrâ licenciâ speciali." Should any dare to disobey, then they are forthwith to be arrested and placed in safe custody, "corpora ipsorum, unà cum equis et hernesio suis[431]."
Whilst, however, the monarch of timid character and jealous of his baronage, looked with disrelish on the Tournament, the prince of an enterprising disposition and skilled in military exercises, naturally regarded with more complacency a pastime in which his own achievements were placed in the most brilliant light, and the respect and attachment of his nobles secured, by the exhibition of those qualities on which they themselves founded their chief claim to power and distinction. Thus, in the thirteenth century, when the king (Henry III.) had created eighty new knights, the gallant Prince Edward accompanied them to a tournament which had been proclaimed on the continent, "that each might try his strength, as was the custom with newly-made knights[432]." In 1253, the Earl of Gloucester with a companion also went abroad, to take part in a marriage festivity and in a tournament which followed it: an adventure in which they were so roughly handled by the antagonist knights as to require daily fomentations and bathing to restore them to health[433].