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Tobias Capwell cannot remember a time when he was not interested in the
Middle Ages. He began riding at the age of eleven so that he would be ready
to joust when the time came. Come it did: eight years later he was facing
his first opponent in front of three thousand people. Toby has been living
his dream ever since, jousting in the United Kingdom, continental Europe and
America. An American by birth, he moved to England in 1996 as a founding
member of the Royal Armouries jousting team. When not on horseback Toby
pursues his academic career as Curator of Arms and Armour at the
world-famous Wallace Collection in London. |
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Toby is one of the most experienced
jousters on the international scene today. His team ‘Freelance’ won
the ‘Sword of Honour’ team competition at
the Royal Armouries in 2002, while the Order of the Crescent has held it
every year consecutively since 2007. In 2005 he took the Scottish Sword of
Chivalry after a gruelling three-week tournament held by the National Trust
for Scotland and the Royal Armouries, and in 2006 became ‘Queen’s Champion’
by winning the Royal Armouries Queen’s Golden Jubilee joust in 2006. In 2008
Toby successfully completed an authentic 15th-century pas d’armes, held at
the Historical Museum in Bern, Switzerland, in which he alone defended the
field against three opponents for eleven days in succession, in that time
running 132 joust passes or ‘courses’ and fighting 22 longsword combats on
foot. |
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Toby changes his armour with shocking regularity, but nevertheless is
easily recognised by armour and joust enthusiasts worldwide. He has jousted
in German, Italian, and English-style armours, always pursuing new forms and
designs in an effort to better understand how armour worked and why the
bewildering multitude of styles evolved. Currently Toby has been spotted
wearing an armour in the early alla Romana, alla Antica or ‘Heroic’ style, a
powerful expression of the Renaissance warrior spirit, which blends
state-of-the-art Italian military design of the 1400s with stylistic
features inspired by the war accoutrements of the Ancient Romans. |
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Sable, a crescent and three chevronels
interlaced Or.
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