Tournaments of the sixteenth century were mostly for diversion and practice, and it was very rarely that any great injury was sustained. It will be seen from the descriptions here given that it was mainly a question of concussion, in the splintering of lances, or being rolled on the ground, the hardness of which was greatly modified by a liberal covering of tanning refuse. The stunning effects from the strokes of the sword and mace, as felt on the inside of the thick defences used, must have been very trying, and one fails to understand how so comparatively little damage to life and limb was experienced in the riders being hurled from their steeds, encased in their heavy panoply of more than two hundred pounds in weight; and what makes this the more extraordinary is that the rider was helped on to his horse again after a fall and ran again, and this sometimes happened several times: but judging from the records preserved, and there are many, the casualties in the tilt-yard of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were little, if at all more numerous and serious than those in the hunting or football fields of to-day; or in the duels that were common so recently at German universities; or for the matter of that in the accidents arising from the use of the cycle. This comparative immunity from serious injury in the tilt-yard was partly accounted for by the assistance rendered by the varlets in helping the horse to keep his feet, and the rider his seat after impact, and also in assisting in breaking the fall of the rider. SHARFRENNEN. This form is characterised by heavy lances “sharp,” as the name for the course implies. The main object was “unhorsing,” and the saddle was unprovided with front and rear supports; it was, in fact, quite unlike the ordinary war-horse saddle--indeed, more resembling the English saddle of to-day. The object of this was that there should be nothing to impede the rider’s fall. The lances used in this course were not expected to break or splinter, though they did so sometimes. On the moment of impact each combatant dropped his lance to avoid injury to the arm from splintering, and this was the case in the other courses also. The consequence of a true impact was, as a rule, that at least one rider was unhorsed; but sometimes both riders fell, and occasionally both horses as well, so that all four combatants, for the horses may be said to have fought also, bit the dust. In cases where a rider was able to keep his saddle for a moment after impact and swaying in the endeavour to retain his seat, his varlets rushed forward to support him. Sometimes in case of lances slightly deflecting, or missing altogether, one and even both horses have been known to fall forward. There was a “rennen” between the Emperor Maximilian and Duke John of Saxony at Innsbruck in 1498.