Build it! The joust Build a stand for your jousting knights! Decorate it with flags and shields. Knights needed to practice, even when there were CHEERING CROWDS Crowds cheered for STANDS no battles to fight! The best way to do that was their favorite knights to Huge stands were built to compete in games. A day of games was called win the contest. especially for tournaments. a tournament. The most exciting event at the tournament was the joust. DANGER! The knights weren’t BARRIER supposed to kill each other, but sometimes they did! The knights charged Ready, set, joust! from either side of a wooden barrier. This was Two knights mounted their horses. safer for the horses. Hey, evil knight loser. They raced toward each other at I have defeated you. Now I can full speed. They each held a 12-foot take your horse, your (3.7 m) lance, or pole, and tried to weapons, and your knock each other off with it. evil helmet . Peasants like to joust, too. But we do it on piggyback! Climb on! That’s fine, take it all . WINNER except for the helmet. I The winner was often allowed to LOVE my evil helmet . take the loser’s horse, as well as his other belongings! 14 15 Not finally approved by Licensor. © 2016 The LEGO Group Build it! Castle defense Can you build a castle that’s superhard to attack? The enemy is on the way! Raise the drawbridge! Now no one BATTLEMENTS Archers could hide behind can get inside. Steep walls are hard to climb, especially with tall, teethlike bricks or fire ARROW SLITS through gaps. Very thin windows were hard arrows zinging through the arrow slits! to fire into from the outside but easy to fire out of from the inside. ROUND TOWERS WALLS Early castles had square Supertough castle towers, but attackers could walls were 6 to 16 feet ram the corners. Round (1.8 to 4.9 m) thick. ones were sturdier. It’s a plan, but some of these sieges go on for months, even years. You’re going to need a Stinky water snack with that. Many castles were surrounded by ditches filled with water, called moats. A moat made it tough to get We could always just sit close to the castle. Worse, the bathroom waste from and wait until they run out of the castle was tipped right into the moat. Yuck! food and surrender. Plus, I can’t attack without a coffee. DRAWBRIDGE Some castles could raise up parts of their bridges so that they couldn’t be crossed in raids. 1226 Some castles had special holes for dropping rocks or boiling oil onto an enemy. 27 Not finally approved by Licensor. © 2016 The LEGO Group Into battle Imagine going into battle Iron man Sometimes a knight wore chain mail. head to foot in a suit of Visor This was made of thousands of iron metal! Armor kept knights rings. It looked like a knitted sweater, Breast- but made of metal instead of wool. safe from arrows. But it was plate very heavy. A typical suit of armor weighed as much as Gauntlet RINGS (iron glove) A single suit of chain a seven-year-old child! mail could include Greave 200,000 rings! (shin protector) Move it! Armor looks tricky to move in— HELMETS doesn’t it? But old stories tell how A knight could see only forward. He had knights could actually turn cartwheels to watch his back! and leap onto horses while in armor! Phew. That’s a full Quick! The castle knight’s work already. is under attack! And just because I had a wee problem. Knights, to Oops, I knew your posts! It will take me an hour I’d forgotten to get out of this something important. armor and get to the bathroom! Build it! Make a suit of armor for your bravest, boldest knight! 1238 A knight’s warhorse wore special armor called barding. 1339 Not finally approved by Licensor. © 2016 The LEGO Group.