In ‘the noble city’ of Tournai in 1394, ‘In Honour of God and the King of France/ There was made in very fine ordinance’. In July and August fifty teams from across the Low Countries came together for a ‘feast and noble affair/ the handsome game of the crossbow’. They competed to ‘hit two targets’, the two large targets being set up at each end of the market place in the town centre. As the crossbowmen entered Tournai they passed through streets bedecked with cloth. ‘Everything was decorated very well/ by skilled workers/ and hung with cloths/ to show castles argent on a field of gules [i.e. the arms of Tournai].’ Other buildings were draped in the French royal colours – green and white – demonstrating Tournai's loyalty to the king and sense of civic pride. The crossbowmen processing past these buildings were no less elaborate. Those of Bruges carried gold and silver and all had been given funds by their town officials to pay for their journey to Tournai. Many other civic authorities had likewise given their guild-brothers money ‘for the honour of the town’. A nearcontemporary poem describing the events lists each of the fifty towns that had sent teams. They included great Flemish centres such as Ypres and Lille and small towns like Dixmuide and Sluis; guilds came from Brabant, Hainaut and Holland, from nearby places like Condé and from more distant French towns, including Laon and Paris. Numerous prizes of ‘silver, gold and finery’ were given for the best individual and group shooters, for those who had travelled the greatest distance and for the guild that performed the best play. The event was not a one off; rather, it was part of an elaborate series of archery and crossbow competitions staged in the Low Countries throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Where had these skilled crossbowmen competing for prizes learnt their skills? Who were they? Were they rich civic elites, or craftsmen from the middling ranks of urban society? Why did Tournai host such an elaborate event and allow such a potentially dangerous activity to take over civic space during much of the summer?