I just need to get a few names and some suitable heraldry of Spanish knights who were active in the 1550's for a project. Need to name one at a joust and can't find anything!

Thanks

Griff

I am not sure where to find sources for 16th century Spanish knights. It's pretty tough, I guess.

Here is a short wikipedia article about a soldier who captured Francis I of France at Pavia and got the knighthood for that. Maybe you could use him?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_de_Urbieta

Hi! Why not someone that is maybe one of the greatest and best known Generals of the period?

Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel, Grand Duke of Alba.
"Grande de España", Knight of the order of the golden fleece.

Lead the Spanish Empire to a decisive victory in the Battle of Mühlberg (1547) among others, although he was actually born in Lisboa (Modern day Portugal).


[ Linked Image ]


[ Linked Image ]

Good luck with your project!

Thanks for these guys.

Sadly Juan died 4 or so years before i need him jousting at Hampton Court. I know the Spanish were probably the best jousters in Europe, but that's going some!

I have looked at Alba but he's just so massively well known and fabulously wealthy I cant' honestly portray him even on the relatively generous budget I have. I think he's already in the Low Countries by then so again, have to a be a long lance.

Have you considered looking up the rolls of participants of Lepanto or some other battle around that time to find participants of roughly the correct age for your needs?

I assume that you don't need this information anymore, but if someday you return to need it, in Biblioteca Digital Hispánica there are few manuscripts with spanish heraldric.

Blasón de armas o armería, en el qual se ponen las armas de muchos Reynos e imperios de cristianos e las armas de los claros varones destos Reynos de Castilla, from 1541
http://bdh.bne.es/bnesearch/detalle/bdh0000135707

Blasón de armas de todos los reyes, emperadores, caballeros e hidalgos de España, from XVIth century
http://bdh.bne.es/bnesearch/detalle/bdh0000118745

You can search terms like 'blasón', 'escudo de armas' or 'Heráldica España', but most are from XVIIth century.

El Becerro general: libro en que se relata el blasón de las armas que trahen muchos reynos y imperios, señoríos ... y de la genealogía de los lynages de España y de los escudos de armas que trahen
http://bdh.bne.es/bnesearch/detalle/bdh0000135656



In 1549 the prince Philip - and his father the emperor - assisted to a tournament in Binche [Belgium]. There were some spanish knights fighting, and there are at least three published accounts of it with the names of them. The most detailed is that from Calvete de Estrella.

Juan Cristóbal Calvete de Estrella, El felicíssimo viaje del muy alto y muy poderoso Príncipe don Phelippe,
https://bibliotecadigital.jcyl.es/es/consulta/registro.cmd?id=19028

Relación muy verdade- | ra de las grandes fiestas que la Serenissima | Reyna doña María ha hecho al Prin- 1
cipe nuestro seflor en Flandes en vn | lugar que se dize Uince, desde | xxij. de Agosto hasta el | postrero dia del
mes. I a Embiada por el señor don Hieronymo Gabanillas.
https://archive.org/stream/b24853148#page/56/mode/2up

Relaciion del camino y buen viaje que hizo el Princ. de España D. Phelipe ... 1548 Vicente Álvarez [1551]
https://books.google.es/books?id=LO87AAAAcAAJ

I'm sure that the book of the "Cofradía de Santiago de Burgos" has images of early XVIth century knights and heraldry, but I'm unsure of the date of the latests knights.

http://www.siloe.es/facsimiles/custodiados-en...-santiago/

I wil check if I have access to a copy, in that case I can send you images of it without problem ;)

I have identified the spanish competitors in the tournaments of Binche – august 1549.

There was also a tournament in Brussels fought in bands of horsemen in april, and there Luis de Requesens knocked down the prince from his horse with a coup of lance in the head.
Requesens left Brussels for Spain afther the death of his mother and he couldn't assist to the torunaments in Binche.

[B5] Luis de Requesens
https://www.misapellidos.com/ver_escudo-de-requesens-65438-2.html
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_de_Requesens


[b]The tournaments:[/b]
[M] Tournament on foot. Milan. December 1548
We know that there wew another tournament on horse in Milán, but the description of it was very short.
In this tournament on foot they fought 24 against 24, with pikes and swords. At first, three against three, secondly, 8 against 8, and then all in, 'a la folla'.

[B5] 5th of may of 1549. Brussels.
Combat on horse in squads. 4 borgognian 'mantenedores' against 60 knights on squads.

[B13] 13th may. Brussels
The description of this tournament is very short, and only a few of the competitors were mentioned. The two 'mantenedores' were spaniards: d.Alonso Pimentel and d.Gaspar de Quiñones.

[F]
24 of august. Binche. 44 competitors in 9 squads against 6 'mantenedores'.

Tournament on foot with sword, pike, jabeline, two hand swords, 'trozo de la lanza' or 'lanza de armas quebrada de encuentro – piece of lance / lance of men-at-arms broken after combat, and ax.

[A]
25 and 26 of august of 1549. Binche

Adventure tournament. A tournament with a plot that imitated one of the stories of Amadís de Gaula. They fought on horse and the competitors had to win three 'mantenedores' at three points to achieve her destiny and be able to extract a sword from a stone. The story was theatre, but the combats were real with wounded. The winner was... the prince. I could not say that this victory was arranged, but...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amad%C3%ADs_de_Gaula

According to the descriptions, we can assume that the competitors in this kind of 'adventures' had to be wealthy in order to dress themselves, their horses and their servants properly.
Don García de Ayala fought as 'caballero de la muerte', 'death knight', and he and his servants were dessed in black with 'deaths'- I suppose that skulls - because he felt himself dead as his Lady had rejected him...
All this theatre had to be expensive, but we found two servants of the Emperor, Juan Quijada and Gaspar de Robles, who have won, respectively, the prices of the sword -400 escudos - and the jabelin – 500 escudos - in the tournament on foot. It's probable that as they were two briliant combatants, the Emperor himself provide them the equipment to take part in the 'adventure of the sword' that was theatrically announced in Brussel in may.

We have to say that only two spanish knights fought all the occasions: Gaspar de Robles, 'costiller' of the Emperor – he couldn't assist to the Milan tournament during the travel of the prince, because he was servant of the Emperor - and Luis Zapata, former page of the prince Philipp.
Both were servants, so maybe it wasn't a matter of wealth that you could combat on those royal tournaments, but skills and patronage.

I assume that this two champions were on their 20s, because in the mid 1540s they were still pages of their lords, but we can find combatants on their 40s, like Luis de Ávila y Zúñiga – who fought in the 1546/47 german campaigns, and wrote a book about that – and don Juan Manrique de Lara, who was fighting in the 1520s civil war against the castillian 'comuneros'.


[H] 30 august of 1549. Binche

'Classic' tournament on horse. 60 competitors


The knights:
Next to their names we have [F] if they fought in the tournament on foot, [B5] if they combat in the Brussels tournament of 5th may and so on.


[b]5 tournaments[/b]
[B5, B13, F, H, A] Gaspar de Robles, page of the Emperor until 1547, then 'costiller', gentleman of his house fron 1549 to 1556.
He won the price of the jabelin – a jabelin of gold of 500 'escudos' - in the Binche tournament on foot.

[M, B5, F, H, A] don Luis Zapata, son of Francisco Zapata. Page of the prince Philipp between 1539 and 1546

4 Tournaments
[M, B5, B13, F] Ruy Gómez de Silva [portuguese] I duke of Pastrana, prince of Eboli
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruy_G%C3%B3mez_de_Silva

He was made duke in 1572. In 1548/49 he was 'chambelán' and 2nd 'sumiller de corps' of the prince
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ducado_de_Pastrana#/media/File:COA_Duke_of_Pastrana.svg

On the tournament on foot in Milan, he distinguished himself breaking three pikes.

[B5, F, H, A] Juan de Acuña, VI count of Buendía, page of the prince until 1548
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condado_de_Buend%C3%ADa#/media/File:Escudo_Acu%C3%B1a.gif


3 Tournaments

[M, F, H] don Diego de Leiva, page of the Emperor from 1543 to 1547, onwards 'costiller'.

[M, F, A] Don Luis de Ávila y Zúñiga [1504-1573], comendador mayor de Alcántara, one of the knight spanish orders.

His arms:
Half left: blue with 13 golden circles. Half right: silver with a black strip and a golden chain
https://serzisanz.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/escudo-luis-de-c3a1vila-y-zuc3b1iga.jpg

[B5, F, A] don García de Ayala, brother to the count of Fuensalida
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condado_de_Fuensalida#/media/File:Blas%C3%B3n_Armas_Condes_de_Fuensalida.svg

[B5, B13, F] don Alonso Pimentel, gentleman of the house of the Emperor, from 1543 to 1556

[B5, H, A] Don Hernando or Fernando de la Cerda, son of the duke of Medinaceli, Juan de la Cerda.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ducado_de_Medinaceli#/media/File:COA_Duke_of_Medinaceli.svg

[M, B13, A] don Diego de Acuña

Two or one tournaments

[F, H] don Juan de Silva, V count of Cifuentes, 'gentleman' of the house of the princep Philip.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condado_de_Cifuentes#/media/File:Arms_counts_portalegre.jpg

He could be taking part in the tournament of Milán, but there were another Juan de Silva, son of the marquis of Montemayor. Usually people with titles are mentioned by their title accompanied or not, by their names.

[M, B5] Claudio de Quiñones, count of Luna
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condado_de_Luna_(1462)#/media/File:COA_Count_of_Luna_(Qui%C3%B1ones).svg
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condado_de_Luna_(1462)

[M, F] don Luis Manrique, VI Conde de Castañeda [died in 1585], from the house of Manrique de Lara
https://goo.gl/images/DRiqBq

[F] don Gómez de Figueroa, captain of the spanish guard of the prince Philipp

[F] don Álvaro de Portugal, II count of Gelves

[M, F] don Juan de Saavedra, son of the count of Castellar
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condado_de_Castellar#/media/File:COA_Escudo_de_los_Arias_de_Saavedra_-_Condes_de_Castellar.svg

[F] don Pedro de los Roeles or Roelas. Son of Alonso de los Roeles. Page of the prince from 1543 to 1545

[F] don Martín Cortés. II marquis del Valle, son of Hernán Cortés, page of the prince from 1539 to 1541
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquesado_del_Valle_de_Oaxaca#/media/File:Escudo_de_Hern%C3%A1n_Cort%C3%A9s,_marqu%C3%A9s_del_Valle_de_Oaxaca_1529.svg


[F] don Carlos de Arellano, from 1549, gentleman of the house of the prince

[M, F] don Juan de Benavides, son of Luis de Benavides, mariscal de Castilla, lord of Frómista. 'Trinchante' of the prince from 1535 to 1548, then, gentleman of his house.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquesado_de_Fr%C3%B3mista#/media/File:Escudo_de_Fromista.svg

[M, F] don Rodrigo Manuel, son of Lorenzo Manuel, butler of Charles V. From 1548, gentleman of the house of the prince

[F, H] don Juan Manrique de Lara, butler of the Emperor, brother of the duke of Nájera
[url]https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_de_Manrique_de_Lara#/media/File:House_of_Manrique_de_Lara_COA.svg[/url]

He had to be the most veteran competitor in the tournament because in 1520s he was fighting in Spain against the 'comuneros' the castilian rebels. He was judge in the adventure tournament.

[M] don Bernardino Manrique de Lara, brother of the 3rd duke of Nájera.

[F] don Francisco de Mendoza, son of the marquis of Mondéjar [Iñigo López de Mendoza]. Gentleman of the house of the prince from 1548 to 1556.

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_de_Mendoza

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquesado_de_Mond%C3%A9jar

[M, F] don Álvaro de Mendoza, gentleman of the house of the prince from 1551 to 1556

[M, F] Don Luis de Leyva, prince of Ascoli or Asculi, navarrese father Antonio de Leyva, italian title.

[M, B5] Luis Mendez de Haro, 'gentilhombre' – gentleman, of the house of the prince from 1548 to 1555.

[F, A] Juan Quixada or Quijada, gentleman of the house of the Emperor, 1548-1552
He won the price of the sword, a sword of gold of 400 'escudos'.

[M] Don Álvaro Osorio, elder son of the marquis of Astorga
[url]https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquesado_de_Astorga#/media/File:Escudo_del_Marquesado_de_Astorga_(Grande_de_Espa%C3%B1a).svg[/url]

[M] Don Alonso de Tovar, 'trinchante' of the house of the Prince between 1543 and 1548, then 'gentleman' of his house.

[M] Don Álvaro de Sande, maestre de campo – colonel – of a spanish tercio.
[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81lvaro_de_Sande[/url]

[B5] Luis de Beamont.

[M] Francés de Biamonte

[B13, H] don Antonio de Toledo, 'caballerizo mayor' of the prince from 1548, son of the III count of Alba de Liste, don Enríque de Guzmán.
[url]https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_de_Alba[/url]

[H] Luis Quijada, or Luis Méndez de Quijada, 'caballerizo' of the Emperor from 1543, butler of the Emperor in 1556.

[M] Don Gabriel de la Cueva, son of the duke of Albuquerque
[url]https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ducado_de_Alburquerque#/media/File:COA_Duke_of_Alburquerque.svg[/url]

[M] don Fadrique Enriquez, brother of the 'almirante de Castilla',

[M] don Luis Enriquez, almirante de Castilla
[url]https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Enr%C3%ADquez_y_T%C3%A9llez-Gir%C3%B3n[/url]

[M] Garcilaso de la Vega, son of the poet and 'maestre de campo' Garcilaso de la Vega. Page of the prince from 1539 to 1548, then gentleman of his house.

[M] Pedro Dávila y Zúñiga, Marqués de las Navas.

[M] Duke of Alba

[M] Antonio de Rojas, 1st 'sumiller de corps'

[B13] Gaspar de Quiñones, gentleman of the house of the Emperor, 1543-1553

[M] Garcilaso Portocarrero - or Puerto Carrero - de la Vega. Page of the prince 1543-1546. Gentilhombre of his house 1551. Son of the 2nd count of Palma, Luis Fernández Portocarrero.
[url]https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condado_de_Palma_del_R%C3%ADo#/media/File:COA_Count_of_Palma_del_Rio.svg[/url]

[M] Pedro de Quintana, gentleman of the house of the prince from 1548 to 1556, son of the secretary of the emperor also called Pedro de Quintana.

[M] Don Hernando Carrillo de Mendoza, page of the Emperor between 1537 and 1544. Gentleman of the prince 1551-1556

[M] Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, 3rd duke of Sessa [Italy]
[url]https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzalo_Fern%C3%A1ndez_de_C%C3%B3rdoba_y_Fern%C3%A1ndez_de_C%C3%B3rdoba[/url]
[M] don Bernardino Manrique de Salamanca, gentleman of the house of the prince.

[M] Marqués de Falces
[url]https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gast%C3%B3n_de_Peralta[/url]
[url]https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gast%C3%B3n_de_Peralta#/media/File:Escudo_Peralta.svg[/url]


There are other 18 spanish knights who fought in the tournaments of Milan and Brussels, but I have not identified them, because in the relations do not appear more details than their names and surnames, which were common like Mendoza, Benavides, Tavera, Rojas, Córdoba, Granada, Ávila, Castilla and so on.

For example, we had two Bernardino Manrique, but one was of the noble Manrique de Lara house, and other one Manrique de Salamanca, but at least we have de two surnames to confront their identities.


Sources:
Accounts mentioned in previous message
+
La corte de Carlos V v5.4 Los servidores de las casas reales
[url]https://repositorio.uam.es/handle/10486/742[/url]

Impressive.

And yet we have to heard that the Paso Honroso more than a century earlier was an "obsolete custom" and that Quixote's dreams (1505) were of a dead past, while such events were part still of the living memories...