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The 1839 Eglinton Tourament
The tournament was held in the grounds of Eglinton Castle 20 miles from Glasgow city boundaries. The Event was extremely popular with /spectators who flooded into the castle grounds to see the chivalrous tournament, jousts armour and all. Many of these would have journeyed from Glasgow, but there were also visitors from abroad, England, Edinburgh and it's surrounds.
It was organised by Archibald William Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton, 1st Earl of Winton, KT, PC (29 September 1812 –4 October 1861), styled Lord Montgomerie from 1814 to 1819, was a British Conservative politician. He was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1852 and again from 1858 to 1859. The Eglinton family were involved in the Craft as the 10th, 16th and 17th were Grand Master Masons of Scotland and the 18th was Past Assistant Grand Master in England.
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Eglinton Road in Glasgow was in the port Eglinton terminus of the planned Glasgow to Ardrossan canal, even though the canal eventually went only as far as Johnstone, Port Eglinton was named after Hugh Montgomery the 12th Earl of Eglinton who worked with Bro. William Houstoun (our first master) on the canal project.
The tournament was organised by Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton; it was held at his family estate at a cost of approximately £2.5 million in today’ s money. However, the Eglinton tournament was the first civilian, unofficial re-enactment in Britain and is part of the history of reenactment groups that continue to this day.
Only people with independent wealth could afford to buy antique armour, reproduction weapons, horsearmour, and costumes for their men-at arms and pages. The cost was so high that of the 150 people who had been interested in participating in the tournament, only 13 jousted in the final event.
One such ‘knight’ was Viscount Glenlyon as the Knight of the Gael with his retinue of Atholl Highlanders (shown below) who is reputed to have spent £90,000 on his armour (helmet & ‘wild man of Atholl’ shown above right). He would become Grand Master Mason 1843—64, First Grand Principal 1844— 50 and Grand Master of the Order of the Temple 1845—63.
What is really interesting is how this tournament engaged the public imagination. Around 100,000 people came to watch over the three days.
