The Greatest Knight

Tournament scene

Smash and grab - 19th century style

Timewatch uncovers the remarkable social history of a terrible crime in The Wreckers.

Reinventing history

Discover how the past has come right up-to-date, changing the nature of history.

Timewatch presenter and military historian, Dr Saul David, delves deep into the violent world of the medieval melee tournament.

Forget the images of chivalric knights, well-dressed damsels and dropped handkerchiefs associated with the joust. The melee tournament was a brutal free-for-all with sharpened weapons, few rules and one undisputed champion, William Marshal.

His story reveals a very different kind of tournament, one in which brute force ruled, handkerchiefs stayed in pockets and where money was more important than manners.

Saul journey's into the knightly world of William Marshall, training as he did, trying out his weapons and charting his epic rise from a money-grabbing tournament champion to the Regent of England who saves a kingdom on the battlefield. On the way armour is tested, heraldry is explored and how William Marshall received a transfer fee that would have shocked even David Beckham.