Kipper (medieval tournament)
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- For the smoked fish, see kipper.
In medieval tournaments a kipper is a person employed by a knight, usually a vassel of the knight such as a slave, serf or peasant.
Knights.and.kippers.JPG
The function of the kipper(s) is to follow his knight in combat and retrieve armour or arms from fallen adversaries. If the fallen adversary was not completely subdued and ready to give up his armour and arms the kipper would bang on the armour-clad opponent with various blunt non-lethal (hopefully) instruments, like heavy sticks or clubs, in order to knock him unconscious for the purpose of removing his armour and weapons without further protest.
This was done because it was the right of a knight to seize the armour and weapons of a fallen adversary during tournament. In the early days of tournament fighting it was not much different from open warfare, with few rules and none of the pomp and ceremony of the later tournaments. In this chaotic melee, kippers were the foot soldiers as far as collecting the spoils of combat (tournament), but it was not their stated function or intention to actually participate in the tournament fighting.
In the later Middle Ages kippers were frowned on as tournaments began to less resemble real warfare and the chivalric code became more popular encouraging less war-like and more honorable tournament conduct.
The origin of the word comes from various sources such as Icelandic kippa which means "to pull, snatch" and the Danish word kippen which means "to seize".