A tiltyard (or tilt yard or tilt-yard) was an enclosed courtyard for jousting (also known as "tilting"). Tiltyards were a common feature of late medieval castles and palaces. The Horse Guards Parade in London was formerly the tiltyard constructed by Henry VIII as an entertainment venue adjacent to Whitehall Palace; it was the site of the Accession Day tilts in the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I.
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The tournament was still in Tudor times one of the favourite pastimes of royalty and the nobility. A great deal of the danger of this martial sport had, however, been eliminated by the invention of the "tilt," originally a cloth stretched along the middle of the lists, over which the knights fought. In time the cloth became a stout barrier of timber. No Tudor palace was complete without its tiltyard, and that at Whitehall, "for Noblemen and other to exercise themselves in Iusting, Turneying, and fighting at Barryers," (fn. 1) was on the west side of the road, just north of the Holbein Gate, and extended over the sites of the northern portion of Dover House, the Horse Guards, the Office of the Paymaster-General, and Admiralty House. (fn. 2) It is shown, with the longitudinal barrier clearly marked, in the maps of "Agas," Braun and Hogenberg, Norden and Faithorne and Newcourt.
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