Name: William Avery of Woodstock
Birthdate: 1369 ("currently" 1403)
Birthplace: Oxfordshire, England

Family Background: mother is a Danish born artisan in the court of Joan of Kent and father a retired soldier of noble English decent.

What is currently happening: After spending the majority of my youth in University I am now traveling to participate in various jousts to learn what school could not teach.
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I'd also look for Cobban's English University Life in the Middle Ages and Rashdall's Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages (volume III is specifically on life at English universities). It strikes me that a person who was on the career track to becoming a tournament knight would probably not have had a university education, but I may be incorrect on that assumption. Training in terms of horsemanship and other skills that would be later required in adult life would have been more useful; he could obtain such an education as a page and/or squire. (Much in the same way as a person destined for a trade would have been an apprentice to a master craftsman in that trade, rather than having studied it at a university.)

I would recommend focusing on the area(s) that interest you most. Are you interested in being an early 15th century jouster? If so, what training would they have had? What skills would they have learned? What sort of clothing, armor, accoutrements, etc. would you have had? Some potentially useful mostly-primary sources for you: Muhlberger's Jousts & Tournaments: Charny and Chivalric Sports in 14th Century France, Lull's Book of Knighthood and Chivalry. The Knighthood, Chivalry, & Tournaments Resource Library may also have some useful information for you.

Karen

Thanks for the input. A few of the books I have read and I will definately look into the others as well.

One point you make is that University and Jousting may not be a good fit...

The impression that I am after is one of noble birth/upbringing in shich I assume education would play a part, but as of yet I have not had a chance to read much into the early Universities, something I plan to rectify with abe.com this evening .

Something else that I just thought of is that for ease I am planning this impression around my actual life making it easier to remember which brings up a question I have not been able to find in my research:

How often did familys move about? Did they follow the court of whatever noble the belonged to, or predominately stay in one location?

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The impression that I am after is one of noble birth/upbringing in shich I assume education would play a part, but as of yet I have not had a chance to read much into the early Universities, something I plan to rectify with abe.com this evening .

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Education would play a part in the upbringing of the sort of person you intend to portray, but it would have likely been a far different form of education than what we today consider "formal" education.

Assuming you are going for more of the "jousting knight" impression, you would have been sent off to another knight's or nobleman's household at a fairly young age, served as a page in his household until such time as you could become a squire, then served as a squire until such time as you would become a knight. During your years as a page, you would have learned etiquette (see Furnivall's Babees' Book for information and primary sources) while serving the household; as you grew up, you would have learned elements of horsemanship and the fundamentals of jousting, as well as whatever other skills your master thought you ought to pursue (falconry, literacy, etc.)

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How often did familys move about? Did they follow the court of whatever noble the belonged to, or predominately stay in one location?

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Again, this is another of the questions that varies depending on the situation of the families in question. A serf's family might never move, for example. But in your case, I would say that your own family's travels would not affect you much (as you would not have seen them frequently), but you probably would have accompanied your master on his travels -- again, Charny and Lull will be good resources on this, and the aforementioned chronique.com -- assuming that your master was an English knight, you might have accompanied him to tournaments throughout England and on the Continent (France most likely), where you would basically be acting as his servant (assuming your master cared enough about you to keep you on the straight & narrow!)

Just be sure to avoid its later and more well-used meaning.

A woman from a noble household wouldn't have any type of employment - such a thing was beneath them. An artisan of this period usually implies skilled labour, so to someone from a noble household this wouldn't apply.

Cheers