"The ancient game from which lawn tennis was adapted had been played at least since the early Middle Ages. Its roots lay in spectacle. The origins of ball games are'shrouded in mystery' according to the German historian, Heiner Gillmeister, who believes they emerged out of the ceremonies that took place at weddings, when a show was put on that would be memorable to all those present. At aristocratic nuptials these would be courtly tournaments and jousts. The tournaments was a stylised version of armed combat, a festive version of or preamble to it, at which knights displayed their skills before an audience that included the ladies of the court. Echoes of this still linger at the modern Spanish bullfight. Gillmeister speculates that these tournaments originally took place in front of the castle portcullis, a grid that became in tennis a frille at one end of the court. This would also explain the tennis term 'dedans' or 'within', the passage of arms being between those outside and those within the fortification."