Jousting medieval england 'we shall overcome' tune

William Thatcher, a knight's peasant apprentice, gets a chance at glory when the knight dies suddenly mid-tournament. Posing as a knight himself, William won't stop until he's crowned tournament champion—assuming matters of the heart don't get in the way.

A closer look into the filmmaking of Brian Helgeland's "A Knight's Tale".

A maverick group of fighters compete for top honors in the most dangerous competition in history. Far from the contrivances of the Renaissance Fair, this is authentic, full-contact jousting, with two competitors on horses charging towards each other at 30 miles an hour. Gone is the traditional armor, replaced by state-of-the-art protective gear. Each week's episode features full-contact trials and preparations that will ultimately determine the champion-king of the joust.

In the year 1215, the rebel barons of England have forced their despised King John to put his royal seal on the Magna Carta, a seminal document that upheld the rights of free men. Yet within months of pledging himself to the great charter, the King reneged on his word and assembled a mercenary army on the south coast of England with the intention of bringing the barons and the country back under his tyrannical rule. Barring his way stood the mighty Rochester castle, a place that would become the symbol of the rebel's momentous struggle for justice and freedom.