Medieval Knighthood

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Defining the Knight

By Melissa Snell, About.com



A knight is essentially a mounted warrior in the service of his liege-lord.

The mounted warrior had a great advantage on the battlefield. Using the speed and momentum of a charge, the horse could trample his rider's enemies; the rider could use the long lance to injure his foes while he remained out of reach of their weapons. Then, with all speed, the knight could ride off, only to return for another deadly attack. This technique had the most devastating effect when the cavalry worked together in formation. The horse-mounted soldier was therefore of great significance to an army's leaders; thus the root of the French word for knight, chevalier, is the French word for horse, cheval.

The ability to wield a sword or lance from horseback was a special skill that took practice and wherewithal, and it also took practice with comrades to learn to work together as a team. A lord would employ knights and give them the time and equipment they needed to practice; in return, they served their lord as vassals. The duties of a vassal could include not only fighting in his lord's army, but guarding his castle, giving him financial aid, acting as his messenger or ambassador, and serving on his council. The knight was under his lord's protection, both legally and militarily.

It was the relationship between himself and his lord that defined the knight's life. The lord's position gave him considerable control over the knight's life, career, and future, including the final say in whom the knight could marry and the disposition of his estate after his death. The lord technically owned the land used by the knight to raise revenues, and while the property usually remained in the knight's family for generations, it was the lord's prerogative to revoke a knight's right to the land and give it to someone else.

A lord might also be a knight in the service of a higher authority, who in turn would serve his liege, all the way up to the king. This chain of service was the basis of feudalism, and its importance is revealed in the Saxon word for servant, cniht, which gives us our English knight.

Today, the word "knight" conjures up far more than war and service. Loyalty, courtesy, honor, glory, courage -- all this and more come to mind when we think of the knight in shining armor. And, indeed, as history unfolded, the knight's role in society altered from that of a cavalry soldier to a model of behavior. Yet, as we know, knights were only human, and did not always live up to the standards imposed on them by society.

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[Arthur Gordon Pym]

The Origins of Knighthood in Europe

By Melissa Snell, About.com



The medieval knight was not the first man ever to hold special status for his job as a horse-mounted soldier. In Ancient Rome, the equites (mounted officers) held a special social position. But the Roman political structure differed markedly from that of medieval Europe. It is feudalism1 that gave the knight his unique status. The history of feudalism and the knight goes back to late antiquity.

After the Roman Empire fell, western Europe had to adapt to new circumstances. Kingdoms struggled to survive, constantly faced by the threat of invasion by nomadic tribes and aggressive neighbors, including Magyars and Vikings.

The European leaders formed armies consisting of ordinary men -- peasants and tenant farmers -- who were used to standing up for their homes and community, and when they fought other foot soldiers they often held their own. But the invaders brought a new element of warfare for which they could not cope: The Mounted Warrior.

To fight fire with fire, it was necessary for the western European armies to create cavalries of their own. But an ordinary citizen could not afford the maintenance and care of a trained war-horse, let alone its purchase. Furthermore, horsemanship skills needed practice, and the average citizen had no time for that, because he had to feed his family. This usually involved working the land, which not only put food on the tenant farmer's table but put money in his landlord's pocket.

It was the Roman practice of commendation that brought on the birth of knighthood. A Roman soldier would attach himself to a superior officer, promising military service in return for some kind of support, usually a grant of land known as a benefice. European leaders such as Charlemagne adopted this practice; they would grant parcels of land (complete with serfs) to their best warriors.

In return, each warrior (who was now a lord himself) would use the income from his land to equip himself with a horse and weapons. And, now that he had the leisure time of a land-owner, he would practice horsemanship and horse weaponry so that he might better serve his liege-lord.

The land grants did not end with one distribution -- each warrior-cum-lord would divide up his land and grant parcels of it to retainers, who would then follow the same procedure. The land would be divided and re-divided until what was left was the minimum required amount of land to support a knight. This was usually 12 hides (about 1500 acres), but it depended on the quality of the specific land and how much food or other natural resources it could produce. It cost 30 marks a year to support a knight.
The knight of Europe therefore had his origins in military and economic need. His role was as a warrior, and in some cases he was little more than a thug rewarded for his viciousness. But if a knight was to succeed, he had to take his role in the military seriously. As time went on, success required more than brawn: it required loyalty to his liege-lord in society as well as strategy and ingenuity on the battlefield.

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[Arthur Gordon Pym]

The Joust

By Melissa Snell, About.com




When we think of the knight in shining armor, we almost automatically think of the grand joust. It's hard not to imagine the thunderous hoofbeats and the roar of the crowd as two knights race towards each other in a test of skill and nerve.

The joust grew from the chaotic melee of the tournament. As restrictions were put on this dangerous form of combat practice, an event designed to test the horsemanship and weapons skill of the individual knight evolved, and eventually became the focus of the merry spectacle of the tourney.
In the joust the knight used the lance, a weapon specifically designed for mounted combat. At first jousters would simply spur their horses towards one another, weapons ready, each attempting to push the other off his horse. Once on the ground, his battle was as good as lost, for the mounted warrior could run him down, trample him, or spear him with his lance--all while out of reach of the land-bound fighter.

When the joust came to represent the horsemanship of the fighter, safeguards evolved. The lance was fitted with a three-pronged tip, a coronal, which was designed to keep the weapon from penetrating a knight's helm and to redistribute the force of the impact.

Armor developed specifically for the joust. Some armor had heavier protection on the side toward the opponent and lighter or no protection on the other side. There was a style of armor with a built-in shield at one side of the waist, just at the point where the lance should strike.

There was even armor designed to break apart on impact, leaving the rider in the saddle. None of this armor was ever used in real battle, for the point of the joust was to test skill, often against comrades, and survive.
The tilt barrier came into use by the middle of the fifteenth century. First, a rope hung with fabric was stretched along the jousting ground about three or four feet high; each rider was, theoretically, supposed to stay on his side of this barrier. This tentative barrier was replaced with a wooden one up to six feet high, for it was too easy for horse or rider to push through the fabric. Using a tilt barrier meant that the jousters had to point their lances at an angle, making them more likely to break and less likely to harm the opponent. Open jousting (without a tilt barrier) continued as a separate event.

There were other events besides the joust at a tournament, usually involving ways a knight would practice his skill. One such event was the ring, wherein a knight would ride past a dangling hoop only a few inches in diameter and attempt to spear it with his lance. Knights would also run the quintain, which involved riding at a dummy that had a target in one hand and a counterweight in the other. The rider had to be quick as well as accurate, for as soon as the target was hit, the counterweight would spin around, knocking a slow horseman in the head. As you might imagine, such events provided great entertainment for spectators.

But the joust remained the main event at what was increasingly a grander and more fabulous spectacle.

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[Arthur Gordon Pym]

A Castle in the Background

Though a knight might journey far and wide, camping by battlefield and tourney grounds, the castle, be it his own or his liege-lord's, was always his home.



The medieval castle was a private fortress, inhabited by a nobleman of some standing along with his family, servants, and retainers. It was a community unto itself; everything necessary for daily living was made within its massive walls or grown (or hunted) in the surrounding land. Traveling journeymen could usually count on a night's sleep and a free meal at a castle, and minstrels traveled from one castle to another in the course of their work.

It is quite true that the castle did not originate in the middle ages. Fortified palaces were used by the royalty of Egypt long after their military purpose became unnecessary. Mycenaean Greek chieftains lived in fortress homes, as well. And it would be difficult indeed to catalog the number of walled cities and defensive strongholds that have been built throughout history. But the medieval castle had a special place in medieval times.



Like the knight himself, the mighty castle of the middle ages owes its existence to the uncertain situation of western Europe. After the fall of the Roman empire, civilized areas came under frequent attack by marauding tribes of fierce warriors, from the Magyars to the Vikings to the Mongols. People banded together for mutual protection, and powerful lords built fortresses to keep their families and servants safe from harm.

The kings of expanding European nations didn't always have the strength to maintain a centralized government; it was much more efficient to delegate a certain amount of power to loyal noblemen who controlled the castles in the farthest reaches of the kingdom. This delegation of power was not always wisely placed. Possession of a castle and armed retainers could make a lord strong enough to thwart the king's will, and this some noblemen did. It was also not unknown for an individual of wealth and power to build a castle without the permission of his liege. Such a structure was known as an adulterine castle.





But whether the castle was part of the king's holdings or belonged to a renegade knight, it was the center around which the knight's life revolved. He ate there, slept there, and worked there when he was not away fighting, at which time he might be besieging his enemy's castle. Even if he had his own lands to worry about, the knight could frequently be found at his liege-lord's home, standing guard duty, preparing for excursions, practicing weapon skills with his fellow knights, or awaiting his lord's command on any number of errands.

As a home, workplace, or military target, the castle was an inextricable part of the daily life of a knight.

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[Arthur Gordon Pym]

The Castle through the Ages


Although the castle was always a part of a knight's life, what it looked like and how it was built evolved over the centuries.



The earliest form of the medieval castle was what was known as a motte-and-bailey. Such a castle was built by digging as wide a circular ditch as was feasible and piling the earth in the center in a huge mound. The flattened top of the mound was then enclosed with a wall of strong logs with intermittent towers providing additional support. Inside the enclosure was the bailey, a kind of courtyard surrounding a house (also known as a "keep") where the lord of the castle and his immediate family lived.

The motte-and-bailey was easy to construct; no special skills were needed to dig and build these fortifications. The motte (mound) was deliberately steep-sided and hard to climb; the ditch deep and difficult to cross. Sometimes the ditch was filled with water (this made it a moat). Whether wet or dry, the ditch would be crossed by a drawbridge that could be pulled up when the castle came under attack.

The keep and bailey were rather small, and it was not possible for the entire population of the castle to live there all the time. Therefore, another ditch might be dug around the first one, with its own wall, fortifications, and living structures. This area was usually much bigger, and it or even a third ring could accomodate the entire population of the castle. When under attack, the residents of the outer baileys could retreat to the innermost fortifications to wait out the seige.

As time passed and castles became more useful, the timber structures were replaced with stone. Some earth mounds were too soft to support stone walls, and new keeps were built in the outer area -- much larger and more impressive than the original keep -- as were new stone walls. Huge towers were constructed, from which lookouts could see approaching enemies well in advance.



The lowest windows of these towers were still fairly high off the ground and extremely narrow; an archer could fire accurately from within, but attackers would rarely hit their marks from without. Higher windows and those in the inner buildings were larger to let in more light, and might even be filled with clear or stained glass.

In Europe, particularly in France, motte-and-bailey castles and their successors were numerous. In England, only a handful of these fortifications had been built by the time William the Conquerer invaded. Upon taking possession of London and acceding to the throne, one of the first things William did was set in motion plans to build a castle in the capital. He put the people of the city to work constructing a fortification that would be the basis of the Tower of London. This was just the first of many castles that would spring up in Britain during William's reign.

In his quest to take over the entire island, William found the fiercely independent Welsh an obstacle he would never truly overcome. He set in motion a building program along the borders of Wales to construct castles that would serve as launching points for invasion and prevent attacks by the Welsh. The Castles of Wales are therefore some of the most significant castles in British history, and some of the most impressive.

After the First Crusade, Knights who remained in the Holy Land made great leaps forward in castle design. Combining their own knowledge with that of the Greeks and Turks, these knights (mostly the Templars and Hospitallers) designed huge, complex structures of solid masonry. Such advances spread rapidly to Europe and England.

The disadvantages of rectangular buildings were their blind spots and their vulnerability at the corners to battering rams and miners. The Saracens and Byzantines were the first to construct multi-angled and circular towers to reduce these disadvantages. Although William Marshal built a circular tower in his castle of Chepstow after returning from the Holy Land in the late twelfth century, rectangular towers were still used in England for quite some time afterward. Circular towers only gradually became popular in Europe and England.




The primary purpose of a castle was military, and although it served as a home to an entire community it retained that purpose for centuries. Eventually, changes in the style of warfare, advances in weaponry, and comprehensive social evolution reduced the significance of the private fortress. No longer did people have to hide from invading Barbarians; no longer could a wall really stop an encroaching army. Fewer castles were built, and what was constructed was radically different than what had been popular and necessary in the past.

And so were the knights who lived in them.

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[Arthur Gordon Pym]

You've Got Mail

When we think of the medieval knight, it's not uncommon to picture him encased from head to toe in plate armor, like a human version of the modern artillery tank or a "walking tin can."

This image was not unknown in the later Middle Ages. However, with the possible exception of the breastplate, armor for the knight rarely incorporated any plate metal pieces until the thirteenth century, and a complete outfit of plate was not at all common until the mid-1400s.

Instead, the knight of the Early and High Middle Ages usually wore mail.

Linking Up



Sometimes referred to as "chain mail" or "ring mail" but more commonly called simply "mail," this flexible form of armor was most likely invented by the Celts several centuries before Christ. It was used by Roman warriors, Vikings, and Carolingian Paladins as well as by knights in the High Middle Ages. There were several different forms of mail, and construction techniques are a little difficult to determine, for although some of the armor still exists, none of the tools used to make it survived.

The construction of mail was begun by hammering a sheet of metal very thin and flat. The sheet would then be cut into narrow strips, and each strip would be wound around an iron mandrel or rod. (Later, when the technique of drawing wire was developed, soft iron wire would be used instead.) The wound wire or strips would be sliced along the rod, possibly through the simple use of a cold chisel or saw. The result of each cutting would be a handful of open rings.

To make mail, the armorer would join one ring to four or six others, and join each of these to a total of four or six links, and so on, until he had "woven" his metal fabric to the desired size. The number of rings used in each linking would vary depending on how the armorer wished to shape his garment. As you might guess, mail that linked each ring to six others was much denser than mail that used only four. For particularly effective armor, two links were used for every link in ordinary mail; the result was called "double mail" and, of course, weighed twice as much.

Even single mail required thousands of links in order to create a basic coat of armor.



To keep the joined rings together, the armorer would rivet each link closed. This was done by first flattening the open ends of the ring, punching a hole in each flattened end, and inserting a rivet through both holes. Although some mail had welded rings, the majority of the mail armor that survives from medieval Europe is riveted. Mail could be strengthened by including in the design a series of rings that had been punched from a sheet of metal instead of having been wound, cut and closed. Punched links had no "weak spot," and the use of them in the mail made the armor less likely to be breached.

As you can well imagine, creating mail was a long, laborious process, and the results were too expensive for common foot soldiers. But for the knights who could afford it, mail was extremely versatile. It could be shaped into virtually any form and was worn just like a cloth garment.

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[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Books:

1. The Knight in History

by Frances Gies

In this well-researched and thoroughly annotated book, Frances Gies pulls together a wide variety of sources to offer a cogent, in-depth exploration of the evolution of knights and knighthood through the Middle Ages. Affordable and portable in paperback, with black and white photos and maps and an extensive bibliography.

2. Knights

by Andrea Hopkins

Although clearly influenced by the romantic mythos of knighthood, Hopkins nevertheless presents a lucid and balanced introduction to both the cultural influences on medieval knights and the reality of their lives. An attractive, oversized book with splendid maps, photos and illustrations.

3. Arms & Armor of the Medieval Knight

by David Edge & John Miles Paddock

Simply the best book on medieval arms I've ever encountered, Arms & Armor reveals the evolution of knighthood through its most fundamental aspect: warfare. Defensive armament, weapons and their uses are examined by century and supplemented with appendices on armor construction, a glossary, and numerous photos. Well-written and nicely presented.

4. The Knight Series

by Ewart Oakeshott

Each of these five books offers an admirably clear overview of a different aspect of the medieval knight as military man. Taken together the picture they present is fairly complete. Each volume, which is illustrated by the author and includes a useful glossary, stands alone and may be read in any order. Accessible to younger readers, yet substantial enough for the adult. Subjects include: Armor, Battle, Castle, Horse & Weapons.

5. The Book of the Medieval Knight

by Stephen Turnbull

This gorgeous book focuses largely on the political history of British knights through wars in Scotland, the Hundred Years' War and War of the Roses. In-depth examinations of individuals, battles, warfare and other aspects of knighthood are highlighted by numerous photos of artifacts, castles, effigies and heraldic banners. Nicely produced.

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