Knights

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Knight, French chevalier, German Ritter, now a title of honour bestowed for a variety of services, but originally in the European Middle Ages a formally professed cavalryman. The first medieval knights were professional cavalry warriors.
Table of contents

The specific military sense of a knight as a mounted warrior in the heavy cavalry emerges only in the Hundred Years' War. The verb "to knight" to make someone a knight appears around ; and, from the same time, the word "knighthood" shifted from "adolescence" to "rank or dignity of a knight". An Equestrian Latin , from eques "horseman", from equus "horse" [10] was a member of the second highest social class in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire.

This class is often translated as "knight"; the medieval knight, however, was called miles in Latin which in classical Latin meant "soldier", normally infantry. In the later Roman Empire, the classical Latin word for horse, equus , was replaced in common parlance by the vulgar Latin caballus , sometimes thought to derive from Gaulish caballos. Italian cavaliere , Spanish caballero , French chevalier whence chivalry , Portuguese cavaleiro , and Romanian cavaler.

German Ritter , and Dutch and Scandinavian ridder. In ancient Rome there was a knightly class Ordo Equestris order of mounted nobles. Some portions of the armies of Germanic peoples who occupied Europe from the 3rd century AD onward had been mounted, and some armies, such as those of the Ostrogoths , were mainly cavalry.

When the armies of the Frankish ruler Charles Martel defeated the Umayyad Arab invasion at the Battle of Tours in , the Frankish forces were still largely infantry armies, with elites riding to battle but dismounting to fight. In the Early Medieval period any well-equipped horseman could be described as a knight, or miles in Latin. At about this time the Franks increasingly remained on horseback to fight on the battlefield as true cavalry rather than mounted infantry, with the discovery of the stirrup , and would continue to do so for centuries afterwards. The older Carolingian ceremony of presenting a young man with weapons influenced the emergence of knighthood ceremonies, in which a noble would be ritually given weapons and declared to be a knight, usually amid some festivities.

In the century or so following Charlemagne's death, his newly empowered warrior class grew stronger still, and Charles the Bald declared their fiefs to be hereditary.

The Knights of Ashfeld are brash paragons of might.

The period of chaos in the 9th and 10th centuries, between the fall of the Carolingian central authority and the rise of separate Western and Eastern Frankish kingdoms later to become France and Germany respectively only entrenched this newly landed warrior class. This was because governing power and defense against Viking , Magyar and Saracen attack became an essentially local affair which revolved around these new hereditary local lords and their demesnes.

In the course of the 12th century knighthood became a social rank, with a distinction being made between milites gregarii non-noble cavalrymen and milites nobiles true knights. Although any medieval knight going to war would automatically serve as a man-at-arms, not all men-at-arms were knights. The first military orders of knighthood were those of the Knights Hospitallers and of the Holy Sepulchre , both founded at the First Crusade of , followed by the Order of Saint Lazarus , Knights Templars and the Teutonic Knights At the time of their foundation, these were intended as monastic orders , whose members would act as simple soldiers protecting pilgrims.

It was only over the following century, with the successful conquest of the Holy Land and the rise of the crusader states , that these orders became powerful and prestigious. The great European legends of warriors such as the paladins , the Matter of France and the Matter of Britain popularized the notion of chivalry among the warrior class.

The institution of knights was already well-established by the 10th century. The higher nobles grant the vassals their portions of land fiefs in return for their loyalty, protection, and service. The nobles also provided their knights with necessities, such as lodging, food, armour, weapons, horses, and money. The military service was the quid pro quo for each knight's fief. Vassals and lords could maintain any number of knights, although knights with more military experience were those most sought after.

Thus, all petty nobles intending to become prosperous knights needed a great deal of military experience. A knight had to be born of nobility — typically sons of knights or lords. Children of the nobility were cared for by noble foster-mothers in castles until they reached age seven. The seven-year-old boys were given the title of page and turned over to the care of the castle's lords.

They were placed on an early training regime of hunting with huntsmen and falconers , and academic studies with priests or chaplains. Pages then become assistants to older knights in battle, carrying and cleaning armour, taking care of the horses, and packing the baggage. They would accompany the knights on expeditions, even into foreign lands. Older pages were instructed by knights in swordsmanship , equestrianism , chivalry, warfare, and combat but using wooden swords and spears.

When the boy turned 15, he became a squire. During this time the squires continued training in combat and were allowed to own armour rather than borrowing it. All of these were even performed while wearing armour.

For Honor: The Knights - Classes & Gameplay | Ubisoft (US)

The accolade or knighting ceremony was usually held during one of the great feasts or holidays, like Christmas or Easter , and sometimes at the wedding of a noble or royal. The knighting ceremony usually involved a ritual bath on the eve of the ceremony and a prayer vigil during the night. On the day of the ceremony, the would-be knight would swear an oath and the master of the ceremony would dub the new knight on the shoulders with a sword.

Knights were expected, above all, to fight bravely and to display military professionalism and courtesy. When knights were taken as prisoners of war, they were customarily held for ransom in somewhat comfortable surroundings.


  • China and International Institutions: Alternate Paths to Global Power (Asian Security Studies).
  • You Didnt Complete Me: When The One Turns Out To Be Just Someone?
  • Vegas Golden Knights Schedule | Vegas Golden Knights;
  • Ich will!: Roman (German Edition)?
  • The Knights.
  • Navigation menu;

This same standard of conduct did not apply to non-knights archers, peasants, foot-soldiers, etc. Chivalry developed as an early standard of professional ethics for knights, who were relatively affluent horse owners and were expected to provide military services in exchange for landed property. Early notions of chivalry entailed loyalty to one's liege lord and bravery in battle, similar to the values of the Heroic Age. During the Middle Ages, this grew from simple military professionalism into a social code including the values of gentility, nobility and treating others reasonably.

In Wolfram von Eschenbach 's Parzival c. Knights of the late medieval era were expected by society to maintain all these skills and many more, as outlined in Baldassare Castiglione 's The Book of the Courtier , though the book's protagonist, Count Ludovico, states the "first and true profession" of the ideal courtier "must be that of arms.

Chivalry and religion were mutually influenced during the period of the Crusades. The early Crusades helped to clarify the moral code of chivalry as it related to religion. As a result, Christian armies began to devote their efforts to sacred purposes. As time passed, clergy instituted religious vows which required knights to use their weapons chiefly for the protection of the weak and defenseless, especially women and orphans, and of churches.

In peacetime, knights often demonstrated their martial skills in tournaments, which usually took place on the grounds of a castle. Medieval tournaments were made up of martial sports called hastiludes , and were not only a major spectator sport but also played as a real combat simulation. It usually ended with many knights either injured or even killed. One contest was a free-for-all battle called a melee , where large groups of knights numbering hundreds assembled and fought one another, and the last knight standing was the winner.

The most popular and romanticized contest for knights was the joust. In this competition, two knights charge each other with blunt wooden lances in an effort to break their lance on the opponent's head or body or unhorse them completely. The loser in these tournaments had to turn his armour and horse over to the victor. The last day was filled with feasting, dancing and minstrel singing. Besides formal tournaments, they were also unformalized judicial duels done by knights and squires to end various disputes. Judicial combat was of two forms in medieval society, the feat of arms and chivalric combat.

The chivalric combat was fought when one party's honor was disrespected or challenged upon in which the conflict cannot be resolved in court. Weapons were standardized and must be of the same caliber. The duel lasted until the other party was too weak to fight back and in early cases, the defeated party were then subsequently executed. Examples of these brutal duels were the judicial combat known as the Combat of the Thirty in , and the trial by combat fought by Jean de Carrouges in A far more chivalric duel which became popular in the Late Middle Ages was the pas d'armes or "passage of arms".

In this hastilude , a knight or a group of knights would claim a bridge, lane or city gate, and challenge other passing knights to fight or be disgraced. One of the greatest distinguishing marks of the knightly class was the flying of coloured banners, to display power and to distinguish knights in battle and in tournaments. Armourial rolls were created to record the knights of various regions or those who participated in various tournaments.

Knights and the ideals of knighthood featured largely in medieval and Renaissance literature , and have secured a permanent place in literary romance.


  1. Empower Yourself! Reclaim Your Purpose, Passion, and Prosperity;
  2. Women and Comedy in Solo Performance: Phyllis Diller, Lily Tomlin and Roseanne (Studies in American ;
  3. Heavenly Mail/Words of Wisdom: Prayers Letters to Heaven and Gods Refreshing Response.
  4. ?

    5. Geoffrey of Monmouth 's Historia Regum Britanniae History of the Kings of Britain , written in the s, introduced the legend of King Arthur , which was to be important to the development of chivalric ideals in literature. Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur The Death of Arthur , written in , was important in defining the ideal of chivalry, which is essential to the modern concept of the knight, as an elite warrior sworn to uphold the values of faith , loyalty , courage , and honour.

    Instructional literature was also created. Geoffroi de Charny 's " Book of Chivalry " expounded upon the importance of Christian faith in every area of a knight's life, though still laying stress on the primarily military focus of knighthood. In the early Renaissance greater emphasis is laid upon courtliness. The ideal courtier—the chivalrous knight—of Baldassarre Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier became a model of the ideal virtues of nobility.

    Later Renaissance literature, such as Miguel de Cervantes 's Don Quixote , rejected the code of chivalry as unrealistic idealism. By the end of the 15th century, knights were becoming obsolete as countries started creating their own professional armies that were quicker to train, cheaper and easier to mobilize. The cost of equipment is also significantly lower and guns give a reasonable chance to easily penetrate a knight's armour.

    In the 14th century the use of infantrymen armed with pikes and fighting in close formation also proved effective against heavy cavalry. An example of this was seen in the Battle of Nancy , when Charles the Bold and his armoured cavalry were decimated by Swiss soldiers only armed with pikes. Many landowners found the duties of knighthood too expensive and so contented themselves with the use of squires. Mercenaries also became an economic alternative to knights when conflicts arose.

    Armies of the time started adopting a more realistic approach to warfare than the honor-bound code of chivalry. Soon, the remaining knights were absorbed into professional armies. Although they had a higher rank than most soldiers because of their valuable lineage, they lost their distinctive identity that previously set them apart from common soldiers.

    They adopted newer technology while still retaining their age-old chivalric traditions. Other orders were established in the Iberian peninsula , under the influence of the orders in the Holy Land and the Crusader movement of the Reconquista:. After the Crusades , the military orders became idealized and romanticized, resulting in the late medieval notion of chivalry , as reflected in the Arthurian romances of the time.

    The creation of chivalric orders was fashionable among the nobility in the 14th and 15th centuries, and this is still reflected in contemporary honours systems, including the term order itself. Examples of notable orders of chivalry are:. From roughly , purely honorific orders were established, as a way to confer prestige and distinction, unrelated to military service and chivalry in the more narrow sense. Such orders were particularly popular in the 17th and 18th centuries, and knighthood continues to be conferred in various countries:.

    There are other monarchies and also republics that also follow this practice. Modern knighthoods are typically conferred in recognition for services rendered to society, which are not necessarily martial in nature. The female equivalent is a Dame , for example Dame Julie Andrews. In the United Kingdom , honorific knighthood may be conferred in two different ways:.

    Knights plc - Discover the difference

    The first is by membership of one of the pure Orders of Chivalry such as the Order of the Garter , the Order of the Thistle and the dormant Order of Saint Patrick , of which all members are knighted. The second is being granted honorific knighthood by the British sovereign without membership of an order, the recipient being called Knight Bachelor. In the British honours system the knightly style of Sir is accompanied by the given name , and optionally the surname.

    Wives of knights, however, are entitled to the honorific pre-nominal "Lady" before their husband's surname. The style Dame Heather McCartney could be used for the wife of a knight; however, this style is largely archaic and is only used in the most formal of documents, or where the wife is a Dame in her own right such as Dame Norma Major , who gained her title six years before her husband Sir John Major was knighted. The husbands of Dames have no honorific pre-nominal, so Dame Norma's husband remained John Major until he received his own knighthood.

    Since the reign of Edward VII a clerk in holy orders in the Church of England has not normally received the accolade on being appointed to a degree of knighthood. He receives the insignia of his honour and may place the appropriate letters after his name or title but he may not be called Sir and his wife may not be called Lady. This custom is not observed in Australia and New Zealand, where knighted Anglican clergymen routinely use the title "Sir". Ministers of other Christian Churches are entitled to receive the accolade. A knight who is subsequently ordained does not lose his title.

    A famous example of this situation was The Revd Sir Derek Pattinson , who was ordained just a year after he was appointed Knight Bachelor , apparently somewhat to the consternation of officials at Buckingham Palace. A clerk in holy orders who is a baronet is entitled to use the title Sir. Outside the British honours system it is usually considered improper to address a knighted person as 'Sir' or 'Dame'. Some countries, however, historically did have equivalent honorifics for knights, such as Cavaliere in Italy e.

    Georg Ritter von Trapp. Additionally there remain a few hereditary knights in the Netherlands. In Belgium , honorific knighthood not hereditary can be conferred by the King on particularly meritorious individuals such as scientists or eminent businessmen, or for instance to astronaut Frank De Winne , the second Belgian in space. This practice is similar to the conferal of the dignity of Knight Bachelor in the United Kingdom.

    In addition, there still are a number of hereditary knights in Belgium see below. In the Polish—Lithuanian Commonwealth the monarchs tried to establish chivalric orders but the hereditary lords who controlled the Union did not agree and managed to ban such assemblies. They feared the King would use Orders to gain support for absolutist goals and to make formal distinctions among the peerage which could lead to its legal breakup into two separate classes, and that the King would later play one against the other and eventually limit the legal privileges of hereditary nobility.

    The head of state now the President as the acting Grand Master confers knighthoods of the Order to distinguished citizens, foreign monarchs and other heads of state. The Order has its Chapter. There were no particular honorifics that would accompany a knight's name as historically all or at least by far most its members would be royals or hereditary lords anyway.

    Keep Exploring Britannica

    In continental Europe different systems of hereditary knighthood have existed or do exist. Ridder , Dutch for "knight", is a hereditary noble title in the Netherlands. It is the lowest title within the nobility system and ranks below that of " Baron " but above " Jonkheer " the latter is not a title, but a Dutch honorific to show that someone belongs to the untitled nobility.

    The collective term for its holders in a certain locality is the Ridderschap e. Ridderschap van Holland, Ridderschap van Friesland, etc. In the Netherlands no female equivalent exists. Before , the history of nobility is separate for each of the eleven provinces that make up the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In each of these, there were in the early Middle Ages a number of feudal lords who often were just as powerful, and sometimes more so than the rulers themselves. In old times, no other title existed but that of knight. In the Netherlands only 10 knightly families are still extant, a number which steadily decreases because in that country ennoblement or incorporation into the nobility is not possible anymore.

    Likewise Ridder , Dutch for "knight", or the equivalent French Chevalier is a hereditary noble title in Belgium. Like in the Netherlands, no female equivalent to the title exists. Belgium still does have about registered knightly families.

    Cookie Policy

    The German and Austrian equivalent of an hereditary knight is a Ritter. This designation is used as a title of nobility in all German-speaking areas.

    Traditionally it denotes the second lowest rank within the nobility, standing above " Edler " Noble and below " Freiherr " baron. Peacekeepers are quick, lethal, and can win a fight before their enemy even knows they are there. They are fast, maneuverable, and deadly. The Lawbringers are the justice in Ashfeld. They combine the features of a Heavy and a Vanguard Hero. Learn basic combat tips, controls game modes, and character customizations. For Honor features amazing battle maps and arenas created to deliver the best, most realistic melee combat experience possible.

    The Knights "Fight on, brave knights! Man dies, but glory lives! Fight on; death is better than defeat! The Knights of Ashfeld are brash paragons of might.