Knight

For the chess piece, see Knight (chess).
The term knight from the High Middle Ages referred to armed equestrians of royalty and high nobility, in particular heavy Cavalry. From the 13th century, the rank of some knights became hereditary. Concurrently, Militant monastic orders were established during the time of the crusades, and from the 14th century imitated by numerous chivalric orders. The British honours system originates with the chivalric Order of the Garter, and has diversified into various other orders since the 17th century.

History

The word knight derives from Old English cniht, meaning page boy, or servant (as is still the case in the cognate Dutch and German knecht), or simply boy. Knighthood, as Old English cnihthad, had the meaning of Adolescence, i.e. the period between childhood and manhood. The sense of (adult) lieutenant of a king or other superior dates to ca. 1100. From the time of Henry III, a Knight Bachelor was a member of the lower nobility, preceded by the Knight banneret, a commander of ten or more lances who could lead his men under his own banner, but who didn't have the rank of Baron or Earl. The knights bachelor did not wear any insignia until 1296. The verb "to knight", i.e. to bestow knighthood, dates to that time (the late 13th century).

During the 14th century, the concept became tied to Cavalry, mounted and armoured soldiers, and thus to the earlier class of noble Roman warriors known as equites (see Esquire). Because of the cost of equipping oneself in the cavalry, the term became associated with wealth and social status, and eventually knighthood became a formal title. The concept, together with the notion of Chivalry came to full bloom during the Hundred Years' War. During the same period, however, the importance of heavy cavalry was rendered obsolete by improved pikemen and Longbow tactics (a bitter lesson for the nobility, learned throughout the 14th century at battles like those of Crécy, Bannockburn and Laupen), so that during the 14th century, the notion of chivalry became a nostalgic reconstruction almost as soon as it came into fashion. The "knights in shining armour" of the 15th and 16th centuries, by that time in full Plate armour, were mostly confined to the Jousting grounds, and the romantic Pas d'Armes. The chess piece was named in this period, around 1440. Via the transitional Cuirassiers of the 16th century, cavalry resurfaced once again in light, unarmoured form, in the 17th century, but by now useless for attacking entrenched infantry, and not any longer associated with knighthood. Knighthood as a purely formal title bestowed by the British monarch unrelated to military service was established in the 16th century.

Early heavy cavalry

The origin of heavily armoured cavalry (Cataphractes) lies in Sassanid Persia, and medieval chivalry absorbed many Persian traditions in the course of the Perso-Byzantine wars. For example, Ammianus Marcellinus, a Roman general and historian, who served in the army of Constantius II in Gaul and Persia, fought against the Persians under Julian the Apostate and took part in the retreat of his successor, Jovian. He describes the Persian knight as:
"All their companies clad in iron, and all parts of their bodies were covered with thick plates, so fitted that the stiff joints conformed with those of their limbs; and forms of the human faces were so skillfully fitted to their heads, that since their entire bodies were covered with metal, arrows that fell upon them could lodge only where they could see a little through tiny openings opposite the pupil of the eye, or where through the tips of their noses they were able to get a little breath."
"The Persians opposed us serried bands of mail-clad horsemen in such close order that the gleam of moving bodies covered with closely fitting plates of iron dazzled the eyes of those who looked upon them, while the whole throng of horses was protected by coverings of leather."

An Equestrian (Latin eques, plural equites) was a member of one of the two upper social classes in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. This class is often translated as Knight or Chevalier. The social position of knights and equestrians, however, was extremely similar, equestrians being the nearest Roman equivalent to Medieval nobility, the Tax farming system closely approaching Feudalism without actually being identical due to inherent differences in the social structure.

Up to the 5th century, Sarmatian cavalry units were stationed in Britain as part of the Roman army (see Roman departure from Britain), allowing for a direct influence of Roman Cataphractes on Migration Age Europe. According to a theory of Littleton and Thomas (1978), the legend of King Arthur, the prototypical knight of High Medieval literature, was directly inspired by these Sarmatian troops (however, it is most likely that the only reason we view Arthur and his retainers as knights was simply because the Arthurian Cycle became popular in a time in which knighthood was predominant).

Becoming a Knight

During the High Middle Ages, it was technically possible for every free man to become a knight, but the process of becoming (and the equipping of) a knight was very expensive; thus it was more likely that a knight would come from a noble (or wealthy) family.

The process of being knighted began before adolescence, inside the prospective knight’s own home, where he was taught courtesy and appropriate manners. Around the age of ten years, he would be sent away to train and serve at a grander household as a page. Here, he would serve as a kind of waiter and personal servant, entertaining and serving food to his elders. He would learn basic hunting and Falconry, and also various battle skills such as taking care of, preparing, and riding horses, as well as use of weapons and Armour.

At about fourteen years of age, the page was assigned to a knight to serve as his personal companion and aide, as a Squire. This allowed the squire to observe his master while he was in battle, in order to learn from his techniques. He also acted as a servant to the knight, taking care of his master’s equipment and horse. This was to uphold the knight’s code that promoted generosity, courtesy, compassion, and most importantly, loyalty.

Once the squire had established sufficient mastery of the required skills, he was dubbed a knight. There was no set age for this, but it usually occurred between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one. In the early period, the procedure began with the squire praying into the night. He was then bathed, and in the morning he was dressed in a white shirt, gold Tunic, purple cloak, and was knighted by his king or lord. As the Middle Ages progressed, the process changed. The squire was made to vow that he would obey the regulations of Chivalry, and never flee from battle. Then women would buckle on his armour. A squire could also be knighted on the battlefield, in which a lord simply struck him on the shoulder and said, “Be thou a knight”.

Knighthood and the Feudal system

Knighthood was closely connected with the feudal system. Originating largely in what later became known as France, this was a social organisation in which warfare and the protection of the common people became the specialised skill of a select group. Instead of having them paid in cash - of which everyone, even the Monarch, was short - they were paid in land. These rather extensive pieces of land were the fiefs. Though a fief did not have to be land - it could be any payment - it is generally thought of as the land that the knights were given as payment for service to the king. The knights were economically supported by peasants who worked to produce food and ideologically supported by the contemporary church.

Sometimes these knights were the Noble themselves and sometimes men they hired, because noblemen were disinclined or unable to fight. In times of war or national disorder the monarch would typically call all the knights together to do their annual service of fighting. This could be against internal threats to the nation or in defensive and offensive wars against other nations.

As time went by, monarchs began to prefer standing (permanent) armies because they could be used for longer periods of time, were more professional and were generally more loyal; partly because those noblemen who were themselves knights, or who sent knights to fight, were prone to use the monarch's dependency on their resources to manipulate him. This move from knights to standing armies had two important outcomes: the regular payment of "Scutage" to monarchs by noblemen (a money payment instead of actually going to fight as a knight) which would strengthen the concept and practice of taxation, and a general decrease in military discipline in knights, who became more interested in their country estates and chivalric pursuits, including art and sport.

Originally, knighthood could be bestowed on a man by a knight commander, but it was generally considered more prestigious to be dubbed a knight by the hand of a monarch or Royalty; the monarch eventually acquired the exclusive right to confer knighthoods. By about the late 13th century, partly in conjunction with the focus on courtly behavior, a code of conduct and uniformity of dress for knights began to evolve. Knights were eligible to wear a White belt and golden spurs as signs of their status. Moreover, knights were also required to swear allegiance - either to a liege lord or to a Military order.

Knights had servants: pages and squires.

Chivalric code

For more details on this topic, see Chivalry.

The Knightly Virtues treated in the High Medieval chivalric romances, in essence an idealized warrior code imbued with Christian virtues, was acted out by the various chivalric orders of the 14th century and became proverbial in Early Modern times. At its center are notions of Courage, Loyalty and Courtly love. Don Quixote of the early 17th century satirizes the clash of such grand ideals of privileged nobility with the more prosaic post-medieval reality.

Military-monastic orders

For more details on this topic, see Military order.
Other orders were established in the Iberian Peninsula in imitation of the orders in the Holy Land, in Avis in 1143, in Alcantara in 1156, in Calatrava in 1158, in Santiago in 1164.

Chivalric orders

For more details on this topic, see Chivalric order.

After the failure of the crusades, the crusading orders became idealized and romanticized, resulting in the late medieval notion of Chivalry, as reflected in the Arthurian romances of the time. D'Arcy Boulton (1987) classifies the chivalric orders of the 14th and 15th centuries into the following categories:

  1. Monarchical Orders, with the presidency attached to a monarch, such as the Order of the Garter and the Order of the Golden Fleece
  2. Confraternal Orders:
  3. :*Princely Orders, founded by princes; most of these were founded in imitation of the Golden Fleece, after 1430.
  4. :*#Order of Saint George, founded by Charles I of Hungary in 1325/6
  5. :*#Order of Saint Catherine, founded by Humbert, Dauphin du Viennois in ca. 1335
  6. :*#Order of St. Anthony, founded by Albrecht I of Bavaria in 1384
  7. :*#Society of the Eagle, founded by Albrecht von Habsburg in 1433
  8. :*#Society of Our Lady (also known as the Order of the Swan), founded by Friedrich II of Brandenburg in 1440
  9. :*#Order of Saint Hubert, founded by Gerhard V of Jülich and Berg in 1444
  10. :*#Order of the Crescent, founded by René d'Anjou in 1448
  11. :*#Society of Staint Jerome, founded by Friedrich II of Wettin in 1450
  12. :*Baronial Orders, like the Order of Saint Hubert (Barrois, (1422)) and the Noble Order of Saint George of Rougemont (Franche-Comté, 1440)
  13. Fraternal Orders, formed ad-hoc for a certain enterprise
  14. :#the Compagnie of the Black Swan, founded by 3 princes and 11 knights in Savoy (1350)
  15. :#the Corps et Ordre du Tiercelet, founded by the vicomte de Thouars and 17 barons in Poitou (1377-1385)
  16. :#Ourdre de la Pomme d'Or, founded by 14 knights in Auvergne (1394)
  17. :#Alliance et Compagnie du Levrier, founded by 44 knights in the Barrois (1416-1422), subsequently converted into the Confraternal order of Saint Hubert (see above).
  18. Votive Orders, temporarily formed on the basis of a vow; these were courtly chivalric games rather than actual pledges as in the case of the fraternal orders; three are known from their statutes
  19. :#Emprise de l'Escu vert à la Dame Blanche (Enterprise of the green shield with the white lady), founded by Jean Le Maingre dit Boucicaut and 12 knights in 1399 for the duration of 5 years
  20. :#Emprise du Fer de Prisonnier (Enterprise of the Prisoner's Iron), founded by Jean de Bourbon and 16 knights in 1415 for the duration of 2 years
  21. :#Enterprise of the Dragon, founded by Jean comte de Foix for 1 year.
  22. Cliental Pseudo-Orders, without statutes or restricted memberships, these were princes' retinues fashionably termed "orders"
  23. :#Ordre de la Cosse de Genêt (Order of the Broom-Pod), founded by Charles VI of France ca. 1388
  24. :#Order of the camail or Porcupine, created by Louis d'Orléans in 1394
  25. :#Order of the Dove, Castile, 1390
  26. :#Order of the Scale of Castile, ca. 1430
  27. :#Order of the Thistle of Scotland
  28. Honorific Pseudo-Orders, without statutes, these were honorific insignia bestowed on knights on festive occasions, consisting of nothing but the badge
  29. :# Order of the Holy Sepulchre, bestowed to knights who made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, since the 15th century.
  30. :#Knights of Saint Catherine of Mount-Sinai, similar to the above, bestowed from the 11th to the 15th century
  31. :#Order of the Golden Spur, a papal order
  32. :#Knights of the Bath, in England. (recreated in 1725)

Honorific orders

From roughly 1560, purely honorific orders were established, designed as a way to confer prestige and distinction, unrelated to military service or 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 the practice. Modern knighthoods are typically awarded in recognition for services rendered to society, services which are no longer necessarily martial in nature. The musician Elton John, for example, is entitled to call himself Sir Elton. The female equivalent is a Dame.

Accompanying the title is the Given name, and optionally the surname. So, Elton John may be called Sir Elton or Sir Elton John, but never Sir John. Similarly, actress Judi Dench D.B.E. may be addressed as Dame Judi or Dame Judi Dench, but never Dame Dench. Wives of knights, however, are entitled to the honorific "Lady" before their husband's surname. Thus Sir Paul McCartney's wife is styled Lady McCartney, not Lady Paul McCartney or Lady Heather McCartney. The style Dame Heather McCartney could be used; however, this style is largely archaic and is only used in the most formal of documents.

State Knighthoods in the Netherlands are issued in three orders, the Order of William, the Order of the Dutch Lion, and the Order of Orange Nassau. Additionally there remain a few hereditary knights in The Netherlands.

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This page is based on the Wikipedia article ''Knight''. It is licensed under the GNU free documentation license.

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