#MEDIEVAL EUROPE KNIGHTS AND ARMOUR CODE#

His sons and grandsons would become the English kings. In 1066, William the Conqueror came over from Normandy and took the throne after the famous Battle of Hastings. The newcomers stayed, asked their friends to come over, and eventually ruled most of Britain. The British invited the Angles and the Saxons (Germanic tribes) in to help them fight off the Danes.

After the Romans left in 410 to deal with their own problems (the Roman Empire officially fell around 476), their legacy faded. The Romans brought a centralized government to much of the island, as they had done with all of their territories. When the Romans invaded in 43 A.D., Britain was made of a bunch of tribal kingdoms.

She was especially fond of stories of King Arthur and tried to model her court after his legendary one. Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was both a French and an English queen, encouraged her musicians (troubadours) to sing stories of chivalry at her court. Chivalry also came to mean being kind to women and poorer people. Many of these military rules came from the old Romans.

#MEDIEVAL EUROPE KNIGHTS AND ARMOUR CODE#

Chivalry was much written of in the Middle Ages, and it was a code of conduct that included brave acts in battle. The word chivalry comes from the French word chevalier, which means knight. In real life, vows would be made to serve their lords and be faithful to their loves. In knightly stories, a knight might make a vow to complete a quest (a mission, usually dangerous) for his lady or lord. Those who could read often enjoyed reading stories about famous knights as well as philosophy and religious books.Ī vow is a sacred promise that must not be broken. By living this way, they would be ready to go to war or protect their lord’s lands at a moment’s notice. Poorer knights might live in a castle owned by their lord or in a nearby manor house. But the King could knight anyone he wished, and families that rose in rank this way were said to have been ennobled. Exceptions might be made, but on the whole, it was a matter of who your father’s and mother’s friends were. No! (and yes!) Noblemen’s sons were the ones destined to take the slots for pages in the castles. Knight from a manuscript drawn by Guilelmus Peraldus In the early days, these ceremonies were fairly simple, but they became more elaborate during the times of the Crusades. Knight: At about the age of 21, squires might make their vows of allegiance to their liege lord.This included muscle work (cleaning stables, polishing armor, keeping weapons ready) and brain work (learning the codes of knightly conduct and stories about famous knights) besides more combat practice. Squire: A page would become a squire and assist a particular knight around age 10 to 14.In addition to working, they would learn archery, horsemanship, and sword-fighting. Page: Boys as young as seven would begin work as pages in a castle.A boy who was going to be a knight would typically follow this career path: Yes-but this school had few to no chalkboards. Parade armor: not designed so much for combat, parade armor was meant to impress the ladies-and your fellow knights.Again, these could be made from fabric, leather, or metal. The fanciest types of plate armor completely covered the knight and had reticulated (jointed) elbows and knees. Plate armor: used by the Greeks and Romans early on, but it didn’t come back into fashion again until the 13th century.It might be made of fabric, leather, chain mail, or plate Helmet: a metal covering for the head.In later days, knights might indeed wear suits of metal plate armor, but more typically early knights would be clad in tough leather or perhaps a chain mail shirt called a hauberk (French) or byrnie (English), like their earlier Roman counterparts. However, some knights weren’t paid at all. They might also receive gifts of money or other precious things. A knight would typically give 40 days of service each year to his liege lord.Ĭharlemagne’s knights were given grants of conquered land which quickly put them on the road to wealth. The king might take on a task as a favor for another king or in obedience to the Pope. Knights fought for their lords who in turn fought for their king. Chanson de Roland (Song of Roland) was written about Charlemagne’s most famous knight. His knights kept him safe in battle and won him many victories. There have been soldiers on horseback for thousands of years, but what we think of as medieval knights first came into being during the time of King Charlemagne (Charles the Great). The simple answer would be a soldier who fights on horseback while wearing armor, but there’s much more to being a knight.

Medieval europe knights and armour