Knight

A knight is a person given an honorary title called a knighthood... Let me correct that: a knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. If you are looking for other meanings, see Knight (disambiguation) and Knights (disambiguation). The Roman social class also called "knights" is covered at Equites.

The idea of knighthood may have been inspired by the ancient Greek hippeis (ἱππεῖς) and the Roman equites. In the Early Middle Ages in Western Christian Europe, knighthood was given to mounted warriors. During the High Middle Ages, knighthood was considered a class of petty nobility. By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become linked with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior. A knight was often a vassal who served as an elite fighter or a bodyguard for a lord, and was paid with land. Lords trusted knights, who were skilled in battle on horseback. The Crusades brought various military orders of knights to the forefront of defending Christian pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land.

In the Late Middle Ages, new methods of warfare, such as the culverin, a gunpowder-fired weapon, began to make classical knights in armour outdated, but the titles remained in many countries. Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519) is often called the "last knight" in this regard. Ideals of chivalry became popular in medieval literature, especially the stories of the Matter of France, about the companions of Charlemagne and his paladins, and the Matter of Britain, about King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.

Today, a number of orders of knighthood continue to exist within Christian groups and in several historically Christian countries and their former territories. These include the Roman Catholic Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the Protestant Order of Saint John, the English Order of the Garter, the Swedish Royal Order of the Seraphim, the Spanish Order of Santiago, and the Norwegian Order of St Olav. There are also dynastic orders such as the Order of the Golden Fleece, the Imperial Order of the Rose, the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, and the Order of St George. These orders now focus on charity and public service rather than war.

Knighthood is usually granted by a head of state, monarch, or prelate to chosen people who have earned recognition, often for service to the Church or country. The modern female equivalent of a knight in English is a dame. Knighthoods and damehoods are traditionally regarded as prestigious.

Etymology

The word knight comes from Old English cniht, which meant "boy" or "servant." It is a cognate of the German word Knecht, meaning "servant." Many West Germanic languages share this older meaning of "boy" or "youth," such as Old Frisian and Middle High German. In Middle High German, the phrase guoter kneht also meant knight, but this meaning was fading by about 1200.

Over time, cniht changed from "boy" to "household retainer." The homily of Ælfric about St. Swithun describes a mounted retainer as a cniht. In several Anglo-Saxon wills, cnihtas were given money or land, and King Æthelstan left his cniht, Aelfmar, eight hides of land. By 1100, the word meant a military follower of a king. The idea of a knight as a mounted warrior in heavy cavalry appeared only during the Hundred Years' War. The Roman Equestrian class, a member of the second highest social class in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire, is often translated as "knight." Medieval knights were called miles in Latin, while the classical Latin word for horse was replaced by the vulgar Latin caballus. Many of these words trace back to the Proto-Indo-European root for riding.

History and evolution of medieval knighthood

Further information: Bucellarii

Long before knights, ancient Rome had a class called Ordo Equestris, a group of mounted nobles. Some parts of the armies of Germanic peoples, who settled in Europe from the 3rd century CE onward, rode on horses, and the Ostrogoths had mostly cavalry armies. The Franks, however, mainly fought with large groups of infantry. Their elite, the comitatus, often rode to battle but walked to fight. When Charles Martel defeated the Umayyad Arab invasion at the Battle of Tours in 732, the Frankish armies were still mostly foot soldiers. The first knights appeared under Charlemagne in the 8th century, when any well-equipped horseman could be called a knight. As the Carolingian Age went on, more warriors rode on horses into battle, and the discovery of the stirrup helped them fight from horseback as true cavalry for centuries. Ceremonies in which a young noble was given weapons and declared a knight grew out of an older Carolingian custom. Charlemagne rewarded his mounted warriors with land called benefices. Later, Charles the Bald made these lands hereditary and issued the Edict of Pîtres in 864, which is seen as the start of the age of knights.

In the 9th and 10th centuries, the warrior class grew stronger as local lords and their demesnes took control of defence against Viking, Magyar, and Saracen attacks. Church leaders often criticised knights for how they treated women and civilians. St. Bernard de Clairvaux believed knights needed reform. In the 12th century, "knight" became a social rank, while the fully armoured cavalryman became known as a "man-at-arms". The first military orders of knighthood, the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre and the Knights Hospitaller, were founded soon after the First Crusade of 1099. Other orders followed, including the Order of Saint Lazarus, the Knights Templars, the Order of Montesa, the Order of Santiago, and the Teutonic Knights. These were first monastic orders that protected pilgrims, but they became powerful after the crusader states were founded. Legends of paladins, the Matter of France, and the Matter of Britain spread the ideal of chivalry. This ideal was shaped by the Crusades, the military orders, and Islamic ideals of furusiyya.

Knightly culture in the Middle Ages

Main article: Accolade

Main article: Chivalry

Main article: Tournament (medieval)

Main article: Heraldry

Further information: List of medieval armour components

Knights were already well established by the 10th century. The word knight mostly described a military role, but it could also be used for higher nobles who owned land. Nobles gave vassals land (fiefs) in return for loyalty and service, and they provided lodging, food, armour, weapons, horses, and money. Noble children were cared for in castles until age seven. Then they became pages and trained in hunting, studies, and combat skills. At age 14, a boy became a squire. He swore an oath on a sword blessed by a bishop or priest, and he learned skills such as riding, shooting, climbing, wrestling, and fencing. Becoming a knight marked the passage into adulthood. The knighting ceremony was often held during great feasts such as Christmas or Easter. The new knight took an oath and was tapped on the shoulders with a sword.

Knights were expected to fight bravely and behave politely. Over time, chivalry grew from a set of military habits into a code of good manners and fair treatment of others. Knights showed their skills in tournaments, including the jousting contest. They also flew coloured banners to show their power and to tell friends from enemies. This helped lead to heraldry, which uses symbols such as the coat of arms. Knights used weapons like maces, axes, and swords. Their armour changed over time, from mail armour to plate armour.

Medieval and Renaissance chivalric literature

Further information: Chivalry, Chivalric romance, Matter of Britain, Matter of France, Minnesang, and Jinete

Knights and the ideals of knighthood appeared often in medieval and Renaissance literature, and they have a lasting place in romance stories. Famous examples include The Song of Roland, Cantar de Mio Cid, The Twelve of England, Geoffrey Chaucer's The Knight's Tale, and Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote. Stories about King Arthur are also important. Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written in the 1130s, introduced the legend of King Arthur, and Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and other Arthurian tales later added to it.

Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, written in 1469, helped define the ideal of chivalry. This ideal is part of the modern idea of the knight as an elite warrior sworn to uphold faith, loyalty, courage, and honour. Geoffroi de Charny's Book of Chivalry gave instruction and explained the importance of Christian faith in a knight's life. In the early Renaissance, Baldassarre Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier showed the ideal knight as a model of noble virtue, skilled in battle, dancing, sport, singing, speaking, the humanities, and classical Greek and Latin literature. Later Renaissance works such as Don Quixote rejected the code of chivalry as unrealistic. The rise of Christian humanism also marked a clear break from late medieval chivalric romance, and the chivalric ideal stopped shaping literature for many centuries.

Decline

Types of knighthood

Knighthood has taken many forms in Europe. In the Kingdom of Spain, the Royal House grants knighthood titles to the successor to the throne, and the Order of the Golden Fleece is probably the most prestigious and exclusive chivalric order. Hereditary knighthoods, which pass down within a family, have existed in places such as the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, France, Italy, and Poland. Since 1611, the British Crown has also given hereditary titles called baronetcies, which carry the title "Sir" but are not the same as knighthood. Early military orders, such as the Knights Templar and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, were founded in the Middle Ages. Later, many orders of chivalry were created, including the Order of the Garter in 1348. From about 1560, purely honorific orders were set up to honour people, not for military service. Today, knighthoods are often given for service to society, and the Order of the Bath is one of the British honours. In the United Kingdom, a Knight Bachelor is called "Sir", and a woman with the same honour is called "Dame". Women have also been part of knightly orders for a long time. For example, 68 women were appointed to the Order of the Garter between 1358 and 1488.