by Hanna Edwards

Created on: August 09, 2008

The word "knight" brings to mind images of romance, courtly love and heroic deeds. Phrases such as "knight in shining armor," and "white knight" exist in our lexicon as testament to that. The reality, as always, is much more complicated.

Dating from before the early Middle Ages, knights were mounted professional soldiers. This is demonstrated by the fact that outside of the English language, the terms used to describe knights actually mean "horseman" or "rider", referring to the fact that they fought from horseback. Thus, we have "caballero" in Spanish, "chevalier" in French, "cavaliere" in Italian and "ritter" in German. Oddly enough, the English word does not correspond to this pattern. The original word "knecht" actually means "servant soldier" in German, perhaps inspired by the Arthurian ideals of chivalry that were expanded during the twelfth century.

On the battlefield, knights were considered valuable because their ability to fight from horseback was much more effective against foot soldiers. Since horses were very valuable and cost a good deal to keep up, knights were often granted land to maintain a living and to pasture their horses. Although the prohibitive cost of being a mounted soldier meant that knighthood became a profession of the landed class, it was not necessarily restricted from the peasantry during the first couple centuries of the Middle Ages. In addition, the king was not the only person who could create a knight; other knights could also do so.

Once the class of knights was established, knighthood became hereditary. Sons of knights were expected to become knights and went through extensive training that began with the fostering of the boy at age seven to another knight's household, where he attended the knight and was raised and taught manners and other social skills by the ladies of that knight's household. Around age 14, the boy went from "page" to "squire" and became a sort of man-at-arms to his knight, caring for his armor and attending him on the battlefield. After the squire was considered to be adequately trained, his knight mentor could declare him a knight (or later, would recommend him to the king for knighting). The eldest son of a knight's household could expect to inherit his father's estates. If younger sons did not enter the priesthood, they could train in battle arts and become "knights errant", landless knights who hired themselves out to other lords.

When it was decreed that knights' lands could be inherited by their descendants,

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