16 questions · History
Nobody became a knight overnight. At about seven, a noble boy was sent as a page to another lord’s household to learn manners, riding and obedience. Around fourteen he became a squire: he polished his master’s chain mail, looked after the horses and followed him to war. Only at about twenty came the great day, the accolade, a tap on the shoulder with the flat of a blade, along with a sword and spurs. From then on he belonged to an order of men sworn to courage, loyalty and the protection of the weak, even if reality was often far rougher. In peacetime knights trained at tournaments, above all in the joust, the mounted duel with couched lances. The Englishman William Marshal is said to have unhorsed hundreds of opponents there, and he went on to serve five kings. Others sought God and glory in the Holy Land and joined military orders. The Knights Templar grew rich and powerful until Pope Clement V dissolved them in 1312. The Hospitallers lost Rhodes to Suleiman the Magnificent in 1522, and the Teutonic Order ruled a whole country from Malbork on the Nogat. Some knights became legends. El Cid took Valencia in 1094, Richard the Lionheart ended up a prisoner at Dürnstein after the crusade, Bertrand du Guesclin drove the English out of much of France as constable, and Götz von Berlichingen kept fighting after 1504 with an iron hand. In the south of France the troubadours sang of courtly love, and poets invented the Round Table, where Lancelot lost his heart to Queen Guinevere while King Arthur carried Excalibur. In the end the knight rode into literature and came out again as a comic figure: Cervantes sent Don Quixote on his bony horse Rocinante to charge at windmills. By then gunpowder and mercenary armies had long overtaken the armoured horseman. What remains are castles, coats of arms, suits of armour in museums and the word “chivalry”.
Practise for freePurFact brings every card back right before you would forget it. That's how knowledge sticks.
Accolade
The lord touched the squire on the shoulder with the flat of a blade and gave him a sword and spurs.
💡 Did you know? In an older form the young man was solemnly girded with his sword instead.
Squire
From about fourteen he followed his master to tournaments and to war.
💡 Did you know? Many squires never became knights because armour and the ceremony were too expensive.
Joust
The aim was to throw the opponent from the saddle or to break the lance on his shield.
💡 Did you know? King Henry II of France died in 1559 of a wound received in a joust.
Chain mail
Underneath they wore a padded garment so that blows would not break their bones.
💡 Did you know? A mail shirt weighed around ten to fifteen kilograms and often had more than 20,000 rings.
Knights Templar
King Philip IV of France had the Templars arrested in 1307, partly because he owed them a great deal of money.
💡 Did you know? The last Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake in Paris in 1314.
Rhodes
After a siege of several months the knights were allowed to leave with safe conduct.
💡 Did you know? A few years later they were given Malta and became known as the Knights of Malta.
Malbork
From here the order ruled its own state on the Baltic.
💡 Did you know? It is often called the largest brick castle in the world.
Troubadours
They praised the devotion to an unattainable noble lady, the ideal of courtly love.
💡 Did you know? The first known troubadour was Duke William IX of Aquitaine, grandfather of Eleanor of Aquitaine.
El Cid
Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar served both Christian and Muslim rulers and finally ruled Valencia himself.
💡 Did you know? His nickname comes from the Arabic word for “lord”.
Richard the Lionheart
Duke Leopold V of Austria seized him near Vienna in 1192, and only a huge ransom set him free.
💡 Did you know? Legend says his minstrel Blondel found him by singing a song they both knew beneath the castle walls.
Götz von Berlichingen
A cannonball shattered his hand in the War of the Succession of Landshut; his iron hand could even hold reins and a quill.
💡 Did you know? Goethe made him the hero of a play in 1773, complete with the most famous insult in German literature.
William Marshal
He served Henry II, Henry the Young King, Richard the Lionheart, John and Henry III.
💡 Did you know? As an old man he governed the realm for the boy Henry III and won a battle at around seventy.
Bertrand du Guesclin
Instead of great pitched battles he relied on raids, sieges and small engagements.
💡 Did you know? He was described as strikingly ugly, yet became a favourite of the chroniclers.
Excalibur
In some versions Arthur draws it from a stone, in others the Lady of the Lake gives it to him.
💡 Did you know? As Arthur lies dying, the sword is thrown into a lake, where a hand rises to catch it.
Lancelot
Their forbidden love split the Round Table and helped bring down Arthur’s kingdom.
💡 Did you know? In the legend the Grail knight Galahad is Lancelot’s son.
Rocinante
Cervantes’ novel of 1605 mocked the tales of chivalry that had driven its hero out of his mind.
💡 Did you know? The name joins the Spanish “rocín” (nag) and “antes” (before): a horse that used to be a nag.
Home · All topics · Legal notice · Privacy · Terms · Contact
