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The medieval knight was the characteristic military and social figure of the High Middle Ages. A mounted warrior equipped with armor, weapons, and a warhorse, the knight served his lord in return for a fief of land, and he formed the core of the armies of medieval Europe. By the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the knight had become a member of a distinct social class, with its own values, its own rituals, and its own literature. The code of chivalry that governed the conduct of the knight was one of the defining cultural products of the age, and the ideal of the knight — brave, loyal, courteous, and devout — has shaped the Western imagination of the warrior class ever since.
This cluster explores the medieval knight of the High Middle Ages. The articles in the related long-tail pages provide deeper examinations of specific aspects of knighthood.
Maurice Keen’s “Chivalry” (1984) is the single most useful English-language introduction to the medieval knight as a social class, not just as a warrior. Jean Flori, in “L’Essor de la chevalerie” (1986), pushed the chronology back into the tenth century and argued that knighthood was a coherent identity well before the first chivalric literature. The page that follows uses both, and adds the practical sources (the legal tract known as “L’Ordene de chevalerie,” the biographies of William Marshal, the tournament records) that a literary history on its own misses.
The Origins of Knighthood
The knight as a distinct class emerged gradually in the early Middle Ages. The word miles (Latin for soldier) was used in the late Roman and early medieval periods to refer to a wide range of warriors, but by the eleventh century it had come to be associated specifically with the mounted warrior who served his lord in return for a fief.
The Carolingian kings had relied on a class of free warriors who provided mounted service in return for the use of land. The Edict of Pitres in 864, issued by Charles the Bald, established the principle that the holder of a benefice was required to provide mounted service, and the Capitulary of Quierzy in 857 extended the principle to all the king’s men. By the tenth century, the mounted warrior had become a distinct class, distinguished by the possession of a warhorse, the wearing of armor, and the provision of military service in return for land.
The eleventh and twelfth centuries were the great age of knighthood. The Norman conquests of England, southern Italy, and the Crusader States were carried out by knights, and the knight became the dominant military figure of the age. The First Crusade (1096–1099) was essentially a knightly enterprise, and the Crusader States were governed by knights and the descendants of knights.
The twelfth and thirteenth centuries saw the consolidation of the knightly class. The training of a knight became a long and formal process, beginning in childhood and culminating in the ceremony of dubbing to knighthood. The equipment of the knight became more elaborate and expensive, and the cost of a warhorse, armor, and weapons excluded all but the wealthier members of society from the knightly class. The literature of chivalry — the chansons de geste, the romances, the courtesy books — developed a complex ideal of knightly conduct that shaped the self-understanding of the class.
The Training of a Knight
The training of a knight began in childhood and continued throughout his life. A boy of noble birth, typically around the age of seven or eight, was sent to the household of another lord — usually a relative or a close ally of his father — to serve as a page. In the lord’s household, the page learned the basic skills of arms — how to handle a sword, how to ride a horse, how to hunt — and the manners of the court — how to behave at table, how to address his superiors, how to conduct himself in the rituals of aristocratic life.
Around the age of fourteen, the page became a squire. As a squire, the young man was the personal attendant of a knight, and he assisted the knight in all his activities: he carried the knight’s shield and lance, he helped the knight to dress in his armor, he cared for the knight’s horse, and he served the knight at table. The squire also continued his training in arms, and he was expected to be able to fight effectively in battle.
The final step was the dubbing to knighthood, a ceremony in which the young man was elevated to the rank of knight. The ceremony could be performed in various ways: the knight-to-be might be dubbed by a lord, by a knight of renown, or by a priest in a religious ceremony. The ceremony typically involved fasting, prayer, and a night-long vigil in a church, followed by the dubbing — the ceremonial striking of the candidate on the shoulder with the flat of a sword — and the presentation of the knight’s equipment — the spurs, the sword, the shield, and the lance.
The age at which a young man was dubbed to knighthood varied. In the early Middle Ages, when warfare was less formal and equipment was less expensive, a young man might be dubbed as young as fifteen. By the thirteenth century, when equipment was more expensive and training was more prolonged, a young man might not be dubbed until his early twenties. The knighting of a king’s son was often a major ceremonial event, and the feudal aids of the vassals were sometimes collected to defray the cost.
The Equipment of the Knight
The equipment of the knight evolved significantly over the period. The eleventh-century knight fought with a spear, a sword, a conical helmet (the nasal helmet), a kite-shaped shield, and a mail shirt (a long shirt of interlinked iron rings, with sleeves to the elbow and a coif for the head). The knight’s warhorse was a large, powerful animal, bred for strength and endurance rather than speed. The knight fought on foot as well as mounted, and the mail shirt was considered adequate protection against most weapons.
By the twelfth century, the equipment had become more elaborate. The mail shirt was supplemented by mail leggings and mail mittens, and the kite-shaped shield was replaced by the flat, triangular shield that was easier to handle on horseback. The great helm — a flat-topped, cylindrical helmet — began to appear in the late twelfth century, and the mail hood was replaced by the mail coif worn under the helm.
The thirteenth century was the great age of plate armor. The mail shirt was gradually replaced by a full coat of plates — a long coat of leather or heavy cloth covered with overlapping iron plates — and the mail leggings were replaced by plate greaves and plate cuisses. The great helm was supplemented by the bascinet — a more pointed helmet with a visor — and the flat, triangular shield was gradually abandoned in favor of the heater shield, a small triangular shield that was held on the left arm. The lance was redesigned with a couched position — held under the arm rather than over the shoulder — and the great warhorse (the destrier) became a massive, powerful animal capable of carrying the heavily armored knight into battle.
The cost of a full suit of plate armor in the thirteenth century was enormous, perhaps equivalent to several years’ income for a moderately wealthy knight. The warhorse was even more expensive, and a single destrier could cost the equivalent of a small manor. This is one of the main reasons why knighthood became a closed class in the late Middle Ages: only the wealthier members of the aristocratic class could afford the equipment necessary to fight as a knight.
The Social Status of the Knight
The knight was a member of the aristocratic class of medieval society, but he was not at the top of the aristocratic hierarchy. The dukes, counts, marquesses, and other great lords — who were the direct tenants-in-chief of the king and who held large fiefs — were above the knights in the social order. The knights — who held smaller fiefs, who were the tenants of the great lords, and who provided mounted service in return for their fiefs — were the lower aristocracy.
The knights were distinguished from the peasants by their possession of a fief, by their right to bear arms, by their participation in the tournaments and other aristocratic activities, and by their exemption from the more onerous of the peasant obligations. The knights were also distinguished from the clergy and from the townspeople, who were different social orders with their own privileges and their own ways of life.
The knights were a small proportion of the population. Even in the most densely knighted regions of Europe — northern France, the Low Countries, England — the knights probably numbered less than five percent of the population. In the more remote and less developed regions, they were even fewer. The knights were a thin layer of society, but they exercised a disproportionate influence because of their military power and their control of land.
The status of the knight was not static. In the early Middle Ages, the knight was simply a mounted warrior, and the distinction between the knight and the free peasant was not always clear. By the High Middle Ages, the knight had become a member of a distinct class, with its own values, its own rituals, and its own privileges. By the late Middle Ages, the knight was in the process of being displaced by the gentleman — a member of the landed gentry who might not be a knight but who enjoyed a similar social status.
The Cultural Significance of the Knight
The cultural significance of the knight in the High Middle Ages is difficult to overestimate. The knight was the hero of the literature of the age: the chansons de geste celebrated the heroic deeds of knights like Roland and Oliver; the romances of Chrétien de Troyes presented the knight as a model of chivalric conduct; the courtesy books of the late Middle Ages set out detailed rules of knightly behavior. The knight was the subject of the tournaments — the elaborate martial exercises that combined sport, ceremony, and social display — and the heraldic system, with its elaborate coats of arms and mottoes, was developed to identify the knight in battle and in the tournament.
The knight was also the subject of the religious devotion of the age. The monastic and mendicant orders prayed for the souls of deceased knights, and the testamentary bequests of knights often included gifts to monasteries and churches. The knight who died in battle — or, more particularly, the knight who died in the Crusades — was celebrated as a martyr of the faith, and the tombs of famous knights in churches and cathedrals were major sites of pilgrimage.
The legacy of the knight has shaped the Western imagination of the warrior class for centuries. The Arthurian legends — the stories of Lancelot, Gawain, Percival, and Galahad — have been the subject of countless retellings, from the medieval romances to the modern films. The knight in shining armor has been a symbol of chivalry, of courtly love, and of Christian virtue. Yet the reality of the knight was often far from the ideal. The knight could be a brutal warrior, an oppressive lord, a rapacious plunderer, and an arrogant aristocrat. The literary ideal of the knight was a powerful influence, but it was never an accurate description of the actual behavior of the class.
Sources
Principal sources used in this article:
- Maurice Keen, Chivalry (Yale, 1984) — the standard English-language history.
Further reading:
- Jean Flori, L’Essor de la chevalerie, XIe–XIIe siècles (Droz, 1986).
For a recent single-volume synthesis with full scholarly apparatus, see the relevant chapter of Barbara H. Rosenwein, A Short History of the Middle Ages (University of Toronto Press, 2014).