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| | The history of knighthood:
A knight (German kitter, originally – rider) is a Middle-age noble honorary title in Europe. Many of its holders did not have the original title, as they belonged to the gentry; those, who belonged to the titled one, had the real titles.
Knighthood (military as well as land-owning) actually originated in Frankish tribes as a result of the transition of infantry (on-foot army) to cavalry in the 7th century. As the knighthood was influenced by the Church and poetry, it cultivated the moral and aesthetic ideal in soldiers, and in the era of crusaders, under the influence of religious-knighthood orders that had developed at that time, the knighthood was made exclusive for inheritance aristocracy, which acknowledged itself as an international military order. The strengthening of governments, the superiority of infantry over cavalry, the invention of firearms and the creation of standing (regular) armies transformed the feudal knighthood towards the end of the middle ages, into a political identity of the untitled elite.
Armament, Tactics
When heavily armed knights protected themselves with only chain-armor, then (in the 6th - 7th centuries) the lightly armed riders appeared in the fight totally without metallic armor; but in the 8th century, as the heavily armed cavalry stocked-up with breast plates and corsets, the lightly armed rider started to use chain-armor. Every heavily armed knight took to the battle with him three horses and one, two or three henchmen (armor-bearers), which were generally selected from reliable people or sons of the knights, who had not yet been decorated with knighthood. These henchmen initially went to the battle on foot and at the time of the fight remained behind the line, with reserve horses and arms. When in the 14th century the knighthood introduced the tradition to dismount at the time of battle, then they started to select the henchmen from light riders; the counting of knights was done by the number of lances, i.e. three riders for one knight lance. On the Rhine, for the same knight unit appeared the name “glaive”.
The general formation for the troops of knights in the middle ages was in the form of a cone. Sometimes several hundreds of soldiers moved on such a cone, and sometimes even thousands. Mostly, the entire knighthood army was lined-up in front of the battle field in three battle lines, one behind the other, and each battle line was broken into cones and had a center and two extensions. In France, the warlike way of life of the knights gave birth to tournaments and from there they extended to Germany and England.
Castles
Castles of the 7th – 14th centuries are the monuments of middle-ages knighthood. With the moral downgrading of knighthood, these castles turned into gangster’s nests, base stations for the systematic robbery of neighbors and travelers. Rudolf Gabsburg is honored for crushing most of these robbers’ nests of so called knights in Germany.
Valours of a knight include:
courage;
loyalty:
generosity:
prudence:
sophisticated sociability, politeness;
sense of honor;
The Knight's Commandments – be a faithful Christian, protect the Church and Gospel, protect the week and poor, love the mother land, be courageous in the battle field, obey and be faithful to the liege lord, speak truth and keep his word, maintain the purity of the heart, be generous, fight against evil and protect the good and so on.
Subsequently, the novels “Round Table”, trouvers and minnesinger have been poeticizing the more sophisticated court knighthood of the 13th century. From among riders-ministers and henchmen, who deserved the knighthood heels at the courts of feudal lords, cult of ladies could arise: the duty of obedience and respect towards the wife of the feudal lord, as towards a higher entity, this cult transformed into the admiration towards the ideal of woman and service to the beloved woman, mainly towards the married lady, who had a higher social status than the admirer. The Hundred year war between France and England in the 14th century inculcated the notion of national honor among the knights of both the hostile countries.
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