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| | The history of knighthood:
A knight (German kitter, originally – rider) is 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 franks as a result of transition of infantry (on-foot army) to cavalry in the VII century. As the knighthood was influenced by the Church and poetry, it cultivated 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 international military order. Strengthening of governments, superiority of infantry over cavalry, invention of firearms, creation of standing (regular) armies transformed the feudal knighthood, towards the end of middle ages, into political identity of untitled elite.
Armament, Tactics
When heavily armed knights protected themselves with only chain-armor, then (in XI - XII centuries) the lightly armed riders appeared in the fight totally without metallic armors; but in XIII 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 fight remained behind the line, with reserve horses and arms. When in XIV century, the knighthood introduced the tradition to dismount at the time of battle, then the they started to select the henchmen from light riders; 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”.
General formation for the troops of knights in middle ages was in the form of a cone. Sometimes several hundreds of soldiers moved on such 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, warlike way of life of knights gave birth to tournaments and from there they extended to Germany and England.
Castles
Castles of XII – XIVth centuries are the monuments of middle-ages knighthood. With the moral downgrading of knighthood, these castles turned into gangster’s nests, base stations for 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;
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 heart, be generous, fight against evil and protect the goodness and so on.
Subsequently, the novels “Round Table”, trouvers and minnesinger have been poeticizing the more sophisticated court knighthood of XIII century. From among riders-ministers and henchmen, who deserved the knighthood heels at the courts of feudal lords, cult of ladies could arise: duty of obedience and respect towards the wife of feudal lord, as towards higher entity, this cult transformed into the admiration towards ideal of woman and service to the beloved woman, mainly towards married lady, who had higher social status than the admirer. Hundred year war between France and England in the XIV century inculcated the notion of national honor among the knights of both the hostile countries. |
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