Knighthood and chivalry began its rise to social and military prominence in the 10th century when, with the decline of Frankish royal power and the political fragmentation of society, local castellans gathered around them groups of heavily armed horsemen to enforce their newly appropriated rights of lordship, law-making, and taxation. These knights (known in Latin sources as milites), gradually rose in status from being lowly, even in some cases unfree, warrior servants of the nobility, to a lesser aristocracy in their own right. At the same time, the nobility, who had always been a martial élite, assumed the title of knight, depicted themselves on their seals as heavily armed warriors, and gloried in common membership of the militia or knighthood. By the 12th century not all knights were great men, but all great men were knights. Hence Henry ‘The Young King’ (d. 1183), eldest son of Henry II Plantagenet, could be praised by the troubadour Bertran de Born not so much for his royalty, but because he was ‘the best knight there was of any nation’.
What bound great lord and lesser knight together was their costly equipment and method of fighting, with the great social gulf being between cavalry and infantry. Higher status was conferred by possession of lance, sword, shield, helmet, and above all, a mail shirt or hauberk, the essential piece of defensive armour and the legal prerequisite of holding a fief. The knight's warhorse or destrier was far more valuable than other horses; it was not the great, lumbering beast of common misconception, but more akin to a cob or hunter, highly trained and ridden only in battle itself, being led at other times by a squire. With the development of plate armour from the later 13th century, a knight's equipment became still more expensive, and this, combined with burdensome administrative duties imposed by the crown, led to a sharp decline in the number of men willing to accept the title of knight. As knighthood became more exclusive, the title of squire (armiger) which had formerly denoted a trainee knight in a lord's service, was adopted as a rank in itself by the lesser gentry, and contemporaries now spoke of lords, knights, and squires simply as men-at-arms (homines ad arma), distinguished by armour and heraldry.
Rigorous training from boyhood was required to master the skills of cavalry combat, and hunting as well as the mock combat of the tournament, which emerged in the later years of the 11th century, played a crucial role in developing both horsemanship and bonds between members of a lord's household. Against a mounted opponent, the knight's chief form of attack was with the couched lance, whereby the lance was tucked under the right arm and, with the rider secured by a high-backed saddle and long stirrups, the blow was delivered with the full impetus of charging horse and rider. The resulting impact was capable of penetrating mail and running an opponent through.
Yet although knighthood was intimately connected with horsemanship (the word chivalry derives from the French chevalier, a horseman), the knight throughout the Middle Ages was a flexible professional warrior, just as capable of fighting effectively on foot whether in siege or open battle. Several engagements of the Anglo-Norman period such as Tinchebrai (1106), Brémule (1119), and the Standard (1138) reveal dismounted knights, supported by cavalry and sometimes by archers, as highly effective, particularly in defensive formations. The same adaptability can be seen in crusading warfare, while the battle-winning tactics deployed by the English during the Hundred Years War depended on the archers having the protection of a solid core of dismounted knights, who often bore the brunt of the hand-to-hand fighting. As a result of the massed deployment of archers, the French dismounted a greater part of their knights at battles such as Poitiers and Agincourt, although they were always at a disadvantage when taking the offensive because of the weight of their armour. Cavalry warfare itself enjoyed a renaissance in the later 15th century, as witnessed by the campaigns of Charles ‘the Bold’, Duke of Burgundy, and the Italian wars of the French King Charles VIII.
Chivalry, the knighthood's corporate value system, had at its core the timeless values of almost all warrior élites; courage in combat, loyalty to one's lord and brothers in arms, and largesse in the distribution of arms, booty, and other fruits of victory. Whereas in Anglo-Saxon and Viking warfare noble opponents might be killed precisely because of their rank and martial function, the Normans and French did not sell POWs into slavery, and in many (though not all) cases, aimed to spare knightly enemies. Such clemency reflected the religious and cultural homogeneity of French aristocratic society, ties of kindred and marriage, and respect for fellow knights, not to mention a desire for rich ransom. The same potent mixture of pragmatism and a shared profession of arms led to the development of laws of war governing payment of ransom, the profits of war, and behaviour in a siege. Garrisons, for example, might frequently negotiate terms whereby if they were not relieved by their lord within a specified number of days, they could capitulate without incurring disgrace or dishonour, and be allowed to go free by the besieger with their horses and arms.
Other distinctive features of European chivalry included a Christian dimension and, from the 12th century, the role of romance and courtly love. After the success of the first Crusade, churchmen taught that to achieve salvation knights no longer had to abandon their arms and assume the monastic habit, but could gain spiritual merit by fighting in clerically sanctioned wars against the infidel or heretic, provided they fought for justice not booty. Crusading struck a powerful chord with many of the knighthood of western Europe, and some even devoted themselves to military monastic orders like the Templars and Hospitallers, which combined a quasi-monastic rule with military action against the Muslims in the Holy Land. As warriors had done from the earliest days of the conversion of the Germanic peoples to Christianity, and indeed long before, knights continued to invoke the protection of the deity in war, inscribed weapons with religious talismans, took mass and made confession before battle, carried relics and holy banners (see colours, banners, and standards) into combat, and made votive offerings after victory.
The growth of Arthurian romance in the 12th century, fostered by writers such as Chrétien de Troyes, had an equally profound influence on chivalry. Knights now had to be more than just brave warriors, but also polished courtly gentlemen, able to converse with and entertain ladies. Increasingly lavish tournaments re-enacted Arthurian tales, while kings such as Edward I and Edward III skilfully manipulated the imperial symbolism of Arthur for their own political aims. Monarchs sought to create close bonds with their nobles by establishing orders of chivalry such as the English Order of the Garter, or the Burgundian Order of the Golden Fleece, modelled on Arthur's brotherhood of the Round Table, while other ‘votal’ orders dedicated themselves to the service of ladies. Later medieval chivalry has been criticized for being decadent and other-worldly, yet it never lost touch with the changing military dimensions of war nor was blind to its bloody realities. A complex and often paradoxical set of values, chivalry at its best sought to ameliorate the brutality of war. It remained nevertheless very much an arrangement among aristocrats and knightly consideration was seldom extended to the common sol-dier.
The western ideal of chivalrous behaviour in warriors, now extensive to all soldiers, continues to be honoured centuries after the disappearance of the armoured knight. Admiration for the fighting quality of the enemy, clemency and moderation in victory, and the hope of decent treatment in defeat descend in large part directly from medieval chivalry and are quite often absent in non-western warrior cultures.
Bibliography
- Barbour, Richard, The Knight and Chivalry (Woodbridge, 1996).
- Coss, Peter, The Knight in Medieval England, 1100-1400 (Stroud, 1993).
- Flori, Jean, L'Essor de la chevalerie, xie-xiie siècles (Geneva, 1986).
- Keen, Maurice, Chivalry (Yale, 1984).
- Strickland, Matthew, War and Chivalry: The Conduct and Perception of War in England and Normandy, 1066-1217 (Cambridge, 1996)
— Matthew Strickland
