Medieval Knighthood

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Part 1: About the Ceremony of Medieval Knighthood

Part 2: Chivalry of the Medieval Knight
Part 3: How a boy became a Knight

Part 1: About the Ceremony of Medieval Knighthood

Becoming a knight was much more than a tap on the shoulder with the flat edge of a
sword. It was often an involved process that spanned several days. Here is an overview of
a typical knighting ceremony in the middle ages.

The ceremony of knighthood was the final stage in a process that a man followed since he
was a boy. It was the symbolic culmination of his pursuit of proficiency on the battlefield
and in the courts of nobility. It marked his transition from boy to man and from
commoner to royalty. This ceremony was very important and had a lot of symbolic
significance to him and to the people around him. It focused on three important aspects of
knighthood: religion, allegiance to the King, and the code of chivalry. And it often lasted
three days.

On the day before the actual ceremony there would be long meals and discussions with
knights, clergy, and royalty about the roles and responsibilities of a knight. And in the
evening before the ceremony the knight would retire alone to the chapel and spend the
entire night in prayer and fasting to purify him and prepare him for knighthood. He would
wear a white tunic, which symbolized his purity, and over it he would wear a red cloak
which symbolized royalty. On the morning of the ceremony he would bathe as a symbol
of his new purity.

During the actual ceremony the knight would receive gifts such as spurs, a shield, a
sword, and sometimes armor. Each of these gifts had symbolic significance. His sponsor,
who was often a knight or a lord, would give these gifts to him. He would say an oath and
swear fealty to god and to his king and he would affirm his devotion to the code of
chivalry. The ritual part of the ceremony would end with the sponsor tapping the knight
on both shoulders with a sword then introducing him as “sir” to the nobility. This
ceremony would often be followed by a large banquet.

On the day after the ceremony there would often be a tournament for the new knight and
his peers to show off their combat skills and abilities with weapons.

The ceremony of knighthood was a highly ritualistic and stylized ceremony filled with
symbolic meaning. And it was a very important part of the culture of the middle ages.
Part 2:Chivalry - The Roots of the Code of the Medieval Knight

Chivalry has come to be very watered down in modern day times. For the most part we
think of chivalry as the way a man behaves toward, and around, women. And while this
does characterize chivalry it is actually a very small component of what chivalry was.

Chivalry was an all encompassing guide for living. This included combat, horsemanship,
law, religion, management of people and lands, and well just about every aspect of a
knight’s life.

There has been a long-standing debate about chivalry and whether anybody actually
followed any of it and I believe it was something that knights aspired to. Let me explain
why I think so.

The early middle ages were an extraordinarily tumultuous time and there was no such
thing as chivalry. Europe was in darkness, plague ravaged the people, and war was found
everywhere. The prime rule of thumb during this time was that might was right; and the
only rule that was effective was rule by the sword. Barons, lords, knights and kings took
by force what they could take.

But, Europe slowly came out of this darkness in the centuries leading up to the
Renaissance. The plague disappeared, Kings consolidated their lands (which caused
stability) and the Church exercised power over a significant portion of the continent.

So what happened? What happens when stability occurs and food once again becomes a
reliable resource? People turn to new ways of doing things. They gain the freedom to
examine themselves and their lives. They search for meaning in new ways, and it is from
this stability that the Renaissance was born and the ideals of chivalry were also born.

Chivalry is a natural development of the need for structure and organization in any large
culture or society. As a society grows in size and complexity it needs a set of rules of
behavior for its people and chivalry was exactly this. It was a set of rules that laid out
how a knight could manage himself, his people, his affairs and also how he could better
himself. So among other things the code of chivalry was the first self-help program! See
that, chivalry is so much more than just holding a door open!

We tend to think of chivalry as a very limited set of rules but chivalry was a code for
living that influences much of the culture we live in today. It is a fascinating topic and
there were books written about chivalry going back more than 500 years - and some of
them are still in print. Among the best of these are A Knight’s own book of Chivalry by
Geoffroi De Charny and the Book of Knighthood and Chivalry by Ramon Lull.

Part 3: How a boy became a knight in medieval times

For almost seven hundred years between the ninth and sixteenth centuries knights were
the lords of the battlefield, admired and respected for their abilities and their chivalry and
courage. So how did a boy in these centuries become a knight?

Becoming a knight was a tradition that changed over the centuries of the middle ages and
by around the sixteenth century, with the advent of gunpowder and firearms, had pretty
much become just a symbolic title. But there was a commonly accepted normal route that
a boy could take in his quest to become a knight during the height of the Middle Ages
when knighthood was important.

The Rule of Birthright

The first requirement for a boy to become a knight was the requirement of his heritage.
Generally, only boys born to certain men were allowed the opportunity to become a
knight. These requirements were usually that the boy be the son of a knight, Lord, a
wealthy merchant, or someone who held title and position in the court of the king or a
lord.

Where Training took place

Contrary to popular belief, the king did not usually train boys to become knights. This
was the responsibility of the king’s lords, barons and knights. Each of these men held
stations, titles, lands and manors of his own. And it was to the lord’s manor that the boy
would go to train under the knight of the king.

Over the centuries of the Middle Ages what a knight was expected to do changed
dramatically and chivalry did not come into the picture until the late middle ages. We will
take a look at the traditional picture of what a knight learned in these later centuries.

Training Begins as a Page

At around the age of six or seven a boy, who was of noble lineage, would report to the
local lord’s castle or manor to begin his training as a knight. There he would learn a host
of basic skills to make him a well-rounded and educated knight. He would learn the
fundamentals of court life such as table manners, care and maintenance of armor and
weapons, and how to care for a horse. He would also learn how to read and how to
appreciate music or even play the lute. His training would begin in the martial arts with
his learning how to hunt and how to hawk.

The Page Becomes A Squire

At around the age of thirteen, as the boy is starting to develop the body, mentality,
strength and abilities of manhood he is promoted to squire. He is then assigned as the
personal assistant to a knight and it is in this time that he focuses on the combat arms of
knighthood. He would get intensive training in weapons, armor, tactics and mounted
combat. Often times he was allowed to carry a small sword and shield with him as a
symbol of his status as a squire or a “knight in training”.

Becoming a Knight – The Ceremony of Knighthood

The ceremony of becoming a knight was something that could often last several days and
could include fasting or a Vigil where the knight would engage in prayer and
contemplation for a day and a night or longer. Then there would often be elaborate feasts
and hardy discussions with lords and knights about chivalry, courage, religion, and the
nature of being a knight. During the actual knighting ceremony the knight would swear
allegiance to God and to his lord and he would receive presents such as a sword, a pair of
spurs, armor, and a cloak. At the end of the ceremony the king would tap the squire on the
shoulders with the flat of a sword blade and he would become a knight.

In modern times we have a very romanticized view of what a knight was and for good
reason. There is a certain mysterious aura around the idea of knighthood and it is well
founded. It was a serious path that a boy embarked on and something that he spent his
whole childhood striving for and his whole adult life improving. The life of a knight was
a life of constant vigilance in combat and constant striving toward improvement in the
eyes of others.

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Dreams Blog (http://www.castlefiction.com/heroicdreams/)