KNIGHTHOODBECOMING A KNIGHT AND THE CODE OF

CHIVALRY

During the Middle Ages, it was technically possible for any free man to become a knight. However, the process of training and equipping a knight with a horse and appropriate weapons was very expensive.

Knights would therefore generally come from a noble, or wealthy, family. Therefore a would-be-knight would need to have the right family connections.

The origin of the term “Knight” derives from Anglo-Saxon word “Cniht” meaning “boy” or “page boy”. The steps to knighthood started as a boy. The honor of being a knight eventually passed from a knight to his sons.

Steps to Becoming a Knight

The normal course of action for the son of a noble: When a boy was seven or eight years old, he was sent to the neighboring castle where he was trained as a page.

The boy was usually the son of a knight or of a member of the aristocracy. He spent most of his time strengthening his body, wrestling and riding horses. He also learned how to fight with a spear and a sword. He practiced against a wooden dummy called a quintain.

The young man was also taught more civilized topics. He would be taught to read and write by a schoolmaster. He could also be taught some Latin and French. The lady of the castle taught the page to sing and dance and how to behave in the king’s court.

At the age of fifteen or sixteen, a boy became a squire in service to a knight.

His duties included dressing the knight in the morning, serving all of the knight’s meals, caring for the knight’s horse, and cleaning the knight’s armor and weapons. He followed the knight to tournaments and assisted his lord on the battlefield.

A squire also prepared himself by learning how to handle a sword and lance while wearing forty pounds of armor and riding a horse.

The “dubbing” ceremonyWhen he was about twenty, a squire could become a knight after proving himself worthy. A lord would agree to knight him in a dubbing ceremony.

The night before the ceremony, the squire would dress in a white tunic and red robes.

He would then fast and pray all night for the purification of his soul.

The chaplain would bless the future knight's sword and then lay it on the chapel or church's altar.

Before dawn, he took a bath to show that he was pure, and he dressed in his best clothes.

When dawn came, the priest would hear the young man's confession (a Catholic contrition rite). The outdoor ceremony took place in front of family, friends, and nobility. The squire knelt in front of the lord, who tapped the squire lightly on each shoulder with his sword and proclaimed him a knight, with the words “Arise, sir knight!”. After the dubbing, a great feast followed with music and dancing.

The Chivalric Code

Knights believed in the code of chivalry.

They promised to defend the weak, be courteous to all women, be loyal to their king, and serve God at all times. Knights were expected to be humble before others, especially their superiors.

They were also expected to not "talk too much". In other words, they shouldn't boast.

The code of chivalry demanded that a knight give mercy to a vanquished enemy. However, the very fact that knights were trained as men of war contradicted this code.

Not so "Knightly”

Even though they came from rich families, many knights were not their families' firstborn. They did not receive an inheritance. Thus they were little more than mercenaries.

They plundered villages or cities that they captured, often defiling and destroying churches and other property.

Also the code of chivalry did not extend to the peasants. The "weak" was widely interpreted as "noble women and children".

They were often brutal to common folk. They could sometimes even rape young peasant women without fear of punishment, all because they were part of the upper class.

The Ten Commandments of the Code of Chivalry:

1. Thou shall believe all that the church teaches, and shall observe all its directions.

2. Thou shall defend the Church.

3. Thou shalt respect all weaknesses, and shall constitute thyself the defender of them.

4. Thou shall love the country in which thou was born.

5. Thou shall not recoil before thine enemy.

6. Thou shall make war against the Infidel without cessation, and without mercy.

7. Thou shall perform scrupulously they feudal duties, if they be not contrary to the laws of God.

8. Thou shall never lie, and shall remain faithful to thy pledged word.

9. Thou shall be generous, and give largesse (gifts, monies, wealth, etc.) to everyone.

10. Thou shall be everywhere and always the champion of the Right and the Good against Injustice and Evil.

Images of Courtly Love(Knights and their Maidens)

But what role did medieval women really play?

Women’s Roles: History’s Women of ChivalryBy Scott Farrell– November 27, 2003

Today there seems to be an underlying assumption that chivalry is all about men in armor riding around questing, jousting and conquering, while the women sit helplessly in their towers and castles with nothing to do but sigh and swoon.

This perception is largely due to the attitudes of the neo-Gothic revival of the 19th century. Authors, such as Sir Walter Scott and Alfred Lord Tennyson, and painters such as Frederic Leighton and John William Waterhouse, melded the stories and images of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table with a Victorian sense of gallantry, which delineated a passive role for women. But this role would have been quite alien to the audiences of the Middle Ages, for whom tales of Arthur and Guenevere were not wistful reminiscences, but evocative and timely social commentaries.

To see the real place of female characters in Arthurian literature we must look beyond the gender-biased affectations of the 19th century. Women in medieval literature played an active and integral part in the development of the Code of Chivalry. Certainly, Guinevere, Isoud, Elaine and the other ladies of Arthurian legend didn’t put on armor and ride into battle, but neither did they sit quietly on the sidelines.

Male characters in Arthurian legends portray the practical side of chivalry — they are characters of action. Female characters, conversely, represented the intellectual side of chivalry — they are characters of reflection. Whenever a knight accomplished a great deed, he (or perhaps his vanquished foe) returned to Camelot to recount his actions to the Queen and ladies of the court.

In such instances, it was the job of the Queen and her ladies to either praise the knight for adhering to the true spirit of chivalry, or rebuke him for succumbing to the temptations of vanity, pride or greed. A knight who defended the helpless or showed mercy to a fallen enemy received acclaim and admiration. Conversely, a knight who was too boastful about his prowess or reputation received harsh, critical words, and might well be sent on a dangerous quest to atone for his vanity. In this way, Guinevere and the female characters of Arthurian romance provide much-needed balance within the literature of chivalry — a dynamic which today would be described by concepts such as “yin and yang” or “anima and animas.”

Feminine involvement in the tales of King Arthur was surely more than mere idealism. These stories were being presented to a 12th century audience who had grown tired of centuries-old adventure stories that featured predictable heroes such as Roland, El Cid and Beowulf. They wanted stories that reflected contemporary values and expectations. It is hard to imagine a Queen like Eleanor of Aquitaine (to whom the poet Wace dedicated his tales of King Arthur in 1155) tolerating stories in which a woman’s only purpose was to serve as frilly window-dressing for battles and tournaments. So Guenevere was undoubtedly a role model for attitudes and actions of ladies in medieval courtly society.

Women and ChivalryBy April Apperson– July 24, 2002

The counterpart to the “knight in shining armor” has long been the “damsel in distress” — helplessly captured by a wicked tormentor, waiting for her hero to rescue her and take her away to a lofty tower of his palace where the two can live happily ever after.This rather unfortunate and distasteful concept is based on fairy tales and fantasy movies, nothing more. In fact, women in the Middle Ages did not have the luxury of whiling away their lives in ivory towers. They were too busy administering their estates, managing their workers, writing correspondence to friends and family members, traveling on pilgrimages to foreign lands and working to help support their families.That hardly sounds like the life of servitude and helplessness you’ve heard about, does it? Now, don’t get me wrong — men certainly were the upper crust in the culture of medieval Europe, but women had more rights, responsibilities and freedoms than many of us have been led to believe. And, just as a woman was not confined to a passive or subservient role in medieval society, neither was she confined to such a role within the code of chivalry.

The knight in shining armor was expected to ride about the land, doing good deeds, upholding the law, and championing the weak and defenseless. But, in order to make the code of chivalry work, the woman had to play an active part in it as well — her job was to acknowledge the good and virtuous works which were being done by the knight, to praise him for being brave, just and courteous, and, by doing this, to guide him along the path of true chivalry rather than letting him stray into the realms of pride, vanity or self-indulgence.Basically, women were the intellectual custodians of the knightly virtues, and they were responsible for maintaining and promoting the code of chivalry. Helpless damsels in distress? I don’t think so.But regardless of how women were treated in the real world of the Middle Ages, or in the fantasy world of the chivalric romances, in the 21st century, chivalry no longer involves swinging swords, climbing castle walls or slaying dragons. Chivalry today is based on the application of the “knightly virtues,” and that applies as much to women as to men.

Today, a girl can grow up to be a business executive, a lawyer, a university professor, an athlete, a doctor, an author or a politician. She can work as a salesperson, a police officer, a mail carrier, a store clerk, an actress or a librarian. Or, she can even be a devoted full-time mother and homemaker, if she so chooses, and no one will think any the less of her.Of course, nobody with a realistic outlook would deny that there are places in the world where discrimination and inequality still exist, but by and large, women today enjoy an unprecedented level of opportunity and responsibility.

Similarly, women have an equivalent level of opportunity and responsibility as men do in the code of chivalry today. They have the opportunity to behave with the same type of courage, justice, mercy, generosity, faith, nobility and hope as their male counterparts — on the job, at home, in relationships, in family matters, in their careers and in their recreational activities. And by doing this, they have just as much opportunity to enrich themselves and inspire the people around them as does any man.