...What was a knight? There were three main types of soldiers during the Middle Ages: foot soldiers, archers, and knights. The knights were heavily armored soldiers who rode on horseback. Only the wealthiest nobles could afford to be a knight. They needed very expensive armor, weapons, and a powerful war horse. Medieval Knight by Unknown The First Knights The first knights of the Middle Ages fought for Charlemagne, the King of the Franks, in the 700s. In order to fight battles across his large empire, Charlemagne began to use soldiers on horseback. These soldiers became a very important part of his army. Charlemagne began to award his best knights with land called "benefices". In return for the land, the knights agreed to fight for the...
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...Extreme Violence of the Knights In the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a group of knights, under King Arthur’s leadership, go on a quest, given to them by God, to find the Holy Grail. After a little debate, they split up, but eventually find each other again, where they approach the Bridge of Death, and after crossing, find the Grail. This movie is a significant, modern example of satire, which burlesques the knights and customs of the Middle Ages. Satire attempts to bring change in the world, without actually providing a solution. The film Monty Python and the Holy Grail uses exaggeration and unexpected logic to expose the amount of gratuitous violence that the knights employ in the Middle Ages. The scene with the brawl between...
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...handed and two handed Not popular among knights Easily Deflected and bad defence II. Sword Efficient A favorite among knights Single-handed and two-handed III. Mace Another favorite of knights Strong Varying sizes IV. Long Bow Remarkable during its time Multiple different types Required extensive training to use All men in medieval times were taught how to fight and were expected to serve the the King whenever they were called or requested. Soldiers during the middle ages were Knights, Foot...
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...Knights and Samurai were a big part of their society's success and defense. They each fought in hard, and fierce combat. Knights grew up and were raised in any location in the continent of Europe. They defended their kings and queens empire among ferocious invaders. Samurai, trained and grew up in ancient Japan. They also defended their lords empire against anyone who challenged them. With that said, there were still many differences among both figures. Some of those differences include, job enrollment, there childhood and training, and the armor they used. As you read on, I will explain the many differences among the top two warriors of the middle ages. To get started, Knights and Samurai of the middle ages used very different types of armor and gear. According to ( Document D ), it reads “samurai armor was consisting of small iron scales lacquered together and tied with either silk or leather cords.” another fact to relate to is the fact that samurai gear and armor weighed only up to 15-25 pounds. This is way different than the opposing figure of the knights because Knights of the middle ages wore up to 50-60 pounds of armor across combat and battle. The way the armor was constructed was still very different too, it consisted up of huge Steel plates that covered every inch of the knight's body. Unlike the samurai, knight’s even wore boots...
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...during the Middle Ages were, according to the document 1, the responsibility of the knights who were the people of the middle status. While the serfs had to supply the knights with provision working on their lands, they gained the guarantee of security. At the same time, the knights provided military service to the nobles, and the nobles in turn provided the knights to the king so that the king also was secured. The manorialism differentiates from the feudalism in terms of presenting an economic system while feudalism refers to the politics as well. According to the document 2, the system of...
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...Of the many concepts that are prevalent in the study of the Middle Ages, few of them are as fluid and abstract as the idea of Chivalry. Chivalry is a concept that shows its head in many different pieces of literature from the time period as well as in the actions of many of the era's most prominent individuals. Knights, kings, soldiers, nobles, and more all followed the ideals of chivalry to one extent or another. The problem with examining their actions, however, lies in the fact that people within each of these groups interpreted chivalry differently. Whereas one person may view the act of war as chivalrous, others may look towards maintaining their estates and income as more important to their chivalrous valor. This makes simply defining...
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...Knights The name of a knight was one of three types of fighting men during the Middle Ages: Knights, Foot Soldiers, and Archers. A Knight was covered in multiple layers of armor, and could takle through foot soldiers standing in his way. No single foot soldier alone or archer could stand up to any one knight. Knights were also generally the wealthiest of the three types of soldiers. This was for a good reason. It was greatly expensive to be a knight. The war horse alone could cost the same amount of a small airplane. Armor, shields, and weapons were also very expensive. Becoming a knight was part of the feudal agreement. In return for military service, the knight received a fief. In the late middle ages, many prospective knights began to pay "shield money" to their lord so that they wouldn't have to serve in the king's army. The money was then used to create a professional army that was paid and supported by the king. These knights often fought more for pillaging than for army wages. When they took over a city, they were allowed to ransack it, stealing goods and valuables. When a boy was 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 (some were even children adopted into the noble family.) 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 dummie called...
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...Testing the Actions of a Knight The story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was translated by Burton Raffel during the Middle Ages. Actions show what your true character really is. The actions of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight addresses the code of conduct for knights during that time period. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, translated by Burton Raffel, addresses the code of conduct for knights in the Middle Ages through the actions of Sir Gawain in order to reveal his true character. The Green Knight walks in and challenges the men’s knightly-hood by submitting to a blow from the ax if he can return the blow a year and a day in the future. Every knight just starts looking around roaming the room with their eyes. His challenge sparks...
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...Chivalry died in the Middle Ages, but there is no complete answer to the reason for that death. Some knights held on to the characteristics of chivalry, but others began to lose their honor and become less loyal. Geoffrey Chaucer, a writer from the fourteenth century, wrote a framed story called The Canterbury Tales. This work is made up of a General Prologue, which is a description of all the individual pilgrims going on the pilgrimage, followed by several tales told by these pilgrims. He describes several knight’s in this work through a chivalric code of honor. Through his description of the Knight in the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, as well as the “Knight’s Tale” and the “Wife of Bath’s Tale,” Chaucer suggests that although chivalry...
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...Gawain and the Green Knight, translated by John Gardner, is set in the Middle Ages. This was a time in history when people focused on the values and ideals of the Code of Chivalry, a code of honor intended to govern knightly behavior. As Arthur and his knights get together to feast and celebrate Christmas and the new year their festivities were interrupted by a man of green who wandered about searching for adventure so that he can disprove his chivalry. The two values that are most clearly stated in the poem are courage and honor. It will become clear by the actions of the characters that courage and honor is shown in several different areas of the poem. According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, courage is defined as “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.” Courage can be shown in a variety of ways. In this particular instance the Green Knight challenged King Arthur or any of the knights of the roundtable to take his ax and hit his bare neck. He said to them, “And I will stand still for your stroke, steady on the floor, / provided you honor my right, when my inning comes, / to repay” (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 213). Clearly, the Green Knight shows a tremendous amount of courage, knowing the danger that it is going to befall him if one of the knights takes up the ax to his neck. Sir Gawain is another instance where courage was lost and then found. After a year, Gawain met the Green Knight to seal his portion of...
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...brainiacs at a table. They know there place in that high school by what they do around the school. The same can be said about people in the Middle Ages. The “cliques” as stated before were just as easy to point out. The Middle Ages were subdivided into three major classes: those who fought, who prayed, and who worked. They first major class of the Middle Ages was those who fought. These men were usually the ones with the most money that included the King, the Dukes, the Earls, the Barons, the Knights and the Esquires (Mortimer 40). The reason that most of the people that fought were also wealthy was because they would have to be wealthy to be able to afford all of the equipment used in fighting (Lecture). The most important fighter was the King. The title of those who fought was a little misleading for the king because he usually did not do most of the fight he was just a person that could pay for military expeditions. The next social tier was the three ranks of lords: the dukes, earls, and barons. These were men who had to fight directly for the king for at least forty days each year at their own expense. The Lordly status was a correlation with their income. Their income came from their estates that would brings in at least £1000. The third social class dealing with those who fought were the knights, esquires, and gentlemen. The knights were usually lords that would work indirectly from the king which meant that they did not have the baronial title like the lords...
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...The Knight’s Tale Courtly love, according to Mr. Windham, is the idealized view of an extra-marital relationship between the sexes in which a knight performs brave deeds to win the approval of a lady. Courtly love occurred mostly during the 1066-1485, otherwise known as the middle ages. This form of love can be found all throughout The Knight’s Tale, a tale of two cousins, who do everything from the proclaiming of their love for Emily, to fighting an epic knight battle in an arena; this tale seems to be courtly love through and through, but there is something that is prohibiting this tale to be a true tale of courtly love; their proclaimed love, Emily, is not married. The first reading of courtly love is the knights’ proclamation of love towards Emily. These two knights, Arcite and Palamon, are cousins with a brotherly bond. They have a chivalrous honor and promised to watch after each other no matter what. This is their code of honor emphasizing loyalty to each other. After the Battle of Thebes, these two knights are found wounded on the battle field. Theseus, the king of Athens who marched on Thebes, spares their lives but condemns them to life in an Athenian tower. On one day of their imprisonment, Palamon wakes...
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...During the Middle Ages Courtly Love was appeared to be very strict as it was practiced all across Europe. Marriages were arranged by the parents during this time in order to increase the status and wealth of each family. Courtly Love had very little to do with love in the middle Ages. Courtly love is a medieval literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Courtly love was practiced in the courts but in tales it was shown through knights. But, where there were courtly love you, there were also sexual desires. In the middle ages, women were seen to be more lustful than the men which is different from modern day which men are seen to be more lustful than women. The knight’s, the wife of bath’s, and the miller’s tale are...
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...author and feminist. William Longland: English poet who wrote the Vision of Piers Plowman. Boccaccio: Italian writer who was famous for writing the Decameron. Raphael Holinshed: Medieval author of Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland. (KM) Romance: • Chivalry was the reason behind this type of literature. • The greatest English example of the romance is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. • The romance hero-who often has the help of magic-undertakes a quest to conquer an evil enemy. (KM) Chivalry: • A system of ideals and social codes governing the behavior of knights and gentlewoman. • The rules included: taking an oath of loyalty to the overlord and observing certain rules of warfare. • Adoring a particular lady was seen as a means of self-improvement. (KM) Courtly Love: • The idea that adoring a lady would make a knight braver and nobler was central to one aspect of chivalry, courtly love. • Courtly love was nonsexual • A knight might wear his lady's colors in battle. • The knight could glorify his lady in...
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...historians that, while it is difficult to be definitive in the meaning of chivalry-with Maurice Keen believing it to be a ‘word elusive of definition’- it came to denote the culture of a martial estate which ‘regarded war as its hereditary profession’. Thus, it could be considered that the violence of war had large implications on what people began to perceive to be chivalry. Additionally, the focus on violence- such as the participating in tournaments and jousts- further emphasises the close link between carrying out violent acts and the idea that a knight was being chivalrous. However, there were alternative influences, such as literature written in the period, which presented people with a chivalric ideal that they may then have come to define it by and thus strive towards. Similarly, religion may be seen to have influenced what came to be viewed as chivalry as through ecclesiastical critiques of the noble class, derived the knights desire to adopt what the Church deemed proper Christian conduct. Ultimately it is likely that it was not simply war and violence, but a combination of these influences which culminated in the definition of what people of the period perceived to be chivalry. It is evident that war and violence were seen as intrinsic elements of chivalry. The idea that chivalry was synonymous with bloodshed and violence may be seen to have derived from the concept being centered on prowess in the art of fighting. This is largely due to the fact that chivalry was...
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