Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Where the Church could not stop war within Europe it sought to redirect it elsewhere. Part of the rationale behind the preaching of the First Crusade was to redirect the violent energies of the warrior class away from internecine warfare and unite them against a common enemy more suited to the Church's views on warfare. The crusade continued to be used by the Church in this way throughout the medieval period. In the 14th century the Church attempted to address the problem of the Great Companies and routierd that were ravaging France by offering to engage them for crusades in the east. The companies of both Sir John Hawkwood, the great condottiere captain, and the French freelance Bertrand du Guesclin made noises about going on crusade, although in the end neither did. The medieval Church, then, recognized that it could not eliminate war, but that it could attempt to regulate and direct the warriors' behaviour. It recognized the knights as one of the three divinely ordained ordined, or orders, of society. The pugnatored, 'those who fight', ranked alongside the oratored, 'those who pray', and the laboratored, 'those who work', in a mutually supportive model of society. The Church adopted the knight and his equipment as metaphors for the Christian's struggle against evil. Here it was building on passages from the Old Testament, using Isaiah 59:17 and Ephesians 6:10-17, which refer to the donning of the armour of God, but extended the metaphor considerably. Its writers also appealed directly to the knights themselves. They cajoled and threatened with damnation, warning of the dire consequences of the pomp, vanity and violence of the knightly life. Orderic Vitalis tells the tale of the mednie Hellequin. A monk named Walchelin was returning to his home late one January night when he heard the commotion ol a band of horsemen approaching. Four troops of ghosts passed him by: a group of commoners, then women riding side-saddle, the third a party of priests and monks and, finally, an army of knights, all black save for flickering flames. The monk tried to grab one of the horses, seeking proof of what he had witnessed, but he was attacked and beaten off. One of the knights was the monk's dead brother. He describes his torments, saying 'I have endured severe punishments for the great sins with which I am heavily burdened. The arms which we bear are red hot, and offend us with an appalling stench, weighing us down with intolerable weight, and burning with everlasting fire.' He went on to explain how his spurs were wreathed with fire, 'because I used bright sharp spurs in my eager haste to shed blood'. He finally warned his brother of the damnation that would pursue him too, but also explains that because of the monk's vocation and prayers their father had been spared the same torment and his own suffering had been eased. The leading 12th-century ecclesiastic Bernard of Clairvaux demanded of the secular knight: CHIVALRY: THE KNIGHTLY CODE -
KNIGHT In a treaty on virtue and vice, Summa de vitiis, Peraldus chose to depict a knight armoured with the virtues and strengths of a good Christian and bearing a shield depicting the Trinity. (© British Library) 156 i&iu&itV' MI§ •'.^•-•ii- em. tin. 4UM • $tma \ •llUfUllljj j V What ... is this monstrous error and what this unbearable urge which bids you fight with such pomp and labour... You cover your horses with silk, and plume your armour with I know not what sort of rags; you paint your shields and your saddles; you adorn your bits and spurs with gold and silver and precious stones, and then in all this glory you rush to your ruin with fearful wrath and fearless folly. Stories of pious knights were used to encourage piety. One popular tale described how a knight on his way to tournament stopped off to hear Mass. It took so long that he missed the event, arriving only to find that the Virgin Mary had taken on his appearance, and had fought and won the honours of the tournament for him. The knightly class embraced this militarized Christianity, the secular literature absorbing and reflecting the Church's writings. They could see their actions as approved by God: after all did the Church not recognize their calling to war and bloodshed as part of the God-given structure of society? From this they could come to believe that just as the or at ores came closer to God through prayer, and the Laboratored through work, so too they came closer to God by engaging in battle. The struggle, pain and suffering they experienced on campaign was equated to that of Christ's Passion. As we have seen, Le Jouvencal talks of the knight's comrade 'valiantly
Page 1 and 2:
The Warrior and World of Chivalry R
Page 3 and 4:
iCS.
Page 5 and 6:
First published in Great Britain in
Page 9 and 10:
8 THERE CAN BE NO WARRIOR QUITE SO
Page 11 and 12:
KNIGHT The lists at the Eglinton To
Page 13 and 14:
12 KNIGHT THE AGE OF THE MEDIEVAL K
Page 15 and 16:
14 KNIGHT CHRONOLOGY What follows i
Page 17 and 18:
1202-04 The Fourth Crusade. Origina
Page 19 and 20:
France. There are several key campa
Page 21 and 22:
KNIGHT Opposite: The top left corne
Page 23 and 24:
Given these apparent similarities i
Page 25 and 26:
KNIGHT Opposite: Carolingian soldie
Page 27 and 28:
26 KNIGHT the incomes to afford to
Page 30 and 31:
CHAPTER ONE ARMS AND ARMOUR
Page 32 and 33:
iblical subjects in contemporary cl
Page 34 and 35:
terms (after all the compiler of th
Page 36 and 37:
padding being used to protect the t
Page 38 and 39:
which had been developing along the
Page 40 and 41:
Greek Corinthian helmet. Sallets co
Page 42 and 43:
stopped the wearer's head from bein
Page 44 and 45:
decorating. The shield was held by
Page 46 and 47:
there may be others which cannot be
Page 48:
made stronger without a huge increa
Page 51 and 52:
normal sharp points. Some tournamen
Page 53 and 54:
hen in March of 1095 Pope Urban II
Page 55 and 56:
loricati and armati, mail-clad' or
Page 57 and 58:
KNIGHT The fluting on this gothic a
Page 59 and 60:
skirt, the underlying mail chausses
Page 61 and 62:
60 KNIGHT weapon impacts on real ar
Page 63 and 64:
The knight would have different hor
Page 66:
Windsor Park in 1278. In the 1322 i
Page 69 and 70:
CONTRARY TO THE POPULAR IMAGE KNIGH
Page 71 and 72:
KNIGHT The high pommel and cantle o
Page 73 and 74:
eins. It is clear that it is intend
Page 75 and 76:
KNIGHT Combat in a 13th-century Ger
Page 77 and 78:
it seems clear that retinues would
Page 79 and 80:
... teams of equal numbers first ru
Page 81 and 82:
earlier, Wace writes that the Norma
Page 83 and 84:
KNIGHT Knights awaiting the start o
Page 86 and 87:
A similar device, but for mounted c
Page 88 and 89:
hedgerows, barns, hills and the tow
Page 90 and 91:
English knights at a disadvantage a
Page 92:
imit^S^VWSEqVES'BRrrANNLVSWXAElATK
Page 96 and 97:
CHAPTER THREE CAMPAIGN AND BATTLE
Page 98 and 99:
the raising of a royal field army t
Page 100 and 101:
separate organizations drawn from s
Page 102 and 103:
not that behind; presumably the sti
Page 104 and 105:
With its snub nose and double chin,
Page 106 and 107: supported by Geoffrey de Brabant. T
Page 108 and 109: THE ARMY ON THE MARCH Many of the i
Page 110 and 111: with limited objectives, if any, be
Page 112 and 113: • * / h M / Images of the battle
Page 114 and 115: of wine, dozens of herds of live ca
Page 116 and 117: have seen, were self contained, wit
Page 118 and 119: made this a practical proposition.
Page 120 and 121: crusaders even threw the heads of c
Page 122 and 123: BATTLE In comparison to sieges and
Page 124 and 125: of Northallerton in 1138 the priest
Page 126 and 127: A 15th-century depiction of Agincou
Page 128 and 129: dttrnutir.'Xaefatrami r^Wuutrma era
Page 130 and 131: himself as a scholar. Similarly, th
Page 132 and 133: numerous nobles, gleaming with gold
Page 134 and 135: of his charge, the savagery and pow
Page 136 and 137: fought in 1461, showed a blade woun
Page 138 and 139: and facing a renewed attack in thei
Page 140 and 141: (as opposed to rebellion) was consi
Page 142: the survival of a number of great h
Page 145 and 146: THE MODERN USE OF THE WORD CHIVALRY
Page 147 and 148: shame, striving with the skill of y
Page 149 and 150: KNIGHT The Song of Roland is the ea
Page 151 and 152: KNIGHT Roger Mortimer, one of the f
Page 153 and 154: hen the theologians Augustine of Hi
Page 155: Hastings a set of penances was impo
Page 159 and 160: exposing his body to execute and ac
Page 161 and 162: 160 KNIGHT A royal crusader, marked
Page 164 and 165: 'WMItwm^.i CHIVALRY: THE KNIGHTLY C
Page 166 and 167: Indeed similar conversations were p
Page 168 and 169: marriage, such quarterings could be
Page 170 and 171: These were not individual symbols i
Page 172 and 173: Ulrich von Lichtenstein, depicted i
Page 174 and 175: were believed to be culturally infe
Page 176 and 177: eturned. In 1139, during the war be
Page 178: from sacking the town for much the
Page 181 and 182: THE KNIGHT WAS DEFINED BY HIS MARTI
Page 183 and 184: 182 KNIGHT The seal of Henry II of
Page 185 and 186: squire was closer to the knight tha
Page 187 and 188: KNIGHT The royal court was a curiou
Page 189 and 190: ill-educated and uncultured individ
Page 191 and 192: 0younger son of a minor nobleman wh
Page 193 and 194: KNIGHT Devotional works were not al
Page 195 and 196: KNIGHT Games like chess and backgam
Page 197 and 198: the tips of their toes where the bo
Page 199 and 200: he Black Prince's reputation as a c
Page 201 and 202: KNIGHT The secular orders each had
Page 204 and 205: BEYOND THE BATTLEFIELD: THE KNIGHT
Page 206:
BEYOND THE BATTLEFIELD: THE KNIGHT
Page 209 and 210:
would become over-tired. The quarry
Page 212 and 213:
CHAPTER SIX THE DEATH OF KNIGHTHOOD
Page 214 and 215:
men had been adopting them without
Page 217 and 218:
KNIGHT By the time the Landsknecht
Page 219 and 220:
e struggles between the Italian cit
Page 221 and 222:
only for the tournament and pageant
Page 223 and 224:
JtoimP^
Page 225 and 226:
224 aketon arret de la cuiradde ave
Page 227 and 228:
226 KNIGHT pell poleyn quintain rer
Page 229 and 230:
228 KNIGHT The Rule of the Templars
Page 231 and 232:
Liddiard, R. (ed.), Anglo-Norman Ca
Page 233 and 234:
Cuhna, E. and Silva, Ana Maria, 'Wa
Page 235 and 236:
Sherborne, J. W., 'Indentured retin
Page 237 and 238:
KNIGHT champions 82 Chandos, Sir Jo
Page 239 and 240:
KNIGHT Knights Templar, Order of 13
Page 241 and 242:
KNIGHT sumptuary law (1363) 183-4,
show all

Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?