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

KNIGHT
The royal court was
a curious mixture of
business and pleasure.
Here the king, Alfonso X of
Castile and Leon, conducts
business with his clerks
(who are all tonsured
churchmen) whilst in the
background minstrels play.
(Bridgeman Art Library)
186
The knight was chosen to represent his county because of the honour and status
that came with his rank and calling but also because as a holder ol land or office in the
county he had an interest in it. The same rationale lay behind his role within the
dispensing of justice. Under the restructuring of justice in Henry Il's Grand Assize
knights took a central role in the running of the legal system. Apart from the sheriff
who as we have noted was invariably a local magnate and who acted as the king's
officer and representative in the county, knights served as the electors of and members
of juries for a wide variety of property cases, surveying, valuing and judging who had
the greater right to disputed land. They were also called upon to serve as coroners,
inspecting the scene of a crime and the injuries of a victim and gathering evidence for
presentation at trial. They may even have acted as gaolers in that offenders might be
remanded into their custody before trial and sentencing. That this multitude of judicial
functions was considered burdensome by many is clear from the fact that magnates
were exempt from all such duties and that the decline in the number of knights
corresponds with the creation ol these roles.
Whilst the detail of the structures might be different in other realms, and in fact was
different in areas of the English kingdom such as the marcher lordships bordering
Wales and the lands of the prince-bishops of Durham, the knight was almost
invariably at their heart. Dispensing justice was, after all, one ol the chivalric