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on foot to rescue Marmion reinforces the conjunction of practicality and chivalry in the knight's approach to war. The trappings and ceremonies of chivalry did, however, become more remote from the reality of war during the late 14th and 15th centuries. Tournaments were no longer training for war. Whilst they might still help to keep a man fit and healthy and active, their increasing specialization and the changes in the methods of battle meant that the joust was no longer relevant to the knight's behaviour on the field. Heraldry also became less important. The increasing size of armies made it much more important to show collective identity through national symbols, such as the cross of St George worn by all English royal expeditions from Agincourt onwards. Displaying one's identity and status was less likely to save your life. War had become more sanguinary, not just because there were far more infantry, men uninterested in trying to extract ransom from noble families. The Wars ot the Roses showed a dramatic change in temperament from what had gone before. Captured noblemen were executed without a murmur of protest, personal vendettas and revenge for past murders leading to yet more noble blood being spilt. Ironically it was now a cry of 'spare the commons' that was most likely to be heard across the field, from men whose grandfathers would not have thought them worthy of a moment's notice. By the 16th century the changes wrought on the battlefield meant that the notion of chivalry of the 13th century, the fusion of the warrior, courtier and Christian, had all but disappeared. The crusading zeal and the idea of the Christian knight had vanished for the most part, although not entirely, buried by the victory of the Ottomans at Nicopolis in 1396. As the aristocratic warrior elite transformed itself into a professional officer class the drives for individual martial glory were downplayed, whilst that ol honourable conduct, duty and loyalty took centre stage. The concepts of courtliness and fine manners were claimed by the gentry who asserted a nobility gained through service. They became something quaint and foolish. They were lampooned by the likes of Cervantes, whose Don Quixote, having read too much medieval romance, imagines himself the questing hero performing deeds for his lady, but is thought by all around him to be foolish and mad. By the end of the 16th century the knight as we have been looking at him had become a.thing of the past. His social dominance had been subsumed within the gentry of courtiers, functionaries and landowners, his traditional battlefield role had disappeared beneath a forest of pikes and cloud of gun-smoke. He has never been forgotten. All around us, in the arms and armour displayed in museums, in the funeral monuments and coats of arms in countless churches and cathedrals, in the manuscript illuminations and the stories and tales of great battles and heroic deeds, the colour and pageantry of the world of the warrior still exerts its fascination. THE DEATH OF KNIGHTHOOD? -3*- Opposite: Gradually armour became less about protection and more about display, as this piece of 16th-century parade armour demonstrates. (Bridgeman Art Library) 223
224 aketon arret de la cuiradde aventa.il banneret bebourt) bevor camera chaudded chevalier collee condottieri conroid or condtabularii constable couter cuir bouilli cuidde dedtrier devued domud edchielled familui GLOSSARY a form of padded coat, worn on its own or under armour a bracket fastened to the breastplate that allowed the knight to rest his lance to get a steadier aim and truer strike a curtain of mail attached to a helmet, covering the neck and shoulders a knight who led other knights under a banner, a rallying point, also a mark of social distinction an informal and act hoc melee generally fought with blunt weapons a shaped defence of plate that protected the neck and face from collarbone to chin the private rooms of a nobleman in his castle clothing for the legs, but also used to describe mail leggings French word tor a knight the blow received by an aspirant knight in some knighting rituals Italian term for mercenary companies, named after the contract or condotta by which they were employed, raised from the 13th century through into the Renaissance small units of knights, somewhere between ten and 50 strong title for an officer within a lord's do mud, responsible for the stables and horses, and for the commander of a castle or town garrison. Also one of the two ranks (along with marshal) within a medieval army in charge of its discipline (perhaps with the specific role for quartering troops) plate cap that protected the elbow joint hardened leather, used in the making of armour armour to protect the thigh the knight's great horse' or warhorse the informal system of badges that was used alongside hereditary and systematic heraldic arms a noble's civilian household small units of knights, similar to conroid or condtabularii the knight's military household
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The Warrior and World of Chivalry R
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iCS.
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First published in Great Britain in
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8 THERE CAN BE NO WARRIOR QUITE SO
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KNIGHT The lists at the Eglinton To
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12 KNIGHT THE AGE OF THE MEDIEVAL K
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14 KNIGHT CHRONOLOGY What follows i
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1202-04 The Fourth Crusade. Origina
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France. There are several key campa
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KNIGHT Opposite: The top left corne
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Given these apparent similarities i
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KNIGHT Opposite: Carolingian soldie
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26 KNIGHT the incomes to afford to
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CHAPTER ONE ARMS AND ARMOUR
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iblical subjects in contemporary cl
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terms (after all the compiler of th
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padding being used to protect the t
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which had been developing along the
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Greek Corinthian helmet. Sallets co
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stopped the wearer's head from bein
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decorating. The shield was held by
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there may be others which cannot be
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made stronger without a huge increa
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normal sharp points. Some tournamen
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hen in March of 1095 Pope Urban II
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loricati and armati, mail-clad' or
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KNIGHT The fluting on this gothic a
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skirt, the underlying mail chausses
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60 KNIGHT weapon impacts on real ar
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The knight would have different hor
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Windsor Park in 1278. In the 1322 i
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CONTRARY TO THE POPULAR IMAGE KNIGH
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KNIGHT The high pommel and cantle o
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eins. It is clear that it is intend
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KNIGHT Combat in a 13th-century Ger
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it seems clear that retinues would
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... teams of equal numbers first ru
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earlier, Wace writes that the Norma
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KNIGHT Knights awaiting the start o
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A similar device, but for mounted c
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hedgerows, barns, hills and the tow
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English knights at a disadvantage a
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imit^S^VWSEqVES'BRrrANNLVSWXAElATK
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CHAPTER THREE CAMPAIGN AND BATTLE
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the raising of a royal field army t
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separate organizations drawn from s
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not that behind; presumably the sti
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With its snub nose and double chin,
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supported by Geoffrey de Brabant. T
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THE ARMY ON THE MARCH Many of the i
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with limited objectives, if any, be
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• * / h M / Images of the battle
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of wine, dozens of herds of live ca
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have seen, were self contained, wit
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made this a practical proposition.
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crusaders even threw the heads of c
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BATTLE In comparison to sieges and
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of Northallerton in 1138 the priest
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A 15th-century depiction of Agincou
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dttrnutir.'Xaefatrami r^Wuutrma era
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himself as a scholar. Similarly, th
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numerous nobles, gleaming with gold
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of his charge, the savagery and pow
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fought in 1461, showed a blade woun
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and facing a renewed attack in thei
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(as opposed to rebellion) was consi
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the survival of a number of great h
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THE MODERN USE OF THE WORD CHIVALRY
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shame, striving with the skill of y
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KNIGHT The Song of Roland is the ea
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KNIGHT Roger Mortimer, one of the f
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hen the theologians Augustine of Hi
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Hastings a set of penances was impo
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KNIGHT In a treaty on virtue and vi
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exposing his body to execute and ac
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160 KNIGHT A royal crusader, marked
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'WMItwm^.i CHIVALRY: THE KNIGHTLY C
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Indeed similar conversations were p
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marriage, such quarterings could be
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These were not individual symbols i
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Ulrich von Lichtenstein, depicted i
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Page 181 and 182: THE KNIGHT WAS DEFINED BY HIS MARTI
Page 183 and 184: 182 KNIGHT The seal of Henry II of
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Page 187 and 188: KNIGHT The royal court was a curiou
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Page 195 and 196: KNIGHT Games like chess and backgam
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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
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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
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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
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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,
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Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

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