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CHAPTER 3
KNIGHTS, CASTLES AND CHURCHES
For Bartlett, as the Frankish aristocracy was characteristically militaristic,
knights, archers (and crossbowmen) and castles were important elements of the
impact of Frankish culture, carrying to their new lands new military ideas and
implementing new military techniques. Similarly, migration from a Francia closely
connected to the Roman papacy influenced the ideals and structures of religious life
in the newly conquered lands. 213 Did the phenomena that Bartlett describes affect
eastern Suffolk in the period between 1066 and 1166? In this chapter, I will examine
what changes in the military and religious spheres took place in the century after the
Conquest of 1066 and whether or not they were the consequence of migration from
the Continent.
John Gillingham defines a knight as, “a well-armed soldier, a man who
possessed horse, hauberk, sword and helmet.” 214 Some historians might want to
require the knight to fight on horseback, but as men who everyone would agree were
knights often fought on foot, perhaps Gillingham’s definition is the best. 215 Not that
fighting was the only function either of milites or cnihts. They were both “retainer(s)
in the personal service of a nobleman, providing escort, hunting and similar
duties.” 216 If the spread of knights was part of the spread of Frankish culture, then
we would expect that knights were introduced from the Frankish heartlands and this
213
Bartlett, Making of Europe, pp. 18-21, 60.
214
Gillingham, “Introduction of Knight Service into England”, p. 187.
215
Davis, Constantine to St Louis, pp. 117-18, Douglas, William, p. 97; Green, Aristocracy, p. 10 n.
27.
216
Coss, Knight, p. 12.
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