IV.

Life of a Knight

A.

Training

The education of a knight proceeded in a way similar to that of many medieval occupations. At an early age the prospective knight was apprenticed to serve as a page, or attendant, in a knight’s household. In his teens the page graduated to the status of a squire and received more responsibilities. As a squire the boy tended his knight’s horses and armor, but he also gained his first battle experience. Several squires were usually apprenticed to a knight at the same time and on the battlefield they might fight as a small band of infantry around their master. Here they acquired the many skills in arms necessary for their profession. To graduate to the status of a knight, a squire usually performed some heroic deed in battle. The squire was welcomed into the order of knights by being dubbed with a sword or slapped in the face by his lord. Afterwards the new knight would receive his fief, or gift of land. As the cult of chivalry developed in the 12th and 13th centuries, knighting ceremonies became more involved. Often they occurred at court, and a knight’s dubbing might be preceded by a religious vigil in which the knight vowed to uphold Christian and chivalric principles.

B.

Arms and Armor

The principal weapons used by knights were the lance and the sword. Because his opponent usually used the same weapons, a knight had to wear a sturdy outfit for protection. All knights wore helmets, some of which were shaped like close-fitting hoods, covering the back of the head but leaving the face unprotected. Others had a piece of iron that came down over the forehead and nose, and some covered the whole head.

For many years knights wore body armor in the form of a short tunic or shirt called a hauberk. In the early days the hauberk was made of heavily quilted leather or cloth. Later the hauberk made of mail, a mesh of interlinked metal rings, came to be used extensively. It proved satisfactory against swords and spears, but greater protection was needed against the battle-ax and heavy battle hammer. Therefore, the knight carried a shield, which protected his body and also served as a stretcher in which he could be carried off the field if wounded. To protect the mail hauberk from the sun’s heat and from moisture, the knight usually wore a cloth tunic known as a surcoat.

In the early part of the 14th century improvements made to the crossbow enabled the bolts they shot to penetrate mail with ease. Therefore, armor with deflecting surfaces became necessary. This was achieved about 1350 by the development of plate armor. Protective steel plates were fastened to the mail shirt over the chest and back, the shoulders, the outsides of the arms and legs, and generally, to all the vulnerable parts of the body.

Several different forms of plate armor existed in the late Middle Ages. The fully articulated plate armor developed in the first half of the 15th century is called Gothic, because it emphasized vertical lines and had a spiky appearance reminiscent of Gothic architecture. About 1500 the style changed, and the more rounded shapes characteristic of Renaissance style became common; a variant favored in Germany for its additional strength (the so-called Maximilian armor, after Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I) had fluted surfaces, like corrugated iron.

Since armor usually hid the face of the knight, identifying insignia were engraved on his breastplate. These arms, or coats of arms as they were later known, were also embroidered upon his surcoat and the trappings of his horse. At first the insignia were simple line designs, but later they were elaborated with circles, trefoils, animals, and swords. Sometimes the designs were based on events in the wearer’s life (see Heraldry).

C.

The Tournament

Knights would often develop their skills as a warrior by participating in the frequent tournaments that occurred at court. Tournaments had their origins in the early Middle Ages, when warrior kings trained their men for battle by arranging lethal combats among their knights. As the knight’s role as a warrior grew less important in the later Middle Ages, tournaments were transformed into elaborate pageants that became a form of entertainment for the court. Endless rounds of jousting and battling between a lord’s knights might be used to impress visiting dignitaries and a king’s subjects. But by the 13th century, the swords and lances used in these demonstrations were usually blunt-edged.