High Germa Chivalry

During the Middle Ages, any young male who wanted to become a knight had to complete a number of prolonged steps. Informal training started soon after youngster could walk. Formal training started when the boy became a page and later a squire. After all the rigorous duties are met and all the responsibilities are upheld, then a prospective knight participated in a final ceremony where he was knighted.
A father of prospective knight started his son’s training soon after birth. Children’s play was the first step in learning how to become a knight. Toy pewter knights were given to young boys. “Edward I gave his son's toy castles and a nature siege engine to play with, and Richard II had miniature guns as a boy” (Prestwich 16). At the age of seven, prospective knights were sent to a castle of a noble to become a page. A page is a servant to a nobleman. The future knight’s servitude obligation was found in the origin of the word knight. “The word ‘knight’ finds its origins in the Old High
German knecht, (a word which, incidentally, remains the same in modern German), meaning ‘servant’" (Crowther). Typically, training as a page would last to the age of fourteen (Alchin).
If formal training was not possible, a prospective knight still had to learn to read and write. Each knight had clerks who read and wrote for him. However, the ability to read and write were important skills to have so the knight could keep check on their clerks. In addition, a knight would raise morale among his men during a campaign by reading to them. The king of Scots, Robert Bruce did this by reading to his men“the romance of Fiera bras, the fifteen foot tall son of the king of Spain, who was honourably beaten by the right roughly Oliver” (Prestwich 19). Some knights used their ability to write to record important events. Some of these recordings survived and became quite well known books. The English knight, Thomas Gray, wrote a history, the Scalacronica. Henry, Duke of Lancaster, wrote a devotional treatise, the Book of Holy Medicine (Prestwich 19).
Training was tough, but essential for survival. A proper knight was skilled in the use of a variety of weapons. Sword practice took up a large amount of a prospective knight’s time. A knight needed to know how to use both a single handed and double handed sword. A sword could deliver both slashing and thrusting blows. Also, a sword was used in defense to ward off an opponent’s weapon (Prestwich 16).
Mastering the sword on one’s feet was just the beginning. It was also important to be able to use the sword on horseback. Boucicaut demonstrated this at the battle of Nicopolis. “It was by slashing in the right and left with his sword that Boucicaut was able to drive his horse through the Turkish ranks” (Prestwich 165-66). In order to weld a sword on a horse, one also needed to gain expertise in handling horses. A knight needed to ride smoothly. Long stirrups and good posture helped accomplish the goal of the knight and his “horse should be as one” (Prestwich 17).
The most difficult weapon a knight had to master was the lance. A lance was made from a tree trunk. They were cumbersome because of their length and weight. It was possible that a knight’s lance would be as long as eleven feet (Hopkins 43). Due to its size, it required immense skill to hold the point steady and to aim it correctly. Before practicing with a lance on horseback, boys were seated on a small cart pulled by their friends. After they mastered this, they were ready to use a lance on horseback (Alchin). After intensive training in the use of arms, a prospective knight still had many steps to complete on his way to knighthood. After completing his training as a page, he would become a squire to a knight. Typically, a squire was at least fifteen years old. His duties would include: dressing the knight, serving the knight his meals, caring for the knight’s horses, and cleaning the knight’s weapons (Newman). In addition, squires dressed fashionably, rode a horse well, knew how to joust, and were able to sing and dance. Equipped for war in much the same way as a knight, squires were expected to have expensive armor and worthy horses. Because being a squire was quite expensive, most were sons of noblemen or they became a responsibility of noble males (Newman).
Some young men spent many years as a squire before being knighted. One such example was Philip Chetwynd. “Philip Chetwynd came of age in 1316, and was thinking about becoming a knight in 1319, when he entered the service of Ralph, Lord Bosset of Drayton, but did not actually do so until 1319” (Prestwich 22). There was no standard age at which one became a knight. It was possible that a man would be a squire for the rest of his life and never go through the final steps to achieve knighthood (Prestwich 25-26).
When they completed their final step of being a squire by acquiring campaign experience, many squires became knights. Usually, in their late teens, young men acquired their first campaign experience where they took up arms against an enemy. However, some prospective knights were forced into war at a younger age because there was a shortage of able fighting men. If this was the case, males were sent to war at an earlier age than expected. “Edward was only fourteen when he rode in front of the troops on the 1327 Weardale campaign against the Scots” (Prestwich 20). This young men were at a disadvantage because little training was given to squires when they were on campaign. It was falsely believed that they were already competent and capable (Prestwich 20).
As a squire, future knights became familiar with the code of chivalry. Nonetheless, chivalry would not be a new idea to these young men. The code itself dated back at least as far as the twelfth century. It was based on a mixture of Christianity and warrior ethos. Even though it was well known, “Chivalry was not a code for all, it is exclusive, limited to those of the right status in society” (Prestwich 33). All knights, regardless of physical location, shared chivalry’s values. “Although this is a time of a growing sense of national identity, this can be overridden by allegiance to the knightly world of international chivalry” (Prestwich 34). For this reason, knights on opposing sides still showed respect for each other.
Chivalry was not the only important key to becoming a knight.
A person’s ability to become a knight depended mostly on one’s lineage. In France, it was extremely difficult to become a knight without showing prominent family ancestry. If a boy’s father was a knight, then he could also be a knight (Prestwich 23). All prospective knights modified their fathers’ coat of arms to create their own coat of arms. Coats of arms were important because they identified a man’s lineage and his connections in society (Prestwich 31).
On the day before the actual knighting, the candidate would take a long bath to rid himself of the accumulation of many months’ worth of dirt. In addition to being needed, the bath was symbolic. It cleansed the future knight of his “sins and get rid of all the impurities” of his past life. After the bath, the man would rest upon a new bed with clean linen. It was thought that the future knight had “emerged from a great fight against sin and the Devil” (Prestwich
28).
On the day of the actual knighting, the soon to be knight dressed in a red shirt to symbolize his “readiness to shed blood in defending the faith” and wore black stocking to help him remember his own mortality (Prestwich 28-29). After attending a mass, spurs were fixed to the prospective knight’s boots by other knights. These spurs were important to his ability to ride a horse. A belt which was an emblem of their knighthood was bestowed upon the soon to be knighted. In addition, the man who was “to confer the honour of knighthood” handed over a sword, kissed the newly knighted, and tapped him on the shoulder. After the ceremony, the newly knight would be called “Sir” (Prestwich 28-29).
Each knighting ceremony was different. Some knighting ceremonies were for one person, but many included many young men. In 1306, three hundred Englishmen were knighted along with the king’s son. Knighting on the battlefield was a simpler ceremony. Due to the urgency of the battlefield situation, it demanded nothing more than an oath and a tap on the shoulder. In need of knights, the king of Portugal issued a proclamation before the 1382 battle of Roosebeke. He asked anyone who wanted to become a knight to present themselves before him. Age was not a factor under such conditions. “The young Boucicaut at the age of [twelve] was knighted by the duke of Bourbon just before the battle of Roosebeke in 1382” (Prestwich 30). Also, a brave performance on the battlefield was the quickest way for a young man to become a knight (Alchin).
The road to advancement did not have to end here. Once knighted, a man could be promoted further. A banneret, identified by a square or rectangular banner, would command larger troops than a regular knight. Being appointed a banneret was a military promotion, and it took time to attain the honor. Nevertheless, it did not increase the knight’s social standings (Prestwich 34-35).
Some promotions did increase one’s social standing. The two most sought after promotions were marshal and constable. It was hard to attain these promotions if your father had not also been a marshal or constable. Nonetheless, a few very brave knights proved their worth and were promoted to these positions. A marshal claimed wide jurisdiction over military concerns. A constable had rights to all the horses and harnesses captured during battle (Prestwich 35).
Regardless of rank, a knight was a member of the elite in any army. No more than one in four men of the cavalry were knights. The cavalry, a small force, was usually outnumbered by the foot soldiers. The knights would gain land holdings in return for military service. However, by the early fourteenth century, the feudal system was largely obsolete. Land was not as plentiful and neither was currency. By the end of the medieval period, many knights failed to carry out their duties because there was no incentive to do so. For this reason, kings were uncertain how many nobles and knights he could count on. “In 1355 when faced with English invasion, the French nobles offered to serve at their own cost for a month” (Prestwich 63). Times were changing and knights looked for was a fair deal with decent wages.
Sadly, the Middle Ages and the period of knights died. The process of becoming a knight was long and arduous. Because of this, not everyone successfully completed their training to become a knight. After finishing all the steps that there was to becoming a knight, one fought in many battles. Many knights became heroes on the battlefield; however, many knights became casualties of war. Ultimately, the price of becoming a valiant knight outweighed the reward of being one.