Kinghthood

Knighthood

Knighthood and chivalry. The terms are often confused, and often pointlessly distinguished. The term knighthood comes from the English word knight (from Old English, servant or boy) while chivalry comes from the French chevalerie, from chevalier or knight. In modern English, chivalry means the ideals, virtues, or characteristics of knights. But in actuality, the phrases "orders of chivalry" and "orders of knighthood" are essentially synonymous.

Succinctly, a knight was a professional soldier. Professional armies had replaced the old "citizens' armies" of the distant past. This trend was reinforced by the appearance in the 8th century of the stirrup, which made mounted men much more powerful and turned cavalry into the most important element of medieval armies. But being a mounted soldier was expensive, since it required enough income to buy and sustain a horse and the equipment (armor, weapons) to go with it. Thus, those who were too poor to provide this service became mere peasants, attached to the land. Knighthood was originally a professional association. Its members are nobles (members of the great land-owning families) as well as small landholders, free men, craftsmen, etc. Therefore, knights were not necessarily nobles, nor were nobles necessarily knights. The noble class and the knightly class slowly came to merge from the late 12th century onward. Nobles became knights with increasing frequency.

The French prince (future king Louis VI) was knighted without the knowledge of his father who remained distrustful towards his son, Ironically enough every king succeeding this prince would be knighted before entering into the position. On the contrary to this not so balanced father, son relationship, heredity enters the knightly class in the 13th century. The son of a knight is automatically a squire, thus making him eligible for knighthood on the basis of his ancestry.

Men who were free provided military service, either personally or (if they were rich enough) using others' services. Thus, a man who held his estate in knight's fee owed service as a knight to his lord. A more sizeable vassal, when called by his liege, would summon his knights and form a contingent in his liege's army.

In the late 13th century, a decision of the Parliament in Paris forbade the count of Artois from making unfree men into knights without the king's consent; interesting to note, the two men