Extra Credit Assignment - The Knight

The Knight

     The Knight was a very rich and powerful fighter. They were covered in layers of armor, and wielded a weapon which they used well. They were one of the most powerful fighters on horse-back, and armies feared them for they were almost unbeatable.
     The problem was, it was very expensive to be a knight. The armor was expensive, the war horse was expensive, the shield was expensive, the weapon was expensive, and so on.

      It also took lots of times and dedication becoming a knight. It all starts at eight years old, when a child became a page. The child was usually in a noble family, the son of a knight, etc. He was sent to a nearby castle to train. There he basically worked out, wrestled, and learned how to ride horses. He also learned combat, in which he beat up a wooden dummy called a quintain with a sword and spear. The quintain was a human like dummy on a pole, with a shield. The page would hit the shield in the center, and the quintain would spin in circles. The page had to get away from the quintain without getting hit. The page didn't only learn about combat skills. He also learned how to be a gentlemen. He learned how to read, dance, sing, how to behave at the kings court, and maybe even how to speak Latin and French.
     After training as a page, at age fifteen or sixteen he became a squire. The squire was in the service of a knight, who was his mentor. He had to help the knight by dressing him, serving him food, caring for his horse, and cleaning his weapons and tools. He didn't just learn how to work around the house. He had to ride out into battle with the knight as well. He learned how to use a sword and lance while wearing heavy armor and riding a huge horse.
     After training with a knight as a squire, at age 20, he could become a knight if he proved himself worthy. A lord would knight him at a dubbing ceremony. The night before the ceremony, the squire would dress himself in a white tunic and red robes. After this, he would pray all night to make his soul pure. The chaplain would bless the squire's future sword which he would get when he was knighted. The chaplain would put the sword on the church's altar. Right before the sun came up, the squire would take a bath to show that he was pure. Taking a bath might seem usual to you, but in the Medieval Ages, it was different. In the Medieval Ages people only took a bath once or twice every few years! Next time you see someone who really stinks after not bathing for a week, think how much people back then would stink. Anyway, the squire would wear his best clothes, and talk to the priest at dawn. He would tell him his religious confession, and eat breakfast. After this, the dubbing ceremony came. This was in front of the squire's family, friends, and nobility. He would kneel in front of the lord, who tapped him on each shoulder with a sword, and knighted him. Before this, people would knock the squire over with quite a force. After the dubbing, there was a party and feast.

     Knights had to follow basic rules, which included loyalty to God, loyalty to their king, to defend the weak, and to be polite with women. They had to be very honest around people, and could not brag. They had to give mercy to a conquered enemy as well. They seem very kind and powerful to you right now, but we are missing something. When they say "the weak" they mean noble women and noble children. They do not mean peasants, who the knights were very mean and brutal to. Even the commoner women they were mean to, and they could whip them without breaking the law, for they were in a higher rank and the commoners were pretty much scum.

     A knight had lots of armor. He depended on his squire to take care of them, for there was so much. The armor of knights changed through the ages. It started as chain mail. Chain mail was made of lots of rings linked together, to create an chain armor. Chain mail could have hundreds of thousands of rings. Underneath the chain mail, a knight wore a linen shirt, a pair of pants, and padding. The problem was, chain mail was very uncomfortable and hard to walk in, which would not help in the middle of a battle. Chain mail also didn't protect the body much. To change this, knight's covered their bodies with plates of armor instead. This covered most of their body, and a helmet covered their head, which had a hinged visor. The helmet had lots of holes in it to make breathing easier, for it was very hot and uncomfortable inside this armor. The armor protected your body more though. These suits of armor weighed around forty to fifty pounds, which made it hard to move in. Some knights even covered their horses in suits of armor, which protected the horses as well. In their hand, knight's had shields. These were made of wood or metal and had their family emblem, and motto printed on the shields.
    Knights needed weapons as well. On the left of their hip, they had a sword that weighed about thirty-two pounds! That is nearly as heavy as the armor. On their right hip, was a knife. This was helpful in battle. The sword and knife weren't their only weapons. Some knights had battle axes, lances, hammers, and maces. 

  We have football, soccer, baseball, swimming, and other sports. Knights had their own sports too! They had tournaments. Knights played this sport in times of peace, so they could build strength. The audience mainly was full of ladies, which was a reason knights had lots of chivalry. Tournaments were either fought by two knights, or two teams. It had rules, and there were umpires to see if anyone broke these. If a tournament was fought by two knights, they jousted. In jousting two knights would be on either side of a field, on horses. They each had blunt lances and shields. They charges at each other, and the knight who was knocked of his horse lost. The one who knocked over that person won. When teams were used, two teams of knights fought. They all had blunted weapons to shrink the chance of getting hurt, but this didn't help, for many people were hurt or killed during this sport, by accident.

     As you see, the Knight is a very interesting warrior. He is powerful, polite, kind, loyal, and humble. Knights were loved and feared at the battle field, and loved and feared at the kingdom, for many reasons.