ge effect of Medieval knighthood on European history will be discussed.
The Medieval knight was at once a warrior and a servant--a combination of qualities that might seem contradictory to the twentieth century but made perfect sense at the time. In every Western European language but English the words for knight and horseman are synonymous. In English "knight" derived from the Anglo-Saxon word "cniht," which meant servant." But it is the combination of horsemanship and service "that gives the knight--and chivalry--its peculiar quality" (Barber, Reign 9). The notion of serving seems to imply constraints upon an individual's freedom. But in the Medieval world very few people would have considered themselves to be truly free or unconstrained by the social order. Even the Pope, while claiming jurisdiction over earthly rulers, considered himself "servant of the servants of God" (Barber, Knight, 22). Thus service was not viewed as demeaning but as an elevating obligation. The belief that knights fulfilled specific service functions developed gradually, however, as economic and political conditions evolved in which such service was needed.
In the Carolingian empire armies were raised on the basis of a general duty owed to the crown by free men. But military service became increasingly expensive. The eighth-century introduction of the stirrup had made cavalries far more effective and "more enlightened warlords" in Western Europe began to build their armies around the new "mailed and mounted soldier" (Cantor 198-99). Thus free men's service began to be delegated in a system in which as many as four men would pay to equip a fifth who would serve for all of them. This system evolved into an army of semi-professional soldiers who were, at first, supported by a special tax and, after Charlemagne's death, by direct payment from the royal house. This payment came about through the system of commendation in which any servant of th...