Knighthood and Its Origins
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The institution of knighthood had its roots in the ninth and tenth centuries and vestiges of it remain in place even today. From a practical arrangement in which the principle of vassalage was extended to include military service, the institution grew to the point where a grant of arms was the equivalent of ennoblement. In the course of five centuries during which knights dominated the practice of warfare three important modifications of the system made it a complex historical phenomenon that affected everything from the nature of warfare to fashions in literature. One such modification was the gradual evolution of knights as a privileged, hereditary class. A second was the development of the chivalric code that ritualized their practice and defined the knights' unique social role as a military elite transformed into an aristocracy. The third is the uses to which the Church, especially in terms of the Crusading ideology, put the institution of knighthood. In general terms these aspects of the development of knighthood explain the enormous significance of the institution in Medieval societies. Because knighthood was an international phenomenon, involving most Western European societies, and because it extended over so many centuries, there is no typical set of circumstances, behaviors, or developments that universally defines knighthood. Yet the ideals and practice of knighthood everywhere in Europe had enough in common that the phenomenon can be discussed as a whole
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his lands retaken by the king. On a vassal's death, as well, his holdings reverted to the king. But, as early as the mid-tenth century, "the fief had already become a hereditary patrimony for all practical purposes" (Cantor 200).
It was some time, however, until the concept of knight-service was understood as an individual and uniquely important function. The process by which landed wealth and vassalage were united was "an extremely slow and far from uniform development" (Cantor 198). Thus an order of knighthood did not develop from the moment that such economic arrangements came into being. Barber argues that the order of knighthood did not truly exist until the concept of taking up arms came to mean more than just assuming the role of a professional soldier and began to carry certain "idealistic overtones as well" (Barber, Knight 23). The phrase 'making a knight' "implies both ritual and non-military status" that differentiates the 'made' knight from those earlier armored figures who were "mounted warriors and nothing more, earning the right to their lands by the use of their swords" (Barber, Knight 23). This notion of 'making' knights dates only from the last quarter of the eleventh century and the earliest systematic
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1841
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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