These Orders of Knighthood were actually religious Orders which were at the same time military in character.
John of Jerusalem founded in 1113, the Knights Templars, organised in 1118 and the Teutonic Order of Knights, begun in 1190. Prominent among these were the Knights Hospitallers of St. It was thus that the conception of knighthood as something distinct from feudalism arose and gained ground.ĭuring the Crusades the great Orders of monastic knights sprang up. To these the honours and benefits of knighthood could hardly be refused on the grounds that they did not possess sufficient property qualification. These took part in the Crusade – the Holy war against Muslims. In the course of the Middle Ages, there arose soldiers of the Cross who did not or could not possess the necessary property qualification. Sometimes, the investiture, like field commission, took place on the field of battle.
He also had to pass through the ceremony of knightly investiture, which usually took place at Christmas, Easter or Pentecost. Before attaining knighthood, the young man had to serve an apprenticeship as a page or valet, while he learnt the rules of conduct, and then as a squire or shield bearer for a knight while he learnt the art of war. In many cases, the candidate left his family and was adopted by the nobility who sponsored his riding and military training by veteran knights. The aspirant must be of good family background, mainly from the nobility, a young man of means, educated, often from childhood, in the art of fighting on horseback. There were several qualifications for knighthood. In feudal times the knights were ministers of the poor and underprivileged and often challenged the ruling class in their behalf. Under the feudal system, land was granted by the lord in return for service, and part of this service was the provision of fighting knights who could defend the lord from military attack. Knighthood attained a high practical value with the growth of the vassal-lord relationship in the feudal system in Europe during the Middle Ages. When enemy forces threatened an area, the common people often fled to the castles and strongholds of the nobles, where they placed themselves under the defence of the Knights. They were warriors who fought on horseback many of the nobility employed them to perform household duties in peace time and to fight when trouble arose. The English first used the word to describe the French nomads who came to England after the Norman Conquest in 1066. The term ‘knight’ is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word (cniht) which means a household retainer.
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