when we think about Knights we usually
have noble men in mind heroic warriors
whose gallantry was unsurpassed we've
all heard the tales of King Arthur and
the knights of the round table which
include the dauntless and dashing Sir
Lancelot and his spirited son Sir
Galahad but our theory and legend is
just that legend and Knights and
real-life bore no resemblance to these
romantic depictions we might look at the
oath the knights of the round table took
which was all about chivalry not being
greedy not taking land by power not
being cruel or murderous to always be
merciful and of course always do your
best to protect women sometimes refer to
as damsels it all sounds good on paper
but it hardly mirrored reality welcome
to this episode of the infographics show
how medieval Knights were not noble but
cold-hearted killers first of all what
is a knight a knight was basically
someone who was a skilled warrior and
someone who was also highly skilled at
fighting on horseback the old English
word for knight actually means something
like servant or boy and Knights
throughout the Middle Ages might have
been in the services of the country a
rich noble person or the church the
Crusades for instance they were
basically military men but over time
developed codes of conduct or what we
call chivalry for their service they
received land all they had to do was
pledge an allegiance to the king or an
overlord an overlord might have a number
of knights in his service the more the
merrier if you wanted to take someone
else's land these Knights though were
not born to the peasant class they were
of noble birth and would as kids or
pages learn from older Knights how to
fight and hunt when they reached the age
of 15 they became Squires and after that
if things went well they could receive a
knighthood that usually happened as it
does in the movies with the sword being
tacked on the shoulders and the new
Knights wearing his allegiance things
like jousting tournaments actually took
place as did roundtable meetings they
also had a code of conduct and they were
supposed to embrace charity faith
strength loyalty moderation and justice
so far this all sounds rather like the
knights of the round table but this is
the Middle Ages were talking about a
time when life was brutal for most
people one example of brutality is that
these Knights were often given the right
to pillage yep they were allowed to ride
into some small village and take what
they wanted
was not good for their peasants or
craftsmen that lived in those villages
as they could not defend themselves as
Steven Pinker points out in his book on
the history of violence the better
angels of our nature
the Knights would often be busy
ransacking villages and any resistance
was met with obscene violence this was
not about being noble but taking what
you wanted because you could they saw
themselves as superior to the peasant
class it was their right to take what
they wanted as Pinker says though this
proved to be very problematic the reason
was because the commoners that worked on
the land called serfs were owned by the
land holder that meant that when they
were killed or hurt or stolen from the
land holder lost out to in turn that
land holder would plan an attack on
someone else's serfs the only real
losers of course were the poor in an
interview with Scientific American
Pinker says statistics aside accounts of
daily life in medieval and early modern
Europe reveal a society soaked in blood
and gore medieval Knights whom today we
would call warlords fought their
numerous private wars with a single
strategy kill as many of the opposing
Knights peasants as possible being a
knight wasn't always about protecting
the land and being a noble warrior but
being a strong force that was high
enough in the hierarchy that you could
get away with murder as one person put
it medieval Knights indulged in
relentless brutal acts of savagery you
can see this in picture form in a book
called the medieval house book which is
a series of illustrations from the 15th
century as one encyclopedia tells us the
Middle Ages were tough times it says in
competition for sometimes scarce
economic resources land crops livestock
and peasants neighboring estates
frequently resorted to the sword so yes
you needed a good stock of knights
aka hired killers we often see Knights
as leading the charge in battles mostly
overseas Affairs at the orders of the
king except according to some sources in
the late Middle Ages about 80% of
Knights didn't even bother fighting they
let regular soldiers go to war instead
all they had to do to get out of
military service was pay what was called
a skewed itch this was also sometimes
called shield money and if the King
could collect enough cash from the
Knights feudal troops could be bought
and sent to war these Knights were not
conscientious objectors rather they just
didn't want to fight
the great Knights got out of military
service and were replaced by poor folk
still at times the King did tell
landowners said it was time to buckle up
get some armor on find a good war horse
and go to battle some Knights that did
go to war in other countries wanted very
much to be properly compensated
especially when they had been forced to
go
despite chivalry codes it's well known
that after battles that would plunder
entire towns of everything worth of
anything
this was their bounty and rightfully
theirs after victory we are also told
that as well as taking the bounty the
Knights would often slaughter the
peasants of the defeated town that was
seen as fair game after all the losers
were heretics some critics also tell us
that these Knights who may have seen
humanity at its worst
probably suffered from what we call
post-traumatic stress disorder the
Knights could be extremely violent as
there was no justice system at the time
that properly function people often took
the law into their own hands when they
believed their honor had been lost so
for a knight that had experienced
carnage it's perhaps not surprising that
some were capable of inflicting their
own kind of extreme violence one
historian talking-to Spiegel Online
talks about the knight called Sir John
arendelle according to the historian Sir
John's gang of knights entered a convent
to shield themselves from bad weather
they decided to violate the nuns in
there and steal some riches they then
took the notes on their ship but decided
to throw them overboard after they had
made use of their bodies this was during
the age of chivalry it's not something
we see in Hollywood as the book chivalry
in medieval England points out Knights
were capable of terrible atrocities but
we've created the fallacy of the brave
and noble knight because it suits us to
think that the powerful were fair and
Noble that book tells us that there were
three things that Knights fought for and
those were Al and gold and war booty
this is certainly not how we've betrayed
Knights throughout history we seem to
have mystified the past which might be
dangerous considering how we might have
to learn from history while Knights may
have had this code of conduct that's
said to be good to women and don't kill
the meek much of the code was about
obedience to those above you to the king
to the religion to the country that's
the code of soldiers today but it
doesn't mean all soldiers are immaculate
regarding their ethics although one
writer is less critical when talking
about these people writing
although many nights failed to live up
to the ideals of the chivalric code many
others did like the image of the cowboy
in the American Old West that of the
chivalric night well often exaggerated
continues to provide a standard of
conduct to which many aspire do you
agree with that do you think
romanticizing the past is dangerous what
can you tell us about nights tell us in
the comments also be sure to check out
our other show why living in the dark
ages sucked thanks for watching and as
always please don't forget to Like share
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