Aviva Trivia

The king or lord was the highest figure on the social scale in medieval times and right behind him come the knight. At the age of seven, boys left home to live in the lord’s house. Here, the boy became a Page and was cared for by the women who ran the lord’s manor. A Page was taught to keep himself clean, to be courteous and was instructed on religion. When he turned fourteen, he became the personal attendant to a knight that had been chosen as his tutor and his position was changed to Squire. His tutor instructed him on the skills of war, how to remain seated on a horse in battle and the arts of hawking and hunting, as well as other sports.

When the knight tutor felt the Squire was ready, he was knighted in a religious ceremony. Squires were usually knighted between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one. The night before the ceremony, the knight in waiting spent the night in the church guarding his armor that had been laid before the church alter.

On the day of his knighthood, the knight was required to recite and swear to the knight’s code, which declared that he had to “protect the weak, defenseless and helpless and fight for the general welfare of all.” The code was a standard for knight behavior and chivalry, though most often the knights didn’t bother to adhere to it. In exceptional circumstances, a squire could be knighted on the battlefield for bravery and valor, but this was a very rare occurrence.
Read the rest of this entry »

If we look back in history, it’s easy to trace the origin of tournaments. Basically tournaments started as practice to ensure knight maintained their skills. The tournament made it possible for knights of an army to practice battle together to keep their skills honed to perfection. It was also a way for knights who were looking to be drawn into service to prove their reputations.

The early tournament was nothing more than an uncontrolled melee that was spread for miles across the country. This pitted one group of knights against the other. There were no safeguards during these tournaments except for a recess that was available for knights to get out of the skirmish for a short time.

The same weapons were used in battle that was used during tournaments. Every knight in the opposing army was classed as the enemy during the mock battles. Men were often seriously injured and many were killed. A large number of others died of infection since there were no antibiotics or tetanus shots available.
Read the rest of this entry »

Chivalry

The word chivalry is derived from the French word, “chevalerie.” The definition of chevalerie is “the skills to handle a horse,” and this was something that was required of knights, especially when they were engaged in combat. However, the term chivalry began to mean something quite different as the Middle Ages progressed.

In 1095, the conversion of knights to Christianity began to take place. The crusades turned into a holy war, which caused the pope to call for the support of knights and nobles. He felt that Jerusalem must be cleansed of Islam and returned to a land of Christianity. He gave all knights the title of Christian warriors and instilled a strict code of ethics to the profession.
Read the rest of this entry »