Knight

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Knights were one theme in Romanticism, such as in the novel Ivanhoe by Walter Scott. Photo of Ivanhoe as sculpted on the Scott Monument, Edinburgh.

A knight (German: Ritter) is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a monarch or other political leader for service to the monarch or country, especially in a military capacity. Historically, in Europe, knighthood has been conferred upon mounted warriors.[1] During the High Middle Ages, knighthood was considered a class of lower nobility. By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior. Since the Early Modern period, the title of knight is purely honorific, usually bestowed by a monarch, often for non-military service to the country. Historically, the ideals of chivalry were popularized in medieval literature.

Etymology

King Conrad III of Germany on the battlefield in the Holy Land during the Second Crusade; These Crusades were a series of religious, anti-colonial struggles, waged in defense of Christendom and Christians following the emergence and encroachments of militant expansionist Mohammedan Caliphatism out of the Arabian Peninsula. While some of the occupied Christian lands were liberated, such as the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and parts of France, the latter of which was turned back by Charles Martel. Other parts of Christendom such as North Africa and the Levant continued to be occupied. The movement was ultimately unable to stop the Ottoman Empire invading and destroying the Byzantine Empire and their occupation of Constantinople, which fell in 1453.
Richard I (The Lionheart)

The word knight, from Old English cniht ("boy" or "servant"),[2] is a cognate of the German word Knecht ("servant, bondsman").[3] This meaning, of unknown origin, is common among West Germanic languages (cf: Old Frisian kniucht, Dutch knecht, Danish knægt, Swedish knekt, Norwegian knekt, Middle High German kneht, all meaning "boy, youth, lad", as well as German Knecht "servant, bondsman, vassal").[2] Anglo-Saxon cniht had no particular connection to horsemanship, referring to any servant. A rādcniht (meaning "riding-servant") was a servant delivering messages or patrolling coastlines on horseback. Old English cnihthād ("knighthood") had the meaning of adolescence (i.e. the period between childhood and manhood) by 1300.[2]

A narrowing of the generic meaning "servant" to "military follower of a king or other superior" is visible by 1100. The specific military sense of a knight being a mounted warrior in the heavy cavalry emerges only in the Hundred Years' War. The verb "to knight" (i.e. to make someone a knight) appears around 1300, and from the same time, the word "knighthood" shifted from "adolescence" to "rank or dignity of a knight".

In this respect English differs from most other European languages, where the equivalent word emphasizes the status and prosperity of war horse ownership. Linguistically, the association of horse ownership with social status extends back at least as far as ancient Greece, where many aristocratic names incorporated the Greek word for horse, like Hipparchus and Xanthippe; the character Pheidippides in Aristophanes' Clouds has his grandfather's name with hipp- inserted to sound more aristocratic. Similarly, the Greek ἱππεύς (hippeus) is commonly translated "knight"; at least in its sense of the highest of the four Athenian social classes, those who could afford to maintain a warhorse in the state service.

An Equestrian (Latin, from eques "horseman", from equus "horse")[4] was a member of the second highest social class in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. This class is often translated as "knight"; the medieval knight, however, was called miles in Latin, (which in classical Latin meant "soldier", normally infantry).[5][6][7] Both Greek hippos and Latin equus are derived from the Proto-Indo-European word root ekwo- meaning "horse".[8]

In the later Roman Empire the classical Latin word for horse, equus, was replaced in common parlance by vulgar Latin caballus, sometimes thought to derive from Gaulish caballos.[9] From caballus arose terms in the various Romance languages cognate to the (French-derived) English cavalier: Old Italian cavaliere, Italian cavallo, Spanish caballero, French chevalier, Portuguese cavaleiro, Romanian cavaler.[10] The Germanic languages feature terms cognate to the English rider: German Ritter, and Dutch and Scandinavian ridder. These words are cognates derived from Germanic rīdan "to ride", derived from the Proto-Indo-European root reidh-.[11]

Origins of medieval knighthood

Tournament from the Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift (Codex Manesse), depicting the Heinrich I., Fürst von Anhalt
A Norman knight slaying Harold Godwinson (Bayeux tapestry, ca. 1070) during the Battle of Hastings. The rank of knight developed in the 12th century from the mounted warriors of the 10th and 11th centuries.
Knights of medieval Germany (c. 14th century)

In Ancient Rome there was a knightly class Ordo Equestris (order of mounted nobles) from which European knighthood may have been derived.[12]

Knighthood as known in Europe was characterized by the combination of two elements, feudalism and service as a mounted warrior. Both arose under the reign of the Frankish emperor Charlemagne, from which the knighthood of the Middle Ages can be seen to have had its genesis.

Some portions of the armies of Germanic peoples who occupied Europe from the 3rd century CE, had always been mounted, and some armies, such as those of the Ostrogoths, comprised mainly cavalry. However it was the Franks who came to dominate Western and Central Europe after the fall of Rome, and they generally fielded armies composed of large masses of infantry, with an infantry elite, the comitatus, which often rode to battle on horseback rather than marching on foot. Riding to battle had two key advantages: it reduced fatigue, particularly when the elite soldiers wore armour (as was increasingly the case in the centuries after the fall of the Western Roman empire); and it gave the soldiers more mobility to react to the raids of the enemy, particularly the Muslim invasions which reached Europe in 711. So it was that the armies of the Frankish ruler and warlord Charles Martel, which defeated the Umayyad Arab invasion at the Battle of Tours in 732, were still largely infantry armies, the elites riding to battle but dismounting to fight, providing a hard core for the levy of the infantry warbands.

As the 8th century progressed into the Carolingian Age, the Franks were generally on the attack, and larger numbers of warriors took to their horses to ride with the Emperor in his wide-ranging campaigns of conquest. At about this time the Franks increasingly remained on horseback to fight on the battlefield as true cavalry rather than as mounted infantry, and would continue to do so for centuries thereafter. Although in some nations the knight returned to foot combat in the 14th century, the association of the knight with mounted combat with a spear, and later a lance, remained a strong one.

These mobile mounted warriors made Charlemagne’s far-flung conquests possible, and to secure their service he rewarded them with grants of land called benefices. These were given to the captains directly by the Emperor to reward their efforts in the conquests, and they in turn were to grant benefices to their warrior contingents, who were a mix of free and unfree men. In the century or so following Charlemagne’s death, his newly empowered warrior class grew stronger still, and Charles the Bald declared their fiefs to be hereditary. The period of chaos in the 9th and 10th centuries, between the fall of the Carolingian central authority and the rise of separate Western and Eastern Frankish kingdoms (later to become France and Germany respectively), only entrenched this newly landed warrior class. This was because governing power, and defence against Viking, Magyar and Saracen attack, became an essentially local affair which revolved around these new hereditary local lords and their demesnes.

In the Early Medieval period any well-equipped horseman could be described as a 'knight,' or miles in Latin.[13] In the course of the 12th century knighthood became a social rank with a distinction being made between 'milites gregarii' (non-noble cavalrymen) and milites nobiles (true knights).[14] As the term 'knight' became increasingly confined to denoting a social rank the military role of fully armoured cavalryman gained a separate term, 'man-at-arms'. Although any Medieval knight going to war would automatically serve as a man-at-arms, not all men-at-arms were knights.

The first military orders of knighthood were the Knights Hospitaller founded at the First Crusade of 1099, followed by the Knights Templar (1119). At the time of their foundation, these were intended as monastic orders, whose members would act as simple soldiers protecting pilgrims. It was only over the following century, with the successful conquest of the Holy Land and the rise of the crusader states, that these orders became powerful and prestigious.

The ideal of chivalry as the ethos of the Christian warrior, and the transmutation of the term knight from the meaning "servant, soldier", and of chevalier "mounted soldier", to refer to a member of this ideal class, is significantly influenced by the Crusades, on one hand inspired by the military orders of monastic warriors, as seen retrospectively from the point of view of the beginning Late Middle Ages, and on the other hand influenced by Islamic (Saracen) ideals of furusiyya.[15]

Roman-German Emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519) is often referred to as the last true knight. He was the last emperor to lead his troops onto the battlefield.

Chivalric code

Knights of the medieval era were asked to "Protect the weak, defenseless, helpless, and fight for the general welfare of all." These few guidelines were the main duties of a medieval knight, but they were very hard to accomplish fully. Knights trained in hunting, fighting, and riding, amongst other things. They were also trained to practise courteous, honorable behaviour, which was considered extremely important. Chivalry (derived from the French word chevalier implying "skills to handle a horse") was the main principle guiding a knight’s life style. The code of chivalry dealt with three main areas: the military, social life, and religion.[16]

The military side of life was very important to knighthood. Along with the fighting elements of war, there were many customs and rules to be followed as well. A way of demonstrating military chivalry was to own expensive, heavy weaponry. Weapons were not the only crucial instruments for a knight. Horses were also extremely important, and each knight often owned several horses for distinct purposes. One of the greatest signs of chivalry was the flying of coloured banners, to display power and to distinguish knights in battle and in tournaments.[17] Warriors were not only required to own all these belongings to prove their allegiance: they were expected to act with military courtesy as well. In combat when nobles and knights were taken prisoner, their lives were spared and were often held for ransom in somewhat comfortable surroundings. This same code of conduct did not apply to non-knights (archers, peasants, foot-soldiers, etc.) who were often slaughtered after capture, and who were viewed during battle as mere impediments to knights' getting to other knights to fight them.[18]

Becoming a knight was not a widely attainable goal in the medieval era. Sons of knights were eligible for the ranks of knighthood.[19] While other young men could become knights, in theory, it was nearly impossible for them to achieve that goal, especially for those from the lowest class.[20] Those who were destined to become knights were singled out: in boyhood, these future warriors were sent off to a castle as pages, later becoming squires. Commonly around the age of 20, knights would be admitted to their rank in a ceremony called either "dubbing" (from the French adoubement), or the "Accolade". Although these strong young men had proved their eligibility, their social status would be permanently controlled. They were expected to obey the code of chivalry at all times, and no failure was accepted.[citation needed]

Chivalry and religion were mutually influenced. The early Crusades helped to clarify the moral code of chivalry as it related to religion. As a result, Christian armies began to devote their efforts to sacred purposes. As time passed, clergy instituted religious vows which required knights to use their weapons chiefly for the protection of the weak and defenceless, especially women and orphans, and of churches.[21]

The Code of Chivalry continued to influence social behaviour long after the actual knighthood ceased to exist, influencing for example 19th century Victorian perceptions of how a "gentleman" ought to behave up to today.

Medieval and Renaissance literature

Knights and the ideals of knighthood featured largely in medieval and Renaissance literature, and have secured a permanent place in literary romance. While chivalric romances abound, particularly notable literary portrayals of knighthood include Geoffrey Chaucer's The Knight's Tale, Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier, and Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote, as well as Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and other Arthurian tales (Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, the Pearl Poet's Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, etc.).

The ideal courtier—the chivalrous knight—of Baldassarre Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier became a model of the ideal virtues of nobility.[22] Castiglione's tale took the form of a discussion among the nobility of the court of the Duke of Urbino, in which the characters determine that the ideal knight should be renowned not only for his bravery and prowess in battle, but also as a skilled dancer, athlete, singer and orator, and he should also be well-read in the Humanities and classical Greek and Latin literature.[23]

Heraldry and other attributes

Knights are generally armigerous (bearing a coat of arms), and indeed they played an essential role in the development of heraldry. As heavier armour, including enlarged shields and enclosed helmets, developed in the Middle Ages, the need for marks of identification arose, and with coloured shields and surcoats, coat armory was born. Armorial rolls were created to record the knights of various regions or those who participated in various tournaments.

Additionally, knights adopted certain forms of regalia which became closely associated with the status of knighthood. At the Battle of Crécy (1346), Edward III of England sent his son, Edward, the Black Prince, to lead the charge into battle and when pressed to send reinforcements, the king replied, "say to them that they suffer him this day to win his spurs." Clearly, by this time, spurs had already become emblematic of knighthood. The livery collar is also specifically associated with knighthood.

Types of knighthood

A Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights (left) and a Baltic German Knight of the Order of the Sword

Military–monastic orders of knighthood

For more details on this topic, see Military order.

Other orders were established in the Iberian peninsula, under the influence of the orders in the Holy Land and the Crusader movement of the Reconquista:

Chivalric orders

For more details on this topic, see Chivalric order.

After the Crusades, the military orders became idealized and romanticized, resulting in the late medieval notion of chivalry, as reflected in the Arthurian romances of the time. The creation of chivalric orders was fashionable among the nobility in the 14th and 15th centuries, and this is still reflected in contemporary honours systems, including the term order itself. Examples of notable orders of chivalry are:

Honorific orders of knighthood

From roughly 1560, purely honorific orders were established, as a way to confer prestige and distinction, unrelated to military service and chivalry in the more narrow sense. Such orders were particularly popular in the 17th and 18th centuries, and knighthood continues to be conferred in various countries:

There are other monarchies and also republics that also follow this practice. Modern knighthoods are typically awarded in recognition for services rendered to society: services which are not necessarily martial in nature. The British musician Elton John, for example, is a Knight Bachelor, thus entitled to be called Sir Elton. The female equivalent is a Dame.

In the British honor system the knightly style of Sir is accompanied by the given name, and optionally the surname. So, Elton John may be called Sir Elton or Sir Elton John, but never Sir John. Similarly, actress Judi Dench DBE may be addressed as Dame Judi or Dame Judi Dench, but never Dame Dench.

Wives of knights, however, are entitled to the honorific "Lady" before their husband's surname. Thus Sir Paul McCartney's ex-wife was formally styled Lady McCartney (rather than Lady Paul McCartney or Lady Heather McCartney). The style Dame Heather McCartney could be used for the wife of a knight; however, this style is largely archaic and is only used in the most formal of documents, or where the wife is a Dame in her own right (such as Dame Norma Major, who gained her title six years before her husband Sir John Major was knighted). The husbands of Dames have no honorific, so Dame Norma's husband remained John Major until he received his own knighthood.

Since the reign of Edward VII a clerk in holy orders in the Church of England or in another Anglican Church has not normally received the accolade on being appointed to a degree of knighthood. He receives the insignia of his honor and may place the appropriate letters after his name or title but he may not be called Sir and his wife may not be called Lady. The Rt Revd the Hon Sir Paul Reeves did receive the accolade and is correctly called Sir but it is not clear how this situation arose. Ministers of other Christian Churches are entitled to receive the accolade. For example, His Eminence Sir Norman Cardinal Gilroy did receive the accolade on his appointment as Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1969. A knight who is subsequently ordained does not lose his title. A famous example of this situation was The Revd Sir Derek Pattinson, who was ordained just a year after he was appointed Knight Bachelor, apparently somewhat to the consternation of officials at Buckingham Palace.[24] A woman clerk in holy orders may be appointed a Dame in exactly the same way as any other woman since there are no military connotations attached to the honour. A clerk in holy orders who is a baronet is entitled to use the title Sir.

Outside the British honours system it is usually considered improper to address a knighted person as 'Sir' or 'Dame'. Some countries, however, historically did have equivalent honorifics for knights, such as Cavaliere in Italy (e.g. Cavaliere Benito Mussolini), and Ritter in Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire (e.g. Georg Ritter von Trapp).

State Knighthoods in the Netherlands are issued in three orders, the Order of William, the Order of the Netherlands Lion, and the Order of Orange Nassau. Additionally there remain a few hereditary knights in the Netherlands.

In France, among other orders are the Légion d'Honneur, the Ordre National du Mérite, the Ordre des Palmes académiques and the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. The lowest of the ranks conferred by these orders is Chevalier, meaning Knight.

In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the monarchs tried to establish chivalric orders but the hereditary lords who controlled the Union did not agree and managed to ban such assemblies. They feared the King would use Orders to gain support for absolutist goals and to make formal distinctions among the peerage which could lead to its legal breakup into two separate classes, and that the King would later play one against the other and eventually limit the legal privileges of hereditary nobility. But finally in 1705 King August II managed to establish the Order of the White Eagle which remains Poland's most prestigious order of that kind. The head of state (now the President as the acting Grand Master) confers knighthoods of the Order to distinguished citizens, foreign monarchs and other heads of state. The Order has its Chapter. There were no particular honorifics that would accompany a knight's name as historically all (or at least by far most) its members would be royals or hereditary lords anyway. So today, a knight is simply referred to as "Name Surname, knight of the White Eagle (Order)".

Hereditary knighthoods

Continental Europe

In continental Europe different systems of hereditary knighthood have existed or do exist. Ridder, Dutch for "knight", is a hereditary noble title in the Netherlands and Belgium. It is the lowest title within the nobility system and ranks below that of "Baron" but above "Jonkheer" (the latter is not a title, but a Dutch honorific to show that someone belongs to the untitled nobility). The collective term for its holders in a certain locality is the Ridderschap (e.g. Ridderschap van Holland, Ridderschap van Friesland, etc.). In the Netherlands and Belgium no female equivalent exists. Before 1814, the history of nobility is separate for each of the eleven provinces that make up the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In each of these, there were in the early Middle Ages a number of feudal lords who often were just as powerful, and sometimes more so than the rulers themselves. In old times, no other title existed but that of knight. In the Netherlands only 10 knightly families are still alive, a number which steadily decreases because in this country ennoblement or incorporation into the nobility is not possible anymore. Instead, Belgium, which still has a vibrant culture of ennoblement, does have 232 registered knightly families.

The German (as well as Austrian) equivalent of an hereditary knight is a Ritter. This designation is used as a title of nobility in all German-speaking areas. Traditionally it denotes the second lowest rank within the nobility, standing above "Edler" and below "Freiherr". For its historical association with warfare and the landed gentry in the Middle Ages, it can be considered roughly equal to the titles of "Knight" or "Baronet".

France, Italy, and Poland also had the hereditary knighthood that existed within the nobility system.

Ireland

There are traces of the Continental system of hereditary knighthood in Ireland. Notably all three of the following belong to the Welsh-Norman FitzGerald dynasty, created by the Earls of Desmond, acting as Earls Palatine, for their kinsmen.

Another Irish family were the O'Shaughnessys, who were created knights in 1553 under the policy of Surrender and regrant[25] (first established by Henry VIII of England).

British Baronetcies

Since 1611, the British Crown has awarded a hereditary title in the form of the Baronetcy.[26] Like knights, baronets are accorded the title Sir. Baronets are not peers of the realm, and did not sit in the House of Lords when it was a hereditary house, therefore like knights they remain commoners in the view of the British nobility system. However, unlike knights, the title is hereditary and the recipient does not receive an accolade. The position is therefore more comparable with hereditary knighthoods in continental European orders of nobility, such as ritter, than with knighthoods under the British orders of chivalry.

Women in orders of knighthood

England

Women were appointed to the Order of the Garter almost from the start. In all, 68 women were appointed between 1358 and 1488, including all consorts. Though many were women of royal blood, or wives of knights of the Garter, some women were neither. They wore the garter on the left arm, and some are shown on their tombstones with this arrangement. After 1488, no other appointments of women are known, although it is said that the Garter was granted to Neapolitan poet Laura Bacio Terricina, by Edward VI. In 1638, a proposal was made to revive the use of robes for the wives of knights in ceremonies, but this did not occur. Queen consorts have been made Ladies of the Garter since 1901 (Queens Alexandra in 1901, Mary in 1910, Elizabeth in 1937). The first non-Royal woman to be made Lady Companion of the Garter was Lavinia, duchess of Norfolk in 1990, the second was Baroness Thatcher in 1995 (post-nominal: LG). On Nov. 30, 1996, Marion Ann Forbes, Lady Fraser was made Lady of the Thistle, the first non-Royal woman (post-nominal: LT). (See Edmund Fellowes, Knights of the Garter, 1939; and Beltz: Memorials of the Order of the Garter). The first woman to be granted a knighthood in modern Britain seems to have been H.H. Nawab Sikandar Begum Sahiba, Nawab Begum of Bhopal, who became a Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India (GCSI) in 1861, at the foundation of the order. Her daughter received the same honor in 1872, as well as her granddaughter in 1910. The order was open to "princes and chiefs" without distinction of gender. The first European woman to have been granted an order of knighthood was Queen Mary, when she was made a Knight Grand Commander of the same order, by special statute, in celebration of the Delhi Durbar of 1911. She was also granted a knighthood in 1917, when the Order of the British Empire was created (it was the first order explicitly open to women). The Royal Victorian Order was opened to women in 1936, and the Order of Bath and Saint Michael and Saint George in 1965 and 1971 respectively.[27]

France

Medieval French had two words, chevaleresse and chevalière, which were used in two ways: one was for the wife of a knight, and this usage goes back to the 14th c. The other was possibly for a female knight. Here is a quote from Menestrier, a 17th c. writer on chivalry: "It was not always necessary to be the wife of a knight in order to take this title. Sometimes, when some male fiefs were conceded by special privilege to women, they took the rank of chevaleresse, as one sees plainly in Hemricourt where women who were not wives of knights are called chevaleresses." Modern French orders of knighthood include women, for example the Légion d'Honneur (Legion of Honor) since the mid-19th c., but they are usually called chevaliers. The first documented case is that of Marie-Angélique Duchemin (1772–1859), who fought in the Revolutionary Wars, received a military disability pension in 1798, the rank of 2nd lieutenant in 1822, and the Legion of Honor in 1852. A recipient of the Ordre National du Mérite recently requested from the order's Chancery the permission to call herself "chevalière," and the request was granted (AFP dispatch, Jan 28, 2000).[27]

Italy

As related in Orders of Knighthood, Awards and the Holy See by H.E. Cardinale (1983), the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary was founded by two Bolognese nobles Loderingo degli Andalò and Catalano di Guido in 1233, and approved by pope Alexander IV in 1261. It was the first religious order of knighthood to grant the rank of militissa to women. However, this order was suppressed by Sixtus V in 1558.[27]

The Low Countries

At the initiative of Catherine Baw in 1441, and 10 years later of Elizabeth, Mary, and Isabella of the house of Hornes, orders were founded which were open exclusively to women of noble birth, who received the French title of chevalière or the Latin title of equitissa. In his Glossarium (s.v. militissa), Du Cange notes that still in his day (17th c.), the female canons of the canonical monastery of St. Gertrude in Nivelles (Brabant), after a probation of 3 years, are made knights (militissae) at the altar, by a (male) knight called in for that purpose, who gives them the accolade with a sword and pronounces the usual words.[27]

Spain

To honour those women who defended the town of Tortosa against an attack by the Moors, Ramon Berenguer IV, then count of Barcelona, created the order of the Hatchet (orden de la Hacha) in 1149. As reported by Elias Ashmole in The Institution, Laws, and Ceremony of the Most Noble Order of the Garter (1672) Ch. 3, sect. 3: "The inhabitants [of Tortosa] being at length reduced to great streights, desired relief of the Earl, but he, being not in a condition to give them any, they entertained some thoughts of making a surrender. Which the Women hearing of, to prevent the disaster threatening their City, themselves, and Children, put on men's Clothes, and by a resolute sally, forced the Moors to raise the Siege. The Earl, finding himself obliged, by the gallentry of the action, thought fit to make his acknowlegements thereof, by granting them several Privileges and Immunities, and to perpetuate the memory of so signal an attempt, instituted an Order, somewhat like a Military Order, into which were admitted only those Brave Women, deriving the honour to their Descendants, and assigned them for a Badge, a thing like a Fryars Capouche, sharp at the top, after the form of a Torch, and of a crimson colour, to be worn upon their Head-clothes. He also ordained, that at all publick meetings, the women should have precedence of the Men. That they should be exempted from all Taxes, and that all the Apparel and Jewels, though of never so great value, left by their dead Husbands, should be their own. These Women having thus acquired this Honour by their personal Valour, carried themselves after the Military Knights of those days." [27]

Ritter (German title)

Ritter was also a German title (below Freiherr), translated approximately as Sir (denoting a Knight). Some recipients of German orders (Knight's Cross or Knight 3rd Class), for example the Bavarian Military Order of Max Joseph, as well as the Austrian Military Order of Maria Theresa, the Order of Leopold (until 1884) and the Order of the Iron Crown (until 1884) among others, received the title of Ritter von. In 1919, all titles of nobility were abolished in Germany and Ritter, together with the noble particles von and zu, became part of the surname.

Reichsritter

Reichsritter is a term for nobles in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation who were members of the free imperial knighthood (freie Reichsritterschaft). The prefix "Reichs-" is intended to indicate that these nobles were directly subordinate to the German King and/or to the Roman-German Emperor and not to a sovereign of one of the territories. Although they were directly related to the Reich (reichsunmittelbar), they did not belong to the Imperial Estates (Reichsstände) because they did not have their own seat with voting rights in the Reichstag. They are therefore, like Reichsfreiherr (but not Reichsgraf), also attributed to the lower nobility and not to the high nobility.

See also

Further reading

  • Arnold, Benjamin. German Knighthood, 1050-1300. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985. ISBN 0-19-821960-1 Template:LCCN
  • Bloch, Marc. Feudal Society, 2nd ed. Translated by Manyon. London: Routledge & Keagn Paul, 1965.
  • Bluth, B. J. Marching with Sharpe. London: Collins, 2001. ISBN 0-00-414537-2
  • Boulton, D'Arcy Jonathan Dacre. The Knights of the Crown: The Monarchical Orders of Knighthood in Later Medieval Europe, 1325-1520. 2d revised ed. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 2000. ISBN 0-85115-795-5
  • Bull, Stephen. An Historical Guide to Arms and Armour. London: Studio Editions, 1991. ISBN 1-85170-723-9
  • Carey, Brian Todd; Allfree, Joshua B; Cairns, John. Warfare in the Medieval World, UK: Pen & Sword Military, June 2006. ISBN 1-84415-339-8
  • Church, S. and Harvey, R. (Eds.) (1994) Medieval knighthood V: papers from the sixth Strawberry Hill Conference 1994. Boydell Press, Woodbidge
  • Clark, Hugh. "A Concise History of Knighthood: Containing the Religious and Military Orders which have been Instituted in Europe". London, 1784. link
  • Edge, David; John Miles Paddock (1988) Arms & Armor of the Medieval Knight. Greenwich, CT: Bison Books Corp. ISBN 0-517-10319-2
  • Edwards, J. C. "What Earthly Reason? The replacement of the longbow by handguns." Medieval History Magazine, Is. 7, March 2004.
  • Embleton, Gerry. Medieval Military Costume. UK: Crowood Press, 2001. ISBN 1-86126-371-6
  • Forey, Alan John. The Military Orders: From the Twelfth to the Early Fourteenth Centuries. Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK: Macmillan Education, 1992. ISBN 0-333-46234-3
  • Hare, Christopher. Courts & camps of the Italian renaissance. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1908. Template:LCCN
  • Keen, Maurice. "Chivalry". Yale University Press, 2005.
  • Laing, Lloyd and Jennifer Laing. Medieval Britain: The Age of Chivalry. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996. ISBN 0-312-16278-2
  • Oakeshott, Ewart. A Knight and his Horse, 2nd ed. Chester Springs, PA: Dufour Editions, 1998. ISBN 0-8023-1297-7 Template:LCCN
  • Robards, Brooks. The Medieval Knight at War. London: Tiger Books, 1997. ISBN 1-85501-919-1
  • Shaw, William A. The Knights of England: A Complete Record from the Earliest Time. London: Central Chancery, 1906. (Republished Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970). ISBN 0-8063-0443-X Template:LCCN
  • Williams, Alan. "The Metallurgy of Medieval Arms and Armour", in Companion to Medieval Arms and Armour. Nicolle, David, ed. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 2002. ISBN 0-85115-872-2 Template:LCCN

External links

Encyclopedias

References

  1. ↑ Clark, p. 1.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Knight. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved on 2009-04-07.
  3. ↑ Knecht. LEO German-English dictionary. Retrieved on 2009-04-07.
  4. ↑ "Equestrian". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed.. Houghton Mifflin Company. 2000. 
  5. ↑ D'A. J. D. Boulton, "Classic Knighthood as Nobiliary Dignity", in: Stephen Church, Ruth Harvey (ed.), Medieval knighthood V: papers from the sixth Strawberry Hill Conference 1994, Boydell & Brewer, 1995, pp. 41-100.
  6. ↑ Frank Anthony Carl Mantello, A. G. Rigg, Medieval Latin: an introduction and bibliographical guide, UA Press, 1996, p. 448.
  7. ↑ Charlton Thomas Lewis, An elementary Latin dictionary, Harper & Brothers, 1899, p. 505.
  8. ↑ "ekwo- [Appendix I: Indo-European Roots]". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed.. Houghton Mifflin Company. 2000. 
  9. ↑ Xavier Delamarre, entry on caballos, in Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise (Éditions Errance, 2003), p. 96. The entry on cabullus in the Oxford Latin Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982, 1985 reprinting), p. 246, does not give a probable origin, and merely compare Old Bulgarian kobyla and Old Russian komońb.
  10. ↑ "Cavalier". Cavalier. Houghton Mifflin Company. 2000. 
  11. ↑ "Reidh- [Appendix I: Indo-European Roots]". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed.. Houghton Mifflin Company. 2000. 
  12. ↑ Royal Household staff. The Monarchy Today > Queen and public > Honours > Knighthoods. The British Monarchy website. Retrieved on 22 August 2012.
  13. ↑ (1995) Papers from the sixth Strawberry Hill Conference 1994. Woodbridge, England: Boydell, 51. ISBN 978-0-85115-628-6. 
  14. ↑ (1995) Papers from the sixth Strawberry Hill Conference 1994. Woodbridge, England: Boydell, 48–49. ISBN 978-0-85115-628-6. 
  15. ↑ Richard Francis Burton wrote "I should attribute the origins of love to the influences of the Arabs' poetry and chivalry upon European ideas rather than to medieval Christianity." Burton, Richard Francis (2007). in Charles Anderson Read: The Cabinet of Irish Literature, Vol. IV, 94. ISBN 1-4067-8001-4. 
  16. ↑ Chivalry - New Advent
  17. ↑ Crouch, David (1993). The image of aristocracy in Britain, 1000-1300, 1. publ., London: Routledge, 109. ISBN 978-0-415-01911-8. Retrieved on 4 December 2011. 
  18. ↑ See Marcia L. Colish, The Mirror of Language: A Study in the Medieval Theory of Knowledge; University of Nebraska Press, 1983. p. 105.
  19. ↑ Karras, Ruth Mazo (2003). From boys to men : formation of masculinity in late medieval Europe. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 23–24. ISBN 978-0-8122-1834-3. Retrieved on 4 December 2011. 
  20. ↑ Vanhoutte, edited by Laurel Amtower, Jacqueline (2009). A companion to Chaucer and his contemporaries : texts & contexts. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press, 258. ISBN 978-1-55111-796-6. Retrieved on 4 December 2011. 
  21. ↑ Keen, p. 138.
  22. ↑ Hare (1908), p. 201.
  23. ↑ Hare (1908), pp. 211-218.
  24. ↑ "Michael De-La-Noy, obituary in ''The Independent''". London: News.independent.co.uk. 2006-10-17. http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article1879386.ece. Retrieved 2009-11-19. 
  25. ↑ John O'Donovan, "The Descendants of the Last Earls of Desmond", Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Volume 6. 1858.
  26. ↑ Burke, Bernard & Ashworth Burke (1914). General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. London: Burke's Peerage Limited, 7. Retrieved on 4 December 2011. “The hereditary Order of Baronets was erected by patent in England by King James I in 1611, extended to Ireland by the same Monarch in 1619 ,and first conferred in Scotland by King Charles I in 1625.” 
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 27.4 Women Knights. Heraldica.org. Retrieved on 2011-08-23.
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