Age of Chivalry

Chapter 13 Section 3

New Technology• Knights: Warriors on

Horseback • Leather saddles &

stirrups – through contact with Muslims in Battle of Tours

• Knights on horseback became most important part of army

Knight’s Role

• Fought to defend the territory of their feudal lord

• 1. Rewarded with land (fiefs)• 2.Weapons & armor were $$$ - had to

afford to be a knight• Knight’s main obligation was to

serve in battle• 1. Only 40 days of the year in combat!

Knighthood & Chivalry

• Code of Chivalry – ideals demanded of a knight

• 1. Be loyal to his feudal lord, obey God, and be nice to the ladies

• 2. Protected the weak & poor• 3. Brave, courteous

Age of Chivalry?

• Some took it seriously, others didn’t. It tended to break down especially towards the later Middle Ages.

• The Middle Ages wasn’t a time of fairy tale castles and noble, honorable knights. It was a nasty time of political intrigue, bloody wars, and brutish men exercising their limited power in order to gain more power.

• JUST LIKE ANY OTHER TIME!!

Training

The prospective knight went through three stages:

1) Page- Younger years (age 7) - Assistant to squire & Lord

2) Squire (age 14)- Was Robin to a knight’s

Batman- Took care of knight’s

equipment

3) Knight (age 21)- When he becomes a full-fledged

soldier who officially enters into a feudal arrangement with a lord.

TournamentsMock Battles

Literature of Chivalry

• Themes = idealized castle life, glorified knighthood, knight’s undying love for lady

• The Song of Roland – famous epic poem• about Charlemagne’s knights fighting Muslims

– Praised French soldiers killed in battle• Troubadours – traveling poet-musicians• Eleanor of Aquitaine

Eleanor of Aquitaine• Most celebrated woman

of the age is Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122–1204)

• Becomes Queen of England

• Eleanor’s son, Richard the Lion-Hearted, also wrote songs and poems

Roles of Women• Status of Women• According to the Church and feudal

society, women are inferior to men!!

• Noblewomen

• 1. Can inherit land 2. defend castle 3. send knights to war on lord’s request

• Usually confined to activities of the home or convent

• Peasant Women

• 1. Most labor in home and field

• 2. bear children 3. provide for family

• Poor, powerless, do household tasks at young age

Enough about chivalry…What about the weapons and warfare?

Plate Armor

Shields

Triangular shields meant to repel blows.

“Coat of Arms” – symbols to represent family, manor

Crossbows & Longbows

• Mantlet

Siege Weaponspg. 366

• Siege Tower

• Battering Ram

• Trebuchet