What was the real deal with knights and knights errantry?
The modern view paints every single knight to have ever walked the earth in the middle ages as being a cross between a serial killer and a village rapist, and while that's obviously true in many instances does it really represent EVERY knightly order across the entire span of the medieval era?
>>1149162
It's silly to assume all knights were mega rapists
It's equally silly to assume all knights were good boys dindu nuffin
I would say the former is probably more idiotic and most likely reactionary to the second being so prominent in mythos and poetry and the like.
Chivarly, as far as my understand goes, would generally apply to just being courteous and honorful. I think it was Bela IV who let the enemy cross a river before actually attacking. Ransoming fits in there too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Terrail,_seigneur_de_Bayard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_of_the_Thirty
>>1149162
>The modern view paints every single knight to have ever walked the earth in the middle ages as being a cross between a serial killer and a village rapist
Keep in mind that the Western nobility basically all died in WWI and don't exist to defend themselves against the plebs/bourgeoisie anymore.
>>1149162
How about we let a knight comment on the issue?
Ulrich von Hutten, a late 15th - early 16th century Knight of Empire, comments on his life:
>Such is the lot of the knight that even though my patrimony were ample and adequate for my support, nevertheless here are the disturbances which give me no quiet. We live in fields, forests, and fortresses. Those by whose labors we exist are poverty-stricken peasants, to whom we lease our fields, vineyards, pastures, and woods. The return is exceedingly sparse in proportion to the labor expended. Nevertheless the utmost effort is put forth that it may be bountiful and plentiful, for we must be diligent stewards. I must attach myself to some prince in the hope of protection. Otherwise every one will look upon me as fair plunder. But even if I do make such an attachment hope is beclouded by danger and daily anxiety. If I go away from home I am in peril lest I fall in with those who are at war or feud with my overlord, no matter who he is, and for that reason fall upon me and carry me away. If fortune is adverse, the half of my estates will be forfeit as ransom. Where I looked for protection I was ensnared. We cannot go unarmed beyond to yokes of land. On that account, we must have a large equipage of horses, arms, and followers, and all at great expense. We cannot visit a neighboring village or go hunting or fishing save in iron.
>Then there are frequently quarrels between our retainers and others, and scarcely a day passes but some squabble is referred to us which we must compose as discreetly as possible, for if I push my claim to uncompromisingly war arises, but if I am too yielding I am immediately the subject of extortion. One concession unlooses a clamor of demands. And among whom does all this take place? Not among strangers, my friend, but among neighbors, relatives, and those of the same household, even brothers.
[to be continued]
>>1149162
>>1149511 continued
>These are our rural delights, our peace and tranquility. The castle, whether on plain or mountain, must be not fair but firm, surrounded by moat and wall, narrow within, crowded with stalls for the cattle, and arsenals for guns, pitch, and powder. Then there are dogs and their dung, a sweet savor I assure you. The horsemen come and go, among them robbers, thieves, and bandits. Our doors are open to practically all comers, either because we do not know who they are or do not make too diligent inquiry. One hears the bleating of sheep, the lowing of cattle, the barking of dogs, the shouts of men working in the fields, the squeaks or barrows and wagons, yes, and even the howling of wolves from nearby woods.
>The day is full of thought for the morrow, constant disturbance, continual storms. The fields must be ploughed and spaded, the vines tended, trees planted, meadows irrigated. There is harrowing, sowing, fertilizing, reaping, threshing: harvest and vintage. If the harvest fails in any year, then follow dire poverty, unrest, and turbulence.
To me, this seems quite reasonable and thoughtful. Certainly you could find less reasonable and thoughtful characters, but it still tells us that there was more to it than merely plundering and murdering peasants.
>>1149162
Imagine being born and raised believing that you were a special snowflake with entire subclasses of people below you.
Now look at the treatment of the Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. The "mere gook rule" existed to justify killing civilians as they weren't human, but mere gooks.
You also had the church and its 'doctrine of discovery'; divine justification and incentive to go forth and conquer.
>>1149162
Nights were soldiers first, but were expected to act within the nobility when needed. They were a neccesary component of the feudal structure and some exploited it to their benefit.
>>1149162
>and while that's obviously true in many instances
Thats obviously not true you idiot. They were trained warriors whose profession was to fight as heavy cavalry in war. Chivalry was a real code of conduct where knights spared each other for ransom and made a lot of money off of it. It was very unbecoming of nobility to rape peasant women or to slaughter peasants themselves. They let the men under them do it, but they themselves didn't do it very much
http://www.usna.edu/Users/history/abels/hh381/Chivalry.htm
