What Was The Difference Between Knighthood And Chivalry

After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, Europe was divided into ‘Barbarian’ Kingdoms such as Francia, Visigoths, Lombardia and others, this meant that the way in which the people of Europe at the time were governed was to change dramatically, and between AD476 and the rise of Charlemagne in Francia, there was a vacuum in the system of governance across Europe. The terms ‘Knighthood’ and ‘Chivalry’ originally comes from the idea that an army should be comprised of both professional soldiers that are fully trained and those called to fight on occasion. This essay will conclude with a decision as to whether or not Knighthood did develop between AD1000-1200, but before that, it will discuss the main reasons and possible changes that Knighthood
In AD806, Charlemagne displayed this idea of using his mounted knights when he wrote to his vassal, the Abbot of Altaich, with this “You shall come to Weser with your men prepared to go on warlike service to any part of our realm” , this shows that Charlemagne was dependant on his mounted knights, and later Foss identifies that the cavalry of Charlemagne’s army was vastly important to his success, thus showing that the role of the knight had developed as early as the 9th century, although only in a capacity as a military force. The word ‘Chivalry’ is interchangeable with the concept of knighthood and Crouch identified that in Charlemagne’s army the word ‘chevalerie’ was used to describe ‘horse soldiery’, this shows the conception of the tradition of ‘chivalry’ in western Europe, all be it the military aspects of knighthood. In addition to Charlemagne, King Alfred the Great is also attributed as one of the first kings in the post-Roman world to ordain knights of the realm, as Alexander Bicknell wrote in the 18th century “He is supposed to have been the first founder of any order of Knighthood in this kingdom” . This shows that the spread from the Carolingian empire in continental Europe had made its way to England within 100 years, Bicknell discusses the idea of an “institution of a round table”, suggesting that this is the first group of knights that came together, a concept that would become much more prominent with the formations of the Templars and Teutonics in the 11th and 12th centuries. Overall the context of the two most prominent rulers in the 9th century are key to understanding what knighthood actually is, because it was these men, and others, that set the blueprints for a system of