High Germa Chivalry
During the Middle Ages, any young male who wanted to become a knight had to complete a number of prolonged steps. Informal training started soon after youngster could walk. Formal training started when the boy became a page and later a squire. After all the rigorous duties are met and all the responsibilities are upheld, then a prospective knight participated in a final ceremony where he was knighted.
A father of prospective knight started his son’s training soon after birth. Children’s play was the first step in learning how to become a knight. Toy pewter knights were given to young boys. “Edward I gave his son's toy castles and a nature siege engine to play with, and Richard II had miniature guns as a boy” (Prestwich 16). At the age of seven, prospective knights were sent to a castle of a noble to become a page. A page is a servant to a nobleman. The future knight’s servitude obligation was found in the origin of the word knight. “The word ‘knight’ finds its origins in the Old High …show more content…
A person’s ability to become a knight depended mostly on one’s lineage. In France, it was extremely difficult to become a knight without showing prominent family ancestry. If a boy’s father was a knight, then he could also be a knight (Prestwich 23). All prospective knights modified their fathers’ coat of arms to create their own coat of arms. Coats of arms were important because they identified a man’s lineage and his connections in society (Prestwich 31).
On the day before the actual knighting, the candidate would take a long bath to rid himself of the accumulation of many months’ worth of dirt. In addition to being needed, the bath was symbolic. It cleansed the future knight of his “sins and get rid of all the impurities” of his past life. After the bath, the man would rest upon a new bed with clean linen. It was thought that the future knight had “emerged from a great fight against sin and the Devil” (Prestwich
A father of prospective knight started his son’s training soon after birth. Children’s play was the first step in learning how to become a knight. Toy pewter knights were given to young boys. “Edward I gave his son's toy castles and a nature siege engine to play with, and Richard II had miniature guns as a boy” (Prestwich 16). At the age of seven, prospective knights were sent to a castle of a noble to become a page. A page is a servant to a nobleman. The future knight’s servitude obligation was found in the origin of the word knight. “The word ‘knight’ finds its origins in the Old High …show more content…
A person’s ability to become a knight depended mostly on one’s lineage. In France, it was extremely difficult to become a knight without showing prominent family ancestry. If a boy’s father was a knight, then he could also be a knight (Prestwich 23). All prospective knights modified their fathers’ coat of arms to create their own coat of arms. Coats of arms were important because they identified a man’s lineage and his connections in society (Prestwich 31).
On the day before the actual knighting, the candidate would take a long bath to rid himself of the accumulation of many months’ worth of dirt. In addition to being needed, the bath was symbolic. It cleansed the future knight of his “sins and get rid of all the impurities” of his past life. After the bath, the man would rest upon a new bed with clean linen. It was thought that the future knight had “emerged from a great fight against sin and the Devil” (Prestwich