F. Gies, "Knights of Medieval Europe" Summary and Comments - A recommended guide to the origins and history of medieval knights.
We are pleased to present "Knights of Medieval Europe," written by Francis Gies and translated by Jun Shiino, published by Kodansha in 2017.
Let's take a quick look at the book.
Wearing armor and astride horses, these warriors were known as "Sirs". They lived in castles in peacetime and spent their lives in mounted games and solitary itineraries through the nations. This book is the story of the medieval knight from his appearance, his exploits in the Crusades, the birth of bards and chivalric tales, the Knights Templar supported by religion, the life of William Marshall, who rose to the rank of senior noble, and Bertrand du Gekran, the hero of Brittany, and the knightly class parodied in "Don Quixote", The film depicts how they decayed into modernity.
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This book isDon Quixote."The work will be an explanation of what the knightly world depicted in the book was really like.
The book will also give you a pretty good idea of the beginnings of knighthood and what chivalry is that Don Quixote dedicated to.
The early knights were ignorant, violent, and mere warriors. From there, however, the ideal of the moral and virtuous knight emerged as they became associated with Christianity.
The second chapter of the book discusses this as follows.
The flesh-and-blood knight of the tenth century has little in common with the elegant knight of the Round Table. The knight of the 10th century was ignorant, penniless, and coarse in speech and behavior. Their main source of income was violence. Public justice, which was supposed to control them, had virtually disappeared. Whether it was a civil dispute or a criminal offense, the kings, who had lost their ka, could not expect to be judged, and everything was settled by the sword. The unarmed church and peasants were left with no choice but to indulge themselves as victims and bystanders. In the words of Georges Duby, "If any check could be put on [the knights'] violence and greed, it was only by a sense of moral obligation and the persuasion of their peers."
The spread of disorder led to a movement to do something about it. It was the Church that took the initiative, and what followed had a profound effect on both knights and medieval nobility. Two interrelated movements began in the 10th and 11th centuries. The Peace of God" and "The Truce of God. These two great reforms, which were the forerunners of what historians have collectively called the Gregorian Reformation, strongly proclaimed the authority of the Church, and paved the way for the great movement known as the First Crusade.
Kodansha, Francis Gies, translated by Jun Shiino, Knights of Medieval Europe, p. 28-29.
The widespread state of disorder has prompted a movement to do something about it."
Medieval society was rife with violence. It was very interesting to see that Christianity was the only halt in this horrifying time when there was no authority of kings and no halt.
And the inheritance system of the time was a factor in the creation of such a large number of nearly outlawed knights.
In early Europe, divided inheritance was common and land was distributed equally among siblings. However, this was not a problem if huge tracts of land were to be distributed, but this would lead to the land becoming more and more fragmented as inheritances were repeated.
This led to a trend of economically troubled knights using force to plunder other territories.
However, the custom of distributive inheritance disappeared by the end of the 11th century, as "this was not a viable system of inheritance. The new system that emerged was the firstborn son inheritance. This system avoids the fragmentation of land.
The difficulty with this system, however, was that brothers other than the eldest could not gain any land at all, so the only way was to join the church or become a knight (soldier) and wield a sword.
This led to the mass production of violent knights.
It is similar to the medieval period in Japan, where the second and subsequent sons could not succeed to the family headship and had to join the church or take a different path. Especially in the Heian period, it is well known that the second and subsequent sons sought their place not in the court but in large temples such as Hieizan.
Now, back to the topic at hand. Against this background, knights in medieval Europe became increasingly tied to Christianity.
By making them "Christian knights," they were outlaws, and by uniting them as a knightly order, they tried to control their aggression and bring order by tightening the rules.
And the ultimate event was the one that made them turn their aggression not to Europe but to the pagans far away.
Yes, "crusaders".
The Crusades were created as a holy army to defeat the "enemies of Christianity," the pagans.
The crusade was ostensibly religious in name, but it was also an attempt to send the countless violent knights throughout Europe far, far away.
They actually set out in search of land, and the use of violence there was tremendous.
And as the kings and churches had planned, most of the knights would die without ever returning to Europe. It was such a dangerous and harsh expedition.
But this "crusade" established the "Christian knighthood" and, as a result, the flow of knighthoods as we imagine them.
From dangerous men who are violent and wanton in their plunder to "chivalry".
I cannot go into more detail in this article, but I highly recommend this book to learn how our image of a "knight" was created.
The connection between the Crusades and chivalry was very interesting.
As a lover of "Don Quixote," I found this book very inspiring and interesting.
I highly recommend this work.
The above is "F. Gies, "Knights of Medieval Europe," a recommended guide to the origins and history of medieval knights.
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