There were only a few ways in which a person could become a knight. The first way was the normal course of action for the son of a noble:

Training: When a boy was eight years old, he was sent to the neighboring castle where he was trained as a page. The boy was usually the son of a knight or of a member of the aristocracy. He spent most of his time strengthening his body, wrestling and riding horses. He also learned how to fight with a spear and a sword. The young man was also taught more civilized topics. He would be taught to read and write by a schoolmaster. He could also be taught some Latin and French. The lady of the castle taught the page to sing and dance and how to behave in the king’s court.

Becoming a Knight:Becoming a Knight:

Apprenticeship: At the age of fifteen or sixteen, a boy became a squire in service to a knight. His duties included dressing the knight in the morning, serving all of the knight’s meals, caring for the knight’s horse, and cleaning the knight’s armor and weapons. He followed the knight to tournaments and assisted his lord on the battlefield. A squire also prepared himself by learning how to handle a sword and lance while wearing forty pounds of armor and riding a horse.

The Dubbing Ceremony: When he was about twenty, a squire could become a knight after proving himself worthy. A lord would agree to knight him in a dubbing ceremony. The night before the ceremony, the squire would dress in a white tunic and red robes. He would then fast and pray all night for the purification of his soul. The chaplain would bless the future knight's sword and then lay it on the chapel or church's altar. Before dawn, he took a bath to show that he was pure, and he dressed in his best clothes. When dawn came, the priest would hear the young man's confession, a Catholic contrition rite. The squire would then eat breakfast.

Soon the dubbing ceremony began. The outdoor ceremony took place in front of family, friends, and nobility. The squire knelt in front of the lord, who tapped the squire lightly on each shoulder with his sword and proclaimed him a knight. This was symbolic of what occurred in earlier times. In the earlier middle ages, the person doing the dubbing would actually hit the squire forcefully, knocking him over. After the dubbing, a great feast followed with music and dancing.

A young man could also become a knight for valor in combat after a battle or sometimes before a battle to help him gain courage.

Girlhood - Girls were educated very differently from boys. They usually lived away from home, in a monastery or another castle. There they were taught how to sew, read and write Latin, to sing, and to do many other "feminine" practices. Girlhood did not last long. Some young girls were engaged to men when they were as young as six or seven years old. Usually girls were married by the time they were fourteen.

Duties- The important function of the medieval lady was child rearing. Usually a woman had all her children by the time she was twenty. Giving birth was very dangerous and many women did not survive the process. Besides caring for the children, the medieval lady also had many other duties. Ladies also generally were in charge of the castle's kitchen and meals. Additionally, she was often put in charge of the castle in the lord's absence. Ladies generally proved quite adept at managing the castle's affairs when the lord was gone. Sometimes they defended their castles against sieges or led armies on the battlefield.

The Medieval LadyThe Medieval Lady

Marriage - Young noblewomen had little say in who they were married to or when they were married. Marriage was used to seal political ties and obtain greater wealth by most people in the upper classes. In exchange for a dowry, which usually consisted of a set amount of land, the medieval lady got one third of her husband's estate when he died. However, marriage was not always good for a woman. When she was married, she was said "to come under the rod". This meant that she had virtually no rights. She could not sue, appear in court, make a will, or do many other things that women today take for granted. Before she could do these things she had to get the consent of her husband. Once her husband died, she regained most of these rights.

The Medieval LadyThe Medieval LadyThe Lady The lady was not considered a very important person during the Middle Ages. According to St. Jerome, a Latin father of the Christian church, woman is the gate of the devil, the path of wickedness, the sting of the serpent, in a word, a perilous object. A woman didn't get to decide much on her own. An unmarried daughter was a burden to her family. They were often sent to become nuns. By sending her away, families thought they had solved their problem. Usually woman were sent away because they had fallen in love with a man her family disapproved of.

Men of GodMen of God

There were many different kinds of clergymen during the Middle ages. Each one had his own duties and power. Some had vast amounts of power politically. Of course, they all shared one trait, they were the mediators of God. They were the bridge between God and the other people.

The Bishop Bishops were the leaders of the church. The leader of the bishops, of course, was the pope. Bishops were often very wealthy. They dressed lavishly, wearing many of the same clothes as a feudal lord. Of course, they had their own religious garments to wear also. Bishops often had their own castles from which to conduct business. In this way, they were firmly entrenched in the feudal society. They were accepted in royal courts and dallied in politics. They also had many duties. They levied taxes and settled on issues such as annulments of marriages. An annulment is an alternative to divorce (which was not allowed by the Church). If a marriage was annulled, the union between the man and woman was removed by the Church.

Parish and Castle Priest These priests said Mass for the town in the town church and also said Mass in the castle. This was done in its chapel. They also were responsible for the collection of church taxes and the spreading of alms among the poor. Often these priests were the only people who could write and read in the village. Thus, they were sometimes responsible for village and castle record keeping.

Men of GodMen of GodMonks A monk is a man who is a member of a brotherhood. He devotes his life to a discipline prescribed by his order. Monks and nuns live in a monastery. A monastery is a kind of half church half hospital. They take care of people there and they pray and meditate. It can also be like a school for kids. They would teach them how to read and write.

Medieval Monastery

They usually wore brown robes with hoods around their heads. They were also well educated and could usually read and write Latin. Many monks devoted themselves to learning. Some of the first encyclopedias and histories were written by monks and then copied over by hand.

Monks were often the only source of Bibles in medieval times. Bibles were also copied by hand because the printing press was not yet developed.

The Peasants LifeThe Peasants LifeThe average peasant in the feudal structure could be grouped into two main professions: farmer or craftsmen. The farmers worked the fields daily, planting, harvesting, and fertilizing the plants. They paid for their rights to use the land directly in the form of their harvest, and keep the excess to be sold or for their own family use. Most farmers were not free and were bound to their land.

Guilds The unions of the past were known as guilds. They were one of the most influential organizations of that time. They flourished because of the main reasons they were formed: to protect the business from the merchants, to ensure high standards and a high quality of work, and to look after the old and sick members of the guild. The regular town merchants needed protection from the merchants who came in a provided cheap labor. The people of the town always wanted the job to be done right the first time, with as little money spent as possible. The guilds helped ensure that the job would be done right by having training requirements for their workers. When workers became ill, or too old to work any longer, the guild supported them and their families.

The craftsmen were usually trained in the home by a parent who was in the profession, or by going into an apprenticeship with another skilled craftsmen in the town. The craftsmen built their goods to sell, and paid a tax to the lord for their right to use the land. Their life mainly consisted of making their goods and services available to the public of the town, coming to help when the town or castle needed repairs, or training the younger generation with their craft. Their profit from the sales was used to buy food from the farmers, and other items which kept the cycle of sales and purchases flowing to keep the medieval economy going.

The Peasants LifeThe Peasants Life

Religion: Religion was an important part of the life for the peasants, and it was taken very seriously. In fact, before the strong, tyrannical government emerged in the tenth to thirteenth with the king as its ruling figure, the church could also be considered a contending force with the king, sometimes overthrowing the king and placing a puppet of the church in command. The church had strict laws which were carefully followed, and a severe punishment was usually guaranteed if they were broken.

Festivals and Famine: Famines were frequent and plagues depleted the livestock. Crops were destroyed by frosts, floods, and droughts. Fields and harvests were burned when the lords had bursts of warfare across the countryside. Thus, the peasants life was a hard one. However, peasants of the middle ages enjoyed many holidays, both religious and non-religious, which meant that the peasant worked for about 260 days a year. The life of the peasant was extremely difficult, but enjoying holidays kept spirits high.

A castle in the middle ages was essentially a fort, albeit a very big one. It served as a weapon of both offense and defense. If a king wanted to gain control of certain lands, he could order a castle built there. Additionally, if lands that a king already had under his control were invaded or were threatened with invasion, then a king would also order a castle built there.

Life in a CastleLife in a Castle

Building: Castles generally took an incredibly long time to build. Occasionally, they could take centuries to build. However, sometimes, if the need for a castle was great enough, they could be built in the relatively small amount of time of ten years! Castles were built with defense in mind. They were often built on a hill so that enemies attempting to attack would have to travel up often steep inclines. This slowed an attack down and made it easier to defend the castle. Castles were also usually surrounded by a large ditch sometimes filled with water. This was called a moat. It was often filled with sharp objects like glass or metal. Anyone who fell in could be killed.

Under Siege: Castles were primarily structures of war and were built in strife ridden lands. Thus, it was almost inevitable that they would come under attack. Because castles were made with such massive defense fortifications, it was extremely hard to destroy them. Thus, the goal of a siege army was not to destroy a castle, but to penetrate it. However, this task was also extremely hard. Sieges often lasted for months and could even last for years!

Tactics: •The most effective offensive weapon was hunger and demoralization. Besieging forces would attempt to completely surround a castle and cut it off from the outside world. The situation often got very grim inside the castle. Even though large quantities of supplies were stored inside, they sometimes ran out. •Attackers also often tried to trick the castle defenders to gain admittance to the castle. For example, the besieging army could take their weapons and march out of sight. Then, they could wait a couple days and send several soldiers disguised as peasants to the castle. These soldiers could then knife the castle guards in secret and open the main gate. The enemy army could then enter the gate and take the castle. •The battering ram was another way of getting through a castle wall. During the night a shed was erected quickly next to the gate, or a weak point in the wall. If a moat was there, it was filled most of the way with dirt, rocks, and logs. Then, a large tree trunk was hung from the shed's ceiling by chains. It was sometimes capped with iron. Teams of soldiers then rocked the trunk back and forth, knocking against the wall. This could eventually cause a weakness in the wall, possibly tumbling it.

The Age of ChivalryThe Age of Chivalry

During medieval times knighthood was a class culture, cherished and jealousy guarded by the knightly caste. Knight had the honor of defending the king as well as their country. On the bloody fields of battle a code of chivalry evolved that tempered anger and fury with mercy. It created ways of turning the grim business of fighting into something tolerable, perhaps even acceptable. Knights believed strongly in the code of chivalry. Chivalry as we know it denotes the ideals and practices considered suitable to be a noble. They promised to defend the weak, be courteous to all women, be loyal to their king, and serve God at all times. Knights were expected to be humble before others, especially their superiors. They were also expected to not "talk too much". In other words, they shouldn't boast. Chivalry was not only looked upon as a code for war; it was looked upon as a setting for stories of love and romance. Chivalry meant a higher social status as well as recognition.

True Chivalry? The code of chivalry demanded that a knight give mercy to a vanquished enemy. However, the very fact that knights were trained as men of war belied this code. Even though they came from rich families, many knights were not their families' firstborn. They did not receive an inheritance. Thus they were little more than mercenaries. They plundered villages or cities that they captured, often defiling and destroying churches and other property. Also the code of chivalry did not extend to the peasants. The "weak" was widely interpreted as "noble women and children". They were often brutal to common folk.

A Code Of ChivalryA Code Of Chivalry The following is an example of a code of chivalry.

I. Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches, and shalt

observe all its directions.

II. Thou shalt defend the Church.

III. Thou shalt respect all weaknesses, and shalt constitute

thyself the defender of them.

IV. Thou shalt love the country in the which thou wast born.

V. Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy.

VI. Thou shalt make war against the Infidel without

cessation, and without mercy.

VII. Thou shalt perform scrupulously thy feudal duties, if

they be not contrary to the laws of God.

VIII. Thou shalt never lie, and shall remain faithful to thy

pledged word.

IX. Thou shalt be generous, and give largess to everyone.

X. Thou shalt be everywhere and always the champion of

the Right and the Good against Injustice and Evil.

The Age of ChivalryAccording to the code of chivalry, what did knights promise to do?

According to the code of chivalry, why shouldn’t knights “talk too much?”

Life in a CastleHow was the castle a weapon of both offense and defense?

Why would castles usually be built on a hill?

The Peasant’s LifeDescribe daily life for a farmer/craftsman:

Describe the role religion played in a peasant’s life:

What role did holiday’s play in the life of a peasant?

Men of God

Describe the life and duties of each of the following:

Bishops:

Priests:

Monks:

The Medieval Lady

How was a girl’s life different from a boy’s?

How were marriage practices of the Middle Ages compare to today?

Becoming a Knight

Explain the training a boy would go through to become a knight?

Describe the duties of a squire:

Daily Life in the Middle Ages