Knights relieving vows and deeds of arms
score:3
You're reading fiction. Knights on a quest is a Victorian fantasy. Sir Walter Scott based his characters and settings on fantasy. It's very loosely based on historical events and is in no way accurate.
Consider this: a knight was a professional soldier first and foremost. Everything else comes second. It's nice if he is versed in poetry, can sing a song or entertain a noble lady. But his real job is to fight. That is a very grim business. Something like a butcher, but under far more difficult circumstances.
Modern soldiers work on a distance. Real hand to hand combat doesn't happen very often. Medieval knights exclusively worked man to man. Real close up. Had to stick a stiletto through and eye slid, for example. To kill or finish off an enemy. (That't the reason they carried a stiletto or a misericorde.) A 'real' knight didn't do long distance work, with bow and arrow. That was something for peasants.
Those guys aren't exactly feminine types squealing about flower arrangements with the ladies of the court while dressed in colorful tights. A modern comparison might be more of a a Hell's Angel type of personality. In colorful tights, admittedly, as this was the fashion of the day.
What did a knight do when he 'had to go' and was in battle? He simply had to let it go. There and then. There weren't any potty stops. And keep on fighting. His squire had the not so nice job after battle or a tournament to help him undress and clean up his armor. The knight would be very tired, sweaty and covered in feces and urine under the waist. Outside most likely covered with blood, mud and gore from the battle (or the tournament). He probably stank more than a skunk could stand...
That is something you don't read about in Medieval fiction novels. There is a vast difference between reality and what people would like it to be. For example, to protect the poor, innocent and damsels in distress wasn't exactly high on their priority list - if it was there at all.
Did they really march around looking for excuses to fight?
Yes, they did. Or at least, some did. William Marshall made his fortune that way. He definitely wasn't the only one. Doing the tournament circuit was very good business. A tournament rule was that the loser of a battle would have to ransom himself, or buy back his armor. You can get very rich in a hurry that way - or dead broke.
More post
- 📝 When was Donald Trump's first visit to his mother's birthplace, the Isle of Lewis?
- 📝 What was the Gothic language name for Ravenna?
- 📝 Why do colonels enjoy some generals' privileges?
- 📝 How did Poland avoid partition in the 17th century, but not the 18th century?
- 📝 Did medieval scholars believe the Earth was round?
- 📝 What were the key difficulties for the Romans in the conquest of Germanic tribes?
- 📝 Were B-17s (rather than B-29s) ever used to bomb mainland Japanese territory during WW2 (at least before the capture of Okinawa)?
- 📝 Did Imperial Japan persecute Slavic people, as European fascists did?
- 📝 Was the average lifespan of a soldier deployed within Stalingrad only 24 hours?
- 📝 Were Pharaohs still inscribed on walls and written on papyrus after their deaths?
- 📝 Why did Renaissance come first only in the Europe?
- 📝 At the beginning of the 20th century, how did Austria-Hungary and Russia's foreign policies conflict in the Balkans?
- 📝 The origin of symbols used for transferring information over large distances
- 📝 What is the historical origin of the Jewish Sabbath?
- 📝 Why did Hitler order counter-attacks as late as 21/04/1945?
- 📝 Why didn't Romans conquer/explore the African Atlantic Coast?
- 📝 Earliest examples of "pop culture" in history
- 📝 Did the Dominion of Newfoundland establish diplomatic missions?
- 📝 How were the borders of small European principalities maintained or secured?
- 📝 How popular was the name Imhotep?
- 📝 Where did the families of constables live in the middle ages?
- 📝 Was there actually debate amongst the Norse about the existence or location of Britain?
- 📝 Was Yahweh a god in a possible Edomite Pantheon?
- 📝 How did laborers travel from China to Malaya in the early 19th century?
- 📝 At 300 AD, how many christians were there?
- 📝 Why is Baja California often shown as an island on maps between 1500 and 1700?
- 📝 Did Nazi Party members fight on the front lines?
- 📝 Did the "ancients" use lead plates to prevent pain in their knees?
- 📝 Is "A state that is not able to feed itself...[is not]…a formidable foe" a quote by a historically known figure?
- 📝 What access did people in the Warsaw pact countries have to Western television and radio?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Knights relieving vows and deeds of arms
- 📝 When did the Knights Templar dissolve and why?
- 📝 When did chairs with arms and backs develop in Europe?
- 📝 Proportion of footmen and soldiers to knights in battles
- 📝 Are the Swiss flag and the flag/coat of arms of Piedmont related?
- 📝 What do the letters "L" and "G" mean on the coat of arms of the city of Liège?
- 📝 How do historians and linguists know how to pronounce the names from non-phonetic scripts?
- 📝 Has a sovereign Communist government ever run, and conceded loss, on a fair election?
- 📝 Why China was able to unify and not Europe?
- 📝 Why were old fortifications shaped like stars and not like circles?
- 📝 Why does the United States keep using "old" date representations and imperial system, while being in the minority?
- 📝 Why is the consensus that WW2 started on September 1, 1939 and not July 7, 1937?
- 📝 Why did North America economically prosper, and maintain stable government and South/Central America didn't?
- 📝 How accurate or supported is Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel"?
- 📝 Why exactly did telegraphs have to use "STOP" instead of a period and "QUOTE" instead of a quotation mark? (Or special codes.)
- 📝 Why didn't France and the UK invade Germany in September 1939?
- 📝 Why Were Madagascar and New Zealand Discovered So Late?
- 📝 How and when did the word "nuclear" replace the word "atomic"?
- 📝 Why are the German and French languages so different?
- 📝 Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
- 📝 How did the USSR manage to innovate in an environment characterized by government censorship and high bureaucracy?
- 📝 Why did LBJ, a staunch segregationist, champion and sign the 1964 Civil Rights Bill?
- 📝 Why didn't the US and USSR jam each other's early-warning radar?
- 📝 Was murdering a slave illegal in American slavery, and if so, what punishments were given for it?
- 📝 Why were Spain and Portugal neutral / not invaded in WWII?
- 📝 If the Union Jack joins the flag of England and Scotland, why does it have a different shade of blue than the Scottish flag?
- 📝 When and how did the USA and the UK become allies?
- 📝 Why is AD in Latin and BC is in English?
- 📝 When did FDR announce he was running a 3rd time, and was there any outrage?
- 📝 When and how did people begin to consider slavery immoral?