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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello and got into the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm editor Kandis Kipson, going by staff writer Jane mcgarrath. Again,

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Speaker 1: it's I think chivalry is alive and well, and we

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Speaker 1: have the knights of Middle Age and medieval Europe to

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Speaker 1: think for that. That's right. And uh, I guess when

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Speaker 1: we're young we think about I guess the little girls

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Speaker 1: at least think about meeting knights in shining armor. And

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Speaker 1: we don't really know a lot except for, you know,

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Speaker 1: the little we get in history class about what actual

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Speaker 1: nights in the Middle Ages were like and whether or

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Speaker 1: not their armor was in fact shiny. And after doing

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Speaker 1: a little bit of research, I'm inclined to think it

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Speaker 1: may have been, you know, buffed and polished, but I

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Speaker 1: don't think it was that shiny. Yeah, probably not if

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Speaker 1: they were busy in battle and didn't get to clean

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Speaker 1: it that often. They kind a lot going on again,

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Speaker 1: they've got their squires short. But I think we're getting

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Speaker 1: ahead of ourselves. So nights, it's not just the staff

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Speaker 1: of literature. They were real medieval warriors and they began

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Speaker 1: their military training very young and the word night actually

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Speaker 1: comes from the Anglish Saxon term for boy and knighthood,

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Speaker 1: and the system of becoming a night actually began under

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Speaker 1: the feudal system which was established by Charlemagne in the

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Speaker 1: eighth century. That's right, and knights, especially early on but

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Speaker 1: later not necessarily. They they had land that they held

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Speaker 1: from the lords would sort of lease to them, and

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Speaker 1: they were responsible for In order to get dubbed a knight,

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Speaker 1: usually you were the son of a night or a lord,

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Speaker 1: and so they weren't necessarily nobility per se, but they

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Speaker 1: were pretty respected, especially when we talk about the code

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Speaker 1: of chivalry that we will in a second, just the

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Speaker 1: idea that they were respected people. And you know, if

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Speaker 1: you ever read Cannbury Tales like most people do in

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Speaker 1: high school, the prologue actually lists the night first because

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Speaker 1: he was so respected, right, And part of the reason

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Speaker 1: for that was that it was not a position that

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Speaker 1: you inherited. It was something that you had to work for.

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Speaker 1: And just to give you a little bit of background

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Speaker 1: on knighthood and the reason that nights were so important,

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Speaker 1: um during Charlemagne's reign, essentially there was a bunch of

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Speaker 1: land and after the Roman Empire fell. Western Europe essentially

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Speaker 1: had no countries and no real organization, just huge parcels

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Speaker 1: of land, and there was a lot of fighting every territories,

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Speaker 1: but there was nothing really productive in place to control

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Speaker 1: them and and to really ration it out and to

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Speaker 1: give order and to create agricultural mainstays. And so Charlemagne

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Speaker 1: instituted feudalism, and he had this patch of land that

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Speaker 1: sort of went from northern Spain to Italy and then

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Speaker 1: France and Germany and Poland, and he would dole out

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Speaker 1: portions of land to nobles and in exchange they would

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Speaker 1: agree to be loyal to him and to offer him protection.

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Speaker 1: Or he could give land to nights in exchange for

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Speaker 1: their military service. And nights who lived on land really

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Speaker 1: had a good deal going whether they lived on land

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Speaker 1: owned by the king or buy a noble and exchange

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Speaker 1: for food, clothing, and shelter. They would, you know, provide

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Speaker 1: military service when it was necessary. And they also protected

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Speaker 1: the surfs who are underneath them as well as the

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Speaker 1: men who were over them in the Sars War im

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Speaker 1: part of because these were the people who were growing

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Speaker 1: the food that fed them. So in lieu of having

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Speaker 1: an actual centralized government, This was a pretty good system

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Speaker 1: and everyone was taken care of, So knighthood was important,

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Speaker 1: and you really did feel like you were part of

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Speaker 1: a bigger structure and that you were important to your

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Speaker 1: your your land or your fife. That's right, and knights

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Speaker 1: actually made up pretty well. Um. I guess we're you're

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Speaker 1: gonna talk about that later with the terms in terms

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Speaker 1: of the Knights templar. But actually one thing that it

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Speaker 1: struck me was that even though Knights are known as

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Speaker 1: professional warriors, there was this thing called scootage where Um

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Speaker 1: knights could actually send out others to do their fighting

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Speaker 1: for them. I guess they were just too happy back

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Speaker 1: in Europe with their lands that they were running and

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Speaker 1: making a pretty good living at. But if you want

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Speaker 1: to go back to um where boys, how boys became

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Speaker 1: a nights. It actually started about the age of seven. Beforehand,

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Speaker 1: they would be raised by their moms in the household,

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Speaker 1: but by the age of seven they officially became a page.

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Speaker 1: They would learn horsemanship, reading, writing, religion, even falconry, which

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Speaker 1: was popular at the time. Yes, and they got their

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Speaker 1: hunting skills. They got all their schooling skills down and

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Speaker 1: I was sort of cute I'm sure it wasn't exactly

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Speaker 1: cute back then, but it's cute to me to read

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Speaker 1: about it. They would use wooden swords and lances to

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Speaker 1: practice combats. It isn't that just kind of adorable, little page,

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Speaker 1: little cute little page boy haircut out there with his

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Speaker 1: wooden sword a big strong night one day. I think

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Speaker 1: it's sweet. Anyway, Once they turned fourteen, the page became

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Speaker 1: an esquire or squire, and um, in order to mark

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Speaker 1: this passage, there was a religious ceremony and he would

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Speaker 1: take a consecrated sword and he would promise to use

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Speaker 1: it for honorable purposes. And this is all very sword

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Speaker 1: in the stone to me, you know, I can see

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Speaker 1: this happening, little warts and taking his sword from the stone,

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Speaker 1: and the squire is actually on such a literary geek.

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Speaker 1: But the squire is actually the second one I believe

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Speaker 1: died in the Canary Tales prologue, and she gets it

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Speaker 1: goes to show how UM using this this system of

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Speaker 1: the page to the squire of the night is. It

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Speaker 1: was very respected, yeah, and and very much instilled and

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Speaker 1: the common mentality and how people conceived of the order

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Speaker 1: of their lands. So the squire had a couple of

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Speaker 1: different types of positions that he could fill during his

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Speaker 1: training and Um, in addition to these positions, he was

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Speaker 1: learning social etiquette and behavior as well as martial arts

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Speaker 1: and um, there are I've got to tell you guys

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Speaker 1: about these positions because they just they tickled me. A

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Speaker 1: couple in particular. There is a squire of body who

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Speaker 1: was a personal servant to a night or a lady.

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Speaker 1: The Squire of the chamber also the chamberlain was another

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Speaker 1: name for that, and he attended to the rooms in

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Speaker 1: a castle. This is one of my favorite. The table

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Speaker 1: or carving squire was in charge of carving meat and

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Speaker 1: waiting on banquet tables. So really sort of aware, that's

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Speaker 1: what it sounds like. Yeah, I kind of reminds me

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Speaker 1: for of the fraternity hazing sort of situations. Yes, I'll

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Speaker 1: have to ask Steward about that one later. Um. Squire

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Speaker 1: of wines who managed the wine cellar not a bad position.

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Speaker 1: Um at least, may the say Squire of pantry who

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Speaker 1: stocked the pantry, managed supplies for the home, Squire of

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Speaker 1: Arms who maintained armor and weapons, And the Squire of

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Speaker 1: Honor who helped in ceremonies and feasts, and if you're

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Speaker 1: like me, you're thinking that some sound a little bit

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Speaker 1: more prestigious than others. So I'm wondering, honestly, if there

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Speaker 1: was some sort of ranking system or depending on how

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Speaker 1: well they performed just pages that determined whether they got

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Speaker 1: to be a squire of body or or a meat squire. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's true, although I think no matter what position you

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Speaker 1: were at, you were kind of can't wait until you

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Speaker 1: turned twenty one. And uh, at the time, it wasn't

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Speaker 1: about alcohol, but about being dubbed a knight. This was

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Speaker 1: about the time that you would sometimes actually if squires,

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Speaker 1: if there was a war going on, they went to

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Speaker 1: go fight, they would serve their um their night in battle,

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Speaker 1: and if they did something particularly heroic, they could be

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Speaker 1: actually dubbed on on the battlefield. But usually, uh, once

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Speaker 1: a night turned twenty one, back at home, they would,

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Speaker 1: uh they would be dubbed officially in sort of this

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Speaker 1: elaborate ceremony. You know. It often accompanied another big ceremony

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Speaker 1: like a wedding or even I think Christmas or Easter

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Speaker 1: feast day. Yeah, and so um it would be a

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Speaker 1: major part of it. And uh, you can tell by

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Speaker 1: the fact that they had these this ritual they went

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Speaker 1: through the night. Before the boy would go have a

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Speaker 1: ritual bath, they would have an all night prayer vigil.

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Speaker 1: And then the next day when they went to go

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Speaker 1: get dubbed, they would have to swear this oath where

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Speaker 1: they were devoted to the Church, they were loyal to

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Speaker 1: their lord, they defended a lady, etcetera, etcetera, and some

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Speaker 1: of these other ETCeteras. Again, I just it's just so

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Speaker 1: fun reading about night history. You know, whether you are

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Speaker 1: a meat squire or whatever. Parts of this oath were

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Speaker 1: really humorous, or at least to me today. They had

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Speaker 1: to um in addition to defending ladies and being loyal

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Speaker 1: to their lords and to the church, they had to

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Speaker 1: be brave. They had to promise that they were going

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Speaker 1: to take off their armor only when they were sleeping

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Speaker 1: on They would vow never to avoid danger because they

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Speaker 1: were afraid. They had to be on time, which is

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Speaker 1: just good sent to really. And another one is that

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Speaker 1: whenever the Night returned home, he would have to share

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Speaker 1: and tell about his escapades and talk about being a

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Speaker 1: literary geek. That's got the wheels in my mind turning.

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Speaker 1: I was like, huh, well, I wonder if this is

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Speaker 1: why the you know, oral tradition of of Nights stories

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Speaker 1: is so alive, and wow, there must have been a

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Speaker 1: lot of Nights stories going around if you were required

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Speaker 1: to tell someone about it. Yeah, And another one I

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Speaker 1: found interesting actually in the little details, was that if

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Speaker 1: a Night was taken prisoner, he would have to surrender

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Speaker 1: peaceably after he was really taken, and he wouldn't be

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Speaker 1: allowed to fight his captors again until he got their permission,

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Speaker 1: which I found really interesting. You would expect, you know,

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Speaker 1: if you were taken prisoner, that you would try your

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Speaker 1: best to fight your way out of it. So there's

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Speaker 1: an interesting code that this, oh, this oath that they

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Speaker 1: had to take, and you can imagine if every single

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Speaker 1: Night is good enough to uphold the code, then things

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Speaker 1: must have been you know, pretty sivels around there, and

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Speaker 1: people wanted to have you know, been really proper and

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Speaker 1: kind of one in one another at it seems like

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Speaker 1: every now and then there's there's a bad apple that

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Speaker 1: gets through, and bad Nights must have come along and

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Speaker 1: done things like stalling another's armor or challenged him to

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Speaker 1: a duel, and it was sort of two on one

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Speaker 1: instead of you know, one on one as the action

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Speaker 1: was supposed to be. So yeah, and it's interesting, I mean,

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Speaker 1: most people associate this whole oath with what is now

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Speaker 1: known as chivalry. I mean, if you don't sort of

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Speaker 1: just talk about how opening up a car door is chivalrous,

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Speaker 1: But actually the term originally originally came back to just

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Speaker 1: meaning good horsemanship, which I found really interesting. Another source

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Speaker 1: I found said that it meant just playing tenure of

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Speaker 1: land at all, and that sort of made sense to

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Speaker 1: me in terms of the word gentleman, which you know,

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Speaker 1: has a similar evolution and how we think of it

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Speaker 1: think of it today. You know, gentlemen are people who

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Speaker 1: open doors for ladies, but back then, uh, gentleman was

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Speaker 1: just sort of someone who owned lander property. So it's

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Speaker 1: just interesting to look at the evolution of what these

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Speaker 1: terms mean today and what they meant back then. Definitely,

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Speaker 1: I think that the anymalogy of of the world um

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Speaker 1: definitely sheds light on what the knights did and how

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Speaker 1: the tradition continues today, even though there weren't exactly medieval

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Speaker 1: warriors prancing around modern day England. But at this point

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Speaker 1: the knight was officially called a sir and he could

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Speaker 1: own land and hire his own soldiers. And you may

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Speaker 1: be wondering, well, what did a knight do when there

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Speaker 1: weren't any battles to fight in, And the answer is

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Speaker 1: pretty simple. They participated in tournaments, said that their skills

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Speaker 1: didn't go to waste, and it's right. And um, one

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Speaker 1: of my favorite I think is jails. Oh yeah, definitely.

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Speaker 1: I'm from Maryland. The case he didn't know and jaelsting

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Speaker 1: is actually our official sport. I don't know how that happened,

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Speaker 1: but but it's very bizarre, but I mean, I love

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Speaker 1: it and jousting. If you've ever seen something like a

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Speaker 1: night's sale, obviously, uh with heath Ledger, it was sort

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Speaker 1: of always it was a one on one thing where

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Speaker 1: knights would go up against each other mounted on horses

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Speaker 1: and they would basically rush at each other with long,

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Speaker 1: dull headed lances, and so they would keep them out

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Speaker 1: in front of them so that they would try to

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Speaker 1: hit the other person as they went by, and you

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Speaker 1: win about through about three lances, and you would get

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Speaker 1: points based on if you broke your lance on the

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Speaker 1: other person where it hit, etcetera. And after three lances

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Speaker 1: they would get off and start fighting if they wanted

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Speaker 1: to with swords actually, and the Church I guess was

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Speaker 1: okay with jausting because it was not quite as dangerous

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Speaker 1: as another popular tournament, and that was the melee, and

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Speaker 1: that was sort of a free for all battle. Imagine

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Speaker 1: a really big group of nights and um, you're in

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Speaker 1: this big huddle of nights and you eyeball a competitor.

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Speaker 1: You choose one other person, you start fighting wance. You

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Speaker 1: defeat that person and he's down, either he's down dead

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Speaker 1: or he's down passed out. You move on to the

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Speaker 1: next person. So it's a one on one fight, but

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Speaker 1: in the context of a larger group and the premises

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Speaker 1: last man standing winds and the Church really did not

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Speaker 1: like this one makes a lot of people really did die,

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Speaker 1: and I just you know, for the sake of entertainment,

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Speaker 1: just seemed rather controversial. So and also, you know, from

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Speaker 1: my modern perspective, it doesn't seem very shivalrous to us

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Speaker 1: perform like this in front of a lady you were

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Speaker 1: trying to impress by killing other people. That's alas I

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Speaker 1: have an anachronistic point of years, so I could see

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Speaker 1: that although um, one advantage to fighting these games is

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Speaker 1: that you couldn't make a lot of money. That was

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Speaker 1: one motivation that they had, in addition to like getting

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Speaker 1: honor and practicing your skills. But they could actually get

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Speaker 1: money by the fact, at least in jousting, when someone lost,

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Speaker 1: they had to turn over their horse and their armor

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Speaker 1: to the winner, and they could buy back those things

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Speaker 1: from the winner. And so the if you were a

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Speaker 1: common winner you were good at jousting, you could make

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Speaker 1: a good load of money. And that was good years

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Speaker 1: because all of your nightly accouterments were rather expensive, particularly armor.

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Speaker 1: And when armor originated, it was back in ancient room

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Speaker 1: and they actually used leather, and leather was very expensive

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Speaker 1: to use, you know, as a full body protective covering,

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Speaker 1: but it was malleable, so it was really cool because

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Speaker 1: you could shape that and then you boil it and

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Speaker 1: water oil and it hardens in place, and you've got

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Speaker 1: something that very resistant to all sorts of points and

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Speaker 1: tips and piercings coming at you. And um, so the

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Speaker 1: middle aged nights use leather's armor, and then I continue

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Speaker 1: to evolve into um chain mail, for instance, that was

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Speaker 1: another Roman idea originally, and these were small interwoven steel

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Speaker 1: rings and there were two predominant types. One was butted mail,

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Speaker 1: where the rings were really really close together, and the

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Speaker 1: other was riveted mail, where the rings were actually connected

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Speaker 1: with rivets. And this was chaper than armor, but unlike

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Speaker 1: armor and leather armor, it was really vulnerable to piercings

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Speaker 1: and it was pretty heavy too. And it's funny slip

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Speaker 1: back at part of the training for becoming a night

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Speaker 1: was that you would practice walking around wearing chain mail,

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Speaker 1: so you're gladdy. You get used to the way, sort

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Speaker 1: of like today, I think that there's some military personnel

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Speaker 1: who trained with their backpacks on their gear, or you know,

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Speaker 1: if you're going to hike the Appalachian Trail, you probabice

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Speaker 1: walking around with your packs. You get used to the weights. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that makes sense. And it's interesting to see how armor

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Speaker 1: changes as um weapons change as they advance, because you know,

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Speaker 1: you look at whate sorry, leather and um chain mail

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Speaker 1: like you're saying canvas, and they are you know, they

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Speaker 1: do protect against cuts and scrapes. But when you know,

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Speaker 1: people started developing crossbows, for instance, this would not protect

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Speaker 1: them and so they had to start turning to more

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Speaker 1: solid metal pieces of armor. And so you know, these

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Speaker 1: solid metal pieces. They're so difficult. Sometimes they heard that

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Speaker 1: they weighed up to sixty pounds. They were super hot. Uh,

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Speaker 1: they would often take an hour to put on. Need

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Speaker 1: help to do that. On top of it, as weapons

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Speaker 1: advanced even further, you see, uh the introduction of gunpowder.

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Speaker 1: They finally made its way from from Asia to Europe.

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Speaker 1: And once that was introduced, it was like, what's the

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Speaker 1: point anymore? Imer point? But the funny thing about armor

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Speaker 1: too is that it really didn't protect your entire body,

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Speaker 1: so you had to wear chain me all, especially in

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Speaker 1: places like your under arms and where your joints came together,

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Speaker 1: like your knees, so that you had some protection there

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Speaker 1: because the plates didn't fit that tightly. And contrary to

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Speaker 1: popular belief, it wasn't too hard to move around in

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Speaker 1: Like you weren't stiff, it was just really heavy. That

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Speaker 1: would have been the challenge. I can see that. And

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Speaker 1: so nights continued to serve you out throughout the Middle

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Speaker 1: Ages and throughout medieval Europe, you know, under the feudal system.

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Speaker 1: And then they actually served um a more I guess

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Speaker 1: national or international relay since Europe at this point was

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Speaker 1: breaking apart into different nations. Purpose and that was protecting

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Speaker 1: pilgrims who were traveling to the Holy Land during the

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Speaker 1: Crusade and caring for sick pilgrims and um. These are

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Speaker 1: are groups like the Knights Templar and the Knights hospital

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Speaker 1: Ers and the Teutonic Knights. These still exist today as

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Speaker 1: cherishable societies. Yeah, it's interesting. One of the most beloved

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Speaker 1: orders of Knights was actually the Templars candas mentioned, and

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Speaker 1: this is one unlike the others, that doesn't exist today,

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Speaker 1: And it wasn't really interesting story because they were beloved

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Speaker 1: at the time. Give you some background on it. They

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Speaker 1: were founded about the eleven hundreds, like you said, to

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Speaker 1: protect pilgrims going to the Holy Land at the time. Um,

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Speaker 1: And if you listen to our Crusades podcast you know

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Speaker 1: more about why they're doing that. So what was interesting

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Speaker 1: about this order in other orders like it, was that

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Speaker 1: it was both a military uh sort of purpose and

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Speaker 1: they were religious men. It was basically religious order where

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Speaker 1: they were monks and they were supposed to live a

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Speaker 1: modest life, and they didn't always do that. They they,

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Speaker 1: like other orders, got proud and greedy, and so there's

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Speaker 1: lots of controversy around them. All the time, but this

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Speaker 1: particular order got accused in the early fourteenth century. I

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Speaker 1: believe of um lots of abuses in terms of UM,

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Speaker 1: both monetary abuses like they were mishandling charity that they got, etcetera, etcetera,

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Speaker 1: but people who are also upset that they were heretics,

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Speaker 1: that they weren't holding mass correctly, that they were actually

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Speaker 1: worshiping idols, and there was homosexual behavior going on between

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Speaker 1: them as well, which the Church would not have liked.

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Speaker 1: So at this time, it was actually the king, King

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Speaker 1: Philip the fourth of France who really had um had

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Speaker 1: his eye out on on them and wanted them to

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Speaker 1: be taken out and um. Recent documents released by the

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Speaker 1: Vatican actually a couple of years ago, it's very interesting

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Speaker 1: show that the Pope at the time actually absolved them

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Speaker 1: of their charges and didn't he didn't believe that they

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Speaker 1: were heretics. But the King Philip of France UM supposedly

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Speaker 1: owed them a lot of money, and that's really why

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Speaker 1: they wanted him. They wanted he wanted the whole order gone,

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Speaker 1: and so they were tried, they were tortured, and they're

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Speaker 1: eventually burned at the stake. And it's really sad, mysterious story. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that is. It's really haunting, especially if you think about

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Speaker 1: all the hard work that goes into becoming a knight

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Speaker 1: and you know how you do Valie to uphold this oath.

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Speaker 1: And I'm sure that once you sort of developed into

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Speaker 1: your own separate order of Night, you have an entirely

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Speaker 1: different code of ethics that you're also upholdings, and so so

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Speaker 1: it seems like you would have to be really committed

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Speaker 1: to uphold all of these principles. And I'm sure it

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Speaker 1: must have been very hard on the group when they

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Speaker 1: were when they were taken apart, and you know, even

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Speaker 1: harder when they were executed. But that's another point. So today,

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Speaker 1: um if you're not a member of one of the

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Speaker 1: charity groups that originated in these different orders of Nights,

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Speaker 1: you might be able to attain night hud by two

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Speaker 1: different means, one of which is a martial arts achievement.

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Speaker 1: And almost like if you were to practice crowd or

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Speaker 1: another form of martial arts that originated in um Asia,

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Speaker 1: you'd be given different colors of belts for the level

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Speaker 1: of martial arts that that you attain, and the same

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Speaker 1: is true in different schools around England where um and

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Speaker 1: around other parts of Europe to where you can earn

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Speaker 1: recognition for demonstrations and you may be asked to perform

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Speaker 1: a different affairs and festivals to show your prowess. And

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Speaker 1: the other way you can become a night is a

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Speaker 1: member of Royalty bestows that honor upon you. And it's

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Speaker 1: so fun to see the different people who come up

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Speaker 1: for nighthood, be they oh, gosh, someone who's made a

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Speaker 1: contribution to the business world, or the political world, or

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Speaker 1: the music world, like Sir Elton John and I think

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Speaker 1: he's my favorite nighte if I can say, gosh, I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna stick up for Alton with little kicky sunglasses and

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Speaker 1: carrying gosh. I just love him so. And they're a

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Speaker 1: member of the Order of the Garter, which I found

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Speaker 1: really interesting that this was one of the original orders.

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Speaker 1: It was established at least in thirteen forty six. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you might be wondering whether called the Order of the Garter.

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Speaker 1: It is an interesting name and one source I found

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Speaker 1: said that the theory is that Edward the Third, who

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Speaker 1: started the Order, was really interested in the Arthur's round

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Speaker 1: Table and that whole legend. He wanted to revive it

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Speaker 1: and he chose a name because of embarrassing incident where

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Speaker 1: Edward was at a party and he was dancing with

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Speaker 1: a girl and the girl actually lost her garter and

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Speaker 1: fell on the floor, and in order to quell the

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Speaker 1: sort of embarrassment, he put it on his leg and

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Speaker 1: he said, shame to him who thinks evil of it.

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Speaker 1: So this sort of idea, you know, don't think evil

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Speaker 1: of others. Um, he was really proud of and that's

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Speaker 1: why he named it the Order of the Garter. How

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Speaker 1: about that? That's the sweet story. I like that. So

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Speaker 1: clearly there are a lot of different tales and legends

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Speaker 1: surrounding the Order of Knights, and many more nights specifically

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Speaker 1: for you to learn about, so be sure to read

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Speaker 1: all about knights and castles and maybe even article on

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Speaker 1: dragons on how stuff works dot com. For more on

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Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works

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Speaker 1: dot com. Let us know what you think, Send an

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Speaker 1: email to podcast at how stuff works dot com. M