Terry Jones' Medieval Lives

The Knight (1x5)

: 08, 2004

Terry begins by explaining that the common perception of the knight may in fact be historically inaccurate. William the Bastard (later known as William the Conqueror) conquered England in 1066. His followers, called 'cnihts' gained land and property in exchange for military service. Any group of men chosen for their ability to beat things and not much else tends to have discipline problems, though, so a code of conduct was necessary to set in place. This became known as 'chivalry'. The church stepped in as well. Churches were often the victims of the knights' looting, so they began stating that the code of chivalry should list priorities for the knight; faith, lord, women, widows, and orphans (in that order). Even the king got into the act. King Edward III had the desire of creating a modern Camelot, and wanted to set up a round table consisting of 300 knights. Logically, of course, this wouldn't work out. So he created two tournament teams of 13 knights each, headquartered in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle which still exists today.