My Life As A Knight English Literature Essay

I am a valiant knight of the Late Middle Ages. I am a knight who is generally secular, and only a little religious. I was born of royalty as the son of a noble, so I could become a knight. When I was eight years old, I was sent to train and became a page at the neighboring castle of the lord. I learned how to fight with weapons such as a spear and a sword, and trained myself by wrestling, riding horses, and with the wooden dummy quintain, etc. I was also taught Latin, rules of the court, chivalry, music, and how to read and write. Then when I was fifteen years old, I became a squire. I was serving the knight called Sir William, I dressed him in the morning, served his meals, took care of his horse, and cleaned his armor and weapons, etc. I followed him and helped his lord on the battleground. I learned more about horsemanship, combat and weapons such as using the lance and the sword for horse mounted combat. Then when I was twenty years old, I proved myself worthy and was knighted by a lord through the dubbing ceremony.

I wore a white tunic and red robes on the night before the ceremony, and prayed all night to purify my soul. The chaplain blessed my future knight’s sword and then put it on the chapel’s altar. I showed I was pure by taking a bath and wore my best clothes before dawn. During dawn, I made a confession (a Catholic contrition rite) in front of the priest. When the dubbing ceremony began, I knelt in front of the lord, as he used my sword to tap me lightly on each of my shoulder and declared me as a knight. Then there was a big feast with singing and dancing, which marked the beginning of my life as a knight.

I am very wealthy, so I could afford armor, shields, weapons, and even a warhorse, which made me almost invincible like the modern tank to easily defeat foot soldiers and archers. My metal plate armor covered my whole body, it weighed only 25 kg because it was well made of tempered steel. The parts of the plate armor that covered my legs and feet are the Sabatons, greaves, poleyns, cuisses, etc. The parts that covered my arms and hands are the besagues, rerebrace, vambrace, and gauntlets. The parts that covered my body are the chest armor, (breast plate), back armor, and faulds. The parts that covered my head are the visor and gorget, etc. My small shield was made of metal to protect me. The sword and the lance were my main weapons, and the knife or dagger was the substitute. But sometimes I would also use my warhammer, mace, axe, halberd, poleaxe, and flail, etc. My war horse is a destrier, the most well-known war horse, and I equipped it with mail armor, or barding, to protect it. I also equipped my war horse with the iron horse shoe to ride over any terrain, the stirrup to increase my horsemanship, and the war saddle to lock me into position while riding my war horse.

I believed in the code of conduct called chivalry and I had to follow a set of rules to protect the weak, to never lie, be courteous to women, be brave, obey and be loyal to the king and lord, protect the lord and his land and people, etc. But I didn’t obey many of the rules, such as not showing mercy to defeated enemy as I was a man of war, and rape young peasant women because I was of upper-class. I wasn’t the firstborn son of my family, so I looted village and cities I captured, as I didn’t receive the inheritance of lands, etc. The weak I had to protect was not referring to peasants, but only until the noble women and children, so I was harsh to common folk.

The feudal system controlled my role. I provided military service to my lord and king, and in return I received loots, wealth and land grants called fiefs. I guarded my lord’s castle and his people, served forty days each year to fight in wars for the king, and administer justice and the law’s rule to his subjects. From this, I could also gain honor and status. I had my own manor from the fiefs I received, and thus I became the lord of my own manor. In my manor, I had many servants, peasants, and men-at-arms, etc. While I wasn’t needed in battle, I governed and oversaw my manor and its villages. The peasants will work and farm in my manor to give me a firm income. On my manor, I trained myself and my men-at-arms to fight, and protected my manor and my peasants, etc.

Every day, I constantly trained myself. I often went to the tournaments to act chivalrous, strengthen myself and for training during times of peace. Jousting, archery, and combat with weapons were some forms of combat at the tournaments. I often got injured badly during the tournaments, and there are many other knights who died too.