

Then the king would use that money to pay soldiers to fight. By the end of the Middle Ages, many knights paid the king money instead of fighting.They could become quite rich with the loot they gained from ransacking a city or town. Knights often fought for the rights to pillage.Interesting Facts about Knights from the Middle Ages This made it much easier to arm a soldier and pay for a standing army. Battle tactics and new weapons such as longbows and firearms made the heavy armor the knights wore cumbersome and useless. The other reason was a change in warfare. They no longer needed lords to come fight as knights. One reason was that many countries had formed their own standing armies. It was founded by King Edward III of England in 1348 and is considered one of the highest orders of knighthood in the United Kingdom.īy the end of the Middle Ages, the knight was no longer an important part of the army. One of the most famous of these orders is the Order of the Garter. These orders were meant to imitate the military orders, but were formed after the Crusades. They became very powerful until they were defeated in 1410 by the Polish at the Battle of Tannenberg. After fighting in the Crusades, the Teutonic Knights began a conquest of Prussia. They wore black clothing with a white cross on the shoulder. The Teutonic Knights - The Teutonic Knights were German knights that were once part of the Hospitallers.After the fall of Jerusalem they moved to the island of Rhodes and to Malta. These knights wore black clothing with a white cross. During the Crusades they defended the Holy Land from the Muslims. They were formed to protect poor and sick pilgrims in the Holy Land.


They formed orders that fought in the Crusades. Some knights decided to pledge themselves to defending the Christian faith. If you were a son born into the family of a knight, you generally became a knight as well. This practice caught on through much of Europe and became standard practice for many kings for the next 700 years. In return for the land, the knights agreed to fight for the king whenever he called. These soldiers became a very important part of his army.Ĭharlemagne began to award his best knights with land called "benefices". In order to fight battles across his large empire, Charlemagne began to use soldiers on horseback. The first knights of the Middle Ages fought for Charlemagne, the King of the Franks, in the 700s.
