Chretien De Troyes' Yvain: Grey Knights

Raymond Rudorff writes extensively of the grim reality of the life of the knights. In his text, The Knights and Their World, we get an interesting perspective on the unglamorous life of medieval knights. For the most part, being a knight was a very precarious position to hold. As a young man the profession may seem to have had some potential, but, as one's physical power waned over time, the situation could become somewhat more complicated:

The simple knights at the bottom of the scale had little or no political power. Their main purpose in life was to fight for their lord. If they were fortunate enough to hold a sub-fief by being granted a portion of some greater knight's lands, they might have a limited authority over a few local peasants and tenant farmers and live in a manor or country house with a rudimentary system of fortifications. . . . From the very beginning of medieval knighthood as a social institution, many impecunious knights were either roving adventurers or mercenaries who fought for pay. (79)

Rudorff further takes the shiny veneer off the knightly life with his fascinating discussion of what combat might have been like for the armed warrior. He states that for the most part, the armed combat of knights was far safer than fighters who fought as footsoldiers or pikemen:

With their defensive armour, the knights were fairly safe against their equally armoured opponents' weapons. Unless they were unfortunate enough to be struck by a stone or arrow (for arrows were occasionally used despite the Church's prohibition) or stabbed, bludgeoned or hacked to pieces by the foot- soldiers in an ambush or scrimmage, the main dangers which a knight faced were of being severely bruised, knocked unconscious by a mace or sword blow, of having a bone or two broken or suffering some superficial cuts? although, of course, he might always be so unlucky as to be despatched out of this world by some lance or well-aimed sword thrust. (89)

When not “unluckily despatched” by an accidental lance skewering or freakishly lucky sword thrust, the knight could have a relatively long professional fighting life. Life as a mercenary-for-hire had benefits but it was not a lifestyle that could be sustained for a long period of time. There were still other avenues that an armed knight could pursue for profit, namely, the tournament.

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