The Medieval Knight

In this unit, we'll explore the ideal of the medieval knight.  One traditional view of when feudal knighthood originated is during the reign of Charles Martel, as some historians argue that he had greater need of cavalry to respond to the  Arab threat. This hypothesis has been challenged and is now known to be inaccurate, as the first Arab cavalries did not arrive until at least eight years after the Battle of Poitiers (Tours). 

Feudal society was essentially a creation of Charlemagne and his descendents.  One of the most popular legends concerning knighthood was the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable.  This legend, too, evolved over time, from Welsh legends, through the early medieval chronicles of Gildas and Nennius, to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wace, Layamon, and finally to Malory.  The best resource I have for you to explore is my course web site on King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable.  There you can explore all the various forms of the legend and numerous resources.  

There are numerous films on the Arthurian legend, many of which mix primary source accounts from different eras.  Among these films are:

Knights of the Round Table

Perceval slow-moving, but authentic Eric Rohmer film based on the Perceval epic of Chretien de Troyes.

Sword of Lancelot Guinevere rejects Lancelot at the end of the film.  Lancelot is unrepentant about his relationship with Guinevere.

Lancelot du Lac Robert Bresson film which portrays the affair as the reason for the kingdom's downfall, and Lancelot as repentant for his sins. 

Excalibur John Boorman film which mixes just about all the primary source traditions. 

Monty Python and the Holy Grail  perhaps the best overall version of the Arthurian legends, in that it debunks the mystique of Arthur and has him hopping around the countryside on his own two feet.

Merlin explores the various legends behind Merlin. 

We'll also explore the legend of Robin Hood in films such as Robin Hood (Douglas Fairbanks); Robin Hood Prince of Thieves; Adventures of Robin Hood (Errol Flynn); Robin Hood (Patrick Bergin); Robin and Marian (would you believe Sean Connery?); oh, and Men in Tights. 

Robin Hood robbed the rich and gave to the poor, which reflects some of the social conditions and needs of late twelfth-century and early thirteenth-century England.  You might want to explore The Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochester. This site contains all the relevant primary sources.  The Robin Hood page from the Legends site is also a very nice site with links to other useful resources.

Another topic of this unit will be El Cid.  One element of the knightly ideal was the battle against the "infidel." Knight often fought for Holy Mother Church.  This was especially true after  the speech of Urban II at Claremont in 1095, which called for a Crusade against Muslims and argued for the reinvention of the knightly ideal of murder and plunder, as Urban gave knights a way to live what was regarded as many as sinful lives if done in the name of the Church.  Medieval Europeans had little understanding of Muslim culture, and very distorted legends about Islam circulated in medieval Europe.  Medieval legend transformed figures such as Roland, who in  fact died in an ambush by the Christian Basques during the reign of Charlemagne, into heroes who battled Muslims. The knightly fight against the infidel motivated the Crusades. In order to critique the film we will view, you might want to read about El Cid in the Catholic Encyclopedia.  The real El Cid first battled the Moors for King Alfonso of Castille and then later fought with the Moors against Alfonso.  The story is an excellent way to explore the various exchanges between European and Islamic culture in the Middle Ages.  The El Cid page from Legends has links to various resources on the poem of the Cid and the figure himself.  The Lay of the Cid has romanticized much of the story, just as the Song of Roland was pretty far removed from the facts surrounding the defeat of Charlemagne's rear guard.  See Lynn Nelson's Commentary on this poem at her University of Kansas  website.

Another hero who fought against "infidels" was Alexander Nevsky.  We'll view the Eisenstein film, made during the Soviet era.  We'll also listen to Prokofiev's cantata, Alexander Nevsky. During the Crusades, new military orders arose, and Nevsky encountered one group of these, the Teutonic Knights, and defeated them. 

We'll also compare these ideas to Norse ideals, as seen in Die Niebulungen, directed by Fritzt Lange.

The Thirteenth Warrior is another film commentary on the medieval knight and is a film version of Beowulf.

Perhaps the greatest film masterpiece dealing with medieval knighthood is Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal. A knight returns home from the Crusades only to face the personification of Death as it dances through the countryside during the fourteenth century.  The knight must examine the values of his life, and the idyllic life of the countryside as seen through a simple performer and his wife are portrayed as the ideal life.

It is interesting to compare the medieval ideal of knighthood to that of feudal Japan. There are numerous epic films that depict Japanese samurai, including Akira Kurusawa's Seven Samurai and Ran; Samurai I, II, III;  Heaven and Earth; Shogun; Chushingura; The 47 Ronin;

Selected Primary Sources Exemplifying Knightly Ideals

Beowulf

The Song of Roland