(#8) Knights Always Pledged Themselves To And Supported A Lord Or King
The Trope: The chivalrous knight is devoted to a liege lord and shows fidelity by protecting him, undertaking quests on his behalf, or enacting vengeance to honor his memory.
Why Is It Inaccurate?: Knights didn't always remain bound to a lord or king. Some knights belonged to independent religious orders, including the Knights Hospitaller or the Knights Templar. Others enlisted themselves to mercenary companies. Medieval knights sometimes rebelled against regal authority, such as when Sir Henry "Hotspur" Percy took up arms against King Henry IV of England in 1403.
Notable Offenses: Films, such as First Knight, Prince Valiant, Last Knights, and Ivanhoe, and television shows idealize the relationship between a knight and his liege lord.
(#10) Knights Wore Shining Plate Armor And Large Metal Shields
The Trope: Knights in shining armor - it's an image that conjures up noble horsemen wearing plates of armor that gleamed in the sunlight. The problem? It's bunk.
Why Is It Inaccurate?: Plate armor wasn't in use until the 14th and 15th centuries. For centuries before that, medieval knights relied on various forms of armor, including chain mail and leather. Similarly, knights' shields wouldn't have gleamed in the sunlight, either, as most were wooden.
Notable Offenders: The image of knights in shining armor has more to do with fiction, including medieval romances, than it does with the historical medieval world. Everything from Disney films to faux-medieval fantasy epics like The Lord of the Rings and video games like Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, Medieval II: Total War, and Dark Souls has deployed this trope in different ways.
(#4) Knights Would Spin Around While Dueling And Blindly Slash At Their Opponents
The Trope: Medieval knights fought duels with a flourish.
Why Is It Inaccurate?: Since duels were draining, knights would not have wasted precious energy on acrobatics. Duels were a means for knights to settle personal and legal disputes and display their prowess. Indeed, knights were skilled, trained fighters: The emphasis was on aggressive, rather than defensive, moves. Duels also involved bloody hand-to-hand combat.
Notable Offenders: Though the television series Game of Thrones is fantasy, it draws from the medieval world - but that doesn't mean it's accurate. For example, Oberyn Martell's high-flying theatrics during a duel bear little resemblance to how European knights actually fought. On the other end of the spectrum, the History Channel's Knight Fight is more interested in brawls than demonstrating the masterful skill that medieval knights would have honed during their many years of training - the show wrongly presents knights as unskilled brutes.
(#9) Knights Won't Do Anything That Opposes Their Code Of Chivalry
The Trope: Valorous knights always uphold a code of chivalry that requires them to act honorably and loyally in all that they do.
Why Is It Inaccurate?: The code of chivalry first emerged as a means of curbing and reforming ruthless and brutish warriors. As a code meant to shape the behavior of elites, chivalry encouraged knights to act ethically, honorably, and morally. But chivalry was more often an ideal rather than a reality. Warfare inherently demanded mayhem, and knights slayed innocents, like when Edward, Prince of Wales, laid siege to Limoges and massacred the city's residents. Knights sometimes committed sexual offenses, too, such as when the French noblewoman Marguerite de Carrouges accused the knight Jacques LeGris of forcing himself on her.
Notable Offenders: Medieval stories about knights - like Chrétien de Troyes's 12th-century text Lancelot, Or the Knight of the Cart - often centered on the tension between a knight's personal desires and his chivalric oath. Modern fiction takes up this mantle in series and films such as Knightfall, First Knight, Camelot, and Tristan and Isolde, which was based on a medieval story.
(#7) Knights Would Take Off Helmets In Conflict Or During A Joust - And Nothing Would Be Underneath It
The Trope: Either in the heat of a clash or a joust, knights donning full armor remove their helmets only to reveal that they aren't wearing proper headgear.
Why Is It Inaccurate?: Firstly, it would be a terrible idea for any knight to remove their helmet in the heat of a clash or even for a joust. They are the only means of protection for one of the most vulnerable parts of the human body. Helmets remained an important piece of armor even when full-plate body armor became obsolete. Under the helmet, knights' chain mail didn't stop at their necks. Their coats also included a hood. Knights wore a layer of fabric as a padded cap between their head and the helmet. The padding further protected a knight's head by cushioning any blows he might receive. In the 14th century, some knights even wore a smaller helmet under their great helm called a basinet. Between the basinet and the great helm, knights would also wear a cloth wreath called an orle to prevent the two helmets from hitting one another. Not having those multiple layers would have been at the very least uncomfortable, but also unnecessarily dangerous in the worst case scenario.
Notable Offenders: In A Knight's Tale, Will takes off his helmet (as well as his whole suit of armor) for the final joust. Furthermore, characters in A Knight's Tale don't always have mail or fabric between their helmet and head. William Wallace, who was a Scottish knight, and his men in Braveheart don't just lack proper knightly headgear; they are woefully, inaccurately dressed for conflict. Wallace would never have fought in a tartan kilt, since they didn't exist for another couple of centuries. In Kingdom of Heaven, Balian isn't wearing any form of head protection for the entire siege of Jerusalem.
(#12) Knights Thought Peasants Were Disposable
The Trope: Arrogant knights slay, injure, and victimize peasants without a second thought.
Why Is It Inaccurate?: Peasants certainly suffered under the politics, power struggles, and conflicts of the nobility. Indeed, knights sometimes offed peasants and generally looked down on them. But at the same time, disposing of peasants wouldn't have been in knights' best interest. Like other nobles, knights depended on peasants for income, whether through taxes or by working their land.
Notable Offenders: Modern adaptations of the Robin Hood story, including 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood and 1991's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, emphasize tensions and inequalities between nobles and peasants. Monty Python and the Holy Grail satirizes the view of medieval peasants as filthy urchins.
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About This Tool
Speaking of the Middle Ages, many people always think of castles, banquets, churches, the Black Death, and poor peasants. However, the most exciting symbol of the Middle Ages may be the knight. These knights are often portrayed as heroes in movies or novels, wearing sharp swords and shiny armor. The great reason those medieval knights are respected is that they have always been the core on the battlefield before gunpowder was introduced to Europe, at least in legends and literary works.
This random tool shares the 13 most surprising facts about medieval knights to reveal the truth that most people don't know.
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