Castles, knights and tournaments

• Geschiedenis
• Middelbare school
• mavo
• Leerjaar 1

Knights, ladies and tournaments

Lesson plan

Video	5 min
Castles, knights & tournaments	15 min
Break	4 min
Explore the Padlet and/or	10 min
Draw your summary	10 min
Closing	5 min

What exactly is a knight?

Knight

Comes from 'knecht' 

(the Dutch word 'ridder' comes from 'rijder')

Warriors who had enough money to pay for weapons, armour and a horse

Knights were supposed to...

• stick to a moral code
•  protect the helpless
•  honour women
•  show courage, bravery and mercy
•  go fight for their lord or king

The Franks probably started with some sort of tournaments

There was the tournament - with two groups of mounted knights (knights on horseback, fighting each other)

And the joust:  a one on one duel between two knights on horseback, using lances

The greatest

Sir William Marshal

(1146-1219)

undefeated in tournaments

in 16 years of competition

19.000 line poem about his life

Entering the tournament of Le Mans in France in 1167 CE, the young knight exceeded all expectations in the mêlée, a sort of mock cavalry battle where knights had to capture each other for a ransom agreed on before the match. William did so well he now owned four and a half horses (presumably he captured a similarly cash-strapped opponent unable to pay the whole ransom or perhaps it was a joint capture). William then carried on touring, and winning, at tournaments over the next year, usually in a profitable partnership with the Flemish knight, Roger de Gaugi. There were occasional setbacks such as when William's helmet was so bashed by opposing knights he needed a blacksmith to remove it but, capturing an impressive 103 knights in all, Marshal racked up a fortune in ransom money and cash prizes. The legend of William Marshal was up and running and, over the next 16 years of competition, he would remain undefeated. On his deathbed years later, William claimed to have personally captured 500 knights in his tournament career.

What about the women?

Holy or not to be trusted

But there were some remarkable women:

* Eleanor of Aquitaine

(Duchess, queen of France and then queen of England)

* Christine de Pisan

(First female writer)

1: wooden fence surrounding a camp, sometimes with a wooden tower

Later, they would build the castle on a natural or artificial hill (a motte)

2: permanent stone tower - the keep

3: stone wall around the keep, a moat around the wall with a draw bridge

4: fortified gatehouse to protect the gate and drawbridge etc

More and more buildings at the courtyard - workshops, stables , a chapel, accommodation etc

Even pauze

als je wil...

padlet.com

Draw your own summary

• what do you remember about this lesson?
• what do you think is most important?
• what interested you most?