Knights and Castles

Knights

Knights were armoured soldiers. They existed during the Middle Ages. Some knights rode on horseback, and some travelled on foot.

Knights had many different weapons, including swords, lances, and spears. A lance was a large spear. Knights held it on horseback while they charged, knocking the enemy off their horses. Knights also had large shields. When the knights had their armour on, it was hard to recognise them. So knights had a special pattern on their shields called a coat of arms. Each knight had a different coat of arms. This way, it was easier to tell who the knight was.

Knights had a large suit of armour, which consisted of metal plates and chain mail. Chain mail is a suit made out of tiny metal rings.

The road to becoming a knight took many years. If a boy wanted to become a knight, his father would send him to a nearby castle when he was seven. He was called a page. While he was a page, he served the lord and lady of the castle and learned manners.

After a few years, the page might become a squire. A squire was the helper of a knight. He was expected to follow the knight into battle and assist him. If a squire served his knight faithfully and well, he would become a knight. He would get a suit of armour and a sword. Before he got knighted, he would spend the entire night in prayer.

A knight would be knighted by the lord of the castle. To knight him, the lord would lightly hit him on the shoulders with the flat side of a sword.

Castles

Castles were the fortresses of the Middle Ages. They had walls about 20 feet high. Some of the castles were surrounded by a moat. A moat was a large ditch filled with water. A large bridge called a drawbridge allowed people to enter and exit the castle. When the drawbridge was not needed, it was raised by chains.

Castles were very difficult to attack, because of the thick walls. Along the walls were small slits that archers could fire their arrows through. The top of the walls were made in a zig-zag pattern, so that the archers could take shelter behind the higher sections of the wall and shoot arrows over the lower sections.

The enemy attempted to get over the walls using ladders. The defending forces would shoot arrows and throw spears at them as they climbed up the ladders. Sometimes hot tar would be dumped on them.

Another way of getting past the walls would be to dig under them until they collapsed. Soldiers doing this would be protected from falling stones by a huge shield.

Under the castle was the dungeon, where prisoners were kept. Castles were not very comfortable places to live in. After the invention of gunpowder, castles were useless. Cannonballs could easily make large gaps in the walls of a castle. The remains of many castles can still be seen today.