 "A knight is
a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by
a head
of state (including the pope)
or representative for service to the monarch, the
church, or the country, especially in a military
capacity. The concept of knighthood may have been
inspired by the ancient Greek hippeis (ἱππεῖς)
and Roman equites.[3] In
the Early
Middle Ages in Western
Christian Europe, knighthood was
conferred upon mounted warriors.[4] During
the High
Middle Ages, knighthood was considered a class
of petty
nobility. By the Late
Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with
the ideals of chivalry,
a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian
warrior. Often, a knight was a vassal who
served as an elite fighter or a bodyguard for a
lord, with payment in the form of land holdings. The
lords trusted the knights, who were skilled in battle
on horseback. In the Middle Ages, knighthood was
closely linked with horsemanship (and especially the joust)
from its origins in the 12th century until its final
flowering as a fashion among the high
nobility in the Duchy
of Burgundy in the 15th century.
This linkage is reflected in the etymology of chivalry, cavalier,
and related terms such as the French title of chevalier.
In that sense, the special prestige accorded to
mounted warriors in Christendom finds
a parallel in the furusiyya in
the Islamic
world. The Crusades brought
various military
orders of knights to the forefront
of defending Christian
pilgrims traveling to the Holy
Land." Source
Knight
Wikipedia
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