The Ritual of Knighthood

The modern knighthood ceremony in England is nothing like the original. Fortunately, we have the Buke of the Order of Knyghthood by Ramon Llull (1232 - 1315) to give us a detailed explanation of the different stages and their significance. True, there could be a knighting on the battlefield as a reward for service, just as modern armies can have a "field commission" or "battlefield promotion," but the proper service was more involved, and took place in church.

Preferably, a knighting was planned ahead for a feast day, which would bring more people to the church where the service as held, and therefore there were more people who could pray for the success of the new knight. Feast days were more significant in the Middle Ages, and their eve was considered a time for fun and feasting. These activities were not, however, the best start to a new knight, and so the candidate (usually a squire after some years of service as "apprentice" to a knight) was supposed to spend the knight in the church, praying.

After his night of prayer, the squire attends mass, during which there is a moment when he promises to follow the ideals of chivalry. He (and everyone else) then hears a sermon about:

...the fourteen articles upon which the faith is founded, the ten commandments, the seven sacraments of the Holy Church, and the other things that pertain to the faith...

The stress in the sermon is on his behavior as a knight supporting the Church.

After all this, the noble who is going to perform the actual knighting takes the stage. He should embody the highest knightly ideals so that his good qualities inspire the new knight. The squire kneels at the altar and raises his hands and eyes upward to God.

Then comes the "strap and the slap." The noble girds the squire with a sword, he then kisses the squire on the cheek to welcome him into knighthood, and then slaps him hard. "The slap" is a common part of different rituals throughout history. It helps the moment stick in the new knight's mind, it reminds him that he will suffer for his Faith, and has been called the "last blow he will ever receive that he will not defend against."

The new knight then mounts a horse and walks around so that all can see him. The noble who knighted him gives him gifts; the new knight also gives gifts; there is feasting and a tournament.

If you are interested in more from the Buke of the Order of Knyghthood you'll find a translation at the Gutenberg Project. For more on Ramon Llull, come back tomorrow.

The Ritual Slap

In Matthew 5:39, Jesus tells his followers "But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also."

In the ritual of knighthood, after the girding on of the new knight's sword, he receives a hard slap "so that he will remember what he is promising and the great burden he must carry and the great honour he is taking through the Order of Chivalry" (to paraphrase Ramon Llull's Book of the Order of Chivalry).

The blow or slap to the cheek was a part of many rituals.

The kings of Babylon—including Nebuchadnezzar himself—would submit themselves on the fourth day of the Babylonian new year to being struck on the cheek, reminding them of the importance of humility. [link] A priest in the Mesopotamian Akitu festival would slap the king and have him kneel before the statues of the god Marduk, to remind him that the gods are more powerful than kings. [link] 

Some believe Jewish tradition includes a slap at times, with an added "Mazel Tov," as this writer tells. It is a token slap, not hard. Here, however, it is argued that it does not originate in the Torah and should not be considered Jewish tradition. "Official" or not, it still happens, apparently.

Benvenuto Cellini in his autobiography tells of his father striking him a hard blow specifically in order to cement in his memory the image of a salamander seen in the fire.

The Roman Catholic sacrament of Confirmation involved a light slap on the cheek in order to show the willingness of the confirmed to "suffer for their faith." The blow on the cheek appears in medieval liturgical books. It was officially removed from the ceremony in 1971.

The practice of using a light blow to the cheek to signify a change in a person's status—reminding them of humility, elevating them to knighthood or Catholic adulthood, etc.—has existed from ancient times through medieval and into modern times. Is a common origin likely? Did the Babylonian and Mesopotamian idea of the slap denoting humility inspire Judaism and lead to the New Testament saying, and did that get carried through the Middle Ages as part of not only knighthood but also confirming a Christian's standing as an adult? We can't be certain.

What we can be certain about is the ritual of knighthood, which was explained in detail. We'll look at that next time.

The Peace of God Reception

The Peace of God and the Truce of God wrought changes in the chivalric culture of Western Europe. Starting in the 11th century, knighthood began to develop a religious component. The ritual for knighthood included fasting, a night of prayer, confession, and a symbolic bath/baptism.

Many rulers embraced this melding of religion with their secular roles. Robert the Pious (King of the Franks, 996 - 1031), embodied the new church policies in an oath:

I will not infringe on the Church in any way. I will not hurt a cleric or a monk if unarmed. I will not steal an ox, cow, pig, sheep, goat, ass, or a mare with colt. I will not attack a villain or villainess or servants or merchants for ransom. I will not take a mule or a horse male or female or a colt in pasture from any man from the calends of March to the feast of the All Saints unless to recover a debt. I will not burn houses or destroy them unless there is a knight inside. I will not root up vines. I will not attack noble ladies travelling without husband nor their maids, nor widows or nuns unless it is their fault. From the beginning of Lent to the end of Easter I will not attack an unarmed knight.

(Robert was so pious that he is given credit for some miraculous healings.)

Years later, when Pope Urban II wanted to call for a Crusade, he used the concept of the Peace and Truce to re-direct violent behavior from their fellow man to the Saracen:

Oh race of the Franks, we learn that in some of your provinces no one can venture on the road by day or by night without injury or attack by highwaymen, and no one is secure even at home. Let us then re-enact the law of our ancestors known as the Truce of God. And now that you have promised to maintain the peace among yourselves you are obligated to succour your brethren in the East, menaced by an accursed race, utterly alienated from God.

Not everyone believed that the Truce of God made sense. No less a theologian and scholar than St. Thomas Aquinas writing in the 13th century felt the Truce of God was unnecessarily limiting. Protecting the country was sufficiently important that it should also be fought for on feast days and holy days.

The ritual for confirming a knight included one blow, the only blow he was allowed to take without defending himself. Tomorrow let's look at the ritual and history of being slapped.

April 23rd

Let's see...so many to choose from.
The Feast Day of St. George, patron saint of England (who certainly did not exist)
Anniversary of Shakespeare's death (too late for "medieval")
Anniversary (supposedly) of Shakespeare's birth (too late, and really just wishful thinking)
Death of Ethelred the Unready

Ah. Here we are:
Founding of the Order of the Garter in 1348 by Edward III.

The story of the founding of the Order is well-known and unverified, told by Froissart, who loved court stories but wasn't present at the time (and was only a child). It tells us that the Countess of Salisbury lost her garter while dancing at a court ball, to the discourteous amusement of the guests. Edward III gallantly picked up the garter and handed it back to her, saying "Honi soi qui mal y pens."["Shame to him who thinks evil."] This, supposedly, inspired him to create a chivalrous order named for the Garter. The Countess of Salisbury in question might have referred to Joan of Kent, who later became his daughter-in-law when she married the Prince of Wales (Edward, "the Black Prince"). Otherwise, it was Joan's mother-in-law, Catherine Montacute, whose husband was the 1st Earl of Salisbury. Later rumors were that she was the focus of inappropriate affection from Edward.

Other sources claim that Richard Lionheart had his soldiers tie garters around their legs in some acknowledgement of St. George, and that Edward wished to evoke both Richard and George when founding the Order.

Whatever the case of its founding, it is the most exclusive and prestigious Order in England and Wales, limited to the king, the Prince of Wales, and 24 additional knights. The original list is a Who's Who of political power in mid-14th century England—although some of them had to be knighted in 1348 to be able to receive the honor of the Order. "Ladies of the Garter" were also appointed, though without the prestige accorded the Knights of the Garter. King Henry VII ended this practice, but King Edward VII named his wife a Lady of the Garter, as did King George V and King George VI.

Queen Elizabeth II is an ex-officio member of the Order.

Muslim-Christian Relations, Part 2 (of 2)

[Part 1 is here.]

Saladin

After Richard and Saladin each slaughtered their prisoners, Richard marched to Jaffa, which he hoped to make a base from which he could take Jerusalem. Saladin attacked, but Richard prevailed with his main troops in the front and the Knights Templar forces on the left and the Knights Hospitaller on the right. Saladin was surrounded on three sides. Richard took Jaffa in September 1191, and Saladin was willing to talk truce.

Richard and Saladin showed great mutual respect for each other's military prowess. A temporary halt to hostilities was declared so they could come to terms.  At one point, when Richard became ill, Saladin sent him fruit that was chilled with snow brought from the mountains, and offered his personal physician. Also, Saladin sent two horses as replacements for Richard's.

An attempt was made to join East and West by the marriage of Richard's sister, Joan (1165-1199), to Saladin's brother, Al-Adil (1145-1218), who was currently administrator of Egypt. Joan had been married to King William II of Sicily, but he had died in 1189; later she would become Countess of Toulouse by her marriage to Raymond VI. The plan was for Jerusalem to be their wedding gift, and would therefore pass into the hands of a dynasty that joined Western Europe (or, at least, England!) to the Muslim world. Negotiations fell through, however.

The two commanders did agree on a three-year truce. In summer 1192, the Treaty of Ramla determined that Jerusalem would remain under Muslim control, but Christians would be allowed safe passage. Also, the Crusaders would give up lands they had invaded except for a narrow coastal strip that extended from Tyre to Jaffa. Neither leader was wholly pleased, but each had reason to wish a swift end to the conflict. Richard had troubles at home due to his brother John. Saladin was losing control of his army because of his failure to re-take Acre or to route Richard's forces in their many engagements.

Saladin died of yellow fever in 1193. While his heirs fought over the succession, Western Europe was told tales of Saladin's military prowess and chivalrous actions toward the invaders. There is an anecdote that, in April 1191, a Frankish woman on pilgrimage had her baby stolen and sold into slavery. According to Saladin's biographer, Saladin bought the baby back with his own money and returned it to the mother, then ordered a horse to take her back to her camp. Poems were written in praise of him. Richard declared him the greatest leader in the Islamic world.

And the punchline? All the negotiations and gifts between Richard and Saladin were made by proxies. The two men who so praised and respected each other never met face-to-face.