Knighthood. The word 'knight' is the modern equivalent of the Anglo-Saxon cniht, which meant originally a youth, and afterwards a servant or attendant, and soon came to be restricted to the military attendants upon nobles and great officers of state. This personal relation was subsequently strengthened by the feudal relation of tenancy, in virtue of which the knight held land of his superior under condition of rendering him military service in return (see FEUDALISM). The origin of medieval knighthood, as a solemn investiture and profession of arms, is involved in obscurity. Embryonic forms of the institution can be traced amongst the early Teutonic nations, and especially the Franks. The customs of chivalry associated with King Arthur and Charlemagne's paladins are of course those of a later era, the epoch of the romance writers. The custom and practice of knighthood were established in England, but as an essentially feudal institution, by the Norman kings. The system of knight-service empowered the king, or a superior lord who was a subject, to compel every holder of a certain extent of land, called a knight's fee, to become a member of the knightly order, his investiture being accounted proof that he possessed the requisite knightly arms and was sufficiently trained in their use. After the long war between France and England it became the practice for the sovereign to receive money compensations from subjects who were unwilling to receive knighthood, a system out of which grew a series of grievances, leading eventually to the total abolition of knight-service in the reign of Charles II.
The ceremonies practised in conferring knighthood have varied at different periods; but two broadly-marked ceremonial forms may be recognised, the simple dubbing and the formal investiture as a semi-religious ceremony. In general, in the more elaborate ceremony, fasting and bathing were necessary preparatives, and the actual creation was preceded by solemn confession and a midnight vigil in the church, followed by the reception of the eucharist. The new knight offered his sword on the altar, to signify his devotion to the church and determination to lead a holy life. The sword was redeemed by a sum of money, had a benediction pronounced over it, and was girded on by the highest ecclesiastical present. The title was conferred by binding the sword and spurs on the candidate, after which the person who conferred the order dealt him a blow on the cheek or shoulder, saying, 'Be thou a good and faithful knight,' or words to that effect. The new knight then took an oath to protect the distressed, to maintain right against might, and never by word or deed to stain his character as a knight and a Christian. The religious character of the ceremony seems to have become thus prominent in and after the foundation of the militant monastic orders in Palestine, as the Knights Templars (see TEMPLARS) and Knights of St John (see HOSPITALLERS). A knight might be degraded for the infringement of any part of his oath, in which case his spurs were chopped off with a hatchet, his sword broken, his escutcheon reversed, and some religious observances were added, during which each piece of armour was taken off in succession, and cast from the recreant knight. This ceremony was of very rare occurrence, but was performed in effigy as late as 1814 in the case of Lord Dundonald (q.v.).
'Knights errant' were they who wandered seeking foemen worthy of their steel, and acquiring fame at joust and tourney, by maintaining the pre-eminence in beauty and virtue of the ladies to whom they had vowed service. The (unhistorical) 'Knights of the Round Table' (see ARTHUR) and the paladins of Charlemagne (see ROLAND) are types of those whose mission it was to succour distressed damsels and destroy tyrants; and Amadis (q.v.) may be taken as a representative hero of those romances of chivalry which Cervantes satirised in Don Quixote. Sad specimens of the military knights in a degraded condition were the robber knights (Raubritter) of Germany, who lived largely by levying blackmail on merchants or by sheer plunder.
Knighthood, originally a military distinction, came, in the 16th century, to be occasionally conferred on civilians, as a reward for valuable services rendered to the crown or community. The first civil knight in England was Sir William Walworth, lord mayor of London, who won that distinction by slaying the rebel Wat Tyler in presence of the king. Since the abolition of knight-service knighthood has been conferred without any regard to property, as a mark of the sovereign's esteem, or as a reward for services of any kind, civil or military. In recent times it has been bestowed at least as often on administrative officials, scholars, lawyers, physicians, artists, and citizens as on soldiers. Although knighthood could originally be conferred by any person of knightly condition, the right to bestow it was early restricted to persons of rank, and afterwards to the sovereign or his representative, as the commander of an army. In England the sovereign now bestows knighthood by a verbal declaration, accompanied with a simple ceremony of imposition of the sword, and without any patent or written instrument (see ACCOLADE). In some few instances knighthood has been conferred by patent, when the persons knighted could not conveniently come into the presence of royalty, as in the case of governors of colonies, or other persons occupying prominent situations abroad. The lord-lieutenant of Ireland also occasionally, but rarely, exercises a delegated power of conferring knighthood. The monosyllable 'Sir' is prefixed to the Christian names of knights and baronets, and their wives have the legal designation of 'Dame,' which in common intercourse becomes 'Lady.' For the existing orders of knighthood, see ORDERS, BATH, GARTER, THISTLE, GOLDEN FLEECE, &c.
Persons who are simply knights, without belonging to any order, are called in England Knights Bachelors. Knighthood of this kind is now only conferred in Great Britain. A degree of knighthood called Banneret (q.v.) formerly existed in England and France; it was given on the field of battle in reward for the performance of some heroic act. It is noticeable that, whereas the German word for knight is Ritter, the word knecht, etymologically the same as knight, means the squire or a still humbler attendant of the knight. The French knight (see LEGION OF HONOUR) is chevalier, the Italian cavaliere. The form of helmet which the requirements of the later heraldry have appropri- ated to knights is figured under HERALDRY (fig. xi.). For Knights of the Shire, see PARLIAMENT.
See Grose, Military Antiquities; Stubbs, Constitutional History; Nicolas, British Orders of Knighthood; Hallam, Europe during the Middle Ages; C. Mills, History of Chivalry (1825); Gautier, La Chevalerie (1884); Reibisch, Geschichte des Ritterthums (1842); Schreckenstein, Die Ritterwürde (1884); Major Lawrence-Archer's Orders of Chivalry (1888).