I've worked on horseback my entire life on a ranch, and just wanted to say something about the importance of stirrups and the horned saddle. The horned saddle would definitely have been more stabilizing than the stirrups if we look at the them individually, but together its expontentially more stable. Later on the cantle, the raised portions of the saddle on front and behind the seat, became more rigid as you can push against the stirrups with your legs, pushing your butt and lower back into the cantle behind you, locking yourself in place. My dad always told me that if you choose between stirrups that are too long or too short, you choose short because you can keep yourself in place better, though it hurts the knees. This is a feature seen a lot on Mexican roping saddles from back in the day. Obviously Im not fighting anyone, but I can speak to the safety of this pairing in design elements, it has saved me from a lot of injuries, if not saved my life, on many occasions.
I can attest to the fact that riding Western is a lot easier on the balls. Such a relief after years of English style. I'm convinced that English style was invented by sadistic hunting girls. "Oh, high-born hunting girl, I'm just a normal low-born so-and-so!"
I always thought the stirrups gave more stability. Good to know how important the design of the saddle really is. The stirrup length, I take it, having long ones tied higher don't work cause the knot could move, and or make the horse uncomfortable.
Honestly using the Dragon Age Origins soundtrack at the start was peak Metatron, loved it so much hahahaha big hugs from Brazil man, love your channel!!
He does his usual videos like this all the time. I count five normal metatron videos from the past week. They must just not be ending up on your front page. Using the subscriber tab on the front page helps not miss videos we would otherwise like to see.
Some of the knight battles are absolutely insane, for example in the crusades where small number of riders often fearlessly ride into enormous formations and completely routed them. There is something about the knights that made them simply much stronger than the average normal soldier
This is so cool and informative as I am writing a High Fantasy with the medieval version of Knighthood and its progression. So this is awesome to see!!
That's an awesome concept! I've always been fascinated by the evolution or armour, particularly transitional periods where there's a mix of maille and plate, and great helms, gotta have great helms. Or sugarloaf. Good luck with the writing! ✌️
The fact that you're taking time to develop and pay attention to intricate details like that speaks highly of your dedication to writing and creating your world.
"Knecht" never disappeared. It still means a lower-grade male farmworker. And earlier also was used in terms for squire (Edelknecht - noble knecht), man-at-arms (Waffenknecht - weapon knecht) or those helping other crafts. Such as executioners.
I have never heard that in a contemporary context. At best someone complaining about the toil - "knechten". Also I think he meant it disappeared as a reference to knights.
13:05 Men-at-arms are gens d'armes or hommes d'armes. It's a translation of the latter and always refers to mounted combatants in full armour, fighting on horses trained and bred for the purpose. They are usually from the gentry and nobility with some of them coming from the free population of rich artisans and merchants, and sometimes from the yeomen class. Men-at-arms are not low tier, improvised infantry and never has been. Heavy infantry are usually described as homines armatos, homines armatii, homines armetz and Lance á pied or just pied. Men-at-arms are a specific class of soldiers. They have at least a few horses and a gros valet/esquire (depending on period) following them, as well as pages. Men-at-arms/esquires are payed 12d per day, while armoured foot men are payed 6d per day. Knights are payed 24d per day, but they never make up more than a few percentage of the total number of men-at-arms. They only made up around half the force of men-at-arms at best in the late 12th C to mid 13th C. Esquire replaced knight as the general name for a mounted professional combatant in the early 14th C to the late 14th C when nepotism solidified knight as a social position only available for the wealthiest and their sons and a few others. Men-at-arms is just an umbrella term for those who fight in the manner of a mounted knight. Not to confused with heavy infantry.
As I see it, there are four different stages to the emergence of the medieval knight: 1. The rise of military aristocracies in western Europe in the centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the disappearance of the civilian elites of the late Roman Empire. 2. The rise of shock cavalry in western Europe between the eighth and eleventh centuries. 3. The feudal transformation around 1000: the rise of castles, territorial lordships, private warfare, and the Peace and Truce of God movement. 4. The development of chivalry between the late eleventh and early thirteenth centuries - crusading, the dubbing ceremony, tournaments, vernacular literature promoting knightly values, heraldry, courtly manners and all the other things we associate with classic medieval knighthood really come during a very long twelfth century.
I think you meant Avars and not Mongols when talking about the adoption of the stirrup in 6th and 7th centuries. I'm also a bit disappointed that you didn't talk about how Milites/Knights developed in post carolingian times, so specifically throughout the 10th and the first half of the 11th century which is arguably the most important stage of development of Knighthood when the idea of a knight first started to properly solidify and formalize.
Huns actually, though the Avars and other horseborne peoples that were part of the migratory age certainly did their part of spreading the stirrup throughout Europe.
You missed an important step. In the migration age the steppe peoples moved west bringing large cavalry formations with them . The formation of the Vandal and Visigothic kingdoms in southern france and spain embedded the traditions of heavy cavalry use. It was only after conquering the south of France that the Carolingian dynasty was at the height of its power. For a linguistic trace of this period the arabic name for spain is Al Andalus, land of the (V)andals .
It was more the Merovingians (Clovis I) who took southern Gaul from the Visigoths (Battle of Vouillé, 507). Their capital was Toulouse, but had been repulsed towards Hispania.
@tibsky1396 nice correction, thank you. I was thinking of Charlemagne's expansion south into Spain, the song of Roland being a good reference for knightly ideals.
It shouid be noted that the origin of the word cataphract is the Pahlavan word Grivpanvar(iron-collared man) for the super heavy cavalry that predominated among the pastoral peoples of central Asia, the Pahlavan or Parthians to peoples of the West, in particular.
This was an outstanding video! Very much appreciated. Only thing missing is you pulling a smug face at the end. Loved it! Have you heard of the battle of the golden spurs, where the french knights were slaughtered by what were essentially peasants... Nice example of how pride can lose a battle
I have seen natural size mounted knights and cataphracts and the sight itself is awesome...especially on a big size horse Man+horse make together a formidable fighting machine 3.5 meters tall all covered in armor with a deadly spear.... And watching a horse race from closeup, hearing all that rumble while all the horses came at speed all tight together like a heavy tsunami and feeling the earth tremble with their aproach .. Just imagining them all covered in armor and all with deadly spears pointed at you .... One can only underestimate the huge psychological effect of a mounted army charging must have had in the past..... Imagine being a peasant conscripted to fight against that , while having only a stick in the hand to deffend😅 😅😅
Odd, my mother's maiden name was "Knecht" . We always interpreted that as "servant" not "knight" since my grandfather's position at a "landowner's" estate was by far closer to a mere "vasal" than a knight.
In German the word "Knecht" is still used as a designation of a farmworker. In the past, different types of servants were described in this way. In the case of the derivated term "knight" it reflects a nobleman's military service to his sovereign.
Another great vid. Just one addition: In almost all languages the word for the mounted nobleman is "horseman" or "rider", not only in French and German: Caballero, Cavaleiro, Ridder, Riddare etc. Except in English.
And medieval Latin typically used the more generic term 'miles' for a knight, who after all was a trained professional whose life centered on fighting, unlike that of the lower-standing levies of infantry. Ecclesiastical writers made him into the ultimate 'miles Christianus' and defender of the church from the 11th century onward.
Very good video. It's also interesting to add that often (but not always) knights and the Nobles that they served or often were, often belonged to a different ethnic and Linguistic family than the majority of the population, the peasants and the craftsman. Usually the conquerors of a given nation became the knightly class, as they were the new land owners and enforcers.
I remember reading about Normandy in the time before the conquest of England, which described the culture of knights. I don't know what they would've been called in Norman French, but the description was of a social caste that were not titled nobility, but who were hereditary armed and armored mounted fighters. At about the age of 13, or so, their father would send them to the household of another knight to apprentice into knightly training, which they would complete at around age 17 or 18. They served under a siegnor (lord akin to a baron) or compte (a count akin to an earl). Their families were not laborers nor tradesmen, but hereditary cavalry soldiers. After the Battle of Hastings, those who fought well were rewarded with estates in England, some earning titles.
So perhaps these Norman "knights" would be something closer to "men-at-arms", in the sense of being non-noble mounted armored fighters? So, gens d'armes or gendarmes.
Also earlier Battle of Val-ès-Dunes 1047 were more significant as the first real battle for William i the conqueror as cavalry battle against similiar force(cavalry)
Wasn’t eastern Roman/byzantine army primarily Calvary based? Belisarius for example used extensively the buchalari to great effect against the vandals in North Africa and the Ostrogoths in Italy.
@@karabunga8088 as the empire expanded, the regular roman infantry came to be supported by auxiliary troops, many of which were light cavalry units. it was a path to roman citizenship for them as well. (25 years of service)
I think there was a shift after Adrianople toward barbarian allied cavalry that isn’t treated here, but he’s not interested in the evolution of Byzantine standing armies-he’s focused on the development of knights in the West.
Check out the full episode on Medieval people and harsh weather th-cam.com/video/cG7XKlooUiI/w-d-xo.html All the good links: Come watch me live stream on Twitch! Almost every night 9pm CST www.twitch.tv/metatrongemini Join this channel to get access to more old school Metatron videos the algorithm wouldn't prioritize! th-cam.com/channels/IjGKyrdT4Gja0VLO40RlOw.htmljoin I have a Patreon page with extra content! www.patreon.com/themetatron My second channel about languages www.youtube.com/@metatronacademy My third channel about gaming www.youtube.com/@TheProtectorate-yq7vi My Twitter/X x.com/pureMetatron
Another great video hey pal was wondering if you could do a video on the evolution of footwear as I'm finding it one if the harder areas to find information on cheers Metatron
Beautiful snow shoot. The reflection of the Christmas lights in the armor added a nice pop to the image.
13 วันที่ผ่านมา +1
Excellent video, I especially liked the origin explained in the first half of the video; although I'm not convinced if Hastings was the key point, since by the 6th and 7th centuries, a large part of the armies had a significant component of armed and armored horsemen (as seen in the clashes between Byzantines, Sassanids and Arabs), but it is true that infantry still played a determining factor as shown in battles such as Tours (Poitiers 732) and in the Viking raids. However, it was already in the 10th and 11th centuries that knights became fundamental on the battlefield (which is consistent with the time of Hastings and the other events that occurred in Europe in those centuries). We can also see in those two centuries (10th and 11th) the western kingdoms beginning to adapt, adopt tactics and take countermeasures to successfully confront the invasions of the Magyar and Slavic armies (who had a large cavalry component, coming from more steppe areas to the east), so everything fits very well with what you tell us in the video.
Awesome video, as always, and yes, we want more in-depth videos like this, about knights and things related to them, like weapons, armors, tactics etc. Cheers!
Isn’t it widely accepted that the military origins of the European knight lies in the cataphracts of Persia? The Romans gave up their centuries long tradition of heavy infantry exemplified by the Legions for the heavy cavalry of their Persian enemies. While socially the feudal structure of the knightly warrior had its origins in the nomadic horse riding invaders of Europe, the Huns and Avars. The feudal obligations and pledges of loyalty between lord and vassal (a Confucian obligation) originate with East Asian civilization. This is why Graeco-Roman civilization of city states and republics is so different than the subsequent civilization of “Dark Age” Europe right ??
I’d like to know more about this. I was told that the Knight’s Code descends from Charlemagne’s knights (or Paladins) but haven’t been able to source it and I don’t speak/read French (or Carolingian Miniscule a sort of proto-French).
OH. MY. GOD. This is the Metatron I subscribed to. Informational. Original. No reaction. Metatron, Scholagladitoria, Skallagrim, Tod's Workshop, Lindybeige. You guys have consumed so, so much of my life. I can't detail in my comprehension of English how much joy these style of videos brings me.
This video couldn’t have come at a better time as I’m about to study Medieval Chivalry as a module at Uni. Knighthood and Chivalry is a fascinating topic
Intro - Metatron in full plate with a trampoline behind him. We need a demo of what it would look like for a knight in full plate to be bounced on a trampoline to show whether said trampolines would have been at all effective in sieges.
Excellent. 👍 I subscribed to you for videos like this. It would be great to see more videos about etymology and language again. There used to be much more of that. Have you managed to learn more german and mandarin in the meantime?
I guess we see a social/financial example of having the infantry or 'fodder' being easily routed by Knights which provided a buffer between peasant and royalty. Layers of social standing created to protect the rich from the poor. I'd venture to guess from this time forward - the best gear/training was always available to those closest to the 'power' of the time and penalties for anyone of lower status attempting to use the same advantages.
Just to be pedantic for a second... a protein-rich diet doesn't affect one's height unless they suffered significant malnutrition as a child. For a grown adult, your height is genetic, not based on nutrition (as in, you won't lose height as an adult even if you are malnourished. You just lose mass). A protein-rich diet would affect strength and body mass. But have nothing to do with making one taller. So long as a peasant wasn't suffering significant malnutrition as a child or suffer some serious illness during development, they will achieve their full height which is determined entirely by one's genes. Many cultures had / have very low meat-protein diets and people still reach their full height without issue so long as they did not suffer general malnutrition as children. The consumption of meat would certainly make knights stronger however over the peasants, but not taller.
Thr thing is, peasants were almost guaranteed to suffer malnutrition during at least one year during their 18 years of childhood growth. Even in WWI, 20% of infantry recruits were turned down for army service for being too scrawny.
@@helmutthat8331 Modest amounts of malnutrition is not enough to stunt vertical growth. Studies have shown one must suffer significant general malnutrition throughout the majority of one's childhood / teen years to stunt growth (vertical). What you're describing of what happened in WWI wasn't men who suffered starvation as children, but young men who were underfed / did not consume enough protein to develop significant muscle mass required for warfare. But they still had likely reached their full height allowed by their genetics. They were "scrawny" due to being underfed, not because they were suffering from significant malnourishment. Those men COULD have been made fit for service with a month or two of proper feeding before enlistment (something that was actually done by Canadian forces in WWII during recruitment drives. They found men who were underfed and considered too skinny for combat, put them in a "feed" program for several weeks to bulk up, then put them into basic training).
Okay, so you need North Korea levels of malnutrition to have an entire class of people 3-4 inches shorter than your more well fed peers, that's makes sense.
@@kacpermarynowski7931 I said "Protein rich" diet. I was referring to Metatron's assertion that knights ate more meat, which resulted in greater height over peasants. I was correcting him on this. Assuming a peasant WASN'T malnourished (of course, a sizeable percentage were malnourished), they would still reach full height even on a very low protein diet. Many people / cultures today consume low protein diets and still achieve full height their genetics dictate. I was stating that meat didn't make knights taller (good nourishment growing up certainly did) - Meat would only contribute to a knight's muscle mass, not their height. A peasant who grew up on decent nourishment but low protein could be just as tall as a knight. They simply wouldn't have anywhere near the same muscle mass is all - the knight would be STRONGER. Not taller.
i would love for you to make a dedicated video about the Eastern Roman Empire (395-480) / [Medieval] Roman Empire (480-1204) / Empire of the Romans (1261-1453) and it's impact on World History, its struggles, it's innovations and such, I would love to get your perspective on that era of the Roman Empire. Also, I love your videos! You get a sub from me! :)
Good video, but I think we also have to see the knight as a part cultural/societal development which directly connects to Germannic and Roman traditions. I think we also have to look at the concept of the Germanic Warband called "Comitatus" by Tacitus (in his Germania) and the concept of Camitatus in the late Roman period, as well as the Comitatenses with the Comes at the top to understand the development of the knight as we know it. In fact, we cannot understate how important this concept is in order to understand the development of knight hood. The Germanic comitatus is often refered to as a Warband where a Warrior swears uttermost loyality towards their a leader, and getting (quite literally) adopted into his family (thinks of the medieval concept of Familia which extended to all member of a household vs the actualy blood-related "kin") via the "adoptio per arma". The adoption per arma is a central piece of knighthood as we can see in the accolade - until the 14th century it was common to give a weapon (The German word "schwertleite" - "giving of a sword)", usually a sword to the new knight whom you then took into your "familia" and would then serve you until death. If we look at the Frankish court under Charlemagne we see exactly this tradition of giving weapons and armor (often a sword and shield, a lance or spear meant for riding was also common). This btw. has some rememblence to the Roman "clientela" (Patronage) which was not only a relationship between a dominant but could also be between people. In fact, from what we know it was not uncommon. The common title of a nobleman of nearly every rank in the early middle ages was the "count" which is derived from the latin word "comes" - leader of a comitatenses or the dominant part of a comitatus. Higher ranking noblemen in servitude of the emperor or king within Frankish society were called ""count palatine" - "comes palatinus". One reason why it medieval europe it was expected of a king or emperor to lead the battle - why follow a comes when he doesn't or can't even fight. You only would swear loyality who himselfs has military prowess. In some other cultures it was now uncommon to have the emperor or king simply stay back and not even particiapte in war - for example China or Japan. Instead you had miltiary leaders you followed. In Europe (and often in North Adrica and the Middle east) the King/Emperer was your comes if you were of high enough nobility (hence why the concept of "reichsunmittelbar" - a princly lord/prince elector/a prince - having only the emperor or king as your *only* secular lord as opposed to other nobility where you might have multiple lords), and all other followed these lords who were their comes, which started a chain reaction. In fact, a king or emperor not proven in battle was seen as a lesser ruler as one who was proven in battle. That's why Charlemagne was so popular among his nobility - he was the ultimate comes of his time, a warrior king who managed to subjuate and integrate large lands and entire peoples into his kingdom. Throughout the early to high middle ages there was no (martial) servitiude without the ritual of receiving arms. This ritual was repeated multiple times throughout the life of a knight, tournaments often had days dedicated only for the renewal of oaths of fealty, coronoations and ascentions into a new status were followed by these rituals since a new lord meant you now had to swear fealty and loyality to him. Loyality and fealty was not implied through blood but manifested through rituals. And this is the backbone of medieval European knighthood. I.e., ther was a lord, a comes, who adopted his follower into his househlold/follower via the adoptio per arma, who would then, at least in an idealized version, serve him unitl death. Medieval knights were quite literally part of their lord's family, being representatives of that family's status, and being able to be elevated through the lord's family (in the early middle ages it was considerably more possible to become a "ministerialis" through adoptio per arma, than in the high middle ages when there were considerably more established noble families, especially lower nobility - the minsterialis, living at their lords estate, being given arms and armor by their lord due to them not being financially able to do so (The reality is, the majority of all knights never owned castles or even manors unless gifted by their lord, and had to follow their lord wherever he travelled unless ordered otherwise) . Sons of noblemen were often raised at the court of their father's lord or someone related to this lord and would therefore have to a certain degree both a subservient and familiar-brotherly connection to the sons of this lord, which would later become their lords. Without the concept of the comitatus and the adoptio per arma we wouldn't have the medieval european knight as we know him. We would have some warrior class, heavily armed and well trained but with a different culture and different ideas of chivalry.
Finally. Metatron, i platonically love you and understand why you're making the kind of content you are, but I still gotta say it - Finally the good shit.
Every now & then, while watching one of your videos, i get the idea it would be very entertaining to sit down wirh you, have a drink or two & engage in a debate.
7:42 The way I read long ago is that captured barb horses after battle of Tours / Poiters of 732. were most important genetic contribution to european knightly horse. Barb ( Berbery horse ) was more powerful and faster than anything that was in Europe at the time.
Dear Metatron, I've been rewatching your videos discussing about the history, details and pros/cons of differences types of armour. Your videos about Roman, Western Europe, Chinese and Japanese medieval armours made me wish to ask you if you could post more videos about the other types of armour designs found between Western Europe and China/Japan. For example, Eastern Europe, Eurasia (Russia and Central Asia), Byzantine Empire, Middle East, South Asia (like the Indian subcontinent), and Korea. Four armour styles appear to be common in those regions: (a) mail and plate armour (b) brigandine-type armour (c) mirror armour (d) lamellar armour Could you please consider posting about these other cultures' body armour types in the future?
7:06 Landsknecht It is not clear if the 'Lands' means 'des Landes / Land's' or 'Lanze / lance'. Their Weapon was a very long lance, used in rigid formstion.
I would like to see a scavenging skill added to the game. You get better as you search stuff, maybe you get faster and find more stuff with the final perk showing you any containers that are already empty.
In modern military Sergeant. One who serves. Sergeant in the Army would be equivalent to a Medieval Knight. All of these things that you describe are attributes of an Army Sergeant. Amazing my friend.
"chivalric orders that are nothing more than the medieval revival of the warbands of noble warriors from ancient times" uh waht? no, thats not all it is. Chivalric and military orders are a unique development of medieval Europe. Yeah they took inspiration from Alexanders companion's, or Charlemagne's paladins, but this involved writing new legends about them, and re-contextualizing these ancient precedents in a Christian light. The ancient warbands didn't have the traditions, codes of conduct or the religious and moral tone that a chivalric order represents, nor did they have the permanence.
You said it!!! Slingers! I recently became interested in this because an Israeli dig came up with many Roman Lead Sling Stones. I’ve never run into this weapon mentioned except Shakespeare’s “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”. How about a video about slings and slingers?
I for one would be VERY interested to see this explored further, particularly because there is a character in a book I'm trying to write who is from an era where knights were well established and he himself was one of an order that lived by a strong ethical code. Granted it's meant to be entirely fictional, and in some aspects fantastical, however I would like his backstory to be believable and grounded in a realistic way and I am not good at research at all.😅
I always thought of Men At Arms as better equipped infantry,but now you mentioned them as horsemen I guess maybe it makes sense that in a big battle they would maybe need more horsemen than knighthood could supply.
I've worked on horseback my entire life on a ranch, and just wanted to say something about the importance of stirrups and the horned saddle.
The horned saddle would definitely have been more stabilizing than the stirrups if we look at the them individually, but together its expontentially more stable.
Later on the cantle, the raised portions of the saddle on front and behind the seat, became more rigid as you can push against the stirrups with your legs, pushing your butt and lower back into the cantle behind you, locking yourself in place. My dad always told me that if you choose between stirrups that are too long or too short, you choose short because you can keep yourself in place better, though it hurts the knees. This is a feature seen a lot on Mexican roping saddles from back in the day. Obviously Im not fighting anyone, but I can speak to the safety of this pairing in design elements, it has saved me from a lot of injuries, if not saved my life, on many occasions.
lol try to ride English, no horn and they jump there horses mor than other people do. And chase foxes. My Eamor also weighs easily twice as much.
@@markwalker4485 oh I bet, Ive never liked the english saddles as much, but Im also doing a lot dumber stuff on my horse than they are probably 😂😂
I can attest to the fact that riding Western is a lot easier on the balls. Such a relief after years of English style. I'm convinced that English style was invented by sadistic hunting girls.
"Oh, high-born hunting girl, I'm just a normal low-born so-and-so!"
I always thought the stirrups gave more stability. Good to know how important the design of the saddle really is. The stirrup length, I take it, having long ones tied higher don't work cause the knot could move, and or make the horse uncomfortable.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Honestly using the Dragon Age Origins soundtrack at the start was peak Metatron, loved it so much hahahaha big hugs from Brazil man, love your channel!!
So glad you've gone back to these sort of videos again, not just react and beef videos!
He does his usual videos like this all the time. I count five normal metatron videos from the past week. They must just not be ending up on your front page. Using the subscriber tab on the front page helps not miss videos we would otherwise like to see.
I absolutely love the look of the late roman cataphracts and bucellarii, thanks for the video Metatron
yes i also love the design of the byzantine cataphracts of the 10th and 11th century
I love your videos metatron!!! ❤❤❤❤❤
Please make more videos on this topic!
my favorite are the bactrian and seleucid cataphracts.
Some of the knight battles are absolutely insane, for example in the crusades where small number of riders often fearlessly ride into enormous formations and completely routed them.
There is something about the knights that made them simply much stronger than the average normal soldier
Well,a Knight carries on the tip of his spear the entire weight and strenght of both he and his ride.
You really want to stay away from that tip.
@@xenomorphphantom8852But it's just the tip lol
Heavy armor and a horse and good food
The Dragon Age Origins Eliana song as your intro of this video just hit my heart❤
This is so cool and informative as I am writing a High Fantasy with the medieval version of Knighthood and its progression. So this is awesome to see!!
That's an awesome concept! I've always been fascinated by the evolution or armour, particularly transitional periods where there's a mix of maille and plate, and great helms, gotta have great helms. Or sugarloaf.
Good luck with the writing! ✌️
The fact that you're taking time to develop and pay attention to intricate details like that speaks highly of your dedication to writing and creating your world.
you should go read chivalric romances, many of the stories in there essentially feature medieval superheroes that perfectly fit in fantasy.
"Knecht" never disappeared. It still means a lower-grade male farmworker. And earlier also was used in terms for squire (Edelknecht - noble knecht), man-at-arms (Waffenknecht - weapon knecht) or those helping other crafts. Such as executioners.
Also obviously the famous Landsknecht mercenary bands
@celticperspective5183 Ididn't mention those because Metatron already did in the video, yeah.
@@walkir2662 ah perhaps i should watch before i comment lol
He wasn't able to knecht the dots!
I'll see myself out.
I have never heard that in a contemporary context. At best someone complaining about the toil - "knechten".
Also I think he meant it disappeared as a reference to knights.
13:05 Men-at-arms are gens d'armes or hommes d'armes. It's a translation of the latter and always refers to mounted combatants in full armour, fighting on horses trained and bred for the purpose. They are usually from the gentry and nobility with some of them coming from the free population of rich artisans and merchants, and sometimes from the yeomen class. Men-at-arms are not low tier, improvised infantry and never has been. Heavy infantry are usually described as homines armatos, homines armatii, homines armetz and Lance á pied or just pied. Men-at-arms are a specific class of soldiers. They have at least a few horses and a gros valet/esquire (depending on period) following them, as well as pages. Men-at-arms/esquires are payed 12d per day, while armoured foot men are payed 6d per day. Knights are payed 24d per day, but they never make up more than a few percentage of the total number of men-at-arms. They only made up around half the force of men-at-arms at best in the late 12th C to mid 13th C. Esquire replaced knight as the general name for a mounted professional combatant in the early 14th C to the late 14th C when nepotism solidified knight as a social position only available for the wealthiest and their sons and a few others. Men-at-arms is just an umbrella term for those who fight in the manner of a mounted knight. Not to confused with heavy infantry.
As I see it, there are four different stages to the emergence of the medieval knight:
1. The rise of military aristocracies in western Europe in the centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the disappearance of the civilian elites of the late Roman Empire.
2. The rise of shock cavalry in western Europe between the eighth and eleventh centuries.
3. The feudal transformation around 1000: the rise of castles, territorial lordships, private warfare, and the Peace and Truce of God movement.
4. The development of chivalry between the late eleventh and early thirteenth centuries - crusading, the dubbing ceremony, tournaments, vernacular literature promoting knightly values, heraldry, courtly manners and all the other things we associate with classic medieval knighthood really come during a very long twelfth century.
Late Roman Cavalry is absolutely fascinating. Loved the video
I think you meant Avars and not Mongols when talking about the adoption of the stirrup in 6th and 7th centuries. I'm also a bit disappointed that you didn't talk about how Milites/Knights developed in post carolingian times, so specifically throughout the 10th and the first half of the 11th century which is arguably the most important stage of development of Knighthood when the idea of a knight first started to properly solidify and formalize.
Huns actually, though the Avars and other horseborne peoples that were part of the migratory age certainly did their part of spreading the stirrup throughout Europe.
@@woodwyrm That is true, thank you for correcting me.
You missed an important step. In the migration age the steppe peoples moved west bringing large cavalry formations with them . The formation of the Vandal and Visigothic kingdoms in southern france and spain embedded the traditions of heavy cavalry use. It was only after conquering the south of France that the Carolingian dynasty was at the height of its power. For a linguistic trace of this period the arabic name for spain is Al Andalus, land of the (V)andals .
It was more the Merovingians (Clovis I) who took southern Gaul from the Visigoths (Battle of Vouillé, 507). Their capital was Toulouse, but had been repulsed towards Hispania.
@tibsky1396 nice correction, thank you. I was thinking of Charlemagne's expansion south into Spain, the song of Roland being a good reference for knightly ideals.
You are right about the stirrup. In German it is called "Steigbügel" which roughly translates in this case to "ring for climbing up".
It shouid be noted that the origin of the word cataphract is the Pahlavan word Grivpanvar(iron-collared man) for the super heavy cavalry that predominated among the pastoral peoples of central Asia, the Pahlavan or Parthians to peoples of the West, in particular.
This is the Metatron i love, the history scholar sharing his insight
This was an outstanding video! Very much appreciated. Only thing missing is you pulling a smug face at the end. Loved it!
Have you heard of the battle of the golden spurs, where the french knights were slaughtered by what were essentially peasants... Nice example of how pride can lose a battle
I have seen natural size mounted knights and cataphracts and the sight itself is awesome...especially on a big size horse
Man+horse make together a formidable fighting machine 3.5 meters tall all covered in armor with a deadly spear....
And watching a horse race from closeup, hearing all that rumble while all the horses came at speed all tight together like a heavy tsunami and feeling the earth tremble with their aproach .. Just imagining them all covered in armor and all with deadly spears pointed at you .... One can only underestimate the huge psychological effect of a mounted army charging must have had in the past..... Imagine being a peasant conscripted to fight against that , while having only a stick in the hand to deffend😅 😅😅
Very nice video I always love your videos, especially how well researched they are.
Look at that knight standing in the snow! How cool! Is he going to....wait, is that a trampoline?
What a missed opportunity that we didn't get to see a knight in shining armor bouncing on a trampoline.
Odd, my mother's maiden name was "Knecht" . We always interpreted that as "servant" not "knight" since my grandfather's position at a "landowner's" estate was by far closer to a mere "vasal" than a knight.
In German the word "Knecht" is still used as a designation of a farmworker. In the past, different types of servants were described in this way.
In the case of the derivated term "knight" it reflects a nobleman's military service to his sovereign.
11:03 Charles Martel drilling his men which they later held off in battle of tours
Music sounds familiar, i like it!
From Dragon Age 🙂 It's lovely!
@@MyraTalisen Thanks, i knew heard it somewhere before.🙂
Lilliana is queen.... Sorry Morrigan.
When Dragon Age was great.
Another great vid. Just one addition: In almost all languages the word for the mounted nobleman is "horseman" or "rider", not only in French and German: Caballero, Cavaleiro, Ridder, Riddare etc. Except in English.
And medieval Latin typically used the more generic term 'miles' for a knight, who after all was a trained professional whose life centered on fighting, unlike that of the lower-standing levies of infantry. Ecclesiastical writers made him into the ultimate 'miles Christianus' and defender of the church from the 11th century onward.
Very good video.
It's also interesting to add that often (but not always) knights and the Nobles that they served or often were, often belonged to a different ethnic and Linguistic family than the majority of the population, the peasants and the craftsman.
Usually the conquerors of a given nation became the knightly class, as they were the new land owners and enforcers.
Very nice video. Glad you got to take advantage of the recent snow for some shots.
My only complaint is this is 15 minutes instead of 15 hours. For that reason, 12/10. 12/10 isn't bad though!
I remember reading about Normandy in the time before the conquest of England, which described the culture of knights. I don't know what they would've been called in Norman French, but the description was of a social caste that were not titled nobility, but who were hereditary armed and armored mounted fighters. At about the age of 13, or so, their father would send them to the household of another knight to apprentice into knightly training, which they would complete at around age 17 or 18. They served under a siegnor (lord akin to a baron) or compte (a count akin to an earl). Their families were not laborers nor tradesmen, but hereditary cavalry soldiers.
After the Battle of Hastings, those who fought well were rewarded with estates in England, some earning titles.
So perhaps these Norman "knights" would be something closer to "men-at-arms", in the sense of being non-noble mounted armored fighters? So, gens d'armes or gendarmes.
Also earlier Battle of Val-ès-Dunes 1047 were more significant as the first real battle for William i the conqueror as cavalry battle against similiar force(cavalry)
Wasn’t eastern Roman/byzantine army primarily Calvary based? Belisarius for example used extensively the buchalari to great effect against the vandals in North Africa and the Ostrogoths in Italy.
he mainly used the calvary himself or other high-ranking officials, most of the empire was composed of infantry.
@@karabunga8088 as the empire expanded, the regular roman infantry came to be supported by auxiliary troops, many of which were light cavalry units. it was a path to roman citizenship for them as well. (25 years of service)
@billkrussick6477 I'm pretty sure that's later in the empire, not around Justinian's time, Calvary become more used in the mid-to-late 7th century.
@@karabunga8088 I looked it up. Apparently 7000 Calvary and 10000 infantry.
I think there was a shift after Adrianople toward barbarian allied cavalry that isn’t treated here, but he’s not interested in the evolution of Byzantine standing armies-he’s focused on the development of knights in the West.
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Another great video hey pal was wondering if you could do a video on the evolution of footwear as I'm finding it one if the harder areas to find information on cheers Metatron
Dude that sunset on the shiny armor.
What's the music at the beginning? It almost sounds like Dragon Age.
Beautiful snow shoot. The reflection of the Christmas lights in the armor added a nice pop to the image.
Excellent video, I especially liked the origin explained in the first half of the video; although I'm not convinced if Hastings was the key point, since by the 6th and 7th centuries, a large part of the armies had a significant component of armed and armored horsemen (as seen in the clashes between Byzantines, Sassanids and Arabs), but it is true that infantry still played a determining factor as shown in battles such as Tours (Poitiers 732) and in the Viking raids. However, it was already in the 10th and 11th centuries that knights became fundamental on the battlefield (which is consistent with the time of Hastings and the other events that occurred in Europe in those centuries).
We can also see in those two centuries (10th and 11th) the western kingdoms beginning to adapt, adopt tactics and take countermeasures to successfully confront the invasions of the Magyar and Slavic armies (who had a large cavalry component, coming from more steppe areas to the east), so everything fits very well with what you tell us in the video.
Now I want to see the medieval knight jump on that trampoline in the background. lol
Awesome video, as always, and yes, we want more in-depth videos like this, about knights and things related to them, like weapons, armors, tactics etc. Cheers!
Thank You for this new video !!! 😊
Isn’t it widely accepted that the military origins of the European knight lies in the cataphracts of Persia? The Romans gave up their centuries long tradition of heavy infantry exemplified by the Legions for the heavy cavalry of their Persian enemies. While socially the feudal structure of the knightly warrior had its origins in the nomadic horse riding invaders of Europe, the Huns and Avars. The feudal obligations and pledges of loyalty between lord and vassal (a Confucian obligation) originate with East Asian civilization. This is why Graeco-Roman civilization of city states and republics is so different than the subsequent civilization of “Dark Age” Europe right ??
13:50 Which castle is that?
Corvin/ Hunjadi castle in Romania
Tip: just take a screenshot and put it in google :-)
@LuxisAlukard
Thank you.
I’d like to know more about this. I was told that the Knight’s Code descends from Charlemagne’s knights (or Paladins) but haven’t been able to source it and I don’t speak/read French (or Carolingian Miniscule a sort of proto-French).
OH. MY. GOD.
This is the Metatron I subscribed to.
Informational. Original. No reaction.
Metatron, Scholagladitoria, Skallagrim, Tod's Workshop, Lindybeige. You guys have consumed so, so much of my life.
I can't detail in my comprehension of English how much joy these style of videos brings me.
Really good video! Entertaining and informative. Thank you for making the subject so approachable but not dumbing it down!
This video couldn’t have come at a better time as I’m about to study Medieval Chivalry as a module at Uni. Knighthood and Chivalry is a fascinating topic
Intro - Metatron in full plate with a trampoline behind him. We need a demo of what it would look like for a knight in full plate to be bounced on a trampoline to show whether said trampolines would have been at all effective in sieges.
Excellent. 👍
I subscribed to you for videos like this. It would be great to see more videos about etymology and language again.
There used to be much more of that. Have you managed to learn more german and mandarin in the meantime?
He has a second channel for just language videos
I did not know that. Thank you. @celticperspective5183
Here is the usual full support for channel growth.
Amazing video! Thank you!
Great video, Metatron!
I guess we see a social/financial example of having the infantry or 'fodder' being easily routed by Knights which provided a buffer between peasant and royalty. Layers of social standing created to protect the rich from the poor. I'd venture to guess from this time forward - the best gear/training was always available to those closest to the 'power' of the time and penalties for anyone of lower status attempting to use the same advantages.
Loved this video! I definitely want to see more videos on knights, their origins, and famous knights both real and mythical!
Honestly great video. This sort of content is why I am subscribed to your channel.
Glad you liked the video
@Metatron, Dequitem just uploaded a video responding to you!
I’ll check it out!
@@metatronyt awesome!
Great video!
Would love more like this.
Cheers!
Excellent video Metatron 👏👏
Grazie.
Really good video! :-)
Thank you, Metatron!
What source you are using for the pictures you are using in your videos?
Great video! Very informative.
Just to be pedantic for a second... a protein-rich diet doesn't affect one's height unless they suffered significant malnutrition as a child. For a grown adult, your height is genetic, not based on nutrition (as in, you won't lose height as an adult even if you are malnourished. You just lose mass). A protein-rich diet would affect strength and body mass. But have nothing to do with making one taller. So long as a peasant wasn't suffering significant malnutrition as a child or suffer some serious illness during development, they will achieve their full height which is determined entirely by one's genes. Many cultures had / have very low meat-protein diets and people still reach their full height without issue so long as they did not suffer general malnutrition as children. The consumption of meat would certainly make knights stronger however over the peasants, but not taller.
Thr thing is, peasants were almost guaranteed to suffer malnutrition during at least one year during their 18 years of childhood growth. Even in WWI, 20% of infantry recruits were turned down for army service for being too scrawny.
@@helmutthat8331 Modest amounts of malnutrition is not enough to stunt vertical growth. Studies have shown one must suffer significant general malnutrition throughout the majority of one's childhood / teen years to stunt growth (vertical). What you're describing of what happened in WWI wasn't men who suffered starvation as children, but young men who were underfed / did not consume enough protein to develop significant muscle mass required for warfare. But they still had likely reached their full height allowed by their genetics. They were "scrawny" due to being underfed, not because they were suffering from significant malnourishment. Those men COULD have been made fit for service with a month or two of proper feeding before enlistment (something that was actually done by Canadian forces in WWII during recruitment drives. They found men who were underfed and considered too skinny for combat, put them in a "feed" program for several weeks to bulk up, then put them into basic training).
Okay, so you need North Korea levels of malnutrition to have an entire class of people 3-4 inches shorter than your more well fed peers, that's makes sense.
I have few questions:
if not better nourishment - what caused rapid increase in human height? And why is it highly correlated with wealth?
@@kacpermarynowski7931 I said "Protein rich" diet. I was referring to Metatron's assertion that knights ate more meat, which resulted in greater height over peasants. I was correcting him on this. Assuming a peasant WASN'T malnourished (of course, a sizeable percentage were malnourished), they would still reach full height even on a very low protein diet. Many people / cultures today consume low protein diets and still achieve full height their genetics dictate. I was stating that meat didn't make knights taller (good nourishment growing up certainly did) - Meat would only contribute to a knight's muscle mass, not their height.
A peasant who grew up on decent nourishment but low protein could be just as tall as a knight. They simply wouldn't have anywhere near the same muscle mass is all - the knight would be STRONGER. Not taller.
Very good video. Thank You Sir.
This needs and deserves to be at least 5 times as long and have a bunch more details and pictures!
What about the role of alani in the development of cataphracti?
i would love for you to make a dedicated video about the Eastern Roman Empire (395-480) / [Medieval] Roman Empire (480-1204) / Empire of the Romans (1261-1453) and it's impact on World History, its struggles, it's innovations and such, I would love to get your perspective on that era of the Roman Empire.
Also, I love your videos! You get a sub from me! :)
Nice video and would be a very interesting topic to hear more about.
More videos on knights, please! I also read somewhere that horse breeding was what lead to chariots no longer being used in battle.
Beautiful video.
Praise to boost the algorithm
Thanks. Keep up the great work.
I just realized how easily these two are confused:
Noble Ones
No-Bell Ones
Subscription rings of power.
Good video, but I think we also have to see the knight as a part cultural/societal development which directly connects to Germannic and Roman traditions.
I think we also have to look at the concept of the Germanic Warband called "Comitatus" by Tacitus (in his Germania) and the concept of Camitatus in the late Roman period, as well as the Comitatenses with the Comes at the top to understand the development of the knight as we know it. In fact, we cannot understate how important this concept is in order to understand the development of knight hood.
The Germanic comitatus is often refered to as a Warband where a Warrior swears uttermost loyality towards their a leader, and getting (quite literally) adopted into his family (thinks of the medieval concept of Familia which extended to all member of a household vs the actualy blood-related "kin") via the "adoptio per arma". The adoption per arma is a central piece of knighthood as we can see in the accolade - until the 14th century it was common to give a weapon (The German word "schwertleite" - "giving of a sword)", usually a sword to the new knight whom you then took into your "familia" and would then serve you until death.
If we look at the Frankish court under Charlemagne we see exactly this tradition of giving weapons and armor (often a sword and shield, a lance or spear meant for riding was also common).
This btw. has some rememblence to the Roman "clientela" (Patronage) which was not only a relationship between a dominant but could also be between people. In fact, from what we know it was not uncommon.
The common title of a nobleman of nearly every rank in the early middle ages was the "count" which is derived from the latin word "comes" - leader of a comitatenses or the dominant part of a comitatus. Higher ranking noblemen in servitude of the emperor or king within Frankish society were called ""count palatine" - "comes palatinus".
One reason why it medieval europe it was expected of a king or emperor to lead the battle - why follow a comes when he doesn't or can't even fight. You only would swear loyality who himselfs has military prowess. In some other cultures it was now uncommon to have the emperor or king simply stay back and not even particiapte in war - for example China or Japan. Instead you had miltiary leaders you followed. In Europe (and often in North Adrica and the Middle east) the King/Emperer was your comes if you were of high enough nobility (hence why the concept of "reichsunmittelbar" - a princly lord/prince elector/a prince - having only the emperor or king as your *only* secular lord as opposed to other nobility where you might have multiple lords), and all other followed these lords who were their comes, which started a chain reaction. In fact, a king or emperor not proven in battle was seen as a lesser ruler as one who was proven in battle.
That's why Charlemagne was so popular among his nobility - he was the ultimate comes of his time, a warrior king who managed to subjuate and integrate large lands and entire peoples into his kingdom.
Throughout the early to high middle ages there was no (martial) servitiude without the ritual of receiving arms. This ritual was repeated multiple times throughout the life of a knight, tournaments often had days dedicated only for the renewal of oaths of fealty, coronoations and ascentions into a new status were followed by these rituals since a new lord meant you now had to swear fealty and loyality to him. Loyality and fealty was not implied through blood but manifested through rituals. And this is the backbone of medieval European knighthood.
I.e., ther was a lord, a comes, who adopted his follower into his househlold/follower via the adoptio per arma, who would then, at least in an idealized version, serve him unitl death. Medieval knights were quite literally part of their lord's family, being representatives of that family's status, and being able to be elevated through the lord's family (in the early middle ages it was considerably more possible to become a "ministerialis" through adoptio per arma, than in the high middle ages when there were considerably more established noble families, especially lower nobility - the minsterialis, living at their lords estate, being given arms and armor by their lord due to them not being financially able to do so (The reality is, the majority of all knights never owned castles or even manors unless gifted by their lord, and had to follow their lord wherever he travelled unless ordered otherwise) .
Sons of noblemen were often raised at the court of their father's lord or someone related to this lord and would therefore have to a certain degree both a subservient and familiar-brotherly connection to the sons of this lord, which would later become their lords.
Without the concept of the comitatus and the adoptio per arma we wouldn't have the medieval european knight as we know him. We would have some warrior class, heavily armed and well trained but with a different culture and different ideas of chivalry.
Love this!
Love these videos
Finally. Metatron, i platonically love you and understand why you're making the kind of content you are, but I still gotta say it - Finally the good shit.
Every now & then, while watching one of your videos, i get the idea it would be very entertaining to sit down wirh you, have a drink or two & engage in a debate.
Awesome video and very informative. as a table top gamer this give me ideas.
7:42 The way I read long ago is that captured barb horses after battle of Tours / Poiters of 732. were most important genetic contribution to european knightly horse.
Barb ( Berbery horse ) was more powerful and faster than anything that was in Europe at the time.
Great video! I want deeper material, broken into 20-35 minutes. Not crazy about shorts, nor in finding the time for hour long adventures.
I really admire the time and effort you put into your content as much as your tell it like it is viewpoint on historical fact and accuracy
Dear Metatron, I've been rewatching your videos discussing about the history, details and pros/cons of differences types of armour.
Your videos about Roman, Western Europe, Chinese and Japanese medieval armours made me wish to ask you if you could post more videos about the other types of armour designs found between Western Europe and China/Japan. For example, Eastern Europe, Eurasia (Russia and Central Asia), Byzantine Empire, Middle East, South Asia (like the Indian subcontinent), and Korea. Four armour styles appear to be common in those regions:
(a) mail and plate armour
(b) brigandine-type armour
(c) mirror armour
(d) lamellar armour
Could you please consider posting about these other cultures' body armour types in the future?
The Knight.. the sergeant at arms.. and the equipped Knight (military unit) are absolutely essential to an understanding of modern military units
7:06 Landsknecht
It is not clear if the 'Lands' means 'des Landes / Land's' or 'Lanze / lance'. Their Weapon was a very long lance, used in rigid formstion.
Love this video!
I would like to see a scavenging skill added to the game. You get better as you search stuff, maybe you get faster and find more stuff with the final perk showing you any containers that are already empty.
Excellent video
Just recently on the Irish Medieval History channel they just made a video about the Irish knight the Ridire. Excellent video.
In modern military Sergeant. One who serves. Sergeant in the Army would be equivalent to a Medieval Knight. All of these things that you describe are attributes of an Army Sergeant. Amazing my friend.
This is an interesting topic. I’ve always wanted to learn about this.
"chivalric orders that are nothing more than the medieval revival of the warbands of noble warriors from ancient times" uh waht? no, thats not all it is. Chivalric and military orders are a unique development of medieval Europe. Yeah they took inspiration from Alexanders companion's, or Charlemagne's paladins, but this involved writing new legends about them, and re-contextualizing these ancient precedents in a Christian light. The ancient warbands didn't have the traditions, codes of conduct or the religious and moral tone that a chivalric order represents, nor did they have the permanence.
TIL!
You said it!!! Slingers! I recently became interested in this because an Israeli dig came up with many Roman Lead Sling Stones. I’ve never run into this weapon mentioned except Shakespeare’s “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”. How about a video about slings and slingers?
You don’t know how big and strong horses are until you’ve ridden one.
Now we need a video of people trying to pass as knights
So what is your opinion on the "unchoreographed" fight between an armored knight and 4 "peasant" brigands?
Why don't you check out his video about it to find out..?
I for one would be VERY interested to see this explored further, particularly because there is a character in a book I'm trying to write who is from an era where knights were well established and he himself was one of an order that lived by a strong ethical code. Granted it's meant to be entirely fictional, and in some aspects fantastical, however I would like his backstory to be believable and grounded in a realistic way and I am not good at research at all.😅
What a majestic Italian
I love how just saying Rome is enough for us all to know that you're talking about a time more than a city.
I love hearing you teach history.
I'm SUPER interested in deeper discussions on this topic!
Omg the dragon age origins music, one of the best games ever made. You doing a playthrough of that soon? :D
I really enjoyed this. 10/10
Absolutely continue this topic, I didn’t even know the paladins under Charlemagne were a thing!
I’ve always been fascinated with the baltic crusades… A relatively niche topic, but would make a great video non the less!
I always thought of Men At Arms as better equipped infantry,but now you mentioned them as horsemen I guess maybe it makes sense that in a big battle they would maybe need more horsemen than knighthood could supply.