preview

Knight's Role In Warfare During The Middle Ages

Better Essays

A knight’s role and the impact heavy cavalry had on warfare have greatly varied throughout the period of the Middle Ages. Although knight’s dominated the battlefield and had a huge cultural value in society you cannot ignore the impact that technology has had on their role. These technological advances such as the longbow, the introduction of light cavalry and developments such as gunpowder and artillery, the tactical developments such as sieges and the general organisation surrounding warfare resulted in knights declining in social value, status and affectability as well as a more dramatic yet gradual metamorphosis into the heavily armoured tank divisions in today’s modern armies.

It has always been a greatly contested debate as to when the Middle …show more content…

This is demonstrated mainly by the speed and manoeuvrability riding on horseback provided. “Speed could be converted into shock” as the enemy if unaware of a knight’s potential power ground could be covered quickly before the enemy had a chance to provide a defence mechanism and would have no option to surrender. This however was only evident in the early Middle Ages, showing that heavy cavalry would not be the most dominant force throughout the entirety of the Middle Ages. However this speed and manoeuvrability did not always result in the knight being the dominant figure. The knight may have been dominant in the West where the terrain was favourable and the heat moderate but when traveling to Jerusalem for the crusades they were “less well suited to endurance in a hot climate” and “clumsy and unmanoeuvrable” making them ineffective and vulnerable to the enemy. This shows how even though they may dominant warfare in Western Europe they were too heavy to cover ground effectively and not as moveable as the lighter eastern cavalry, which weighed approximately “700 to 900lbs” to the Western “1,200 to

Get Access