In time of war the knight was, with his followers, in the camp of his sovereign, or commanding in the field, or holding some castle for him.

The knight then was a mounted warrior, a man of rank, or in the service and maintenance of some man of rank, generally possessing some independent means of support, but often relying mainly on the gratitude of those whom he served for the supply of his wants, and often, no doubt, resorting to the means which power confers on its possessor. This privilege was conferred on youths of family and fortune only, for the mass of the people were not furnished with arms. The word “knight,” which originally meant boy or servant, was particularly applied to a young man after he was admitted to the privilege of bearing arms. The word “Chivalry” is derived from the French “cheval,” a horse. From this last source sprang Chivalry, which framed an ideal of the heroic character, combining invincible strength and valor, justice, modesty, loyalty to superiors, courtesy to equals, compassion to weakness, and devotedness to the Church an ideal which, if never met with in real life, was acknowledged by all as the highest model for emulation. Such checks were found, first, in the rivalry of the chiefs themselves, whose mutual jealousy made them restraints upon one another secondly, in the influence of the Church, which, by every motive, pure or selfish, was pledged to interpose for the protection of the weak and lastly, in the generosity and sense of right which, however crushed under the weight of passion and selfishness, dwell naturally in the heart of man. In such a state of things the rights of the humbler classes of society were at the mercy of every assailant and it is plain that, without some check upon the lawless power of the chiefs, society must have relapsed into barbarism. Numerous chiefs, more or less powerful, held local sway, as far as each could enforce his dominion, and occasionally those chiefs would unite for a common object but, in ordinary times, they were much more likely to be found in hostility to one another.

On the decline of the Roman power, about five centuries after Christ, the countries of Northern Europe were left almost destitute of a national government.

The age of chivalry