What has football. got to do with the Medieval times What has football....... ....got to do with the Medieval times? Results at the end of the class!

What was life like for for a knight in Medieval England?

Learning Intentions To describe what a knight is To explain how someone became a knight To compare football to knights!

Knights! What was a knight? What do you know already? What was a knight expected to do? Knights were land owners Their land was given to them by the king or barons as a reward for fighting in the king’s army. Knights! They also had to find more men to fight for the king. In return for the land, the knight had both to spend 40 days serving in the army

What made a good knight? See if you can read this description of a perfect knight from a guide to chivalry written in 1208: A steyght hed, a large brest, gret sholders, wel shapen arms – long and bygge, wel made long handes of grete bones, small bely, bygge thyes, leggis steght. Can you think of any sportsmen (or women!) today who might make a good knight?

How did someone become a knight? A knight had to come from a noble household. The training to become a knight began when a boy was just seven years old, when he would leave home and go to become a page boy in the house of another noble family. During this time, he would be educated in chivalry and horse care. At the age of fourteen, the boy’s ordinary lessons would end provided he was big enough. He would become a squire and now spend all of his time training to be a good knight. This involved learning to use weapons, to ride a horse well and to become fit. He would wrestle, swim, hunt and play fighting games with other squires.

The Making of a Knight On completing his training, the squire would go through a special ceremony to become a knight.

What if there were no wars? The knight was a trained fighter. As a page and as a squire, he had been prepared to send his life fighting. His problem was what to do when there were no war. Life in a cold, damp castle could be pretty dull. They held fake battles! These were like real battles, but the knights were not trying to kill each other so they used blunt weapons.

Jousting As part of the new tournaments, a sport was developed called jousting. In a joust, two knights rode straight at each other. Each held a lance that was about 3 metres long. The lance was used to try to knock the other knight off his horse.

A KNIGHT’S TALE

So when did they fight? Between 1095 and 1270, many knights set out for the Middle East to fight in the Crusades. These were a series of battles to try to win back the Holy Land from Muslim control. This was the great age of the medieval knight. In many ancient cathedrals and churches in Britain today you can see the tombs of these crusader knights.

So what has football got to do with knights? When knights were fighting in either tournaments or in a real battle, they wore different colours to show what castle or area or country that they were from- -SOUND FAMILIAR? This was called heraldry. They choose the animals and colours and symbols to describe their strength.

4 things you have learnt about knights this lesson….

Learning Intentions To describe what a knight is To explain how someone became a knight To compare football to knights!