Evolution of the knight

The notion of a knight immediately conjures up strong images – King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, a chivalrous English gentleman who fights for honour, ladies swooning, and valiant one-on-one battles. However, this common image of the Medieval knight did not just spring up from nowhere; in actuality, the concept of knighthood existed way before Medieval Europe. It had been developing, growing and evolving since ancient times.

To truly see the origins of the knight we have to cast our gaze back to ancient Rome and a class of people known as the ‘equites’. The equites were the second property-based class in ancient Rome, ranked just below the senatorial class and named from the Latin for ‘horse’ – equus. In Roman tradition, the three tribes of Rome each had 100 equites, and these mounted soldiers developed into an important part of the Roman army, being paid three times more than ordinary troops. They came to hold immense power as members of the voting assembly and eventually did less fighting and instead became renowned for being powerful businessmen and landowners. However, this was to come to an end when Emperor Augustus moved the equestrian order away from the political world and back into the military. In order to join, men had to be free of birth, be in good health and character, and possess sufficient wealth. They also had to serve in subordinate military posts for a time. Being an eques was a desirable position, and there was a long waiting list of people eager to replace