KNIGHT (AS. cniht, enyht, cncoht, youth, hero. OlIG. knelt, Ger. Knecht, boy, servant ; probably connected ultimately with Lat. gouts, Gk. genus, Skt. Jonas, family. as well as with AS. cyning, Eng. king). Originally, a man at-arms hound to the performance of certain duties. A knight was usually. if not always. in the early Middle Ages, necessarily soldier, land-hold er, and noble. In the armies he served on horse back: therefore in other languages the equivalent term is frequently indicative of this fact—Freneh chevalier, German Fitter, Spanish caballero. He was bound to serve his lord for a fixed time each year. usually forty days; but in the King dom of Jerusalem continuously. (See section On I/ Hitary Organ Lotions un(aer FEUDALISM.) As a land-holder he held a fief from his superior; the theoretical unit in the feudal system was a knight's fee. which meant the land sufficient for maintaining one knight. This soon came to be merely a unit of measure, and instances are com mon in which a man performed service for a frac tion of a knight's fee—e.g. one-fifteenth. or two thirds. All knights were nobles, although all nobles were not necessarily knights. The institu tion of knighthood, as conferred by investiture, and with certain oaths and ceremonies, arose gradually throughout Europe as an adjunct of the feudal system. The character of the knight. as it was finally developed, was at once military and religious. The defense and recovery of the holy sepulchre and the protection of pil grims were the objects to which. in the early times of the institution, he was supposed to devote himself. Later a code of knightly eti quette was developed. of which the most promi nent features were an exalted sense of class honor and a reverence for ladies amounting almost, in theory, to religious worship. And though this high sense of honor toward the members of One's class was by no means inconsistent with a con tempt for, and often a total disregard of, the rights of the lower classes, knighthood at its best was in many ways a powerful influence for the refinement of life iu the Dark Ages.
The system of knight service, introduced into England by William the Conqueror, empowered the King, or even a superior lord who was a subject, to compel every holder of a certain ex tent of land, called a knight's fee, to become a member or the knightly order, his investiture being accounted proof that he possessed the requisite knightly arms and was sufficiently trained in their use. In England, in the time of Ilenry HE the institution seems to have been based on a property qualification, since all per sons possessed of a certain yearly income were forced to be knighted under a penalty of a fine.
The 'Statute of Knights' of the first year of Edward 11., regulating the causes that were to be held valid to excuse a man from knightly ser vice. shows that in the fourteenth century the knightly office was not always eagerly coveted; yet its social dignity was very considerable, for even dukes, if not admitted into the order, were obliged to yield precedence to a knight in any royal pageant or public ceremony. In France, where knighthood reached its greatest perfection, statutes of the thirteenth century' show that there was the same unwillingness to incur the burden of knighthood. After the long war between France and England (see YEARS' WAR) it became the practice for the sovereil.,m in Eng land to receive money compensations from sub jects who were unwilling to receive knighthood, a system out of which grew a series of grievances. leading eventually to the total abolition of knight service in the reign of Charles II.
Knighthood. originally a military distinction. came, in the sixteenth century, to be conferred on civilians as a reward for valuable services rendered to the Crown or community. The first civil knight in England was Sir William Walworth, Lord Mayor of London, who won that distinction by slaying the rebel Wat Tyler in the presence of time King (13S] ). Since the abolition of knight service, knighthood has been conferred, without any regard to property, as a mark of the sovereign's esteem. or as a reward for ser vices of any kind, civil or military. For the ceremonies practiced in conferring knighthood at different periods, see CuivALRY.
Knighthood could originally he conferred by any person of knightly condition; but the right to bestow it was early restricted to persons of rank, and afterwards to the sovereign or his represen tative. a, the commander of an army. In Eng land time sovereign now bestows knighthood by a verbal declaration, accompanied with a simple ceremony of imposition of the sword. and with out any patent or written instrument. In some few instances knighthood has been conferred by patent. when the persons knighted could not. conveniently cone into the presence of royalty. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland also occasionally, but rarely. exercises a delegated power of con ferring knighthood. Consult : Luchaire. Manuel des institutions francaiscs (Paris. 1892) ; Gau tier. La ehrralerie (Park, 1SS4) Nicolas, Brit ish Orders of Knighthood (4 vols.. London. 1841 -42). See (in addition to FEUDALISM and Curs