Medieval Times Knights
and other
Well Known People
Robin Hood
Robin
Hood's real name was Robert Fitzooth. He was a rebel, and many
of the striking episodes in the tales about him show him and his companions
robbing and killing representatives of authority and giving the gains
to the poor. Their most frequent enemy was the sheriff of Nottingham,
a local agent of the central government. Other enemies included wealthy
landowners. Robin treated women, the poor and people of humble status
with courtesy. A good deal of the impetus for his revolt against authority
stemmed from popular resentment over those laws of the forest that restricted
hunting rights. The early ballads, especially, reveal the cruelty that
was an inescapable part of medieval life.
William The
Conqueror
William the Conqueror lived in England in the Middle Ages.
He was born in 1027 and died in 1087. He was remembered because he
was offered the crown and after 5 years he made himself master of all
England. When William The Conqueror
died his eldest son became Duke of Normandy and his next son, King of
England. William also fought in the Battle of Hastings.
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc lived in France around 1412 -
1431. She is the patron saint of France. Joan is remembered
by the French because she led the French to a decisive victory over
the English. Joan of Arc was a French national heroine who became
a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. She was a simple peasant girl
who rescued France from defeat in one of the darkest periods of the Hundred
Years War with England. Her great triumph was to lead a French army against
the English who had laid siege to the city of Orleans. During one battle
the English captured her and handed her over to the French who accused her
of heresy and tied her to the stake and burnt her. Some years later, the
church examined her life story and established her as a saint.
Sir Galahad
Sir Galahad was called a Grail knight
because he went in search for the Holy Grail. His father was named Sir
Lancelot and his mother was given to the name Elaine. His family lived
in a big castle called Camelot. They ate what was grown by the gardeners.
The food was usually vegetables and herbs. They also kept pigs, cattle,
chickens and bees. They kept all these things inside the castle. Inside
the castle there are usually these things: a chapel, a great hall, a solar
room ( which is the warmest room in the castle), the inner castle wall and
the battlements. There were heaps of knights who felt honoured at the Round
Table. The tales of Gal had , the Round Table and King Arthur are partly
make believe and are part of the medieval literature. He was the purest knight
at the Round Table because he could touch the Perilous Chair without getting
a shock.
Saint Thomas á Becket
Saint Thomas à Becket was
an archbishop. He studied in England and France. In 1155 King Henry II
made Becket a chancellor of England. His father was Gilbert Becket who
was a man of wealth and position. Becket was educated at the Merton Priory
Church in Surrey. He was famous for his struggle to save the Canterbury
Church and for his dramatic death. Becket was sent to study law in Italy.
He was born in London and moved around the Roman Empire and rested for
a while at Canterbury in Kent. Becket's birth date was the 21/12/1118
and supposedly he lived to the 1170's. When King Henry the II was young,
he was Becket's best friend. Together, they hunted, feasted and they both
loved a good joke. When Becket became chancellor, he grew to be one of the
richest and most powerful men in England. His clothes and house were finer
than the King's or Queen's. But Thomas was more than a merry friend to the
King, he was a clever statesmen and a brilliant chancellor. In the 12th
century, the Church ruled the country with great power and owned a large
amount of land. This did not suit King Henry, who thought that the Church
people should obey only his laws. So when the Archbishop of Canterbury Church
died, King Henry expected that Becket would take the place of the recant
Archbishop. Henry thought Becket would help him to take over the Church,
by making the Church lose power. But Becket did not want to be Archbishop.
So he warned the King. "If I become Arch bishop, the friendship between us
will soon disappear. You will ask me to do things I shall not do.'' But Henry
insisted. So Becket did become Archbishop, and it soon changed his life.
He sold all his fine things and clothing, he sold his magnificent house
as well. He ate plain food and drank nothing but water. Becket told Henry
that he must find a new chancellor because he had to devote all his work
and time to taking care of the Church. This was not what Henry had expected
to happen so as Becket had predicted, they started to disagree.