历史骑士
发布时间:2017-02-04 来源: 历史回眸 点击： 
历史骑士篇一：东西方骑士对比
在希腊罗马时代，骑兵与步兵相比并没有明显的优势。当时西方侧重于步兵，罗马、希腊，以及马其顿帝国，它们的主力部队都是步兵。游牧民族则侧重于骑兵。他们的主力部队是骑射手，适宜于远程攻击，但无法撕开步兵方阵。古典世界是步兵的天下。征服地中海的，是罗马的步兵，而不是东方的骑士。
但是到了中世纪，一切都不一样了。
一个小小的发明改变了一切。这个发明就是马镫。马镫发明前，骑兵没法稳稳地坐在马上。如果和敌人发生冲撞，很容易掉下来。骑兵不敢正面冲击步兵方阵——那不是战斗，而是自杀。所以骑兵对付步兵只能靠投射武器。
而马镫改变了一切。这个发明并不复杂。但很奇怪，直到很晚的时候，它才被发明出来。它一旦普及，骑兵的黄金时代就到来了。骑兵从此可以端坐马上，像闪电一样冲击敌人。如果说步兵方阵是一面墙，那么传统骑兵是一支箭，而中世纪骑兵则是一只巨大的铁锤，再坚固的墙也承受不了反复的捶打。
于是，步兵沦为配角，骑兵纵横欧亚，成为战场的主宰。
但同样是骑兵，十字军和它的敌人也不一样。
无论是希腊时代，还是罗马时代，或者中世纪，都有一个共同特点：西方军队总是装备更厚重，阵型更坚固。但是东方部队总是更机动、更灵活。西方如同雄狮，而东方则如同飞龙。
这次也不例外。
以骑兵而论，十字军骑士几乎全是重装甲。未来的铁叶甲还未出现。十字军披挂的是厚重的锁子甲。细密的铁环彼此相扣，覆盖全身。骑士的标准武器配置是长矛、剑与盾。发起攻击时，骑士持平长矛，用踢马刺驱马前冲，矛尖要始终稳稳对准敌人的要害。用力得当的话，长矛可以洞穿盾牌，撕裂铠甲，一直刺透身体。
由于骑士全身披挂重铠，手持长矛，所以他们不可能像关羽张飞那样施展武艺。他们只是寻找对方的弱点，然后发起闪电一击。在外行看来，这个过程似乎并不复杂，其实它需要长期的艰苦训练。骑士从小就在习武场学习。十年，二十年，甚至三十年不断苦练，为的就是避开敌人的打击，同时击倒对手。
他们都是职业杀手。
近距离作战的时候，他们使用剑。这些剑锋利、厚重，舞动起来威力极大。一劈之力，可以轻易地切掉头颅。骑士们的剑术不花哨，但是很实用。没有经过训练的人，在他们手下根本走不了几个回合。至于盾，则是一个上宽下窄的厚木，表面覆盖一层金属，看上去如同一个铁鸢。骑士冲锋时，一般右手持矛，左肩扛盾。盾牌可以保护一侧身体：从肩到腿。这样的一名骑士，可以说是古代的人形坦克。当成百上千的骑士排成阵线，集体冲锋时，尘沙飞扬，大地隆隆。那是死亡的风暴，钢铁的旋涡。
相比之下，东方骑兵要脆弱一些。
比如土耳其骑兵没有锁子甲，多半都是穿上一个简单的胸甲就算完了。他们也没有重矛。事实上，土耳其骑兵很少使用长武器，有的话也是比较轻的矛，或者一个狼牙棒。但是他们擅用马刀。土耳其人的刀比十字军的剑要窄薄一些，但铁质似乎更好。坐骑上，双方也有明显的区别：东方的马没有十字军的来得高大。
这样比起来，似乎土耳其骑兵处于劣势。但是他们有自己的可怕武器——那就是他们手中的箭。
西方骑士从小就开始练习冲锋和剑术，土耳其骑兵则从小练习马术和弓箭。
土耳其射手在马上的轻盈灵活，当世无匹。骑手就像长在了马上一样。他们翻到战马的左侧、右侧，也可以忽上忽下在马上盘旋。当马匹全速奔驰时，他们依旧可以射中远处的兽、
天上的鸟。每个土耳其骑兵都是一个全速喷涌的箭之泉。
他们手中的弓是复合弓，由木头、兽角、筋腱制成，有的还有特制的发射机关。一箭射出，往往60米内可以射穿铠甲，夺人性命。当时有人记录了一个实例：一名十字军骑士在山坡发现了落单的土耳其骑兵。他用盾牌护住身体，挥矛直进。那个土耳其人随手射出一箭。这只箭呼啸着冲向十字军骑士，力道大得惊人。它击穿了整个盾牌，接着穿透了铁甲，一直射进了骑士的肝与肺之间。骑士当场死亡。
十字军也有弓—— 十字弓。这种弓的射程比土耳其的更远。有人曾评论说：“如果用十字弓射城墙，箭头可以深入墙体。有时候整支箭都会穿进墙体，消失不见。”这当然是夸大。但是十字弓的威力确实惊人。基督教会曾多次重申：这种武器杀伤性太大，基督徒之间不得使用。
不过十字弓有两个很大的缺点，一个是精确度不高，一个是射速慢。这个弓有一套机械装置，射手必须用两只脚蹬住弓身，用手拼命拉弓弦，才能上箭。这样的武器缺乏机动性，威力虽大，却无法和土耳其箭雨相比。
东西方骑兵特长不同，作战方式自然也不同。
十字军骑士习惯于发动正面冲锋。他们用巨大的冲击力撕碎敌人阵型。步兵则马上跟进，扩大战果。
土耳其人的战术则完全不同。他们机动性更强，擅长发动奇袭。在敌人最没想到的时候，最没想到的地点，一阵阵箭雨呼啸而来。然后骑兵开始形成包围圈，将敌人团团围住，先是用箭，再用冲锋消灭敌人。
这个战术确有奇效。许多敌人都被这样的奇袭打得落花流水。但历史证明：西方骑士的硬碰硬战术，还是压倒了奇袭。重铠长矛，加上高头大马，发起集团冲锋时，可以横扫东方骑兵。
如果是一对一的战斗，西方骑士差不多总能获胜。如果同等数量的骑兵对决，十字军也可以稳操胜券。他们唯一的问题是数
十字军战史里，西方骑士几乎从未被数量相当的敌人打败过。
历史骑士篇二：骑士八大精神
“骑士宣言第一条：我以心灵之名起誓，‘忠诚’将成为我毕生尊崇之品格，恪守内心。毕生无悔！如果违背。愿‘骑士之枪’抛弃我之灵魂！”
“骑士宣言第二条：我以心灵之名起誓，‘荣誉’将成为胜过我生命之存在。毕生捍卫我之荣誉,捍卫骑士之荣誉，毕生无悔！如果违背。愿‘骑士之枪’抛弃我之灵魂！”
“骑士宣言第三条：我以心灵之名起誓,我将铭记‘牺牲’我身不惜,我命不惜！毕生无悔！如果违背,愿‘骑士之枪’抛弃我之灵魂！”
“骑士宣言第四条：我以心灵之名起誓,勇气将长存我心,‘勇敢’将成为我地标尺,奋勇向前,毕生无悔！如果违背,愿‘骑士之枪’抛弃我之灵魂！”
“骑士宣言第五条：我以我心灵之名起誓,我将怜悯弱者,残暴是我地敌人,宽容是我地朋友,一颗‘怜悯’之心,毕生无悔！如果违背,愿‘骑士之枪’抛弃我之灵魂！”
“骑士宣言第六条：我以心灵之名起誓,坚持是意志的表现。坚持是成功的道路。我将,执意不改，始终如一，毕生无悔！如果违背愿‘骑士之枪’抛弃我之灵魂！”
“骑士宣言第七条：我以心灵之名起誓：我将‘诚实’,身为骑士,我地言语将永远直白心灵谎言将是我最大地敌人和不屑,毕生无悔！如果违背,愿‘骑士之枪’抛弃我之灵魂！”
“骑士宣言第八条：我以心灵之名起誓：我将牢记‘公正’,我地心是天平地化身,我地剑会指向不平毕生无悔！如果违背,愿‘骑士之枪’抛弃我之灵魂！”
忠诚，荣誉，牺牲，勇敢，怜悯，坚持，诚实，公正！骑士的八条准则，乃是伴随骑士一生一世的枷锁，所有的骑士必须遵循的八条准则
历史骑士篇三：欧洲骑士制度的兴衰历史英语论文
On the Development and Decline of Chivalry
Introduction:
Chivalry, also known as Knighthood, can be defined as the general collection of organizations, regulations, morals and norms owned particularly by the knight class in west Europe in the Middle Ages. This system, with its nature of the dictatorship of mid-and-smallish feudal nobles, is based on the vassalage of land, bonded with knight enlistment, directed by Christian thought. Narrowly speaking, it is a kind of military system. Generally speaking, it serves as a system as well as a moral concept. Since Chivalry has a long-lasting impact on the developing history of west Europe, I fancy, it is quite necessary to talk about the development and decline of Chivalry.
The knighthood, originated with the joint efforts of several elements, including ancient history recollections and various social facts at that time. All of these elements together gave birth to military fief which served as the economic isotopic carrier for the endowment of political rights on knight class. Under the spiritual shaping of Christian thought, Chivalry was established firmly. Chivalry, as a military regime built on the fief system, primitively originated in Frankish Kingdom in the 8th century. Then it was passed to the north, to the west of Reich across Flender, Burgundy and so on. It is safe to say that Chivalry is a kind of mechanism on the whole European continent. To be frank, its development can be divided into three stages.
Three stages of development:
The first stage was approximately from the Military Reform of Charles Martel, to the end of 11th century. During this period, Chivalry was still on the primary level. Here follows its several features.
To begin with, knights were professional soldiers and the primitive soldiers were considered as the most faithful and the bravest people. They shouldered the mission of protecting national people. Their major task was to fight in various battles and to serve their suzerains. It was estimated that they were at war for 40—60 days per year. Therefore, its military feature can be plainly seen. Knights were an open class before 11th century. Any person who could afford to buy
weapons and horses and had ever participated officially in the ceremony could deserve the name of a knight. A freeman, who was born in a poor family, could also be named a knight as long as he could behave bravely in a battle. What’s more, every knight had the right to nominate a knight out of a common person. But it is worth nothing along the way that the equipment cost was fairly high. At that time, a very healthy and strong bull cost about 2 sorida, while it would cost 22 times more than that money to equip a knight. Well-equipped weapons and excellent skills, together with the strict measurement of military strength suggest that not everyone could become a knight. Every knight must be outstanding in the Middle Ages. In addition to the conditions above, competitiveness also played a big role during that period. If a knight could beat his rival or an aggressive person, his reputation would be lifted immediately and he would become the respected hero in peoples’ mind.
Secondly, all the knights were feudal lords. However big or small, as a condition, every knight could gain some feuds from his superior. There were some typical words written in the Code of Germanic saying “Feif is the reward of every knight.” As the suzerain of the fief, the knights could enjoy the total income of the land and invest the money for their equipment. In addition, some administrative rights were given together with the fief, such as the rights to tackle civilian lawsuits, part of robberies and homicide cases, the rights to nominate jury members and to investigate some cases.
The last feature should be that knights were experiencing the process of Christianism. Those knights in the Middle Ages were almost brutal and ruthless warriors. They could tease weak people, plunder peasants, rape women or murder innocent people without being seriously punished. What’s worse, all of these behaviors did not violate the Knight Behavior Norms. However, they betrayed the Christian greatly. As Christian became increasingly important in west Europe, the church began to perform some control over those rough knights. In 10th century, the church launched a campaign called the Peace of God where “Brutal knights should deserve spiritual punishment” was declared. Furthermore, the Truce of God prohibited any kind of battle on Sundays or during other divine festivals. Violence was strictly banned in or near churches, otherwise all the violate participants, knights included, would be exiled from Christian church.
The second stage was about from 12th century to the beginning of 13th century. This period was the most successful as it was basically about the Crusades. Some features were quite obvious about this stage.
Firstly, with the combination of religious discipline and military discipline, the knights’ aggressiveness, spirit of adventure and religious fanaticism constituted the highest peak in the evolution of Chivalry until the start of the crusades. Under the appeal of the Pope, the crusades became a fair war and the hatred between knights became serious hatred against pagans. Under the protection of religion, the knights’ bloody and fleshy appetites became legitimate religious fanaticism. They sold all their properties and King Charles even pledged the whole region and country. Along with the crusades, knight groups turned up as the central part of Christian knights. The most popular knight groups were the Teuton Knight Group, the God-temple Knight Group and the Hospital Knight Group. These three groups were basically composed of monks and priests who were directly governed by the Pope. They can be mainly divided into four classes—Knights, Sergeants, Farmers and Chaplains. Every knight group had its own strict regulations. Particularly, they held fast to three beliefs—security and poverty, faithfulness, adherence to the fate. They fought against pagans in the name of God, which embodied an obvious feature of combination of religion and military affairs.
Secondly, the hereditary of knight privilege and the separation between farmers and knights could not be ignored. On the one hand, after 12th century, it had become a descendent privilege. In fact, if an emperor bestowed a peasant with the name “knight”, he would create a family of knights. On the other hand, the gap between peasants and knights became wider and wider. In 1152, a peace decree stipulated that legitimate knights were those whose ancestors were real knights. In 1187, another order clearly prohibited the descendents of peasants from becoming knights. Due to the harsh discrimination, social classes were firmly established.
The third stage was from the end of 13th century to the Religious Reform period. During this period, chivalry began to decline and finally disappeared in the history. This could be proved by the following aspects.
First things first, knights began to transform to be common noblemen. Since the end of
12th century, a well-trained army force became a necessity for the defense of the nation owing to several factors such as the dramatic changes of land system, the inner deterioration of the hereditary fief, the awakening of national awareness, the eager need of war and so on. However, the past Knight System had no certain time and discipline restrictions thus could not be applied to the very situation. Therefore, it must be thrown away. Thereafter, most European countries, Britain, France and Germany in particular, accepted the Scutage System, which separated knights from their basic military discipline. Those knights either chose to become profane noblemen living on their large amount of land or decided to do business and then became the predecessor of the new bourgeoisie.
Another aspect was that knights served only as a symbol of reputation. After 14th century, the ceremony of gaining the fame of “knight” became more and more casual. Particularly in the war between Britain and France, James Ⅰ often named a lot of soldiers “knights” in order to cheer them up to win the war. What’s worse, some wealthy bureaucrats could make money by means of selling the fame and position of knight. It was said that the price of a knight and its unique equipment had become so high that many common noblemen could not afford to keep the fame. To sum up, the knight had already lost its original connotation and become just a symbol of reputation.
Conclusion:
In general conclusion, although Chivalry has already died out, its influence still remains long-lasting.
Standing on the point of history, chivalry, as a European mechanism, also made the Middle Ages known as the Knight Times. Knights became the backbone of the whole society, and the knight spirit influenced the culture of the whole times. Furthermore, after the Religious Reform, Chivalry was still the powerful moral concept which dominated people’s mind and spirit. It surely deserves the reputation of “the crown of the whole social system”.
Looking forward to the future, the knight is blessed with many virtues: as warriors, they are loyal; as believers, they are courteous; as men, they are pure; as the aristocracy, they are passionate. So Knights become the embodiment of justice and power, also the symbol of glory and
romance. Chivalry has shaped the Western ethical standard—courtesy, respect for others, modesty and prudence. It has a profound impact on people's attitudes and behavior. Today, Britain still has a title named knight. The Queen has the right to bestow all the outstanding figures who have made significant contributions to the state and society with this honorable title.
Further more, from the spirit of knights, we can acquire much life philosophies. For example, we should learn to maintain humility. However low his identity is, however much you hate him, if he did not commit heinous sins, we must learn to forgive him. Virtues are like precious stones which are always shining and gleaming. We must be honest, cheating will only lead to more deceits, and at last, the liar will pay a high price for his sins. We should not abandon or ignore principles and virtues. Remember them and keep them in your mind, the door to success and happiness will be open to you. I bet that these beliefs can also be applied to our daily life. Particularly, they are quite useful for us to tackle problems arisen from our relationship. Judging from this, we can clearly see that knight spirit and culture is an inexhaustible treasure-trove which deserves our further studying.
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