A BRIEF HISTORY OF KNIGHTHOOD, FROM HISTORY TO THE CHILVARIC MYTH

The notion of knighthood or chivalry is an ambiguous one as can deduced from the vocabulary : the word chivalry (from the French chevalerie) stresses the French word cheval : a horse, but it is evocative of much more than just horsemen and takes on connotations at once professional, social, religious, cultural and even institutional whether the English word knighthood is used or the word chivalry.