Defense, knight’s duty of

A knight was to defend both his liege lord, and to others who require defense such as ladies, the infirm and poor, children and the old. The two duties began as separate constraints. The first one, defense of the liege lord, is common to all feudal cultures. All warriors were to defend their lords. The addition of duties extending to ladies, and others in need of defense comes both from the romantic literature and from the church . Romantic literature added reverence for women to a knight’s duties, while the defense of others was forwarded as a Christian duty by the church. By the late 14th century, both of these influences had successfully added to the knight’s list of virtues and duties.