The Knight´s Yeoman Essay -- Knight Yeoman Essays

The Knights Yeoman He was born in a castle sometime during the twelfth century. It was the same castle that his father and grandfather before him had been born and lived in every last(predicate) their lives. The estate was magnificent and in all self-sustaining. The grounds around the main citadel stretched for miles and included vineyards and farmland as well as fields for cattle and sheep. A small freshwater lake close fed several streams which supplied water to the manor house and provided for irrigation. Only a few miles away on the coast was a harbor which attracted trading ships from all around Europe. The castle itself was enormous and could house hundreds in complete comfort and security. Outer walls had been constructed one hundred feet high and twelve feet thick to withstand the fiercest of sieges. within the barbicans, however, these same walls were covered with luxurious handmade tapestries depicting scenes of everyday life to maintain the warmth dispersed by the man y fireplaces within. Overall the structure rivaled in opulence and fortifications the palaces possessed by the wealthiest and most powerful of kings. Unfortunately, it wasnt his castle, nor would it ever be. He entered the world with a particular status in life. Unless misfortune befell him, he would ensue the world as an old man just as he had entered it, a yeoman in servitude to a knight of the realm.The yeomans education came as an apprenticeship in a trade. Only royalty or those destined for the church ever learned to read or write. There would never be any plectron for what profession or for what goals one might wish to achieve. One simply did whatever one was born into doing. There was a rigid caste system to follow, and so in the steps of his father and grandfather, he learned the art of being a woodsman. From the earliest moments of his life, the yeoman spent his youth serving the of necessity of the woods surrounding the estate learning how to use every element of the fo rest. Whether it was cultivating wood for carpentry, or studying the migratory habits of game animals, he learned to go and exist under the trees. There would be no other teachers for him other than his father and the older apprentices also in servitude. The apprentices would sometimes spend weeks and even months in the surrounding forests. Living in shelters made from branches and wearing clothes fabricated f... ...th life and battle and had little respect for the ways of chivalry. His first love was for women, and he cared little for devotion to either God or the kingdom. On many occasions long into the night before a battle when time should pay back been spent praying for divine protection, he was found in the arms of a woman. He had been lucky so far that his recklessness had not gotten him killed or captured. Nevertheless, all this was of little concern to him, he was young and handsome and felt that he had a world of women to conquer. Chaucer in describing the lusty bachelo r stated that So hote he loved that by nightertale.He slepte namore than dooth a nightingale And so it came to pass one spring that upon returning from a winter campaign, the knight felt it an good time to take his son on a pilgrimage to visit the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury. It would be both an opportunity for them to express their open devotion to God as well as spend some pleasurable time together. They would spend several weeks on the road and so once more the yeoman was conscripted as their servant. He would act as their valet as he watched over them while they traveled along the road.