Knights In The Elizabethan Era

Throughout history it is said that a country’s power stems from its military force. Many time frames in the past have abided by this viewpoint and increased their military strength as a result. The Elizabethan era was no exception to this rule. It may even be said that Elizabethan knights were the very best in history(“Elizabethan Knights” 1). Expected to fight for their queen, this position was considered to be a matter of prestige, but to better understand a knight one would need to take into consideration of; what a knight actually is, the life/code of a knight, and the social class of a knight.

As defined by many credible sources, “A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a monarch or other political for service

In the Elizabethan era, social classes were seen as the status of wealth a person had and was thought to be put in place by God(Ros 1). Six classes made up this era ranging from the monarch to the laborers. Monarchs, the highest class, were the leaders of the countries and would have been the person to appoint knights to their position in society. The nobility were a set of high classed families that were also set by the monarchs; as a result, a monarch could position knights in the nobility class that would also award them with an estate and laborers. The most common class for knights was the gentry, in which the highest of this particular class was the knights themselves, but could also include common gentlemen, gentlewomen, and squires of the kingdom. People from the last three classes could eventually obtain a position in the Gentry class by obtaining vast amounts of wealth and fortune. These people included merchants, Yoemanry, and labor classes who worked their way into society, but any misfortune could cost them their resources to survive(Ros 1). Marriage was another possibility to increase position, but since marrying someone from a lower class was frowned upon, it did not occur