A common misconception about medieval knights is that their everyday lives was full of glory and excitement. But the first medieval knights were just professional cavalry warriors, and most of them didn’t live in castles but only made barely enough money to buy a stone house in the village. Instead of filled treasure vaults with gold and expensive weapons, the reality was more about rats, lice, and the struggle with finances.
A huge part of their lives was, of course, the battles in which they had to fight with their horses. But these were most likely exceptions and not an everyday habit. Their daily lives contained normal daily habits for a person living in medieval times. Agriculture was a huge part. Knights often had the task to control the farmers while working, and additionally perform judicial work.
Other than that, hunting was also a great part of their daily lives. It not only helped with developing skills they might also need while fighting but also with obtaining food.
Especially young knights often participated in tournaments to practice fighting skills and possibly get the material reward for winning the games. These could be money, animals, or even land.
Winter was also a rather fun time for knights since there were normally no fights or wars due to the weather. If they earned themselves a good reputation in society, they would often get invited to celebrations with a lot of food, music, and dances. On other nights, they could relax with their families and play games like chess or ‘blind man’s bluff’. For knights that weren’t that highly esteemed, it was all about preserving the harvest in the fall for the hard months ahead -just like every other villager had to do it.
In general, not every knight had the chance to eat a feast every time he wanted to. The staple food was grain. Fresh fruits and vegetables rarely existed for the common people and knights. And the often foul meat was only seasoned by the richer part of society. By the way, these rich knights even put pepper in their wine to show off their wealth.
In terms of their homes and where knights used to life, it again depends on their estate. But even the ones that made it high up and ended up in a castle mostly only lived there as a servant. It was not as romantic as one might think from today’s point of view. Not much furniture, armour everywhere, and a lot of dirt. A heating system obviously didn’t exist, so a castle wasn’t a comfortable place to stay during the colder months.
Also, a lot of bugs like rats, mice, and cockroaches lived in castles, as in general, the medieval era was rather unhygienic.
Now you know that knights were simply highly trained soldiers at a horseback and there was very little luxury and glory in the medieval ages. Nevertheless, there are a lot of tales about knights and their fights, as well as their daily lives. So if you want to get to know a little more about this topic, you should definitely have a look at some famous knights like Geoffroi de Charny, William Marshal or Don Pero Niño. You can find a lot of information about them on the internet, and it might give you some more information about the life of a knight in the medieval ages.
https://www.planet-wissen.de/geschichte/mittelalter/ritter/pwiealltagderritter100.html (Leonie Schmid, 11.01.2023)
https://www.medievalists.net/2015/12/surviving-winter-in-the-middle-ages/ (Sandra Alvarez, 11.01.2023)