silent k history of knight, cniht

Young boys training for cnihthood
lived in homes that looked like this.

In the days before the year 1000, cniht referred to boys who were becoming old enough to help defend the village in a battle. C says the k sound in cniht.

In those long ago days, a kingdom was small, maybe the size of a county, today. A king could only claim the amount of land he could command and defend with his cnihts.

The boys practiced fighting with a stick, not a sword.

The French used the word bachelor, from the word which referred to a farmer's stick, the staff used to herd animals.

The word bachelor began being used by people when they spoke of the boys of this age group because the boys were using a farmer's staff to practice fighting.

The French kept the word bachelor for young boys getting ready to fight but used the Old German knecht, (say the k sound) for a full grown warrior. By 1066, the French Normans had conquered parts of England.

The French Norman scribes of that period put the letter g in the iht words of Old English. We still have that g today. Over the years, scribes traded the c of cniht to the Old German k of knecht.  

As time and history moved along, many steps of cnihthood were created. Many ways of proper behavior for cnihts came into being. Our word, infantry, comes from these years. An infant was a young man who could not afford a horse and therefore had to walk to the battle.

A full knight was one who had the wealth to buy a horse and all the armor needed for protection. These items were very, very costly. A cniht's leige, (say le j, long e) was the king or nobleman to whom loyalty was given by the cniht.

  

You might like to see my books which use very interesting lessons to help your child become a powerful reader. I use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up for you.  
To see a photograph of an amazing full suit of armor, please visit the website below:
http://museumnetworkuk.org/talking/imggallery/buckhurstarmour.html

The painting above was done by Samuel Palmer (1805-1881). Thank you, Mary Maisner