g with their allies. Knights would often develop their skills as a warrior by participating in tournaments that occurred at court. Tournaments began in the early middle ages when warrior kings trained their men for battle by arranging lethal combats among their knights. Later, when the knights role as a warrior grew less important, tournaments were transformed into a form of entertainment for the court. Honorary knighthood still exists today and practices vary from country to country. Chivalry, in both its ideals and practices, declined in the later Middle Ages along with feudalism. The reason was clear: the forms of warfare had changed. In 1347 the bubonic plague appeared in Europe, the plague killed large amounts of the population, which helped to hasten the disintegration of the feudal order. At the same time the ways of warfare had changed in ways that made horse-mounted knights outdated. Traditionally knights fought for honor and glory, not ransom or wages. Combat was basically on a small scale, where as conflicts like the Hundred Year war, was much larger and required more men than the armies of a kings knights could provide. Wars became longer, larger, and more impersonal, new arms and artillery such as gun -powder were introduced. Like most declining institutions chivalry grew more rigid and formalized as it lost its usefulness. By the end of the middle ages, chivalry survived only as a code of behavior and a set of beliefs and rituals because the society for which it was designed was rapidly disappearing. As a sign of Chivalrys importance to society, the medieval orders were formed by rulers to inspire loyalty in their nobles, which encouraged patriotism. One of these was the order of Garter, which quickly became an exclusive social distinction and was copied in France, Bourgogne, and as well as the Spanish kingdoms. Knights of the Garter would receive a gift of land after there ceremonial initiation. Shortly following was the ...
