And yes, it's a myth that a knight needed to be lifted onto his horse with a crane. The weight was pretty evenly distributed on the knight's body so mobility wasn't really a huge problem. That's not actually as bad as it sounds, though. It weighed between 45 and 55 lbs. and included a helmet that weighed between four and eight pounds. That makes a lot of sense, actually, since a double-bladed weapon doesn't have to be especially heavy to be lethal, though it does have to be fairly easy to aim. The average medieval sword only weighed around three to five pounds. The good news, according to Lords and Ladies, is that a knight's sword didn't weigh as much as Hollywood says it did. Knowing they were a shoo-in for that eternal reward probably did make knights a lot braver, especially in a time when everyone believed that death was pretty much a toss-up between heaven and hell. By the 11th century, the religious aspect of knighthood also translated into knights serving the Church, which promised them they'd get a comfy spot in heaven if they traveled to the Holy Land and killed a bunch of not-Christians during the Crusades. It wasn't all about absolution and obedience to the king, though it was also about killing infidels. According to the Ancient History Encyclopedia, the squire was required to spend the night before his dubbing ceremony in prayer, and before he was officially dubbed, a priest would bless his sword and maybe stuff a religious relic or two inside the hilt. And just to make sure that every knight understood just how cool God was with all the violence, the knighting ceremony (called "dubbing") was full of religious symbolism and ritual. For the most part, knights believed that their work was a holy calling, which made it easy to justify pretty much anything done in the name of the king, who was God's chosen ruler.
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