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60 free Knights trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This knights trivia quiz covers the mounted warriors of medieval Europe from their Carolingian beginnings to the honorary knighthoods handed out today. The easy questions are the ones every castle-visiting kid knows: the age a boy became a page, what a squire hoped to become, the horse a knight rode into battle, the sport of charging with lances and the sword tap on the shoulder. From there it moves through training, tournaments, heraldry, mail and plate armour, the great helm and the chivalric code. The harder end is for medievalists and pub-quiz specialists: the Old English word that simply meant 'boy', the pope who refused Christian burial to tournament casualties, the king killed jousting in 1559, the weight of a real suit of plate, William Marshal's trebuchet childhood, Ulrich von Liechtenstein's tour dressed as Venus, the falcon paid as rent for Malta, the Friday the 13th arrests of the Templars and why Sir Elton John is Sir Elton and not Sir John. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on knighthood, chivalry, jousting, armour and the military orders before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Knights Templar, medieval history and King Arthur quizzes next.
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Q 01The Old English word cniht, from which 'knight' derives, originally meant what?
Boy or servant
Its German cousin Knecht still means servant; the military sense only emerged around 1100.
Q 02Under which ruler are the first knights generally said to have appeared, in the 8th century?
Charlemagne
His far-flung conquests depended on mounted warriors, whom he rewarded with grants of land called benefices.
Q 03Which invention let Frankish horsemen fight from the saddle as true cavalry rather than dismounting?
The stirrup
Charles the Bald's Edict of Pîtres in 864 then called all who could afford it to answer calls to arms on horseback against the Vikings.
Q 04What was the medieval Latin word for a knight?
Miles
In classical Latin the same word simply meant a soldier, normally on foot.
Q 05The French word chevalier and English 'chivalry' both descend from which Vulgar Latin word?
Caballus, a horse
The Germanic languages went another way: German Ritter and Dutch ridder come from the verb to ride.
Q 06At what age was a noble boy typically sent to a castle to begin training as a page?
7
Pages hunted with falconers, studied with chaplains and cleaned the armour of the knights they served.
Q 07At what age did a page usually graduate to become a squire?
14
Squires had to master the seven agilities, from riding and swimming to wrestling and dancing, all in armour.
Q 08How many days of military service a year did a knight typically owe for his fief?
40
The land was the payment; the service was the quid pro quo, and experienced knights were the most sought after.
Q 09A knight who fought under his own banner, rather than another's, was called a knight what?
Banneret
A knight fighting under someone else's banner had a humbler designation.
Q 10The dubbing ceremony that made a man a knight is known by what name?
The accolade
It could be a light tap on the shoulders or an embrace about the neck; the word comes from the Latin collum, neck.
Q 11The rougher French forerunner of the shoulder-tap dubbing, the colée, involved what?
A blow to the neck
Possibly through Church influence it softened into a light tap of the blade.
Q 12What did a would-be knight typically do on the night before his knighting ceremony?
Keep a vigil after a ritual bath
Ceremonies were often held at great feasts such as Christmas or Easter, or at a royal wedding.
Q 13The Bayeux Tapestry shows William of Normandy knighting which future king?
Harold
The panel does not make clear what gesture was used.
Q 21Which pope denounced tournaments in 1130 and forbade Christian burial for those killed in them?
Innocent II
The Church argued they distracted the nobility from acceptable warfare in defence of Christendom.
Q 22Which English king licensed tournaments again in 1192, naming six sites and charging fees?
Richard I
His brother John and nephew Henry III then imposed fitful bans that annoyed the aristocracy.
Q 23A pas d'armes involved a knight doing what?
Holding a bridge and challenging passers-by
If a lady passed unescorted she left a glove or scarf to be rescued and returned by a later knight.
Q 14What was the name of the prized war horse ridden by knights in battle and jousts?
Destrier
For everyday riding a knight used a palfrey; his baggage went on a sumpter horse.
Q 15The name of the knight's great war horse comes from a Latin phrase meaning what kind of horse?
Right-sided
One theory is that the squire led it at the knight's right side so it stayed fresh until the fight.
Q 16According to Museum of London research, how tall were medieval war horses on average?
14 to 15 hands
They were not the enormous draft types of popular imagination.
Q 17The word 'joust' ultimately derives from a Latin verb meaning what?
To approach or meet
Its synonym tilt, as in tilting at windmills, dates from about 1510.
Q 18The death of which French king in a 1559 tournament accident ended jousting in France?
Henry II
In England, by contrast, jousting remained the highlight of Elizabeth I's Accession Day tilts.
Q 19What was the 'tilt' that gave tilting its name?
A barrier between the two riders
It began as a cloth divider in the 14th century and became a wooden fence in the 15th.
Q 20In a tournament melee, what usually happened to a knight who was defeated?
He gave his horse and armour to the winner
Capturing opponents who then had to buy their freedom made tournaments very profitable for skilled knights.
Q 24What was a captured knight customarily held for, unlike common foot soldiers who were often slaughtered?
Ransom
Prisoners of knightly rank were kept in reasonably comfortable surroundings.
Q 25Which weapon was a status symbol for knights precisely because it was useless for hunting or as a tool?
The sword
Maces and war hammers were actually more effective than blades against heavily armoured opponents.
Q 26The kite shield of the late 10th century was lengthened to protect which part of a mounted knight?
His left knee
Around 1350 square 'bouched' shields appeared, with a notch to rest the couched lance.
Q 27Until the mid-14th century, what was a knight's main form of body defence?
Mail armour
It was flexible and good against sword cuts but weak against lances and arrows.
Q 28What was the padded garment worn under a knight's ring armour to absorb shock and stop chafing?
Aketon
The surcoat went over the top, shading the metal from the sun and showing heraldic arms.
Q 29The interlinked-ring armour worn by early knights is commonly credited to which people?
The Celts
The oldest surviving pieces, from the 3rd century BC, were found in Slovakia and Romania.
Q 30Roughly how much did a complete suit of well-tempered plate armour weigh?
15-25 kg
Spread over the whole body, it let the wearer run and jump; specialised jousting armour could reach 50 kg.