KNICKEKBOCKEBS HISTORY. 547 KNIGHT. KNICKERBOCKERS HISTORY OF NEW YORK. All liisluiical wurk Ijy Washiiiyloii Irv- ing (1809). It is a burlesque ou the early his- tory of Xew York City, purporting to have been written by one Dicdrieh Kniekerbocker, and gives an amusing aecouiit of the early Dutch citizens. It IS said to have bitterly offended tlieir descend- ants in Irving's day. KNIFE. See fUTLKKV. ■ KNIGGE, knig'ge, Adolf, Baron von (1752- 'M). A German author, born at Bredenheck, near Hanover. After liaving studied law at GiJttin- gen, he became assessor at Cassel : but, owing to ollicial and social dissensions, soon left that city and led a wandering life, and lived for short periods successively at Hanau, Frankfort, Heidelberg, and Hanover, until 1791, when he made his home in Bremen, and was appointed provost. His connection there with the secret society of the llhiniinati involved him in un- pleasant coni|ilications. and after its suspension he publislied, under the pseudonym Philo, a pamphlet (178S) which attracted much atten- tion. He is best known through his Leber den Vmgang niit Mciisclien ( ICth ed. 1878). a col- lection of rules and maxims for a happy and use- ful life, once widely read, and showing great ob- servation and worldly wisdom. All his plays and most of liis numerous novels are now for- gotten, and only Dcr Koman meines Lebens (1781- 87) and the comical romance Die Reise nach Brauiischueig ( 17!<2; new reprint in Kurschner's Deutsche Xntioiuillilteratnr) deserve to be saved from oblivion. KNIGHT (AS. cniht, cnyht, cneoht, youth, hero, OHG. kiieht, Ger. Knecht, boy, servant; probably connected ultimately with Lat. genus, Gk. 7^>/os. genus, Skt. junas, family, as well as with AS. cyning, Eng. king). Originally, a man- atarms bound to the performance of certain duties. A knight was usually, if not always, in the early Jliddle .Ages, necessarily soldier, land-hold- er, and noble. In the armies he served on horse- back: therefore in other languages the equivalent term is frequently indicative of this fact — French chevalier, German Uilter. Spanish caballero. He was bound to serve his lord for a fixed time each year, usually forty days; but in the King- dom of .Terusalem continuously. (See section on Millltiri/ Organizalious under FErD.Lls.t.) As a landholder he held a fief from his superior; the theoretical unit in the feudal system was a knight's fee. which meant the land sufficient for maintainin£r one knight. This soon came to be merely a unit of measure, and instances are com- mon in wiiidi a man performed service for a frac- tion of a knight's fee — e.g. one-fifteenth, or two- thirds. . knights were nobles, although all nobles were not necessarily knights. The institu- (ion of kniffhthood. as conferred by investiture, and with certain oaths and ceremonies, arose gradually throughout Europe as an adjunct of tlip feudal system. The character of the knight, as it was finally developed, was at once military and religious. The defense and recovery of the holy sepulchre and the protection of pil- grims weie the objects to which, in the early times of the institution, he was supposed to devote himself. Later a code of knightly eti- quette was developed, of which the most promi- nent features were an exalted sense of class honor and a reverence for ladies amounting almost, in theory, to religious worship. And though this iiigh sense of lionor toward the members of one's tla.ss was by no means inconsistent with a con- tempt for, and often a total disregard of, the rights of tlie lower classes, knightliood at its best was in many ways a powerful influence for the refinement of life in the Dark Ages. The sjstem of knight service, introduced into England by William the Conqueror, empowered the King, or even a superior lord who was a subject, to compel every holder of a certain ex- tent of land, called a knight's fee, to become a member of the knightly order, his investiture being accounted proof that he possessed the requisite knightly arms and was sufficiently trained in their use. In England, in the time of Henry III., the institution seems to have been based on a property qualification, since all per- sons possessed of a certain yearly income were forced to be knighted uiider a penalty of a fine. The 'Statute of Knights' of the first year of Edward II.. regulating the causes that were to be held valid to excuse a man from knightly ser- vice, shows that in the fourteenth century the knightly office was not always eagerly coveted; yet its social dignity was very considerable, for even dukes, if not admitted into the order, were obliged to yield precedence to a knight in any royal pageant or public ceremony. In France, where knighthood reached its greatest perfection, statutes of the thirteenth century show that there was the same unwillingness to incur the burden of knighthood. After the long war between France and England (see Hundred Veabs' Wak) it became the practice for the sovereign in Eng- land to receive money compensations from sub- jects who were unwilling to receive knighthood, a system out of which grew a series of grievances, leading eventually to the total abolition of knight service in the reign of Charles II. Knighthood, originally a military distinction, came, in the sixteenth century, to be occasionally conferred on civilians as a reward for valuable services rendered to the Crown or community. The first civil knight in Enghmd was Sir William Walworth, Lord ilayor of London, who won that distinction by slaying the rebel Wat Tyler in the presence of the King (1381). Since the abolition of knight service, knighthood has been conferred, without any regard to property, as a mark of the sovereign's esteem, or as a reward for ser- vices of any kind, civil or military. For the ceremonies practiced in conferring knighthood at different periods, see Cimvai.ry. Knighthood could originally be conferred by any person of knightly condition; but the right to bestow it was early restricted to persons of rank, and afterwards to the sovereign or his represen- tative, as the commander of an army. In Eng- land the sovereign now bestows knighthood by a verbal de<laration. accompanied with a simple ceremony of imposition of the sword, and with- out any patent or written instrument. In some few instances knighthood has been conferred by patent, when the persons knighted could not conveniently come into the presence of royalty. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland also occasionally, but rarely, exercises a delegated power of con- ferring knighthood. Consult: Luchaire. ^(anuel des iiistitutious francniscs (Paris. 1892); Gau- tier. I.a ehetalcrie (Paris. 1884): Xicolas. Brit- ish Orders of Knighthood (4 vols., London. 1841- 42). See (in addition to Feudausm and Ciirv-
