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Did the Anglo Saxons have knights?

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Thorsteinn:
IIRC don't Knights start to really get footing when the Feudal model kicks in full speedish?

SerTimtheJailer:
I think you might be right which would be after 1066 when the Normans invaded but what confused me is the word knight came from the Anglo Saxon language so it made me wonder if the Anglo Saxons had knights of there own before the Normans invaded.

Sir Douglas:
Yeah, the word knight comes from the Old English word cniht (I think I'm spelling that right), which basically just meant "servant", and it eventually evolved into the word knight as we know it today. It's similar to how the word chivalry comes from a French word that meant nothing more than "horsemanship", but it has since taken on a much different meaning.

Fun side fact, cniht also developed into the Germanic word knecht, but they more or less retained the original meaning. So a Landsknecht in the most literal sense is a "Land servant." Words are fun. :)

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